Okay, so it was a bit challenging to be focused on class today, what with the awesome weather outside the windows, my daughter's 15th birthday, and the annual Teachers Union Council (where my husband successfully ran for the position of Vice President of the NSTU). I was thankful it was only a shorter class. Sandy and I worked together on a Kurzweil package for a student at her school. Sandy brought the knowledge of what the student needs, while I had some ideas about how to use kurzweil to help meet the student's needs. It was a good combination, I think.
We both commented on how much time it took to create the bit that we did. Of course, things always take longer when you're learning... no doubt our speed will improve. But it's definitely a worthwhile assignment to have us create a working package for a target student using Kurzweil. It forces us to just jump in and get our feet wet!
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Assistive Technology Boogie!
Okay, so check out this: the Assistive Technology Boogie... It's not on 'you tube' so I couldn't add the link in that way. Try this link:
http://irkedmagazine.com/wanderingagoraphobe/leah/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/at30.swf
http://irkedmagazine.com/wanderingagoraphobe/leah/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/at30.swf
Sunday, May 16, 2010
Karen Erickson's thoughts on 'narrow' literacy
Karen presented a very interesting slant on literacy with our lower cognitive functioning students, who use AT supports. I have been totally guilty of thinking that using a 'broader' definition of literacy was supportive of my students. That is, I would introduce and engage students in literacy activities that Incorporated use of symbols and pictures, and believe that I was engaging them in 'literate' tasks, at an entry level. Karen's argument was that while this type of entry level or emergent literacy is fine, it is not an end point: rather it is a starting point to begin to introduce the next phase of reading and writing text.
"Technology to provide access is not sufficient." Karen stated that we need to think about technology to provide academics supports to support learning as well.
Karen also engaged in an interesting argument about whether teachers should be aiming to support students' in their quest to graduate, or whether their focus should be on continuing to support students skills in learning to read. Karen provided strong arguments to suggest our goal needs to be to help our students become as literate as possible by the time they graduate!
This really makes me think about what we're doing with these students in our own local school board. This is always an argument: to focus on helping kids pass their classes or to continue to focus on improving literacy skills and their knowledge of technology to support their literacy skills. Karen suggests, when we select technology, we must think about how the student can make progress with their literacy skills as well as how it will assist the student's final product.
Karen went on to tell about the recent research study she has been involved with, with a number of high school students that were years behind their grade level with literacy skills. Results demonstrated a full year gain in literacy skills after only a ten week intensive (daily) literacy instruction program that was individually created for each student's needs. She argued that we must continue to be diligent in our work with these students: don't give up on them!!
I certainly found this presentation thought provoking...
"Technology to provide access is not sufficient." Karen stated that we need to think about technology to provide academics supports to support learning as well.
Karen also engaged in an interesting argument about whether teachers should be aiming to support students' in their quest to graduate, or whether their focus should be on continuing to support students skills in learning to read. Karen provided strong arguments to suggest our goal needs to be to help our students become as literate as possible by the time they graduate!
This really makes me think about what we're doing with these students in our own local school board. This is always an argument: to focus on helping kids pass their classes or to continue to focus on improving literacy skills and their knowledge of technology to support their literacy skills. Karen suggests, when we select technology, we must think about how the student can make progress with their literacy skills as well as how it will assist the student's final product.
Karen went on to tell about the recent research study she has been involved with, with a number of high school students that were years behind their grade level with literacy skills. Results demonstrated a full year gain in literacy skills after only a ten week intensive (daily) literacy instruction program that was individually created for each student's needs. She argued that we must continue to be diligent in our work with these students: don't give up on them!!
I certainly found this presentation thought provoking...
Barb's session on use of the ipod touch with various students
I enjoyed your session, Barb! The case studies made it a very interesting format and brought the message to such a real level with real people. I won't review each student's history and info, but instead, I'll mention some of the interesting tips I made note of...
* I really appreciated your discussion with Ryan about how necessary it was to do all the previous pre-requisite skill development of using lower tech devices first, followed by some dynamic boards (Clicker 5) etc. before you even introduced the higher tech, dynamic ipod touch. It's important to remind people that you can't just give a student such a high tech device and assume he/she has the prerequisite skills to use it!
