Journal 10: Diabled Students and Technology

Disabled Bodies, Able Minds: Giving Voice, Movement, and Independence to the Physically Challenged

by: Diane Curtis

This article and the accompanying video discuss how technology is benefitting the disabled. On numerous levels of interaction and through numerous devices disabled students are making great strides in their access and abilites. Technology has become a powerful tool for disabled students to bridge gaps and overcome some of their disablements in all subjects, from music, to writing, to physical interactions. I was extremely impressed by the community contributions to the disabled student who had is musical instrument stolen. I was also very glad to see these students moving on to succeed in higher education. I have seen some of this technology used in the classroom but never to the extent that was displayed in the video.

Why do disabled kids have so much trouble transitioning out of high school to continue their education?
Often times students are wrapped up in studying for high school exit exams and other exams that are required by the NCLB legislation that they don't have time to study and prepare for the experiences that are to come in the next few years of their lives. It is a big transition for them and they are not adequately prepared.

Why are the developments so slow for integrating technology for disabled students?
Many of the teachers are not up to date with technology and tech specialists spend most of their time focusing on providing resources for the majority population. I think that technology should be need based. Most applications for students able bodied students can be run as web based applications while hardware and software for disabled students is often more costly but must be purchased. We need to cut corners where we can and provide resources for those who need them.

Journal 9: Holding Back

Are Schools Inhibiting 21st Century Learners?
by: Dave Nagel
This article discusses weather or not schools are inhibiting students by limiting their access to technologies. The complaints range from blaming the teachers to blaming the filters that are in place on the computers accessing the Internet. The article cites that young people are the leading users of technology, often in a much more sophisticated manner than adults, and they should have access to these important resources. Educators and parents feel that safety precautions are vital however they expect that the new and powerful technological resources that are available to educators are being used in the classroom. The article talks about the utility of gaming for understanding difficult concepts. Many were for gaming however very few were actually implementing it into their curriculum. Mobile learning technologies were also seen as a great way to engage students and make the learning more relevant and engaging. Most students have a cell phone and/or a mobile digital media player.

What are some steps that can be taken to add more opportunities for incorporating technology into the classroom?
Schools should develop a plan to increase the amount of technology used in the classroom. Together with administrators and technology staff, teachers should be looking for different ways to couple instruction with hands on and interactive technological materials. Teachers should also evaluate how their technology either worked or did not and then revise their plans.

How can teachers help all students to have the necessary devices to teach with technology?
Grants are the first thing that come to mind when considering how to make sure that students are provided the tools they need to succeed in as web 2.0 users. Also keeping lines of communication open between teachers, students, parents, and the community at large can help to foster involvement and encourage community contributions. People are more likely to help and participate if they are made to feel that they are a part of something.

Journal 8: Free Science Resources Online

Spotlight: Free Science Resources Online
by: Dave Nagel

This article is about where to find some free online resources for science. The article talks about three specific places to find curriculum, lesson plans, projects and other really cool and helpful resources. The three places are MIT, NASA, and the Smithsonian. The MIT site is cool. It has all kinds of demonstration videos which I found useful. I don't plan to teach science but I think this would be a really cool resource if I did have to teach science. The NASA site has cool instructional videos. The one I watched was kind of boring though. But there are some really technical tools that can be accessed through NASA's site. The Smithsonian had really cool articles and activities. I accidentally went to some of the humanities activities and found some that I really liked and would consider using in my own classroom.

How can these sites be used in the classroom?
There are numerous ways to use these sights in the classroom. The videos on the sites can be shown to the students even without a computer in the classroom. They could be saved and put on a DVD and then played in the classroom. Each site has numerous lesson plans on them which could be of immeasurable help to a new teacher. There are also links and activities for students on the sites that could be used in the classroom.

What age groups can use these sites?
All three sites are relevant to all ages K-forever. I found a lot of the stuff I was looking at to be very interesting and some of it to be far beyond my own knowledge level.

Journal 7: Collaborative Documents

The technology that I looked at is called Collaborative Documents, and it involves multiple people being able to contribute to a single project. Google Documents is a prime example of a collaborative document, but others include yourdraft, writewith, and whiteboard. All of these sites can be used as word processors and provide access for multiple users. In essence you no longer need to purchase expensive microsoft office software because it is all available through web-based applications. These applications not only make it free and easy to do your word processing but they make it free and easy to share and collaborate with others.

However during my searching I looked at a new application for facebook.com that allows student groups to work together in groups to accomplish collaborative assignments. The application has capabilities with scheduling, discussion boards, and task organization as well as a collaborative documents section. People using this application so far seem to be excited. The format is based on facebook's platform so it will be familiar to those who use it.

Jounal 6: Software Reviews

Kidspiration Review
I thought that the Kidspiration program was really cool and well put together. I think that it is a good resource for teachers to make hand-outs. However I think that this would be a much more useful resource for students to use to make their own documents and projects. I think that by asking students to use this resource to complete an assignment teachers can not only help the students to accomplish their ordinary learning tasks for their particular subject, but they will also be able to help the students to improve their build on their technological skills. I also think that this program takes into account audio, visual, and kinesthetic types of learners which is a great advantage.
As far as using the online tutorial, I also liked it. I have a very short attention span and I really liked that I could skip ahead if something was too mundane or already felt confident with my knowledge. I think that on-line tutorials are a great way to provide information to people that need extra help understanding something. I have actually recommended it to my parents and have subsequently had to spend much less time arduously explaining things to them.

iMovie
So iMovie is really cool. I found it super easy to use, not to mention that the capabilities are off the hook. It was so basic that I was able to jump right in and take some of my own footage to create a fun and exciting film. I loved this program and had a great time with it. I think that the ease of the softwares platform makes it a great tool for new users. This would be a fantastic resource for K-12 students. Just remember to save every so often because the program has a tendency to up and quit for no reason. This can destroy hours of work and be extremely frustrating.

I think that I could quite easily incorporate this program into the classroom. The film I made was done with a simple point and shoot digital camera that has a video function. I think that this software makes it possible for the most novice of users to become a film maker. It's GREAT!!!