Reflection #6
17 years ago
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Reflection Class 3, Nov. 1, 2008
What a quick class.
The review of Kurzwiel at the beginning of class was helpful to begin our project. Learning zone editing was cool as well as editing words that were misspoken during the reading. It took the full class to work on familiarizing and applying the features of Kurzweil to create an actual student task. I found the time went quickly even thought it was about six hours. Upon reflection I wonder if it will become a more efficient process. It took that long to create one activity.
As a LC teacher I know that it is difficult to have classroom teachers buy into the use of these technologies. The time required for teachers to familiarize themselves and prepare activities for their students using various forms of assistive technology is a reason technology is not utilized at all or to the fullest in many situations.
I personally enjoy learning and utilizing technology available to support students but too find it difficult to find time to familairize,practice and customize features.
The review of Kurzwiel at the beginning of class was helpful to begin our project. Learning zone editing was cool as well as editing words that were misspoken during the reading. It took the full class to work on familiarizing and applying the features of Kurzweil to create an actual student task. I found the time went quickly even thought it was about six hours. Upon reflection I wonder if it will become a more efficient process. It took that long to create one activity.
As a LC teacher I know that it is difficult to have classroom teachers buy into the use of these technologies. The time required for teachers to familiarize themselves and prepare activities for their students using various forms of assistive technology is a reason technology is not utilized at all or to the fullest in many situations.
I personally enjoy learning and utilizing technology available to support students but too find it difficult to find time to familairize,practice and customize features.
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Reflection Class 2, Oct. 18,2008
The video shown "The Secret Life of the Brain" was very interesting to watch. It is exciting to see that a great deal of research is ongoing to understand how brains work in people who have reading/ writing challenges.
I had an opportunity today to use Start to Fnish and found out they can be used for more than just reading the book to the student. Reading fluency practice, cloze activities, speech on or off, and text book pictures available for writing assignments are some of the features that I was not aware of before. For each title there is also a Co-Writer topic vocabulary.
Kurzweil is an amazing program. It has so many features and possibilities. I'm looking forward to learning more, practicing, and using it with students. It was unfortunate that the trial disc would not load on my computer. Did anyone else have a problem? I'm thinking it is because I have Vista but I downloaded the vista patch and still no luck. The error message is CMp3FormatInfo::ParseDesciption can't parse 128kBit/s, 48,000Hz Mono. Any suggestions?
I had an opportunity today to use Start to Fnish and found out they can be used for more than just reading the book to the student. Reading fluency practice, cloze activities, speech on or off, and text book pictures available for writing assignments are some of the features that I was not aware of before. For each title there is also a Co-Writer topic vocabulary.
Kurzweil is an amazing program. It has so many features and possibilities. I'm looking forward to learning more, practicing, and using it with students. It was unfortunate that the trial disc would not load on my computer. Did anyone else have a problem? I'm thinking it is because I have Vista but I downloaded the vista patch and still no luck. The error message is CMp3FormatInfo::ParseDesciption can't parse 128kBit/s, 48,000Hz Mono. Any suggestions?
Sunday, October 5, 2008
Reflection: Living in the State of Stuck by Dr. Marcia Scherer
Chapter 8
Reflection : Book-Living in the State of Stuck by Dr. Marcia Scherer
This chapter entitled “Dilemmas, Challenges, and Opportunities” has a look at why individuals with disabilities become users of assistive technology any why some abandon or reject the use of them. This is examined in each of the three areas of the Matching Person with Technology model, milieu , personality, and technology.
The Chapter was straightforward to read and brought home the fact that introducing technology needs to be thoroughly thought out to bring about the best match of person and technology. It clarifies that this needs to be a team approach involving experts in the appropriate field of the technology being sought out, AT specialists, parents, teachers, support staff, and related health professionals. In reality this takes a concerted effort of personnel who are overwhelmed with tremendous responsibilities on a daily basis. Often, with these responsibilities being so great and so little time, the assistive technology aspect for one student in a classroom or a caseload of many is not as much a priority as it should be.
The one aspect of the chapter that is of utmost interest to me is the necessity to thoroughly train “all” support people, teachers, EA/EPA, parents, in the settings that the technology will be used. This was also a point I took note of from our first AT class, Barb Welsford our course instructor. Regular follow up, yearly training and evolution of technology must be maintained.
For many students, due to cognitive or physical limitations , they are at the mercy of their teachers or support staff to make the technology accessible on a daily basis. An unease of mine at this current time is that EAs are hired by seniority rather than technological aptitude or skills/experience they possess. A student can have great success with independence and inclusion one year because the teacher and support staff are well trained, team effort, possess an appropriate attitude for the use of the technology and the next year the technology is not utilized because the support staff and/or teacher has little or no experience, interest, or time to support the use of it. This chapter talks about matching the person with the technology, I feel it is imperative to match technology of choice with support staff that have the required experience and interest. When computer technology is the technology of choice the person(student) is matched with support staff that are computer literate or at least possess an aptitude for computers. If PECS is the technology choice, someone trained with an appropriate level of experience needs to be paired with the student. Here is a possibility. A nonverbal Autistic student is introduced to PECS and has made significant gains with having a voice over the last two years. The third year a new staff is hired without the necessary training and experience to allow continuity in the student’s progress, that student may “stand still” or lose what has been gained while the new staff tries to catch up, in other words acquire the experience necessary to support the student to maintain her skills or move forward.
This MPT model seems to be a good model to follow however ideal at this current time in some situations. As I support this and it makes since, I don’t see it following through in the school system as straight forward as should be due to constraints of time, money, training needs, change over of personnel, and availability of experts in the field.
