Final Webinar presentation

The final webinar presentation was done on New Apps for Learning Disabilty, by Angela, Lacee and Christine. They started off with a comic which was quite funny as it brought out the contrast of past educational strategies with today's technology age. We got a definition of LD from the Learning Disabilities Association of Nova Scotia.
 Christine went on to tell of the supports there are for LD in her class and the supports that can be gained for the areas of reading and writing which include EA for peers, lower level texts, providing more time and tolerance for poor spelling or organization, use of graphic organizers and dragon dictation.
She presented a table of apps that were reviewed in the webinar and their costs. Book creator was again featured along with its advantages, reinforcing for me personally once again just how effective and helpful this app can be for students with different disabilities. The presentation was excellent as it showed a video of a student demonstrating what he was learning on and how his ipad was helping him to learn different topics.

 With all the years of teaching experience I have had I'm still trying to diagnose some of the difficulties students face on a day to day basis. With a large class a teacher has to be more astute and observant of each individual student to see how they learn, the attitudes they might display toward each lesson and class activity, to be able to help each student to achieve their full potential. After this diagnosis we as teachers have to be astute enough to be able to suggest and implement ways to help each child or they will end up achieving less than their true potential and this can prove damaging to their self esteem. Doing this course has really helped me to see and discover ways of using technology to help my students.

Webinars

Over the course of the week of April 23, 2014 the class of Assistive Technology MED students were to present findings on a series of apps to aid students with different learning difficulties and disabilities giving them the ability to accomplish tasks that would otherwise be difficult to impossible for them to perform.
My group member and I looked at the apps iBooks 3, Paperport notes, Book Creator.These apps were appealing to me as a classroom teacher because of the experience I have had with a student with cerebral palsy. In my school we still use a chalkboard which requires that students take notes and do written work in their books and if we want  to get through more than one lesson per day the students are expected to write from the chalkboard in a timely manner, my student with cp had difficulty doing to this so upon researching these apps and from the webinar I was grabbed by the ease with which my student could do assigned tasks with these apps at his disposal. With each app there is the option of speech to text which means that i could record texts instead of writing them on a chalkboard and these can be saved in so many forms for the students to be able to go back to for reference as it can be saved on their ipad, this can also be used for their reading development as instead of having the voice over students can read from the device.


   Another group looked at top FREE apps in special education, and the key word here is free because it can prove quite costly to be purchasing all types of apps for your class's educational needs so for us FREE is good. This group introduced me to canva which is a great site to make info graphics which is a great way to create any kind of graphics for class activities, The other app I found interesting was Science 360, this one grabbed my attention because it has the option for students to use any body part to navigate within it this is a good app for students with physical disabilities. Pocket pond was also good because of the soothing effects that it can generate especially if you are a fish lover, it is good for kids with autism because of the sensory effects it generates, dragon dictation which is a voice recognition app which would be good for students with physical disabilities.

 The following group looked at apps that enhance performance for individuals with extreme autism. I am from a country that I have come to realize does not have the necessary trained educators to deal with problems such as these that are existing in the country, part of that problem is that when a parent has a physically challenged child they are less likely to send them to school due to the stigma attached to the disability, these children are at a disadvantage as they are not given the opportunity to get an education. I therefore see where this course will enable me to deal with preparing lessons to better help students I encounter with these disabilities.

Reflections From Class 1 to 4

Assistive Technology was a term I heard only at the beginning of this course, needless to say so were the other term such as , presumed competence and convergence of technologies, not because they are new but because I have never had to look at these terms before. However after starting this course with much apprehension as to how I will get through and if I will considering that all I use a computer to do is type lesson plans, reply to emails, and check my facebook page I have to admit that I have learnt a lot, not enough that I am over confident but as it is a work in progress it's enough to make me knowledgeable enough to create something educational for my class, I therefore am looking forward to all the other classes to come.

Assisitive Technology
Assistive Technology is an umbrella term that includes assistive, adaptive, and rehabilitative devices for people with disabilities and also includes the process used in selecting, locating, and using them. AT promotes greater independence by enabling people to perform tasks that they were formerly unable to accomplish, or had great difficulty accomplishing, by providing enhancements to, or changing methods of interacting with, the technology needed to accomplish such tasks.

Uninversal Design For Learning
Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is an educational framework based on research in the learning sciences, including cognitive neuroscience, that guides the development of flexible learning environments that can accommodate individual learning differences

 Presumed Competence

Is explained for me as believing that a child has the ability to learn, this might not be the way we expect but a former principal of mine always told us " if a child doesn't learn how you teach, teach the way the child can learns".

Convergence Of Technologies
Technological convergence is the tendency for different technological systems to evolve toward performing similar tasks.
All this I learned from this class so far and I have to say I'm looking forward to all that is left to be offered by this course. 

This is very touching, It shows that everyone learns in different ways

love this quite fun and entertaining

Webinar: Apps for children with learning disabilities (Keisha and Donalda)

Mobile devices can be used to support learning. Having viewed the webinar on apps that can be used to help children with learning disabilities webinar  I chose three apps that I feel would be extremely useful with my class these are Ibooks, Book creator, and Sticky notes.

Here's some of the advantages of each!

Book Creator

1. Allows you to make digital books easily
2. add audio
3. add text that can be read aloud when selected
4. export to ibooks
5. import videos
6. import images 

Every teacher agrees that all these are great advantages to have in the classroom because you can let the screen do most of the talking!

with book creator you can zero in and out 

The side bar has languages where you can change to simple English for the benefit of the age group of your class.

Advantages of the IBooks App

• IBooks is an amazing way to download and read books
• you can download the latest bestsellers or your favorite classics anytime, day or night!
• browse your library on the book shelf 
• tap to open a book 
• flip through pages with a tap or a swipe
• bookmark or add notes to your favorite passage

The fact that everyone learns differently you can customize your students ipad with materials that fit their level and learning style, for students who learn better by listening you can download podcast from itunes to the ipad then use the ibooks to customize what you want them to learn, for those who learn better through tactile interaction you can find an app that allows the students to shoot arrows at a target

With ibooks you can use texts from various internet sources and alter it so the reading level is appropriate for students

You can use google image search to add high resolution pictures to your gallery.

This would prove quite useful for students with special need especially those with cerebral palsy who have problems with writing  and speech.

A great scholar once said " Teaching that enters the ears but not the heart is like food eaten in a dream" In today's world we do not want our students to get something in the ear that only goes out through the other ear, with technology they have the ability to practice what they are learning by using it everyday. With continuous use it becomes embedded into their daily activities this making it a part of their lives in an irrevocable way.

technology in the classroom

Class 1:

These are great tools to use in the classroom with students of different learning abilities and education needs as it has a gadget that assists with the visual, tactile, auditory needs of each child.