Disabled Bodies, Able Minds: Giving Voice, Movement, and Independence to the Physically Challenged
By Diane Curtis
This article shows how technology is helping students with disabilities accomplish tasks they would not normally be able to do. More specifically, it focuses on Redwood Heights Elementary School in Oakland, California, TACLE (Technology and Augmentative Communication for Learning Enhancement) program. The program is designed to help all students realize their potential through the use of technology to assist them. It also mentions University of Washington’s DO-IT(disabilities, opportunities, internet working, and technology) program that is opening new doors for disabled students with the help of technology.
What opportunities can technology provide for disabled students?
Technology can enable kids to perform a wide array of jobs, assignments, and other tasks that they would normally not be able to complete. Technology also gives these students a better sense of self-confidence, by giving them independence.
How can teachers level the playing field for disabled students?
With a new generation of teachers coming into the workforce, I believe that we can eliminate the labels we put on students and hold them all to high expectations. By including all students with the use of technology instead of aides, it will empower disabled students and encourage learning. We need to educate other teachers and administrators on new technology available and how it is “leveling the playing field” for all students.
Friday, April 18, 2008
Journal #9
Robots Rock at California High School
By Dian Schaffhauser
Mr. Lam’s robotics engineering class at Monte Vista High School in Monte Vista, CA is about electronics, circuitry, mechanics, programming, and most of all problem solving. His class is all about learning how to build robots, which Lam says inspires students to become engineers. The students are first introduced to theory, then shown each individual component that makes up the robot, and finally start building a small robot. Then if they can raise enough money, the students can compete in a national competition. National competitions can get pricey, with Lam’s class spending over $10,000 on parts and registration fees alone. Lam points out that few schools offer robotics classes, but encourages other schools to get involved.
How can you get a robotics class started at your school?
Lam suggests that you first write a curriculum, and he even has a sample of the one he uses for his class you can use as a guideline. After that you need to get the equipment, which he suggests getting in kit form. You can fund raise money to go to national competitions or you can keep it simple and hold local ones.
What applicable skills does a robotics class teach students?
Robotics will teach your students about technology, workplace safety, working as a team, and also how to communicate. Problem solving is another skill that will greatly help students further down the line in either school or life situations.
By Dian Schaffhauser
Mr. Lam’s robotics engineering class at Monte Vista High School in Monte Vista, CA is about electronics, circuitry, mechanics, programming, and most of all problem solving. His class is all about learning how to build robots, which Lam says inspires students to become engineers. The students are first introduced to theory, then shown each individual component that makes up the robot, and finally start building a small robot. Then if they can raise enough money, the students can compete in a national competition. National competitions can get pricey, with Lam’s class spending over $10,000 on parts and registration fees alone. Lam points out that few schools offer robotics classes, but encourages other schools to get involved.
How can you get a robotics class started at your school?
Lam suggests that you first write a curriculum, and he even has a sample of the one he uses for his class you can use as a guideline. After that you need to get the equipment, which he suggests getting in kit form. You can fund raise money to go to national competitions or you can keep it simple and hold local ones.
What applicable skills does a robotics class teach students?
Robotics will teach your students about technology, workplace safety, working as a team, and also how to communicate. Problem solving is another skill that will greatly help students further down the line in either school or life situations.
Journal #8
Spotlight: Free Science Resources Online
By Dave Nagel
Dave Nagel’s article goes over different free online resources that will blind your students with science! These resources include projects, multimedia, lesson plans, and other educational materials all designed to get your kids excited about the subject. Some of his suggestions include:
MIT OpenCourseWare: Free Education for All
• Designed for schools
• Contains lecture notes, syllabi, videos, audio clips, assignments, and assessments.
• Also known as Highlights for High School
NASA: Online Science
• Resources for both students and teachers
• Videos, animations, simulations, links, etc…
• Can sort resources by grade level
Smithsonian Institution: Standards-Aligned Science Resources
• All material is standards-aligned
• Material searchable by grade, subject, or even state standard
How can you incorporate these websites into your classroom?