Reflection : Book-Living in the State of Stuck by Dr. Marcia Scherer
This chapter entitled “Dilemmas, Challenges, and Opportunities” has a look at why individuals with disabilities become users of assistive technology any why some abandon or reject the use of them. This is examined in each of the three areas of the Matching Person with Technology model, milieu , personality, and technology.
The Chapter was straightforward to read and brought home the fact that introducing technology needs to be thoroughly thought out to bring about the best match of person and technology. It clarifies that this needs to be a team approach involving experts in the appropriate field of the technology being sought out, AT specialists, parents, teachers, support staff, and related health professionals. In reality this takes a concerted effort of personnel who are overwhelmed with tremendous responsibilities on a daily basis. Often, with these responsibilities being so great and so little time, the assistive technology aspect for one student in a classroom or a caseload of many is not as much a priority as it should be.
The one aspect of the chapter that is of utmost interest to me is the necessity to thoroughly train “all” support people, teachers, EA/EPA, parents, in the settings that the technology will be used. This was also a point I took note of from our first AT class, Barb Welsford our course instructor. Regular follow up, yearly training and evolution of technology must be maintained.
For many students, due to cognitive or physical limitations , they are at the mercy of their teachers or support staff to make the technology accessible on a daily basis. An unease of mine at this current time is that EAs are hired by seniority rather than technological aptitude or skills/experience they possess. A student can have great success with independence and inclusion one year because the teacher and support staff are well trained, team effort, possess an appropriate attitude for the use of the technology and the next year the technology is not utilized because the support staff and/or teacher has little or no experience, interest, or time to support the use of it. This chapter talks about matching the person with the technology, I feel it is imperative to match technology of choice with support staff that have the required experience and interest. When computer technology is the technology of choice the person(student) is matched with support staff that are computer literate or at least possess an aptitude for computers. If PECS is the technology choice, someone trained with an appropriate level of experience needs to be paired with the student. Here is a possibility. A nonverbal Autistic student is introduced to PECS and has made significant gains with having a voice over the last two years. The third year a new staff is hired without the necessary training and experience to allow continuity in the student’s progress, that student may “stand still” or lose what has been gained while the new staff tries to catch up, in other words acquire the experience necessary to support the student to maintain her skills or move forward.
This MPT model seems to be a good model to follow however ideal at this current time in some situations. As I support this and it makes since, I don’t see it following through in the school system as straight forward as should be due to constraints of time, money, training needs, change over of personnel, and availability of experts in the field.
Saturday, September 27, 2008
Assistive Tech Day 1 Sept. 27/08
Well! Here I am back at school. Who would have thought!
This is my first graduate course, as an independent student, towards my Masters of Education in Inclusive education. I have heard great things about our instrutor Barbara Welsford. I am looking forward to the class and getting aquainted with everyone.
Today we are learning to make a Blog. As this is my first time making one, I'm a little anxious about how I will do with constructing and manipulating the site once I'm alone to do so. I will just have to remind myself that help is really not that far away. I did manage to register a Blog, select a template (I chose based on color alone), and type one sentence and save it. Thanks Rachel for sharing your computer.
Many forms of assistive technology were mentioned today and briefly explained while touching on which students may benefit from them. (Remember MPT model by Dr. Marcia Scherer. )I'm looking forward to trying out these pieces of technology. I have limited experience with many of them but looking to refresh and utilize more fully.
Books and videos that were mentioned or recommended today were:
Book- "Living in State of Stuck" by Dr. Marcia Scherer, especially chapter 8
video- "The Secret Life of the Brain" by David Gurbin
The video clips presented were beneficial as it allowed us to see first hand many uses of technology and the level on independence individuals gained. We, as a school board or society, are no where near where we need to be in terms of providing these suppports. It weighs heavily that it cannot be available for all who are in need "right now" but enlightening to think of the creativity many people possess to create these products and that it will continue to develop.
The video clip shown of the young man climbing the wall was very touching. It is wonderful to see people take the time, creativity, and energy to make the impossible the possible for disabled individuals.
GTO as I have other homework to figure out such as adding gadgets. This is where I may run into problems.
This is my first graduate course, as an independent student, towards my Masters of Education in Inclusive education. I have heard great things about our instrutor Barbara Welsford. I am looking forward to the class and getting aquainted with everyone.
Today we are learning to make a Blog. As this is my first time making one, I'm a little anxious about how I will do with constructing and manipulating the site once I'm alone to do so. I will just have to remind myself that help is really not that far away. I did manage to register a Blog, select a template (I chose based on color alone), and type one sentence and save it. Thanks Rachel for sharing your computer.
Many forms of assistive technology were mentioned today and briefly explained while touching on which students may benefit from them. (Remember MPT model by Dr. Marcia Scherer. )I'm looking forward to trying out these pieces of technology. I have limited experience with many of them but looking to refresh and utilize more fully.
Books and videos that were mentioned or recommended today were:
Book- "Living in State of Stuck" by Dr. Marcia Scherer, especially chapter 8
video- "The Secret Life of the Brain" by David Gurbin
The video clips presented were beneficial as it allowed us to see first hand many uses of technology and the level on independence individuals gained. We, as a school board or society, are no where near where we need to be in terms of providing these suppports. It weighs heavily that it cannot be available for all who are in need "right now" but enlightening to think of the creativity many people possess to create these products and that it will continue to develop.
The video clip shown of the young man climbing the wall was very touching. It is wonderful to see people take the time, creativity, and energy to make the impossible the possible for disabled individuals.
GTO as I have other homework to figure out such as adding gadgets. This is where I may run into problems.
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