* Super idea to introduce two ipods - one for the student and one for the communicative partner. What a great way to model its use! And I would think it would also be a practical way to integrate some peer communication as well - students would be 'fighting' over who would get to use it to engage with Ryan!
* It's great to see the many applications for the ipod to support issues with students with ASD - apps to help decrease anxiety, to support organization, to facilitate a motivating reward system etc. (I have downloaded several new apps as a result of your session!)
* I loved the video of Amelia presenting her class project with the AT!! I smiled proudly the whole clip! I was so impressed with the way she could navigate around the technology - wow!!
* I appreciated your discussion about the technical glitches that one needs to be aware of and realize what can (and will) occur! This reminded me of the probably 6 months that it took to get a student's Dynavox Pro V up and running - each week I'd be at the school, there'd be yet another hurdle we hadn't thought about, which required doing something/requesting something/purchasing something... each baby step forward to attain the final goal of smooth technology use (if there ever is such a thing!).
Some thoughts and highlights from Adam Wing's session: The Power of Connectivity for Fun and Learning with Easy-Tech Assistive Technology
This presenter (Adam Wing) who is VP of Ablenet Inc (an innovative company in the field of AT/AAC), presented a very entertaining session, as he demonstrated many wonderful applications for Assistive Technology in tasks removed from the classroom. Really, one is only limited by one's imagination. We need to constantly be asking ourselves: "how can this activity be adapted so that this student can participate meaningfully in the task?".
I was reminded throughout this session about a number of websites that are full of information. http://www.aacintervention.com/ is a site that I used to go to, but haven't revisited in a long time - I appreciated being reminded about it's usefulness for ideas about assessing, implementing and supporting AAC use with students.
I had also been told about pogoboards (an online symbol support for creating adaptive learning materials for non-verbal and low-verbal students) about a year ago at a conference. At that time, I had downloaded and played with the 14 day trial version, but didn't subscribe to the full version (which is $70 per year). However, in this session by Adam Wing, he told us how to go through the ablenet website to sign up for pogo boards at no cost (not the full version, but at no cost with no expiration date). I must confess that I 'left' the live streamed session for a little while, as I shifted over to another tab and lined up my free access to pogoboards. I will continue to explore this website and the many communication symbols, displays and boards...
Here is the link, if anyone is interested in exploring this further:
http://www.ablenetinc.com/PogoBoards/PogoBoardsFreeLightVersion/tabid/493/Default.aspx
Adam Wing reminded us that there are four main areas of focus, for switch users, and each of these require consideration. In school (or at least, in my experience) the teams have really not done a good job with considering the 'environmental control' issues. A good reminder though, that the four key areas of focus are:
Access
Communication
Content/Curriculum
Environmental Control
I was reminded throughout this session about a number of websites that are full of information. http://www.aacintervention.com/ is a site that I used to go to, but haven't revisited in a long time - I appreciated being reminded about it's usefulness for ideas about assessing, implementing and supporting AAC use with students.
I had also been told about pogoboards (an online symbol support for creating adaptive learning materials for non-verbal and low-verbal students) about a year ago at a conference. At that time, I had downloaded and played with the 14 day trial version, but didn't subscribe to the full version (which is $70 per year). However, in this session by Adam Wing, he told us how to go through the ablenet website to sign up for pogo boards at no cost (not the full version, but at no cost with no expiration date). I must confess that I 'left' the live streamed session for a little while, as I shifted over to another tab and lined up my free access to pogoboards. I will continue to explore this website and the many communication symbols, displays and boards...
Here is the link, if anyone is interested in exploring this further:
http://www.ablenetinc.com/PogoBoards/PogoBoardsFreeLightVersion/tabid/493/Default.aspx
Adam Wing reminded us that there are four main areas of focus, for switch users, and each of these require consideration. In school (or at least, in my experience) the teams have really not done a good job with considering the 'environmental control' issues. A good reminder though, that the four key areas of focus are:
Access
Communication
Content/Curriculum
Environmental Control
Session by Gavin Reid, on LD: Responding to Need
Gavin Reid is an educator and researcher from Scotland, but now also living and teaching in BC. His career has been devoted to working with students with learning disabilities: in fact, he was involved with starting up a separate school designed to address the needs of LD students.