One good lesson plan I found on Smithsonian was a means, medians, and modes activity. Student collect data and enter it into an excel worksheet. Then they will learn how to create a table. Once they have created a table, they will analyze the data and find the mean, median, and mode. This activity will not only teach them how to use excel, but will also incorporate math.
What grades are these website designed for?
The MIT website seems to be more targeted at post-secondary students, but could be used in some way for younger students. The other two websites have great material for all ages.
By Dave Nagel
Dave Nagel’s article goes over different free online resources that will blind your students with science! These resources include projects, multimedia, lesson plans, and other educational materials all designed to get your kids excited about the subject. Some of his suggestions include:
MIT OpenCourseWare: Free Education for All
• Designed for schools
• Contains lecture notes, syllabi, videos, audio clips, assignments, and assessments.
• Also known as Highlights for High School
NASA: Online Science
• Resources for both students and teachers
• Videos, animations, simulations, links, etc…
• Can sort resources by grade level
Smithsonian Institution: Standards-Aligned Science Resources
• All material is standards-aligned
• Material searchable by grade, subject, or even state standard
How can you incorporate these websites into your classroom?
One good lesson plan I found on Smithsonian was a means, medians, and modes activity. Student collect data and enter it into an excel worksheet. Then they will learn how to create a table. Once they have created a table, they will analyze the data and find the mean, median, and mode. This activity will not only teach them how to use excel, but will also incorporate math.
What grades are these website designed for?
The MIT website seems to be more targeted at post-secondary students, but could be used in some way for younger students. The other two websites have great material for all ages.
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Journal #7-Podcasting
Podcast- series of digital-media files which are distributed over the Internet using syndication feeds for playback on portable media players(iPod) and computers.
Podcasting- merely the publishing of a podcast
One user on classroom2.0 put it as: “publishing a podcast can be as simple as uploading the audio file ( mp3 is the standard) to the server, then creating a link to it”
Basically a podcast is an online pre-recorded program share via world wide web. It can be strictly audio(original podcast) or can contain video as well (video podcast).
Podcasting originally was designed for people to distribute their very own radio-style show, but educators also saw the value and started using it to distribute lessons. Podcasts allow teachers and students to share information without being at a physical location. For example, the entire class could take a tour of the Smithsonian Museum without leaving their chairs in the classroom. Another application could be allowing absent students to download any recorded lessons they may have missed. Have you ever watched a YouTube video? The chances are you have downloaded a podcast before and just didn’t realize that it was the result of another person podcasting. You can also integrate a podcast into other tools, such as a class blog to keep parents up to date. This way, when a parent asks their child what they learned today in school, the kid can tell them to get their lazy butt online to the class blog and learn it themselves.
Podcasting- merely the publishing of a podcast
One user on classroom2.0 put it as: “publishing a podcast can be as simple as uploading the audio file ( mp3 is the standard) to the server, then creating a link to it”
Basically a podcast is an online pre-recorded program share via world wide web. It can be strictly audio(original podcast) or can contain video as well (video podcast).
Podcasting originally was designed for people to distribute their very own radio-style show, but educators also saw the value and started using it to distribute lessons. Podcasts allow teachers and students to share information without being at a physical location. For example, the entire class could take a tour of the Smithsonian Museum without leaving their chairs in the classroom. Another application could be allowing absent students to download any recorded lessons they may have missed. Have you ever watched a YouTube video? The chances are you have downloaded a podcast before and just didn’t realize that it was the result of another person podcasting. You can also integrate a podcast into other tools, such as a class blog to keep parents up to date. This way, when a parent asks their child what they learned today in school, the kid can tell them to get their lazy butt online to the class blog and learn it themselves.
