Enabling Dreams for Everyone

"You can instill independence and confidence in students with special needs by finding free tools and working with your IT department to streamline the process for creating an assistive technology program" (22). Assistive technology is a great device for students with disabilities which allows for dreams to come true, for students to learn and so much more. There are many different devices that assist student learning that fits directly with them. For example, computer and voice controlled devices for students who have cereal palsy or even a device that goes off of eye blinks and eye brow movements. The assistive technology device that stood out as most interesting and useful was the device that went off of eye brow movements. The child could not move any parts of his body except for his eye brows and they created a device around his needs. 

The most interesting device I found useful and interesting is the device where the student used eyebrow motions to pick words on a screen as well as communicate with others. The type of learning activities this assistive technology provides access for a student with exceptional learning needs. This device allows the student to communicate with others, allows him to learn by reading on the screen as well as using his eye brows to select different options. If I have a child with learning disabilities in my classroom and needs this high of assistive technology having access to these types of devices will be a great help. It will allow my students to communicate with me and the other students about what we are learning in class. This device address exceptional learning conditions, it allows the student to communicate without talking, learn new things and express himself. If I have a child with learning disabilities in my classroom and needs this high of assistive technology having access to these types of devices will be a great help. It will allow my students to communicate with me and the other students about what we are learning in class. If I already have a background of knowledge in assistive technology it will help me as a teacher in my future classroom.


Reference:
Conley, Kate. (2012, June/July). Learning and Leading: Build an Assistive Technology Toolkit. Pg 22

"To flip or not to flip"

Traditional classrooms are where teachers lecture in front of the students depending on the grade level some students are writing notes, following along in a book or not even paying attention. Now lets flip this classroom and change the whole outlook. When we flip a classroom it gives teachers and students to have more one on one time. Teachers are helping students with homework and problems they are having with the subject they are learning. Students get to watch videos of their teacher in a creative and engaging way. Many teachers are in and want to flip classrooms and others want to stay in the traditional ways. 

My personal thought about flipped classroom is back and fourth, I want to like it but I go back to not agreeing with it. It is a great idea to have more personal one on one time with the students but it takes more time for the teachers to create these videos. Teachers are spending more time on the videos and when they play it students are just watching but are they really paying attention? "As the student is watching the video, there is no inquiry, no collaboration-it's passive" (Conley, 2012, 7). If classes do not have any collaboration in classrooms can we agree they are learning? But on the other hand students can work in groups with their problems or learn from one another. One positive that I love about Flipped classroom is that it will engage all different kinds of learners. I feel that if the teacher wants to make a flipped classroom in can be up to the parents and students and how they feel towards the topic.

Reference:
Conley, Kate. (2012, June/July). Learning and Leading: To Flip or Not to Flip. pg. 7

Personal Learning Network Reflection

RSS feeds were a great way to get websites, blogs and other resources about education through subscribing to educational resources. The websites I found most interesting and learned the most from were coolcatteacher.com, www.edutopia.org, www.readwritethink.org, and www.nybg.org. Coolcatteacher.com was a blog spot, this teacher posted about different ideas on how to make being a teacher easier on you. I learned from her great ways how to be organized weekly. I can get unorganized quickly and I know learning how to be organized is high on my priorities. My favorite was her ideal weekly calendar to stay on top of class schedules and assignments. TED education is another one that caught my attention. They were always posting great videos for educational purposes. One that I bookmarked was about how kidneys work, all I could think about was teaching students about their bodies and being able to blow a fun and creative video for them. Another was edutopia, I found three topics that caught my attention which were teaching empathy vs. sympathy, tips for reaching out to parents and tips for avoiding bullying. Knowing how to teach with empathy vs. sympathy is something that can be tough for anyone, this website had great ideas how to be a better empathy teacher. Both of the websites that gave tips were so helpful. I feel that approaching parents can be tough and to remember that the only way to connect with the parents is to regular communicate with them not just when something bad is happening. Bullying is a huge epidemic that is continuously happening throughout schools and it is something that needs to be stopped. I know I will look back at this website in my future to remember ways to prevent it in my classrooms. Other websites I found were great educational games that were accessible online. These would be great for students to continue there education at home with their parents

Twitter was different for me. I have a twitter but I found it annoying and not something I am a fan of. This was difficult for me as well, I forgot a lot to check it and see what people were tweeting about. When I did get a chance there was a lot on my news feed, which was great I felt that I had a lot to reflect on and read about. Some of the tweets were about educational debates, teachers tweeting about helpful tips and hints for future teachers, new updates on technology used in their classrooms and so much more. A few that really caught my eye were when one teacher would tweet pictures of her class and activities they were doing that day. One that stood out was her student and their parent bought whiteboard paint for her to use on a table so that the students could have fun while still being educational in a different light. Unfortunately, I did not have a chance to tweet anything.

Diigo was awesome, it was amazing to be able to instantly bookmark, highlight, and write sticky notes on websites that really caught my attention. There were groups as well that I could follow and we were able to share websites we all found interesting and helpful to future and current educators. I figured following the group all about education would be the best fit for me since I do not know many websites about education and I thought that it would give me more insight on websites to stay up to date with.

This process was a little difficult for me. I was constantly busy with all other assignments I forgot to check my accounts regularly so when I did have a chance the news feeds were filled up with great content. The pros to this assignment is that I can and I will use these websites when I do become a teacher and I know that I will continue to find websites that will continue my knowledge for the classrooms. The con is having to remember to login and check them out. I tend to forget easily so I will have to maybe subscribe to some so that I can emails on a regular.  I am glad we did this PLN experience so that I am aware of these amazing opportunities and resources that are out there for me otherwise I would not know about these.

Digital Citizenship...choice or requirement

Digital citizenship is the appropriate use of technology in a classroom. There are nine general areas that make up the digital citizenship which are; etiquette, communication, education, access, commerce, responsibility, rights, safety and security. There are both inappropriate and appropriate uses of all of these areas. Each one of these areas can be modeled in an appropriate way from the teacher. If the teacher or even parents are demonstrating the correct use of technology the students will follow. Teachers should correct students when they notice something is not appropriate. Teachers should also encourage their students to be safe and secure while using any type of technology in any setting.

         I do not believe digital citizenship should be on the curriculum. I believe that if teachers want to have the choice to do so then they have the opportunities and resources to do so. I do believe students should know the difference of technology use between classroom and outside use but why should technology be something that has to be taught in school? Why should this be a requirement? I do not think that children should be using technology to learn how to write or read. The students should pick up a pencil and trace on a piece of paper.