Project #12 Part B

Blog Post #12

“iPad Usage For the Blind” and “Teaching Mom What Her Deaf/Blind Child is Learning On the iPad” are both videos that discuss that an iPad has different features that allow sight impaired people to use them just as anyone else would. One can swipe their finger across the homescreen and an automated voice would read aloud the names of the apps and what one should do to use and access them. For example, in iBooks, the automated voice will read aloud the book chosen, as well as tell you the chapter you are reading, and also read aloud the different functions in iBooks that are available on each page of the book such as “Library button” or “Table of Contents”. For our future students that may have sight disabilities we can provide headphones so that those students can have the automated voices speak to them during class without disrupting other students. We would want our disabled students to enjoy school and get the most out of our classes, just as any other student would.

The first three sources that we were given for this blog post were Assistive Technologies for Vision and Hearing Impaired Children, Apple Assistive Technologies  and The Mountbatten. These three sources give us different technologies that can be used in the classroom to help vision and hearing impaired students. The Assistive Technologies video talks about how there are so many children that are vision or hearing impaired. The video seems to be a motivation video to make a difference and be able to have these students do what the other students are doing and to not let them be completely limited. The Apple Assistive Technology source was a website that showed different accessories that you can get for an iPad that students can use in the classroom to help them. The Mountbatten video is about the Mountbatten Braille Writer that helps blind students be able to respond in the classroom. When the student brailles, the student announces what the machine is typing in Braille. This machine is able to save files and also send files to a computer. This machine can be helpful in the classroom, especially if a teacher does not know braille. It will help the teacher know what the student is typing because it says it out loud. Both assistive technologies sources will be great to have handy in the classroom because it will help students be able to not have any limitations in the classroom.

In Teaching Math to The Blind a professor at the University of San Francisco talks about a device that he created to help blind students solve simple and advanced math problems. The device is a grid that holds small square pieces. The square pieces has a number written on one side and on the other side the same number is written in braille. With this device teachers are able to teach math to blind students at a younger age. I think that this device would be very useful to me in my classroom. The device will help the blind students model and solve math problems just as a sighted student would.

In the 50 Must See Blogs for Special Education Teachers, there are tons of blogs that could be helpful to any teacher, not just special education. Teaching All Students was a great resource to look at. It had many blog post added weekly that contained different tools that teachers may need. In Dyslexia My Life, Girard Sagmiller shares about his struggle with dyslexia and gives teachers advice on how to teach children with dyslexia. Special Education and Disability Rights Bog is an important blog to review because it explains different legal issues you may face as a special education teacher. My Special Needs Network could be a very helpful blog for teachers. It is a group of blogs from teachers AND parents that could greatly help you understand how to help a child because you don’t only have a teachers view but also a parent view!

C4Tp #3

The first blog post I read was The Possibilities of Student Blogging. In Silvia Tolisano's post she has a video made by her friend/colleague about how she uses blogging in her classroom. I loved the idea of quad blogging that she brings up in the video. It is where four classrooms around the world work with each other in blogging. Each classroom will write a blog and the other three will comment on it. I like this because sometimes we are afraid to correct someone we know in a blog post but if it is someone we don't know personally, we are more likely to give a helpful response. 

The second post that I read was Documenting FOR Learning. In Tolisano's post, she talks about  students using documenting to learn. She list different ways that teachers, students, and schools can use documenting including: further instruction, be aware of own learning growth, and professional development. She uses many different tools to document like photos, videos, and mind maps. 

Blog Post #11

C4T #3

My teacher for this C4Ta is Angela Maiers.

In the firat blog of hers that I read, How Companies and People Must Adapt in the Social Age, Angela talks about the interview between Ted Coine and Mark Babbitt in their book, A World Gone Social. She summarizes what she takes out of the discussion and also includes the original interview video do that you can watch the video in you want. One of the points she brings up is that students have their own voice. I completely agree with this statement. Students need to know that WHAT they say matters.









The next  post I read was called Getting to the Heart of Collaboration. Angela talks about what collaboration is. She says that we miss a very important part of collaboration: value creation. She goes on to say that collaboration has three parts: team, process, and purpose. The steps translate into: two or more people working together toward shared goals. She points out that a group of people using social software is not technically collaboration. In her list of things that she feels makes up collaboration, she has that sharing is constant. I completely agree with this. How are you suppose to collaborate with another person if you're not sharing your thoughts on the subject?

Project #10

Teacher Interview

Blog Post #10

In the first video, Little Kids...Big Potential, Mrs. Cassidy's class shares about different tools they use in their classroom. In the video, it shows students having fun with the technology. The students are using skype, bogs, podcast, etc. The parents love the idea of their students blogging because they can see what their students are doing in class. This makes it easier for parents to get involved.

In the first part of Dr. Strange's interview with Mrs. Cassidy, she talks about how she got 5 computers in her classroom. She used them as centers because their were not enough for every student in her class. She points out one downside to the computers though. They couldn't download any thing to the computer. Mrs. Cassidy found a way to use blogging to help her students learn. I like that she made a class blog so that the parents can see what is going on in the class. I know I will use this in my classroom!

In the second part of the interview, she talks about how she doesn't even use technology in her personal life. They talk about personal networks and the importance of connecting to other teachers. Dr. Strange and Mrs. Cassidy admit that they were a little skeptic about using twitter. They both had people who encouraged them to try t out and now they both love it!

In the third part, Dr. Strange let some of his students ask Mrs. Cassidy questions. One of the questions asked by a students was how often she used blogs in her classroom. She says that it depends on the part of the year and on the students in her class. She says that she has had students that continue to blog at home.