Journal #6
Inspiration/iMovie Review
Inspiration is a good program and after using it I can see all the applicable uses for it in a school setting. Initially I had some difficulties because I wanted to learn how to use InspireData, seeing as how I want to teach math. After several attempts of arguing with computer lab workers, I could not get the administration’s approval to download the program, so I just used Inspiration. It was fairly easy to use after playing around with the program for a while and watching tutorials on Atomiclearning. I believe the students would really like Inspiration. First off, kids usually get excited any time they get to use technology to assist them in completing an assignment, and any time you can intertwine technology with your core content, it is a bonus. Also, every kid learns differently and Inspiration incorporates a number of different learning styles.
One great project I had envisioned for a middle school math class was with InspireData. You could give the students different number sequences and they have to decipher the algebraic equation. Once the students had a good understanding of how to solve these problems, I would have them each create their own to further deepen their conceptual understanding. If I wasn’t in an only mathematics setting I would have the students create a family tree. Inspiration allows students to clearly map out each generation and add any interesting notes about each person. A well thought out and detailed family tree is a project that every student may not appreciate at the time, but somewhere down the road they will be glad mean old Mr. Ludwig made them complete the assignment.
Inspiration is a good program and after using it I can see all the applicable uses for it in a school setting. Initially I had some difficulties because I wanted to learn how to use InspireData, seeing as how I want to teach math. After several attempts of arguing with computer lab workers, I could not get the administration’s approval to download the program, so I just used Inspiration. It was fairly easy to use after playing around with the program for a while and watching tutorials on Atomiclearning. I believe the students would really like Inspiration. First off, kids usually get excited any time they get to use technology to assist them in completing an assignment, and any time you can intertwine technology with your core content, it is a bonus. Also, every kid learns differently and Inspiration incorporates a number of different learning styles.
One great project I had envisioned for a middle school math class was with InspireData. You could give the students different number sequences and they have to decipher the algebraic equation. Once the students had a good understanding of how to solve these problems, I would have them each create their own to further deepen their conceptual understanding. If I wasn’t in an only mathematics setting I would have the students create a family tree. Inspiration allows students to clearly map out each generation and add any interesting notes about each person. A well thought out and detailed family tree is a project that every student may not appreciate at the time, but somewhere down the road they will be glad mean old Mr. Ludwig made them complete the assignment.
This is a diagram I created in Inspiration to show the relationship between all real numbers. Somewhat of a elementary lesson, but it really reinforces real numbers, which can be difficult to understand, but much easier with pictures.
Atomiclearning.com is an excellent website and I have already recommended it to several other educators. The tutorials are easy to follow, clearly spoken, and you can watch every step of the process. The tutorial topics are easily searched and each topic is broken down into subtopics. So instead of watching an hour long tutorial on powerpoint, a teacher can learn just the stuff they don’t know by watching three 5min videos. This would be a great learning tool for the older teachers who shy away from technology. This way they could teach themselves about computers, programs, etc, and can learn at their own pace.
iMovie is a sweet program that is user friendly and easy to use. It’s a program that if you fool around with it enough, you can teach yourself and the more you fool around with it the more efficient you will become. I love how all of the related programs work together with such ease. I showed my movie to a couple of different people and they didn’t believe that I created THE BEST MOVIE EVER!
Atomiclearning.com is an excellent website and I have already recommended it to several other educators. The tutorials are easy to follow, clearly spoken, and you can watch every step of the process. The tutorial topics are easily searched and each topic is broken down into subtopics. So instead of watching an hour long tutorial on powerpoint, a teacher can learn just the stuff they don’t know by watching three 5min videos. This would be a great learning tool for the older teachers who shy away from technology. This way they could teach themselves about computers, programs, etc, and can learn at their own pace.
iMovie is a sweet program that is user friendly and easy to use. It’s a program that if you fool around with it enough, you can teach yourself and the more you fool around with it the more efficient you will become. I love how all of the related programs work together with such ease. I showed my movie to a couple of different people and they didn’t believe that I created THE BEST MOVIE EVER!
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