Mr. Reid's message focused on the fact that it is our job to ensure the task we give students is achievable in order for our students to be successful. He strongly promoted the importance of considering the emotional development of our LD students - " the feel good factor it vital to learning". (This is similar to Sheree Fitch's message about needing to bring the joy back in to learning.)
Mr. Reid talked about Response to Intervention (RTI), about potential barriers to learning that we need to anticipate, and about the various skills we need to teach our students in order to be successful. "We don't unlock potential by labelling: we unlock potential by helping our students become more effective learners". He too believes "we're not talking about disabilities: we're talking about differences".
Have a listen to this video clip of the Waterboys, singing their song: "The whole of the moon". Again, when you listen from the LD lens, think about the lyrics like: "You saw the crescent, (but) I saw the whole moon". Just because we (as educators) learn in one way, or believe that a job needs to be done in a particular way, we need to consider all other possibilities, to support the learning needs and styles of all of our students.
Mr. Reid's message focused on the fact that it is our job to ensure the task we give students is achievable in order for our students to be successful. He strongly promoted the importance of considering the emotional development of our LD students - " the feel good factor it vital to learning". (This is similar to Sheree Fitch's message about needing to bring the joy back in to learning.)
Mr. Reid talked about Response to Intervention (RTI), about potential barriers to learning that we need to anticipate, and about the various skills we need to teach our students in order to be successful. "We don't unlock potential by labelling: we unlock potential by helping our students become more effective learners". He too believes "we're not talking about disabilities: we're talking about differences".
Have a listen to this video clip of the Waterboys, singing their song: "The whole of the moon". Again, when you listen from the LD lens, think about the lyrics like: "You saw the crescent, (but) I saw the whole moon". Just because we (as educators) learn in one way, or believe that a job needs to be done in a particular way, we need to consider all other possibilities, to support the learning needs and styles of all of our students.
On Thursday, May 13th, I attended the 2010 LDANS Conference in Halifax. The keynote speaker was well known local author and enthusiastic-Mom-of-a-child-with-learning-disabilities, Sheree Fitch. Sheree’s message was very powerful and thought provoking. She spoke so passionately about LD and about our educational system’s successful and not-so-successful attempts to support our LD students.
Sheree says ‘there needs to be more joy brought back in to learning’: not just with the young students, but with our junior and senior high students too. She believes that part of our job as educators is to help our students achieve more joy in their learning and in their search to be literate.
Sheree enthusiastically advocated for the term “disabilities” to be thrown out, as these students should not, in fact, be seen as ‘un-able’ to do anything! Our LD students can learn and have loads of ability: however, they have learning differences. I am totally in agreement with this thought: one of the papers I wrote this past year for my ‘disability studies’ course, addressed this exact topic. I believe this shift in terminology really needs to change: it’s no wonder many of our students don’t want to be associated with this label, given its negative connotation!
Sheree voiced her enthusiasm that, with all of the marvelous and mind boggling technology that is available today (compared with 15 years ago when HER son went through school) these technologies MUST be used in our schools. She really stated her belief that our school curriculum and our school procedures cannot remain the same (as they’ve been in the past 20+ years) but must keep up with the changes in our world outside the classroom.
Another interesting thing that Sheree talked about was the very recent research information that has proven that the brains of boys really ARE quite different than the brains of girls. Dr. JoAnn Deak has studied this and has found that boys’ brains learn to read differently than girls brains: furthermore, schools are currently set up to teach to the needs of a girls brains’ learning styles! Here’s a link to Dr. Deak’s home page, with information about the brain research she has been doing: http://www.deakgroup.com/deak/index.html
So many of Sheree’s poems can be ‘interpreted’ through a social justice lens; in thinking about students with learning disabilities this is especially true. Consider the poem “If you could wear my sneakers” – watch this video of Sheree ‘reading’ this wonderful poem (along with two others). Enjoy!
