Blog Post 13

My area of specialty will be Secondary education/english and literature. I think we spent a lot of time hearing from elementary teachers for this class, and not enough time hearing from secondary teachers. I would like to have had a project in which we researched a classroom that fit our exact major and did a post for it in order to see if we could find success or failures in the situation with technology in the classroom.

I googled my topic and found a blog that was unique to secondary education and found a teacher who started off without technology, but then was able to incorporate it into the classroom successfully. The blog was Saving Socrates. This teacher shared her success with technology on her blog and I felt that it was good for me to get to read about it becasue it will be encouraging for my future.

I know this is similar to the C4T's that we did this semester, but I was never assigned to a secondary ed teacher or an english teacher.

C4K

This week I was assigned to view Mahana's blog. Her blog post was about why we should use a knife and fork. She went over reasons why we should, how to use them, and had a conclusion. She and a classmate graded her work.

My comment on her post was, "My name is Mallory Harris. I am an EDM310 student at the University of South Alabama. I really enjoyed reading your post. You did a great job giving reasons why we should use a knife and fork!!!"

This week I was assigned to Shealesblog. The blog post was a chrome book reflection for the semester. The student answered questions about their feelings after using the chrome book for the semester.

My comment on the blog was," My name is Mallory Harris and I am an EDM310 student at the University of South Alabama. This week I was assigned to your blog. You did a great job with your reflection! It was neat to read your feedback. "

BLOG POST 12

By: Amber Harris:

What assistive technologies are available to you as a teacher?

After watching, "Assistive Technologies for Vision and Hearing Impaired Children", the video clearly shows educators that if they utilize the technologies available they can actually change a learning experience for a child with either a visual or hearing impairment. I agree that more awareness should be given to professionals to incorporate these types of technologies for children who not only suffer from sensory impairments,but for some teachers there is a resistance to incorporating new media in their daily teaching for the benefit of all students. More teachers need to be equipped with the skills to use these technologies. As with all professional learning surrounding the use of technology, teachers cannot expect to be handed a 'how to' manual on how to use and implement these technologies.
With some research on my own, I asl found the webpage "Computer Based Assistive Technology." This webiste gives 10 assistive technologies, such as Speech Synthsis Software. "Speech synthesizers are basically screen readers. They read text that is displayed on the computer monitor, allowing students to gain independent access to assignments, books, and research. Teachers or students do, however, need to pre-scan material before they can use it. Speech synthesis allows them to access the print in textbooks, and thereby the curriculum, in a way that would otherwise be more difficult, if not impossible. It may even increase student motivation to read." (Montali & Lewandowski, 1996)
How students can use speech synthesis software:
1. Where text is available in digital form (i.e., on the computer or diskette), students can have text read to them.
2. Some screen readers can read in a variety of applications, including the Internet.
3. Some Internet sites have collections of textbooks available to be read by screen readers.
4. Students can control the pace of the reading and the reading selection, through having the computer read only the words they are having difficulty decoding or a whole paragraph or passage.
5. Students can manipulate the rate of read-back to allow for variations in the speed they process auditory information.
by: Mallory Harris
The driving question for this post was, "What assistive technologies are available to you as a teacher?"

For this assignment, I Googled assistive technology in the classroom. There were some pretty interesting results. The first resource that I cam across was Bookshare. It is a website with a free online library for people with print disabilities. The website help people who have trouble reading.
This website seemed like it could be very useful for me in the future because I am going to be an english teacher and some of my students may be able to get some use out of the site.

The next resource that I found was Quality Indicators for Assistive Technology. This is a website that offers information in its resources section as well as access to the QIAT list serv. The list serv is an excellent forum to keep current with new developments in AT and the latest websites and other resources.

This would be an imprtant website when working with assistive technology because it could keep me up to date with the standards.

I also watched the video assigned by Dr.Strange called Assistive Technologies for Vision and Hearing Impaired Children. The video was about the different types of assistive technologies that can be found in the classroom and listed some of the reasons why it is important to know about these technologies. Sheridan’s Blog #12 Work For this weeks blog assignment, the driving question is, "What assistive technologies are available to you as a teacher?". To be honest, I have not thought about what technological tools that could be out there to help with special needs students. When I received this topic, I was actually able to put myself in a current teachers shoes and began to think "what if" I have a student that is blind or deaf. The videos that were assigned for us to watch were very useful and relating to what questions I had about this topic.

The first video, The Mountbatten created by The Florida School for the Deaf and Blind, was relating to a device that uses audio/feedback. It can save files, transfer files to a computer, and receive files from a computer. This device is great for a student and/or teacher who does not know brail. Blind students are now not limited to what they can do not but rather be included in projects and be held to a responsibility of doing their part of the work.

The second video, Teaching Math to the Blind by Professor Art Karshmer University of San Francisco, informs us how they have created a touch-pad that blind students will be able to use to learn mathematics. Students will be able to use special (braille engraved) blocks and align math problems in a 2-dimensional way so they may learn as normal students learn. The touch-pad will keep track of the coordinates of each block students can keep up with where they have laid previous blocks. It is a foundation for blind students so that they may learn the basics of mathematics. The picture below is a touch-screen display of graphical mathematics for blind students.

