Assistive Technology

What is assistive technology?   

Assistive Technology is basically any form of technology that is used to help people with disabilities.  It can be in many different forms, and is often used in schools.  It is important for teachers to be aware of the available assistive technology which may aid their students with disabilities.   

How is it used?  

Assistive Technology is used to help disabled individuals to accomplish tasks that are challenging or even impossible to complete otherwise.  They can address physical and mental disabilities, including learning disabilities in reading, writing, math, and any other challenging subject or aspect of school.  The functions or assistive technology range from wheelchairs to audio books, which  is what I chose to focus on. 

What are resources for the focus that you chose?  

I used  http://www.washington.edu/accessit/articles?109, http://www.pluk.org/AT1.html, http://www.greatschools.org/special-education/assistive-technology/948-reading-tools.gs?page=1, and http://portal.johncooper.org/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=WPpakw HC0AY%3D&tabid=452&mid=1868.  The first two were more broad.  They helped me wrap my head around the whole concept of assistive technology and what it includes.  The second two helped my focus on audio books. 

How will you keep up on this complex, evolving arena?  

I will definitely look into some blogs that discuss audio books and other forms of assistive technology because I think it is extremely helpful to hear from a parent or teacher's perspective.  I greatly enjoyed the pages that I visited above, and felt they were the best at informing and explaining about the product. 

How will you incorporate this awareness into your teaching?

I will be on the lookout for warning signs of disabilities in my students, and I will also assess students when possible on their reading, writing, and basic functions like their hearing or speaking.  I think that at a young age, it can be hard to tell at a young age if something is wrong, but with individual attention, I think that these things can be detected or ruled out.  

Tech Tools

This week, our assignment was to examine a tech tool of our choice that can be used in the classroom.  I chose to look into using online videos in the classroom mainly because it applies to absolutely any age group.  I am still unsure about what grade I prefer to teach in the future and there is no way of knowing what I will have the opportunity to teach, so I thought that this would be the most useful and versatile tool to examine.

I checked out "Use Online Video in Your Classroom: How teachers can bring the best of YouTube to your students", by Jennifer Hillner from EduTopia.  This page had some interesting insight into utilizing these videos to the advantage of education and some links to great resources.

My first impression upon looking over the page was, "Wow, times have changed".  It is amazing that these days, a teacher could simply look up the topic they are teaching on the internet and provide a video component to their lesson whenever they like, and in a timely fashion no less.  It is hard to comprehend how different things are since I was in elementary school.

The fact is, a teacher can talk about a topic until they are blue in the face, and students can read fro hours about a topic, but sometimes, actually viewing something with your own two eyes and seeing how it occurs can be the only way to fully wrap your heard around certain things.  For instance, if a class was focusing on weather and some of the amazing and terrifying things that weather is capable of like hurricanes, which we do not have experience within Alaska, the only way to completely illustrate to the students what occurs in an actual hurricane is ultimately to show them a video of one. 

I fully support and actually prefer the the books and class demonstrations that bring knowledge to our students, but I must admit, this does seem to be the most effective way to educate students on certain topics in certain situations.  In fact, knowing I have this tool to drive home some of the concepts that I will be teaching is comforting to me as a future teacher. 

Snowflakes and Fingerprints

As I stated before, the educational blog that I have chosen to follow this semester is eLearning Technology.  It has an unbelievably wide array of information on anything anyone could ever need to know about educational technology.  I looked the page over again and tried to become more comfortable with the overwhelming amount of information. 

Then I took a look at some of the other blogs in EDFN 302.  I enjoyed Amanda, Kevin, Kathryn, and Peter's blogs particularly, because like me, they mentioned how everyone in the class and every blog that we come across is quite different than the other.  Blogs are like snowflakes... and I suppose fingerprints, as well.  No two are the same, and I noticed that the five of us, along with eLearning Technology, can agree on that and stay true to this statement. 

Each of these six blogs have different styles, layouts, and content, but are concerned with the same issues and information in their own ways.  I found it quite interesting how we all are given the same assignments, and yet approach them in such unique ways and say so in our blogs.  

My Take on Copyright

The first source I used to familiarize myself with copyright was perfect for me right off the bat because right away, it stated how copyright is everywhere but most people do not have a firm grasp on the concept of copyright and hat it actually means.  This article is entitled "The Purpose of Copyright", and it did indeed give me a deeper look into the purpose and meaning of copyright.  Another article that was helpful to me was "Copyright 101 for Educators".  There is also a fabulous chart, "Copyright and Fair Use Guidelines for teachers",  for teachers (or future teachers) to use in order to guide them through the ambiguity of copyright laws. 

After reviewing some of these sources, my understanding is that copyright is basically the rights to a work, no matter the form, giving the owner of said rights and only the owner to do what they like with that original work, whether it be copy, alter, or distribute.  Seeing as many of the materials that teachers especially access for their lesson plans and classroom activities, they must be well versed in copyright laws. 

However, fair use grants access to copyrighted works for certain purposes, such as teaching, that are being used to educate or better the public.  I have read up on the designations specifically for teachers on this issue, but I would like to learn more about what is permitted and what happens when teachers or anyone else crosses the line mistakenly.  The TEACH Act, or Technology, Education and Harmonization Act, further clarifies the conditions for legitimate classroom use and teacher rights. 

My First Post

This is the first blog post I have ever made and my first blog assignment for EDFN 302.  I am unsure of the proper protocol in blogging, but seeing as this is an education oriented blog, I will attempt to keep a relatively formal tone and structure to my entries. 

This week, my assignment was to explore some different educational blogs of others and report back here to my own.  The first blog I checked out is entitled "Always Learning".  I liked it because it presented teachers as if they are students themselves, and displayed the wonderful improvements that can happen to a school when everyone also works on professional development. 

Another blog I looked at had some great information on professional development as well, and unbeleivable amounts of information on every gadget or use of technology a teacher or anyone could ever need or imagine.  This is called "High Techspectations".   

The "21st Century Fluency Project" is a great source for understanding and exposure to new technology and appreciating what it all has to offer.  This blog has posts from many different sources and was quite dynamic in its presentation of this information. 

Although all of these blogs have been interesting and helpful, I have decided to follow "eLearning Technology" this semester.  It offers a more conceptual view of how technology can be learned and used along with great and plentiful information about the kinds of technology that I may need to understand when I get to the classroom.