Sheree says ‘there needs to be more joy brought back in to learning’: not just with the young students, but with our junior and senior high students too. She believes that part of our job as educators is to help our students achieve more joy in their learning and in their search to be literate.
Sheree enthusiastically advocated for the term “disabilities” to be thrown out, as these students should not, in fact, be seen as ‘un-able’ to do anything! Our LD students can learn and have loads of ability: however, they have learning differences. I am totally in agreement with this thought: one of the papers I wrote this past year for my ‘disability studies’ course, addressed this exact topic. I believe this shift in terminology really needs to change: it’s no wonder many of our students don’t want to be associated with this label, given its negative connotation!
Sheree voiced her enthusiasm that, with all of the marvelous and mind boggling technology that is available today (compared with 15 years ago when HER son went through school) these technologies MUST be used in our schools. She really stated her belief that our school curriculum and our school procedures cannot remain the same (as they’ve been in the past 20+ years) but must keep up with the changes in our world outside the classroom.
Another interesting thing that Sheree talked about was the very recent research information that has proven that the brains of boys really ARE quite different than the brains of girls. Dr. JoAnn Deak has studied this and has found that boys’ brains learn to read differently than girls brains: furthermore, schools are currently set up to teach to the needs of a girls brains’ learning styles! Here’s a link to Dr. Deak’s home page, with information about the brain research she has been doing: http://www.deakgroup.com/deak/index.html
So many of Sheree’s poems can be ‘interpreted’ through a social justice lens; in thinking about students with learning disabilities this is especially true. Consider the poem “If you could wear my sneakers” – watch this video of Sheree ‘reading’ this wonderful poem (along with two others). Enjoy!
Sunday, May 9, 2010
Thoughts on Class #2
VIDEO from NB D of E:
Well, my thoughts on the you tube video developed by the NB Dept of Ed can be summed up in one word: "WOW". How powerful and how thought provoking this clip was. One of the points made that has stayed with me was that the top 10 jobs in the workplace today, didn't exist back in 2004. This blows my mind! This means to me: the things we're teaching our students must be constantly changing to keep up with the changes in our society. But is it?? It would appear to me that we are much too slow to demonstrate this change in our classrooms. Are we preparing our students for the 'real world' out there? Sure, we might be teaching them to read and write and do their basic math skills, but is this enough??
Let's think about literacy skills and how that's changed in very recent years. Students might rarely read books; instead they are probably reading facebook, msn, text messages, the web and blogs. Students might not be writing thank-you letters to their grandparents, but they might be texting them, or emailing or sending some other form of electronic message. These 'new' types of literacy skills must be recognized as being valid forms of reading and writing in the 'new society'. And in recognizing this - school learning, educational tasks and projects, as well as assessments, must incorporate these new technological literacy forms. It is really necessary for our classrooms to incorporate technology into all aspects of learning.
BRAIN VIDEO: I also want to comment on the video about the Brain (Discovery Channel DVDs?). It always amazes me to stop and really reflect on the incredible power of the brain. To really think about what it takes to learn to read and to communicate is incredible. It truly is amazing that so many of us accomplish these tasks with seemingly little effort. However, when we think about our students who experience challenges with the reading process, the 'breakdown' might occur in a multitude of places in the neurology.
This made me think about my friend Chris who, at 43, suffered a brain 'bleed' and is now, 8 months later, in a wheelchair with total left side paralysis and with a variety of brain damage related issues. He is able to 'read' but is not enjoying it at all, due to the effort and attention that it requires. He's totally frustrated with it, but at this point, he'd rather engage in conversation with anyone rather than attempt to read on his own. Interestingly, he doesn't enjoy being read to either - again, he relates this to his inability to attend to the seemingly 'rambling on of words' (as Chris puts it). Clearly, there's been neurological damage such that reading and comprehending of text is an issue. When I watched the video on the Brain in class - I realized Chris is lucky to have as many intact skills as he does!
