The Last Assignment...

For the final article assessment, Ted S. Hasselbring and Margaret E. Bausch discuss Assistive Technologies for Reading.

"Text-reader programs, word-prediction software, and other aids empower youth with learning disabilities..." is the thesis for the article. The authors point out that not nearly enough students with learning disabilities are getting the help they need.

Now, with products such as Read & Write Gold, Read, Write, & Type!, Read Naturally, and READ 180, there is a plethora of assistive aids out there for these students. These aids provide summaries, comprehensions checks, word pronunciation, decoding, and spelling help, as well as background knowledge to clarify context.

Main points:

• 10% of U.S. students receive special education services
• Many of these students are learning in inclusive classrooms, so teachers need more effective aids to help educate them
• Assistive technology devices are used to aid with functional capabilities of individual with disabilities
• Assistive devices are more likely to be used in special education classes than in regular education classes, and for students with severe rather than learning disabilities
• Assistive technologies help greatly with reading support. This includes catching up and understanding, reading interventions, and strengthening and improving reading skills
• Read & Write Gold software is used in school and provides text-to-speech output of words, sentences, and paragraphs to help students read and write
• Read and write assistive technology allows students to succeed and take control of their own learning
• Technology is just a tool in education, students still need good teachers to succeed

I find it very interesting that so many assistive technologies are available, but that we do not use them here at Sitka High. I know that the amount of students with 504 and IEP plans is much higher than that of students with severe disabilities...

I like that these programs are made for older children (4th to 12th grades) because these are the students who need the most help, especially if they have slipped through the cracks for so many years. Also, the fact that these programs are individualized to the student and are in student control is essential in that it give the students ownership over their own learning.

IEP

The Digital Guide Touristique

Currently at Sitka High we have 25 high school students visiting from Toulouse. My mentor teacher really wanted a project that the Sitka students could do cooperatively with the Toulouse students, so I developed the following unit, (which consequently became my IEP project.)

The 11 Sitka students in French III/IV will be paired-up with a French student to create a digital tourist guide. The guide will be a know before you go cultural introduction to either Toulouse or Sitka. Sitka students will narrate the guide in French while Toulouse students create the subtitles in English. The students will also add music, transitions, and a title photo and credits.

I have created a sample of this assignment about Whitefish, MT to show students. This sample shows my personal growth and my mastery of the MovieMaker program.

Please find my assignment description, lesson plans, and rubric for my IEP unit here:
Whitefish Model
Digital Guide Touristique
Rubric
My Reflection of this Process

Social Network

Sharing is fantastic!
It seems like every time I want to find something online it takes way too long. Isn't the Internet supposed to make life easier, make searching go faster?

Well, I think I am finally understanding the trick, and it isn't google.com. I like http://tappedin.org/tappedin/because instead of swimming blindly through the muck, other educators are sharing useful sites and better ways of searching. This is great because I can pass on these tools to my students as well.Also, there is chatting with other educators to share ideas.

However wonderful an online community may be, I am not sure I would make time for visiting were it not required for this class.

Three Sites

At http://diannekrause.edublogs.org/
I found a woman named Dianne Krause who is a French teacher in Pennsylvania. She is also a wife and mother. As if this weren't enough, Dianne details her newly emerging responsibilities as a Classrooms for the Future coach. In other words, Dianne is responsible for training her colleagues in the new technology used for teaching. Some examples include wikispaces and voicethread. This site has tons of information for those of us learning how to use technology in our classrooms, as well as great links.

http://theconnectedclassroom.wikispaces.com/
This site is also part of Classrooms for the Future. There is a lot of tech info, as well as the process Upper Merion High School is following as they develop their own projects and become a school of the future. The best thing about this site is that it made me search for the definition of Web 2.0... which, after revisiting the site, I find clearly defined: http://theconnectedclassroom.wikispaces.com/Web20

Finally, I like http://www.globalschoolnet.org/
This isn't the best site as far as ease in navigation, but there are some great links to movies about using global understanding as a tool in teaching communication and, and as they say, fostering collaboration.

IEP Proposal

For my IEP, I intend to learn MovieMaker to an expert degree. This includes finding out how to import music as background, change subtitle positions, etc. Also, I will need to learn how to teach all of the information I learn in French for my third year students, as well as our visiting students from Toulouse.

I think, to get started, I will visit our very savvy tech. teacher and see what sort of text book/other information he has on MovieMaker.

Article Assessment:The Overdominance of Computers

Lowell W. Monke has a great appreciation for the importance of instilling technological skills in students. However, he holds strong opinions about when and where these skills should be taught. Many times throughout this article, Monke stresses the importance of teaching young children good people skills before teaching them computer skills. He Notes values such as hope, loyalty, commitment, and tradition which we cannot teach students with a spreadsheet. In addition, Monke states that students need to see how their actions can affect their own lives, as well as the lives of others and feel the direct results of those actions before turning to the virtual world where results are virtually non-existent. The author also discusses the importance of allowing students to develop at their own natural pace without applying external technical fixes.
Some important points Monke makes:

• Preparing young people (for the virtual/digital world) involves first strengthening their inner resources like self-discipline, moral judgement, and empathy
• Students need authentic experiences
• Nearly everything a child does today, chatting, texting, etc., uses technology which distances that child from direct contact with the living world
• It is crucial for schools to help develop children's distinctly human capacities
• Teachers should question how heavy use of computers helps young children with the following needs: loving relationships with adults, outdoor activity, unstructured playtime, the arts, hands-on work, and conversation with adults and other children
• Technical skills should be taught at the end of high school in order teach students with current technology
• Students should understand hardware and software, instead of never knowing what is inside of all those "black boxes"

I finally feel some bit of synthesis with an article from Educational Leadership! I totally agree with Mr. Monke. I have definately come around to an understanding about how important technology is in the world today. I know that students, as well as I, need to be able to use this technology. However, I have always felt that there was a time and place for it. It just makes sense to teach a child to be the best human they can be, to live in the real world and be who they are before allowing them to go out there to the Internet (digital not-realness that is capitalized like it is a real place or something...) and live a fantasy life. This really is happening. Take for instance a beautiful, smart, and talented young girl. She is overweight and fifteen. She has been contacting older men on the Internet. She can be as skinny as she wants, as old as she wants... in the Internet world. But what happens when she runs away to meet one of those men? This is where we are failing our children. This child was not confident enough in her own self. She was not forced to face reality, was not taught important life skills. Now she is lost for a while.

As a teacher, I will be looking out for this behavior. But it is so hard because as a high shcool teacher, I am at the end of the line. Students will already be in the habit of going to that not-real place...

Rubric for Digital Biographical Story

In the future, when students create biographical stories similar to Jeanne d'Arc, I will use the following rubric to grade them.
Please view my rubric at:
http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=df347m4x_3zt6zs3g9