Day # 12

Today was a nice and low key day to allow myself to reflect on the past few weeks and where it will take me. There are a number of major takeaways:

-Discuss with administration on the importance of certain compensatory (Co-wrighter) and remediation (Clicker Sentences) apps for a mobile device rather than purchasing the much more expensive computer software. I also need to keep in mind the Volume Purchase Program when considering buying any Apps in the future. 

-Show my colleagues and my Continuing School Improvement Literacy team the iTunesU course we created. I am especially proud of the fact that Greg, Lindsay and I worked really hard to tailor the apps toward a middle school demographic. 

-Keep Universal Design for Learning in the forefront when planning for September, laying out my classroom and just planning in general throughout the school year.

-Look more closely at my class demographic sheets to proactively LAN ahead of any students who struggle with reading and might really benefit from Assistive Technology. I am sure there will be at least a few with serious needs and from there, I will consult out iTunesU list of Apps depending upon where in the reading process they struggle.

Overall, I know that I now have a number of new tools and strategies to take back with me that will further my practice and highly benefit my students. I have better confidence with and a greater understanding of Assistive Technology and why it is so very important and also well worth the preplanning effort. Thanks to all of you who helped to make this course a very positive learning experience!

Day # 11

The mini lesson on Clicker Sentences and Clicker Connect was useful today. I like the idea of going back to my admin from the angle that software for these programs is at least $ 299.99 which pales in comparison to the $30.99 cost for a hand held device that's mobile! I will be sure to do this in the fall. I have quite the list of to dos in the fall thanks to this course. I really appreciated how useful and practical these classes were.

The iMovie assignment was a great finale activity because it was a way for everyone to bring together our learnings about AT and UDL in a fun and creative way! I appreciate that even though everyone in our group has used iMovie before, we still ran into glitches that will hopefully be ironed out in the updated versions. It's important to be aware of these roadblocks before my students use the App, however, problem solving on their part is important and should be seen as a part of the process. I know we had a good time playing around today.

This was a great course to complete my degree with and a great way to start the summer. Now I have new and innovative approaches that have me already excited to get back to the classroom...not too soon though!

For something fun to finish, I thought I'd share a video of two of my favourite people (Jimmy Fallon and Billy Joel) playing around on an iPad App called "Looper". See you in the Jungle everyone!

Day # 10

Blackboard Collaborative Classroom Class:

I settled into today's webinar at the MSVU Cafe and BOY- talk about having to work on attention to task. I'm used to coming to work here in the summer but it slipped my mind that if I'm taking summer courses at Acadia, there are most likely classes going on here too.

I found the discussion on the writing process very eye opening. It definitely gives me more insight as to why my students would struggle so badly! The writing process is the opposite of the reading process in the sense that it requires people to encode text as opposed to decode text. The OT video was also insightful in terms of how important a student's posture and proprioception is to their writing. I also liked seeing all of the different kinds of low-tech support for students who struggle with the fine motor output of writing( foams, grip strap, metal props wishbone shaped pens and fingertip pens).

Of the Apps shown at the end of class (Inspiration, Tools4Students, Clicker Sentences, Clicker Connect, and Co-Writer), I find that I will benefit most from knowing more about Co-Writer. I know that one of my students from this past school year used Co-Writer, however, I'm not convinced that he was using it in the most effective manner. I will also be sure to check out the "Start to Finish" digital high-interest, low-vocabulary books.

Today I did not have any trouble with assessing the online class webinar, however, I'm not so sure this style of teaching is right for me. Perhaps later in my career I will be presented with the opportunity of teaching an online course and then I would revisit this platform.

Thanks for another valuable learning day! Happy Hump Day!

Day # 9

Today was a very productive day working on our iTunesU course. I feel much less overwhelmed and think that our group has a really great handle on using the course creation program. I feel it is very similar to creating a Moodle Course because you have to upload your documents and link them in a similar fashion. This assignment definitely challenged my abilities (especially with apple devices) and in the end I think it was a worth while learning activity.

Some of the key glitches I came to realize while working with a group on creating an iTunesU course are:
-Even though you can add a number of "Contributors" to a course, they are still not able to carry out a few key functions that the course "Owner". If two people are working in the course manager simultaneously, someone will be kicked out when attempting to save their work and that work will be lost. The best work around for this was for people in the group to take turns using the account while the others worked within an external document that is saved outside of iTunesU.
-You cannot use an iPad to manage an iTunesU course, however, you can use the iPad to add material to an assignment once it is uploaded to the course material folder.
Overall, I believe iTunesU enabled our group to create a conveniently self-contained online course that is easy to navigate in a logical manner and that is accessible to all.

Our link and enroll code for the iTunesU course is https://itunesu.itunes.apple.com/enroll/JT8-DC3-RD5

Just to add to today's post, I thought I'd include a thought provoking video clip on the integration of technology for the 21st Century Learners.

Some comments:
Be aware that these statistics are from 2007. More than ever we need to vbe reminded as educators that we are ultimately preparing students for the workforce and whichever way they can most effectively go about being capable citizens is the goal. We need to not revert to traditional methods so that student's talents aren't destroyed. An interesting statistic from this videos was that 14% of teachers let their students use technology once a week! I'm hoping a lot has changed since 2007 (iPads didn't even exist when this video was made). I hope the percentage of teachers who integrate technology into their students learning and the frequency at which it is used (especially for those who need more accessible materials) has increased! What do you think?

