Day 11 - Signing Off!

It's time to sign off! I have spent the last two and a half weeks learning so much about assistive technology. I did not expect to learn as much as I did about the reading and the writing process. It is amazing what is involved with both of those processes.

I was thankful to be given the time to research different apps and software, most programs of which I had not heard of before.

The following link will lead you to our final project that I completed with Mandy, Steph and Gerri! It is a blog that gives an overview of the writing process, lists useful apps and software to support students with the writing process and also a little blurb about the differences between remedial and compensatory supports.

Supporting Writer's Blog

I enjoyed the hands on nature of this class, and also appreciated being able to play with the IPads! When I return to school in the fall, I know I will be pushing for IPods and IPads, and if my wish is granted, will utilize many of the tools that I have learned to support my students! Thanks for a great course!

Day 10 - Blogging about a Blog!

I was searching for mid-tech assistive technology for the writing process last night, and I wanted to make sure I included software about both remedial and compensatory technology. I had a very hard time finding assistive technology that aided in remediation. I ended up including timers, which is not a tool that I would have considered as being a remediation tool. You learn something new everyday!

I would also like to share why I love technology today! We are able to complete our course evaluations for this course online, which means we don't have to drive all the way here! Because of technology, we are saving so much money on gas! :)

Stay tuned for my signing off post tomorrow! I will also include the link to my other blog that we spent today creating called "Supporting Writer's". It will give you all sorts of practical information about the writing process and assistive technology that you can use to support the process with your students! I hope view our blog and use some of the great apps and software that we included.

Day 9 - The Writing Process

What happens when you try to write with your left hand? Unless you are left handed or ambidextrous, you may produce something that looks similar to what I produced below:

Writing with my right hand is easy for me, I don't even have to think about it. Writing the short sentence above was automatic. However, when I tried to write that short sentence with my left hand, it required so many more elements, and it was stressful. It took me longer to get the page in the right spot, I had exerted a lot of pressure on the page, it took me awhile to get the right grip, I really had to focus and tune everything else out, and it took me about 4 times as long to produce. This is just a narrow glimpse of how a child with writing difficulty may feel when trying to produce written output. It was quite insightful! As with the reading process, I had never considered the skills that are necessary to write. There are various skills that you need before you even pick up the pencil! Over the next 2 days, we are creating a comprhesive blog about the writing process, so stay tuned for that! It will include apps, resources, an overview of the writing process, plus much more!

One program we talked about today was CoWriter which is a word prediction program. I really liked it so I thought I would share this video:

Another thought to consider: Remediation (re-teaching using different strategies) vs. compensation (technology to help compensate). How do we know what assistive technology to use? How do we know when to stop the remediation process and start using compensatory resources? To answer this question, we really need to understand every component of the reading and writing process.

Random Wall Post

This picture speaks for itself... :)

Day 8 - Exploring Kurzweil and the Importance of UDL

I have always struggled with differentiated instruction in my math and science classrooms. I have tried to use Kurzweil, Understanding Math and many other online programs, but in my experience at the junior high level, many kids are relunctant to jump on a computer and willingly use these programs. Some students will; however, many do not. UDL is so exciting for me, because I feel like these struggles that I face will be dissolved because if everyone can use this technology, children with LD will not stand out as being different. I am definately pro-UDL.

So, what is UDL? Universal Design for Learning. I briefly discussed the importance of this on my day 1 post, but we had another discussion about it today in class, and here are the highlights:

• This needs to be implemented in our school board!
• Brings the prices down on devices (IPad 2 is now only $419 + tax) because more people are buying it.
• We are not focused on changing the work for a child’s individual disability; we are starting at a level playing ground.
• We are not looking at changing the kids, we are looking at making the curriculum more accessible to everyone.
• Also, children with LD don’t look different anymore! Especially junior high, they are resistant to look different at all…they just want to fit in! Everybody can use this technology, so it creates a more engaging learning environment for everyone.

Check out this YouTube video that I came across that shares more ideas about UDL!

On another note, I had no idea that I had accessibility features built in to my own PC - FREE! We have a magnifier, narrator, on-screen keyboard and speech recognition. Also, there is a menu with many other options for customizing a computer to meet the needs of the user. Very cool!

This is a screen shot of the Kurzweil
program that shows the word prediction
feature as well as the different toolbars.

