Final Post

This has been by far one of my favourite classes that I have ever taken.  It has been a great experience to wrap up my first masters with this course.  I have learned a tremendous amount.  Ever class was incredibly engaging and rewarding.  As soon as we sat down the class took off and it was one amazing learning experience after another.  To best describe this learning experience and the connections I was able to make to my teaching, I decided to create a comic web with the app Kidspiration (one of my favourites!).  Enjoy and Thanking You!!

Article Response: Assistive Technology and Universal Design for Learning

Assistive Technology and Universal Design for Learning: Two Sides of the Same Coin

David H rose, Ted S Hasselbring, Skip Stahl, and Joy Zabala

A very interesting article about the intermingling of Assistive Technology and Universal Design of Learning.  It explains how AT and UDL are different but they are completely complimentary “kind of like two sides of a coin”.  It was very interesting how its said that advancements in one prompts/drives advances in the other one.  Low-tech AT has been around for several years but High-tech is relatively new.  UDL has been established in other fields for years but it relatively new to the education world.

“UDL and AT can be thought of as two approaching existing on a continuum.  At the ends of this continuum, the two approaches are easily distinguishable.  Toward the middle of the continuum, such easy distinctions are muddied, and there are greater points of interaction and commonality.”

 ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGY                                                UNIVERSAL DESIGN OF LEARNING

Assistive Technology is technology that helps people increase, improve, or maintain the functional capabilities of students with disabilities. It is designed to help people with their disabilities overcome their struggles in various environments and promotes independence.  UDL is a process for creating or implementing “products or structures” so that they are less challenges for people to learn or achieve an outcome.  It promotes flexibility, alternatives, options and adaptations. 

One of the things that came up for me was how it would be easier to establish a learning environment that fosters UDL and AT in a learning center compared to a classroom.  In learning centers there’s lots of space with various workstations and work areas that are set up to accommodate the students.  Often there are less students in the LC compared to the classroom and more support.  It has it’s own structure and technologies that are designed around key students that utilize the room. 

My favorite quote from the article is “As assistive technology matures, it will advance by assuming increasing connectivity with universal designs, taking advantage of the common structures to provide highly individualized solutions that are not only sensory and motor but also cognitive and linguistic-oriented.”

Thursday July 17, 2014

Great review today of the apps Clicker Sentence, Clicker Connect and Cowriter.  It made a huge difference being able to experiment with the apps. 

Quick Link to help support using iMovie.

http://support.apple.com/kb/PH14711?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US

I am very thankful for the quick overview of iMovie trailer because I had no exposure to it before.  It was a great idea for the assignment but I was highly stressed because of the time constraint.  I needed more time to figure out the app and feel comfortable with it.  As well I wish we had another group member because only two people in the group limited a lot of creativity.  iMovie is user friendly when you get the hang of it and there were lots of choices.  I wish we had more time but over all I enjoyed the activity. 

A lot of my students (and staff EPAs) would love to use this app for an assignment.  I think my students that are strong performers would love this kind of assignment.  As well those students that get nervous standing in front of large groups or class would benefit from this activity because they’re not put on the spot.  With the app if the students make mistakes they’re able to go back and edit they work.  The app is very adaptable and can be used for a variety of topics and evaluations.  Again I think staff and students would really enjoy the projects people put together. 

Article Response-Technology in Action

Deborah Newton's article on Technology and Writing talked about the differences between lo, mid, and high tech solutions for students.  At my school I feel that we have been doing a very good job with the low and mid-tech solutions (my school sounds so behind and ancient! It kills me when I learn what other schools are doing and how far we need to go).

Low-Tech solutions are aids or items that have no mechanical, electrical or computer components.  At my school I was given a good box of grips from the Occupational Therapist from the IWK.   With several of the students I supported we made a lesson out of trying the grips out and seeing which ones worked the best.  I was worried that the students we become distracted by them but eventually the novelty wore off and the students that really needed them used them.  Like I said in my other post about the fusion writers we use these a lot at my school.  There must be an abundance of them in the Assistive Technology Library at the board because if you request these you are guaranteed to get them.  From this class I see that we need to go forward and invest in more iPads.  One for the things that I wondering about was the need of the external keyboard?  Are we moving away from this sort of accessory?