Day # 8

First we had a tutorial on a few extra Apps and setting features. We were shown Scribd, the zoom, invert colours and speak selection settings, but I especially liked the use or Readiris since it's price has come down quite drastically from $37.99 to $4.99!! This App needs to be used with the assistance of ClaroPDF to work with the text and this App is only $2.99. So both of these Apps can now be purchased for under $10 to scan text and make it extremely accessible.

The other App that I really like is Navidys. It is a web browser for only $2.99 and it allows students to change line and letter spacing as well as change the font. The most exciting part about this is the dyslexie font is available. This app is hugely important for students with LD, especially since this App allows the student to work online in a way that looks the same to others.

I really enjoyed being shown the Guided Access setting on the iPad. This would be essential to ensure that a student is staying on task by restricting them from exiting the App intended for their independent work.

I'm still plugging away at learning how to optimize the bloggesphere. I will hopefully be successful with inserting more images, however, I find it very cumbersome that I cannot access the pictures I have directly on my device.

We just started working on our AT for Reluctant Readers iTunesU course. I really wanted to work with a group of people who were working at a similar grade level as I am so the document will be authentically useful once I return to school. Here's hoping tomorrow proves to be more successful because right now I feel overwhelmed with the amount of work we are needing to accomplish tomorrow. Until then!

Day # 7

Executive Functions Webinar

Highlights and Key Takeaways:
-Behavorial regulation, self management and time management are controlled by the frontal lobe
-The frontal lobe is the "conductor of the orchestra" or "the CEO of the brain"
-Deficites of the FL functions are evident in some way in every person with a psychiatric disorder
-EF deficits are most common in people with ADHD (100%), ODD and ASD
-The teacher acts as a surrogate frontal lobe through cuing and scaffolding
-Independent work (homework, test taking long term projects answering in class) are more challenging ways to demonstrate understanding.
-production is affected most with EF weaknesses

Top 3 Apps

Organization:

Tools4Students ($0.99) - 25 premade iPad graphic organizers. Can be emailed to teacher or saved.
For students with issues initiating ideas, preplanning, & organizing ideas
*This app is useful for many of my students and it's reasonably priced. 










Metacognition:
 
 Take a Chill ($0.99) - emotional management tools for teens with anxiety.
Helps to achieve goals, direct behaviour, thought stopping and test anxiety.
"Stop", "Prep", "Daily Dose", "Audio", journal and stress inventory features that survey for useful strategies and resource suggestions.
*This is an excellent app that has many great features for a very reasonable price! I wish I had for the groups of students I just finished teaching. I had a number of students who had debilitating anxiety. It was very difficult watching them struggle and they would have really benefited from these features. I will be sure to let their future teachers know about is app and I am thankful to know about for my students in the future. 



 Sustained Attention:

Sound Curtain ($0.99) - provides automatically adjusting acoustic dampening with different sound features

*Simple to use by students, useful for sustaining attention for many and affordably priced.

Learning Disabilities Webinar

Highlights and Key Takeaways:

LDs can interfere with acquisition and use of one or more of the following:

-oral language (listening, speaking, understanding)

-written language (spelling, written expression)

-reading (decoding, phonetic knowledge, word recognition, comprehension)

-mathematics (computation, problem solving)

-additionally organizational skills, social perceptions & perspective taking

Under the Accessability settings "Speak Selection" allows highlighting of text and reads words aloud.

The "Guided Access" settings prevent students from exiting the app they are working with

Top 3 Apps

Paperport Notes (free) - imports PDFs, annotates, highlights, voice to text. Can email to teacher.

* This is great for test taking and it's free!

Puffin Web Browser ($2.99) - Adobe Flash support web browser with built in virtual mouse
Necessary for using sites like RazKids, StarFall and Tunble Books
*This is an app that will be more more useful as one continues to use an iPad. There are a number of  educational sites that employ Adobe Flash. It is well worth the cost, this is the first app I was willing to actually pay for and I'm sure my coworkers will be interested in purchasing it as well.

 Book Creator ($4.99) - makes digital books using text, images, audio and videos. Most functional and interactive when published to iBooks.
*Great app for all students to demonstrate creativity to produce things like class content dictionaries. It's also a great way to create class content with UDL in mind. 

Day # 6

Class Discussion:
The very beginning of class was interesting but also very overwhelming at the same time. This course is an elective for me in the Leadership program. I am very interested in and comfortable with technology but I know very little about literacy development. There are a number of people in this class who have an elementary background (that would include teaching the basics of reading) and there are also people who are involved with the Inclusive program so I feel a lot out of place. I guess the assumption is that everyone in this class has a background in language and brain development. I feel a lot like children with reading challenges who go through mentally challenging activities each day at school. I would like to consider myself a good learner so this isn't even close to what some students are going through.

Reading Process Presentation:

Writing was invented 5000 years ago and reading is not innate but learned. Language is innate.
Reading (oral) begins with (1) sounds, (2) meaning, and (3) structures.
There are 44 phonemes (sounds) in the English language.
Phonemic Awareness can be negatively influenced by the something as simple as growing up in a smoking household because it increases the chances of ear infections and being able to create sound awareness.

Attention is the gateway to memory and new learning requires selective attention!
There needs to be a commitment to short term memory and then the new information needs to be engraved into long term memory.
In terms of the reading process, attention to task (frontal lobe) is essential during every single step!

I'm going to need to look more into what compensatory strategies are so I can develop a list of apps that are useful for reluctant readers in middle school and high school. I'm looking forward to finding which apps are age appropriate. Are there any other middle school or high school teachers in this course? I think we should collaborate on this upcoming iTunesU course creation assignment. I know Read Iris and Tumble Readables were mentioned.

As a side note, I find the "Simple English" language feature on Wikipedia extremely useful! I will definitely be using this.