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.
Keisha thanks for your thoughts. Very interesting and thought provoking. Remember you have a whole team behind you to support you with Assistive Technology, knowledge of disabilities, requirements to enhance their performance in school, designing UDL lessons so all can participate. None of us can do it alone;)
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