We spent a big chunk of the morning look at he Kurzweil program. I knew a lot about this program already, as I have participated in PD at the school and board level. What I appreciated about today was having discussions about which type of learners would benefit from each function of the program. For those people out there who have never been exposed to this program, here is an extensive overview of what the program can do:

• This is a very expensive program, but again, you get what you pay for.
• There are 4 toolbars and they can be customized. They are easily collapsible by clicking on a tab.
• Hard copies are easy to scan with Kurzweil and are transformed into a KESI file. These files are read only, which is nice for tests! You can change KESI files to a text file so students don’t need the program to access the information.
• As the program reads, it can highlight which is helpful for students who have attention problems.
• The speed can move faster or slower. Self pace and also kids who need to be engaged in the reading process (ADHD and kids with comprehension difficulty)
• They can re-read the document as often as they need to (For those kids with difficulty with short term memory and processing) This gives them access to the information – text to speech is great!
• They are independent and engaged. They don’t need to have a teacher reading to them.
• Dictionary – You can click in front of a word and click on the “definition” button. It will give you the definition and easily have it read aloud by pressing the “read” button.
• You can develop a picture library that will engage visual learners and children with Autism.
• Can highlight a passage and click on translate, and it will translate it in to different languages for you. (Translations are not great with the English version)
• Synonym works the same as the dictionary
• There is a pronounce function that would benefit students who are ESL and also for students who have decoding problems.
• There is a help button incase you forget or don’t know how to use any of the functions.
• Reading Toolbar: You can chose different voices, you can choose self-pace or continuous reading. The self-pace could benefit students with decoding problems and it finishes the complete thought before you move on. You can choose different options with self pace. Continuous line would help with comprehension and also with visual tracking.
• Page thumbnail shows you visually where you are on the page
• Highlighting feature – engagement, you can highlight for them before they start, you can give them ideas for what to look for
• Sticky notes – you can leave directions for students or leave a box for students to reply to you. Also, you could leave a word bank for students who are writing tests so they can drag the word over instead of having to type.
• 5 different uses for bubble notes – prompts, make study notes, important background information, tests, making connections, more vocabulary, they pay more attention to the text because they see that there is a bubble note coming up.
• Voice notes – giving directions, text to speech, student can use it as well as the teacher, more for upper elementary and secondary, and for independent writing tasks
• Can export files as audio files (mp3)
• Word prediction – you could create your own word prediction list using all of the vocabulary in a specific body of text

  Believe it or not, this isn't all that this program can do! This really is a great program that allows students with various different learning disabilities to access information, which ultimately is the goal.

Last order of business for today: We were asked to look through the UDL Tool Kitand choose 5 resources that we would use in our classrooms and these are the ones I chose:

Braining Camp – The content on the website is focused towards junior high math, which is why I chose it. Its content is based on the American curriculum, but a lot of it is very relevant for Canadian users. It strives to make learning fun and engaging to motivate learners who may have struggled with math in the past. It also helps students regain enthusiasm and acts as a motivator. It covers many concept areas and is complete with interactive learning tools. There is also information about relevant IPad apps and works with SMART boards!

Screen shot of alge-tiles that
I often use in my math class!

National Library of Virtual Manipulatives - I wanted to include this site because I find it extremely useful as I already use it regularly in my math classroom. I especially like the alge-tiles function, as there are not many online programs out there that have alge-tiles in them. Also, this site is broken down by grade level and different topic areas, and is very easy to navigate.

Online Graphing Calculator

Online Graphing Calculator - I have never taught at a school that had a class set of graphic calculators, and they would be so useful for the grade 9 classroom. Grade 9 is when students start looking at slope and graphing equations, so having the visual is a very helpful tool.

Create a Graph - This is a great website! I chose it because it allows students to build various different graphs on the computer, and the setup of the website does not look elementary. There are so many children that I teach that have fine motor skills problems that have a hard time creating a graph that they shut down immediately. With this great tool, they can log on and create their graphs with their own data and they can design it with different colors, graphics, etc.

An example of what you can create
in Prezi!

Prezi - A great tool that allows students to create presentations of their work that is not PowerPoint! It gives students creative freedom when presenting ideas. I would use this program in my science classroom as a project based tool.

Homework - Math Webinar

YAY FOR WEBINARS!!
Learning while relaxing on the couch!

I was VERY excited to watch the math webinar tonight! Mandy and I both teach junior high math, so we were pumped to learn about new and exciting tools to bring to our classrooms! We decided to watch this webinar together so we could discuss the apps afterwards! I always find is difficult to locate engaging online math resources for my grade 9 math classroom.