The second half of the article examines high-tech solutions mainly computer-based programs.  These are very helpful when you have a school (like mine) that are still using computers for assistive technology.  Hopefully the priority will change at my school and they will see the financial and academic gain that the iPad will have.

Article Resonse-Diagnosis and Intervention Strategies...

Margaret J. Kay's article Diagnosis and Intervention Strategies for Disorders of Written Language was very interesting.  The first part of the article went over complexities of the writing process and the second half went over interventions.  One of the things that it talked about that I have been questioning is whether teachers should be teaching spelling.  The article talks about this being a controversial issue because some feel it is important that students "invent spellings" and they believe that students will eventually "transfer" their knowledge.  I feel that the researchers make a good point that students with LDs often struggle with making these connections and can't "transfer".

One of the things I thought about while reading this article was the idea about teaching technology skills with ELA lessons.  Students at the elementary school I taught at did not get computer lab time until grade 2.  If we are moving more towards technology and students using it wouldn't it make sense that students have their ELA lessons reinforced with technological devices?

Article Response-How Use of an iPad Facilitated Reading Improvement

Barbara McClanahan's article was a realistic look at a case study around a young boy with ADHD and using the support of an iPad to help improve his reading skills.  I liked this article because it showed the real life struggles that a student with ADHD has with reading and the struggles that tutors or teachers have when supporting them.  It talked about the benefits for students using ebook readers and how students were benefiting from being able to customize their "reading experience".  

In the article it talks about Josh's IEP and his required accommodations and modifications (all that can be achieved using the iPad).  It also talks about a couple case studies where teachers did not implement modifications consistently.  I find a lot of times teachers are trying to modify after the fact when they need to be modify before hand.  This is another way the iPad is effective.  Once you become comfortable with the device lessons or apps are easy to use and often times the student is able to use them independently.  

One last thing that I respected about the article was the fact that it didn't sugar coat things.  It was a realistic example of what helped and where the support needed to go for the student.   

Article Response-The Education of Dyslexic Children...

I have a personal connection to reading the articles about Dyslexia. My sister was never formally diagnosed with an LD but struggled throughout her entire educational career.  She was a student that developed very good coping skills in school and made it all the way to grade 4 until her teachers recognized it.  Because she was a quiet, polite student that never caused any problems she slipped under the radar.  Instead of moving onto grade 5 my parents made the decision to retain her and get her the support she needed.  She continued to struggle throughout her years in school and made it through without any support from the school system.  As an adult she loves to read and now that she has discovered ebooks she can't put them down.  In Sally Shaywitz article she talks about the highly prevalent rates.  In high school 27% of of seniors are reading below the most basic levels.  This makes me question whether these numbers are growing or is it that we are able to diagnose or recognize better now a days?

Fast forward 25 years from when my sister's teacher recognized her struggling and we have my niece that has been diagnosed with dyslexia.  Again she was quiet, pleasant and a teacher pleaser.  Her teachers did notice some of her struggles but couldn't justify enough for testing because of the need at her school.  She did not demonstrate the disruptive behaviour issues that goes along with male students with LDs.  "Since boys are generally more active and impulsive, they are more likely to be identified through traditional school-identification procedures, whereas girls-who are generally quiet and who may struggle to read-often go unnoticed."  My niece was very lucky because she had people in her life that worked very closely with her at home and finically they were able to get her the testing she requires.  She sees a tutor regularly and is getting the help she needs.  

Article Response-iPads as Instructional Tools to Enhance Learning...

Ipads as Instructional Tools to Enhance Learning Opportunities for Students with Developmental Disabilities:An Action Research Project was an honest and very realistic research project on the work that is being done in Sydney Australia and Assistive Technology.  The results of the study were very positive and I enjoyed hearing the feedback from the teachers implementing the programming with the students.  I liked the point about giving teachers the opportunities and training with the iPad before the students using them.  Often times the great new thing is dropped on the teacher and they are left to learn on their own and rushed into implementing the tool.  This can be a frustrating process and often leaves a bad impression with the teachers.  Luckily there was lots of help and opportunity for support and feedback during this study.

