Adaptive Technology in Education

There have been three main laws the have assisted for equal opportunities for those with disabilities. The American Disabilities Act, Individuals with Disability Act Laws and the Assistive Technology Act have set out different laws and accommodations to help students with disabilities in school and education and to help all people with disabilities in everyday life. From working in a middle school in the special education department I have seen first hand how some of these programs and technologies have helped students succeed in school. The ADA is a federal law protecting the civil rights of people with disabilities in employment, state and local government, public accommodations and telecommunication services. The IDA and ATA protect students with disabilities in education. Grants are given to state agencies to help fund the programs to help these students succeed in life. People with mobility impairments, health impairments, learning disabilities, speech and hearing impairments and those who are blind or have visual impairments, are given different ways to succeed in education by using different forms of technology. Some of these forms of technology are screen enlargers, braille displays, text to speech programs or speech to text programs and enlarged keyboards. I have worked with students with some of these items and it changes their whole personality when they are able to participate. I hope that in my future classroom I will be able to work with these items to help student succeed and cant wait to see what else will come out in the years to come to help students with disabilities succeed in education.

Educational Apps

Technology in education is ever evolving and apps on cell phones, tablets and computers have become huge components in today's education system. They can be very helpful and useful in many cases. I am big proponent of keeping education old school. I believe in that because test scores throughout the nation have severely dropped since I was in my grade school years. I think kids these days have their noses in their phones or tablets enough as it is, do they really need to have their nose stuck on a computer screen all day while they are at school too??? The middle school that I have worked at the past three years has tablets and computers, but so many kids were caught on apps playing games instead of the assignment at hand, or on a website that had nothing to do with his or her research paper that they were on the computer to write in the first place. So the jury is still out for me on whether school should go full tech! However, I have used a few educational apps and really enjoy them and the kids that I have worked with these past few years have enjoyed them as well. Working with special education kids it was nice that many of the apps were easily accessible for my students. Some of my lowest students who had trouble reading could use the app because there was an option for it to be audible, or the buttons were very large or bright in color. The apps should have a healthy balance of interactive features like animations and noises. Especially depending on grade level. You may need to have more animations for the lower grade levels or even higher grade level special need students to keep their attention. There should most definitely be a purpose and goal in the app or game they are playing. Make sure that it communicates the subject matter and gives results or feedback. Many apps could be used as reviews or assessments, to put what they learned in the classroom with the teacher to practice or how they can use what they have learned in real life.
 evaluating apps/slide share

Netiquette

Netiquette cartoon

My classroom

Being a teacher has always been a dream of mine. Growing up with some awesome teachers with awesome classrooms always made me think and dream of what my classroom would look like when I became a teacher and had my very own classroom. I picture the desks in a circle shape so that i can walk around the middle and lecture and be a little closer to all my students instead of just paying attention to the ones sitting in the back of the classroom because you know the ones sitting at the front are doing good. I love pink so probably would be lots of pink and other bright colors. I imagine a world map that takes up one whole wall. I want to have a very interactive classroom, lots of "get up out of your seat" activities, class discussions and debates. Keep the kids moving and having fun and they will completely forget that they are actually learning!

augmented reality

Technology is surely developing quicker then we know how to learn how to use the stuff that is already out. With out a doubt a lot of it being brought into the schools and being used in education every day. One invention that was recently brought to my attention was an augmented visual reality tool developed by the company Zeco. It uses virtual reality through using the camera on a smart phone, tablet or computer. The one example I saw you could put your self in a vehicle that wasn't really there! How cool is that? It is definitely something I could see myself using in my history classroom. How awesome would it be if you could put my students inside the ancient pyramids of Egypt, or the Coliseum in Rome or even in the middle of the battle of Gettysburg. Instead of just looking at a one dimensional picture of the outside or maybe a wall on the inside they would walk around it like they were actually there. They could open doors, or move things around. They could see artifacts, tombs, coffins and many other things. Not many people get to travel all over the world to all the awesome historical places this world has to offer,  but this device could let kids experience things they might not ever be able to. Each student could pick the one place they have always wanted to visit and don't ever think they will be able to make it there and experience it! They can turn it into a project on what they saw, what confirmed what they had already been taught and what new stuff they learned about their special place. It is definitely a technology I hope to experience soon with my students.

Smart vs. Dumb

Through my 30 years of living, I have come to believe there are many different levels of smart and dumb. There is book smart people, street smart people, there are dumb people then there are REALLY dumb people. I don't know that dumb should be used to describe a child or student, before the high school age kids are still very capable of learning and obtaining information so they can be book smart and not "Dumb." Howard Gardner describes intelligence as "the ability to solve problems encountered by real life, generate new problems to solve, and make or offer something of value within a culture." That statement to me makes me think he is talking about street smarts since he is discussing things you might encounter in real life, like how to change a tire, getting along with others or how to traverse the New York City Subway system,  The valedictorian of my graduating class was very book smart, street smart....not so much. She good ramble off the number that represents Pi and fill in all the boxes of the periodic table, but didn't know any common sense and didn't know what type of gas to put in her car. I know these things because we were really good friends. So I believe that everyone has an opportunity to be smart and dumb! Bill Gates could be the world's smartest man, but if he lacks common knowledge (street smarts) doesn't that make him dumb? If the mechanic from the shop down the road can get greasy trying to figure out what happened to your engine didn't know how to build a computer software program, does that make him dumb?

Socrative assessment

Recently, in my edtech class we were assigned to create an assessment on a website called Socrative.com. We had to come up with 10 questions that could really do with anything. Mine consisted of mainly history questions since I am a history secondary education major. We then worked with a few other classmates who were in the same career path as we were to answer eachothers assessments so that we could obtain a results spreadsheet. The questions that we came up with could be answered three different ways; short answer, true or false and multiple choice, which is pretty much how most assessments are these days. I particularly like those three different types of questions because you make the students think a little harder, maybe trick them with some and make sure they are reading carefully and make some fairly easy. I would have liked to maybe make it a little more interactive. For example, putting a picture of Abraham Lincoln and having the student name who it is or inserting a video of the remake of the meeting at the Appomatox Courthouse in Virginia and see if they can determine what it is and who is there. All in all though it would a cool experience creating a test and getting other people to take it and seeing the results happen right in front of your eyes.