This last video, iPad usage for the blind, I found the most amazing and intriguing. Apple has developed a voice-over for the iPad that enables the blind to use the iPad just as a normal person with normal vision can. Wesley (who is blind) demonstrates this in the video by using the voice-over on the iPad and telling/showing us what all he can do with it. It is amazing technology that expands the blinds capability so far. I love how Apple has created such an amazing tool that not only helps for learning purposes, but also, to help create the feeling of normality to blind students/people. 

By:Tyler Mills The driving question for this blog post is, "What assistive technologies are available to you as a teacher?" The video that I found interesting in the blog instructions was ipad usage for the blind. It showed a man named Wesley Majerus who was blind fully operate a stock ipad. He was giving lessons and tips of how to use the ipad as a vision impaired student. Wesley demonstrated how to operate using Voice Over. The system works by simply dragging your finger over items that appear on the screen. The Voice Over systems reads out whatever your finger comes across and makes a ticking noise when your finger is over a blank area. This is extremely helpful for a vision impaired student and helps them keep up with the rest of the class.

Through my own research I came across an ability to dictate what you want your apple product to type. The process is called dictation which is available on apple products. While viewing the video Dictation on Mac, iPhone, and iPad, by Steve Dotto I got an idea of how dictation works. Dictation works by saying anything aloud and your device typing the words out for you. This may help out a student that is born with no arms or hands to type. The system can be used to type papers in microsoft word and other systems. Mentioned in the video by Mr. Dotto, the dictation can not be used in google drive. I still believe this can be a big help to a handicap person.   

C4T

This week I was assigned to view Michael Gorman's blog 21st Centurey Educational Technology and Learning. His post on this blog was called "Project Based and Authentic Learning… Plus Ten Valuable PBL Resource Links." His post was about sources you can use for technology in the classroom and ways we can generate authentic learning within the classroom.

/ My comment on his post was, "My name is Mallory Harris and I am an EDM310 student at the University of South Alabama. I was assigned to view your blog and I must say that you have some very meaningful information on this post that has definitely sparked some interest for me. You are right about the standardized testing becoming an issue with students. I think that your ideas for creating authentic learning situations are some that I will definitely be able to use in my future class room."

This week I was again assigned to view Michael Gorman's blog 21st Centurey Educational Technology and Learning. This weeks post was called "Part one digital citizenship education..." HIs post was about proper online etiquette for students. He had some helpful links for the topic, as well as some of his own opinions on the subject.

My comment on his blog was, "My name is Mallory Harris and I amen EDM310 student at the University of South Alabama. I enjoyed reading this post because you had very helpful information that I will be able to use in my future classroom. I appreciate the links because I will also be able to use those in order to help me succeed with my future students."

Interview Movie Project #10

C4T#3

This week I was assigned to comment on Jeff Delp's blog 6 things On My Education Wish List. His blog was a short list of the six things he wanted for his profession of education. The six things were: teachers treated as professionals, recognition that good teaching is not just about curriculum, providing adequate resources, stop talking about tests, recognizing that poverty is a huge factor in education, and less fear more adventure.

My comment on Mr.Delp's blog was, "Mr. Delp, My name is Mallory and I am a student at the University of South Alabama in the EDM310 class. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this post. Your wish list is something that I think all educators should want and strive to achieve for their school systems. On my education wish list, I would want teachers to have more freedom as far as lessons planning with their class. I am going to be an english teacher and I would like to have the freedom with my lesson plans to choose the books my students read and things like that."

This week, I was again assigned to view Jeff Delp's blog Molehills Out Of Mountains. He had not published since I last viewed his blog, so I chose to view on of his older posts. This one was called Teach for today.. and tomorrow. His post was about a presentation he did to middle school math classes about what it takes to graduate. He did not focus so much on credits, but rather he chose to focus on the decisions the students were making and how they could impact their lives. He also talked about how he believes blogging is good and so is having a PLN. He talked about that because he was saying that people need to not only share their success stories, but share their struggles as well.

My comment on his blog post was, "My name is Mallory and I am a student at the University of South Alabama in the EDM310 class. This post is amazing to me because you have such valid points. I think you are so right that people need to share their failures and success when they aare blogging or tweeting because that way others have something to think about if they are in similar situations. I also think that your presentation was an awesome way to show your students that their decisions matter. I like that you chose to use the presentation instead of just talking to the students about credits. It really shows that you care."

C4K #2

BonusWeek - No C4K Assignments This Week (NO C4K #5)

This week I was assigned to Mrs.She's class blog. I had to listen to their Fairy Tales post. For this post, the students got to use voice thread in order to say what their favorite fair tale was and why.

My comment on their blog was, "My name is Mallory and I am a student at the University of South Alabama in the EDM310 class. Your voice thread was awesome!! I think you all had wonderful choices and I really enjoyed listening to them!"

This week I was assigned to view Machelle's blog "The Crane At Work". It was about a crane coming to her school and moving it.

My comment on her blog was, "I am a student at the University of South Alabama in the EDM310 class. I really enjoyed reading your blog post. It must have been neat to get to see the crane in action. You did a great job describing the job of the crane."

This week I was assigned to view Logan's blog. His blog was about Park Jae-sang's success.

My comment on his blog was, "My name is Mallory. I am a student at the University of South Alabama in the EDM310 class. I really enjoyed reading this post. You did a great job sharing the information you learned about Park Jae-sang's life and success."