Article Response-Learning from Text

Remediation/Compensation

Reading Dave L.Edyburn’s article on Learning from Text brought up a lot of questions around remediation or compensation.  I was really surprised the statistics that 80% of students with learning disabilities receive services for a reading disability.  I think this number is very high.  I think it depends on the population of the school and the number of students identified.  Unfortunately when there is a high population of need only the severe get services and the other students on the cusp receive very little support.  Or they don’t receive the proper support they need.  Because the numbers are so high students get grouped together so that more students are seen at a time.  It looks good on paper/the schedule but it’s not realistic.  My niece has been diagnosed with dyslexia and because the student need is so high at her school she does not receive support.  She is very lucky because her parents had the finances to have her privately assessed early and they pay for her to see a tutor 3 times a week that is specially trained to work with kids with LDs.  She does not receive support from AT and it doesn’t look like she will unless it comes from her parents. 

“Learning from Text” was a great guideline for implementing remediation and compensation programs.  They had great suggestions and broke everything down so that it was easily understood. 

Wednesday July 16, 2014

Great class using the Blackboard Collaboration live.  I had no problems downloading and logging on.  The interface was super clear and user friendly. I liked how the chat was set up on the left and then slides were on the right.  We could change the size of the window so that a word document could be open for taking notes.   If people were having problems I think the wifi would of played a big part of that.  I love how I was able to access the lesson anywhere.  We set up a study station at the Irving- air-conditioned, comfy chairs, coffee, space to move, etc.

I’m really glad that we did the pollev.com activity again.  Having the activity on my personal computer made it much more user friendly.  I didn’t have to worry about seeing the screen and if I missed some of the instruction they were right there in front of me. 

Great overview of the writing process and again it’s unbelievable the complexity of the process and how we take it for granted. 

The Blackboard Collaborative set up was ideal for reviewing the apps.  It was a little blurry but we got the gist of it.  The audio really helped and the combination of audio and visual really kept my attention and kept me engaged in the lesson. 

My favorite app that we reviewed was the Click Sentence.  I think this would be ideal for a lot of my students because they struggle with organizing their ideas and often get frustrated because they don’t know where to start.  This was a very user-friendly app that was suitable for students in all ages.  I like the audio aspect of the app which helps our students with speech problems.  The visual pictures were also great because the students could personalize their work.  My only concern was the price of the app- $28.99 but the mass purchase price definitely makes it more affordable. 

Article Response-Don't Throw Out the Fusion Writer Just Yet!!

Take the Pencil Out of the Process

This is a very interesting article about ASD students struggling with dysgraphia (printing) and/or dyscriptia (writing).  Dysgraphia is a learning disability that affects writing, which requires a complex set of motor and information processing skills. Dysgraphia makes the act of writing difficult. It can lead to problems with spelling, poor handwriting and putting thoughts on paper. People with dysgraphia can have trouble organizing letters, numbers and words on a line or page. This can result partly from:

*Visual-spatial difficulties: trouble processing what the eye sees

*Language processing difficulty: trouble processing and making sense of what the ear hears

It is important to note that not all students with ASD struggle with dysgraphia and this does not mean they struggle with other fine motor activities.  When I started to read this article I questioned how students with ASD are such talented artists and musicians.  In the article they pointed out that “teachers should not assume that an individual with efficient fine motor skills for other kinds of activities should be able to develop and refine handwriting skills.  Different neural pathways are involved that do not include the movements, positions and processes involve in manipulating a writing instrument.” 

Although the article pointed out some arguments for students not use computers or type they work, I do not agree.  It is my belief that we should discover where students are struggling and help them.  Why make things difficult or challenging this is where we are going to lose students in the education system.  All students are different and all students have their strengths and challenges it is our job to discover them and foster success.  This being said I don’t think we should give up on skill development. I think it is important that students continue working on their challenges.  There will come a time when a student is not going to have their computer or ipad handy and they are going to have to write a quick note.