Assistive Technologies - Assistive Educators

I just finished writing up my assistive technology interview and as I sat and reflected on what I learned, I realized how truly amazing technology has become, if educators are willing to sometimes think outside the box. Some of the technologies used by the special education teacher I interviewed existed but had to be extremely modified in order for her students to use them. The story of Breanna, a little girl with no control of her trunk, head, and arms, who no one thought would be able to do anything at all, reminded me of how important educators are. Through Amy the special education teacher, Breanna's mom and the district assistive technology specialist connected. The three of them developed a switch that Breanna was able to hit with her leg that controlled things in the classroom such as the cd player and other devices. Once Breanna realized she controlled the switch, they were able to take it a step farther. Breanna was able to push the switch to 'read' the repeated phrase in a read-aloud book. Without Amy, Breanna's mother wouldn't have had those connections, and Breanna's potential may never have been discovered.

That is something we as educators sometimes forget and take for granted. We have a big network - not just in the technology sense, but in the people sense as well. We have people who have all kinds of specialties who are there to help students. We need to remember that parents aren't always aware of the resources that are available, and we need to be the 'conduit' that makes those connections.

Knowing what technologies are available and how to use them is an important start for those of us in the educational technology field. Knowing who to go to in order to get the answers and help we need is an important second step if we are going to provide opportunities for all students.

Those are my two cents for the day :-)

Organizing the File Cabinet

I realize that I would have a very difficult time maintaining this for the 33 classes I teach, but I would love to have a Class Portal so that students and parents would be able to stay on top of what was happening in music each week. The benefit to that would be that students could be 'in my classroom' even on days they were not actively attending music class. Difficulties that might arise stem mostly from the fact that my students are very young. The pre-kindergarten through 2nd graders probably couldn't submit their work via blog, and the blog would be more of a communication tool for parents. Another problem would be the assessment of music writing skills. Most students do not have music composition software on their home computers. It isn't even installed on most of our school computers.

I'm planning on starting small and creating a blog for my 4th and 5th grade chorus next year. I can include information regarding concerts, attire, field trips, and provide song lyrics for the music they are rehearsing. I can also give them some additional assignments and a place to discuss their own thoughts about our performances or the pieces we are singing. This would make the blog more of an online filing cabinet.

I like the idea that students can access information at home without me having to send 100 copies of any given item home with them. Instead I could send home a strip of paper reminding parents to check the blog when it is updated (a field trip permission form needs to be signed, etc.) - and if they had subscribed to the blog, they would be immediately aware of the changes.

Easy as 1-2-3

Here it is - a blog that will be utilized to communicate between my classmates (more specifically my Study Group-mates) and myself about the "blogosphere" and its uses within a classroom. Thanks to blogger.com the process is as simple as can be. They truly have ironed out the kinks and details to make it an easy process. I appreciate that blogger has made it so simple to begin the blogging process. Using the templates they have developed, creating my blog took less than five minutes. Following the other people in the group is also very simple once you have their blog addresses.

I am still exploring all the different things that blogs are capable of (you can monetize your blog?!), and contemplating how I would find one to be most useful in my day-to-day teaching. I have created a blog in the past for personal use, but found that I lost interest in it when it was not as interactive as I had hoped. Many of my friends became ‘followers’ of my blog, but never told me online or in person whether or not they were reading it. When there weren't many (read: any!) comments I have to say the lack of feedback made me wonder why I was using my meager amount of free time to update something that garnered no response. I think that the 'conversation' ability of a blog is a fascinating and useful tool to connect people, but I am going to have to put some serious thought into what I would want to do with such a tool in my classroom.