And finally, I must add that I enjoyed learning about the zacbrowser - I was not previously familiar with it. I know there are several students in my schools who would benefit from using this browser - I can't wait to share this information with those teachers/educational assistants! I have enjoyed exploring that 'site' today at home. I have also enjoyed exploring the udltechtoolkit site - LOADS of links and information there!
I will spend some time playing with Kurzweil this week and I look forward to 'seeing' Barb's presentation next weekend. Cheers!
Well, my thoughts on the you tube video developed by the NB Dept of Ed can be summed up in one word: "WOW". How powerful and how thought provoking this clip was. One of the points made that has stayed with me was that the top 10 jobs in the workplace today, didn't exist back in 2004. This blows my mind! This means to me: the things we're teaching our students must be constantly changing to keep up with the changes in our society. But is it?? It would appear to me that we are much too slow to demonstrate this change in our classrooms. Are we preparing our students for the 'real world' out there? Sure, we might be teaching them to read and write and do their basic math skills, but is this enough??
Let's think about literacy skills and how that's changed in very recent years. Students might rarely read books; instead they are probably reading facebook, msn, text messages, the web and blogs. Students might not be writing thank-you letters to their grandparents, but they might be texting them, or emailing or sending some other form of electronic message. These 'new' types of literacy skills must be recognized as being valid forms of reading and writing in the 'new society'. And in recognizing this - school learning, educational tasks and projects, as well as assessments, must incorporate these new technological literacy forms. It is really necessary for our classrooms to incorporate technology into all aspects of learning.
BRAIN VIDEO: I also want to comment on the video about the Brain (Discovery Channel DVDs?). It always amazes me to stop and really reflect on the incredible power of the brain. To really think about what it takes to learn to read and to communicate is incredible. It truly is amazing that so many of us accomplish these tasks with seemingly little effort. However, when we think about our students who experience challenges with the reading process, the 'breakdown' might occur in a multitude of places in the neurology.
This made me think about my friend Chris who, at 43, suffered a brain 'bleed' and is now, 8 months later, in a wheelchair with total left side paralysis and with a variety of brain damage related issues. He is able to 'read' but is not enjoying it at all, due to the effort and attention that it requires. He's totally frustrated with it, but at this point, he'd rather engage in conversation with anyone rather than attempt to read on his own. Interestingly, he doesn't enjoy being read to either - again, he relates this to his inability to attend to the seemingly 'rambling on of words' (as Chris puts it). Clearly, there's been neurological damage such that reading and comprehending of text is an issue. When I watched the video on the Brain in class - I realized Chris is lucky to have as many intact skills as he does!
And finally, I must add that I enjoyed learning about the zacbrowser - I was not previously familiar with it. I know there are several students in my schools who would benefit from using this browser - I can't wait to share this information with those teachers/educational assistants! I have enjoyed exploring that 'site' today at home. I have also enjoyed exploring the udltechtoolkit site - LOADS of links and information there!
I will spend some time playing with Kurzweil this week and I look forward to 'seeing' Barb's presentation next weekend. Cheers!
Friday, May 7, 2010
ipod touch update
Well, I've been enjoying playing with my new toy and all the apps... I now have proloquo2go downloaded, and the dragon software (voice to text) among many others. I will look forward to learning more about this new technology over the next couple of months. The only problem I'm having with the device is trying to keep it away from my teenagers - they are quite impressed with it too!!
See you all on Saturday!
See you all on Saturday!
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Exciting News!
Big news: I went out yesterday and bought an ipod touch! I'm feeling like it's the direction we're heading, in terms of AT and even AAC... and figured I might as well bite the bullet and start learning the apps! I even talked to my Student Services Consultant today and she agreed to pay for the proloquo2go app! YEAH!! And so the fun begins...
Saturday, May 1, 2010
The writing centre at the preschool
This is the writing centre at the preschool for special needs children. Imagine! A writing centre for preschool aged children?? Yup! We need to provide opportunity, even at this preschool age!!!
The first Saturday, at the Mount
We're sitting here in our first class with Barb Welsford, learning about AT access to literacy... She has given us an introduction to AT - what AT IS and what AT ISN'T! Stay tuned, as I create more on this blog...
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