I was quite disappointed tonight after watching the webinar because there were only a few of the apps that I would actually use. Many of them used very basic concepts that I wouldn't teach in my class. Also, many of my students would be reluctant to use these apps because the look very elementary. I have located math games simliar visually to these apps on the internet before, and they don't hold my students interest. I was looking forward to exploring apps that included algebra, graphing and work with equations, but unfortunately there weren't any in this webinar. Also, because the audio was delayed on the webinar, I had a hard time following along with the apps that were showcased.

Of the apps that were shown, here are the ones that I felt I would consider using in my classroom:

This is a screen shot of Pizza Fractions 2

Pizza Fractions 1, 2 and 3 - These apps were useful, and were more complex than most of the other apps shown. Pizza Fractions 1 would show a pizza, and you had to identify the fraction that matched it. I appreciated the visuals, as that is a large part of the battle when teaching kids about representations of fractions. Pizza Fractions 2 would show a pizza with a fraction, and the student would have to choose a fraction that was equivalent. It also gave visual representation which is useful for so many students. There is also the option to show a hint. Pizza Fractions 3 increased complexity again by asking students to compare and order fractions using a <, > or = sign. This is an outcome in grade 7, 8 and 9, so it could be used throughout junior high.

This is a screen shot of the
number line option!

Motion Math - This app would be useful with fractions as well. You have to move the IPad and bounce a ball on the point on a number line where you thought the fraction would go. I am not sure if this app also has a decimal option, nor do I know if you could increase the size of the number line. I like that the students would have to pick up the IPad to physically move the ball - it could be quite engaging.

Screen shot

Money Count Canadian - I loved this app! This app would be very useful in a Learning Center when children are learning about life skills. Also, many of my students in the past who were on IPP's usually had a money component in their IPP. This is a great way to sharpen their money skills, and a bonus is that it is Canadian money! The part of the app that was shown to us in the webinar showed you a pile of money, and you were asked to count it. You were only given 10 seconds, which could be a bit fast for some students, and I am not sure if you could slow that down. After you were shown the money, it switched to another screen and you had to write down the amount. You also had to put in the decimal place, which emphasizes place value.



This is a screen shot of
 the adding option 



Math Tappers - This is another app that I would use in my classroom. There are a series of options with this app, including operations. I think my students would like this app because of the timed activities and accuracy results. This is a great tool for mental math and to use as anchor activities if students finish their work early.

Though I wouldn't use many of the apps shown in this webinar in my grade 9 classroom, after speaking with elementary teachers in my class, I learned that many of the math apps would be very useful in that setting. Also, as a learning center teacher, these apps would be very useful to practice those basic skills. While watching the webinar, I was only thinking of how to use it in my grade 9 classroom, without thinking of myself as person who will someday work in a learning center or resource room! I was sitting inside my grade 9 box again. Now that I consider other grade levels, I can see much more value in this webinar!
Many of the other apps had to do with counting, spacial awareness and patterns.  I would definately share the information that I learned with my friends who teach elementary school. Also, being a new mother, I can see myself using these apps with my son, Gavin, before he goes to school! I would also share these apps with my friends who are moms! :)

Day 7 - Frustration!

So, I thought I was on top of this Reading Task Analysis project, but I ran into a couple of snags when connecting the Reading Process to the apps that I had found. I find distinguishing between executive functions, context processors, meaning processors, reading remediation, etc. is very confusing. I have never received training in these areas, and even after teaching junior high math and science for 5 years, still didn't learn about these complex processes. I had to research each of these functions before being able to navigate my concept map. (That is still not finished, by the way! I will upload it when it's done!) When I was looking over the concept map that I had created, I realized that almost all of the executive functions are required for each of the processing skills. Also, many of the sensory processors need to be engaged for many parts of the reading process, so I found a lot of overlap. It was frustrating because I didn't know exactly where each function fit into the Reading Process! Below is a summary of what Stephanie and I came up with:

Apps for Reading Task Analysis Chart

Another point of frustration for me was trying to embed the chart above into this blog. Since Blogger does not allow you to upload documents, we had to use an outside upload tool to get this chart on our blogs. Thankfully, we have an extremely tech savvy classmate that was willing to help us! Thanks Wade! :) So, check out the above chart that shows 10 apps that Stephanie and I found that will assist students with various areas of the Reading Process!