8 Technology Tools

Moodle  (5/5)
I think that Moodle is a great tool to use, especially in college. It is a way for students and professors to communicate and interact without having to use e-mail. However, it sends messages to your e-mail to confirm the assignment you have done and submitted and when a professor sends a message for the course. In addition, it provides a calendar for all the upcoming quizzes, tests, assignments, and our favorite, holidays. It shows the upcoming activities that will be done in class.
It is also beneficial for the professors because they can post up the syllabus for the course and not have to print one (especially for the professors that love to save paper). They do not need to send or print documents, individually to students, needed for the class and instead just post them online. They can also upload the grades of assignments and tests of the students so that the students do not have to go to their professor to find out their grades, unless they want to know why they got the grade. I personally believe that Moodle has been a big help to college students around the University of Guam campus.

Google Chrome(5/5)
Google Chrome has always been my favorite browser. It is fast and easy to use. Using Chrome, you can bookmark the pages you want to save for future references. When you open it, it shows the websites that you frequently use, so you do not have to type the URL over again. One thing that I most admire about it is that it is fast. Using it in a classroom, it would not waste a lot of time trying to load websites, videos, and other things.

Google Applications(5/5)
I have always used Hotmail for word, presentations, and other helpful things for class, but I did not know how useful Google is with their Google Applications. First of all, I thought that the interactive documents were cool and useful. There is no need to send information to each other, to copy and paste information from each other, and to ask other group mates what research or other things for the group they have done. The Blogger is a great way to blog things, especially important opinions that could be used in cases, such as Livetext. It is great when personalizing the things you want to say and is a great multimedia tool, which I am still getting the hang of. My most favorite Google App is the Google Hangouts because it is easy to use and there is an actual app you can connect to it with your e-mail other than logging in all the time.

Live Binder (5/5)
I will admit that Live Binder was a bit complicated considering that it was not familiar to me. But as I started to look through it and Dr. Cyrus explained it a bit more, I kind of got the hang of it. Using it as a future educator is a great way to keep track of great websites to gather information. It also can be a portfolio of all the websites we students have created. We can clash other websites we used in this class, such as Wix, Weebly, Prezi, and our Blogger to keep track of other classes.

Wiggio(3/5)
Using Wiggio for our presentation was okay. There were ways to create conferences and to chat about our project. However, every time we sent a message in the chat, we would get a message to our personal e-mail about what that person said, when we could just read it from the website. There was a way to turn that off, but you have to play with it and it did not have a tutorial on how to use it. Also, when creating the conferences, there were so many steps as to creating one, such as inputting all the members e-mail, having them approve, and so on. During the video conference, we had to go to another link to see our group mates and we have to click on whether we want that person to see us or not and hear us, which would be easier if it were automatic. It was great because using Wiggio, we can send files to groups, which would be great for classrooms and can update students on what their conference would be about.

Wix (5/5)
Wix is a great tool for creating a website. The first time I saw it, it was used for one of the games and what caught my attention was how the background was able to relate to their game. It would be great to use it in a classroom because it will forever stay online and you could still edit it, which would be great if a few information needs to be changed.

Weebly (5/5)
Weebly is another tool in creating websites, but was only okay. I had a hard time trying to change the layouts for my website. Another issue I had was that there was a limited amount of layouts and adding pictures. In order to add a picture, you had to have paid for the better picture, otherwise you would have to use pictures that sometimes do not relate to what was searched or one that looks old and out dated. It was also difficult because when I would type something in a textbox, it would go back to the example in the textbox, other than what I types. However, you can also edit the website after you have published it, which would give teachers a chance to update their information as well.

Prezi (5/5)
Prezi is a great alternative tool to using PowerPoint presentation. It has great ways to present different topics with different layouts. However, using it in a classroom, it may take some time as slides try to transmission. If your internet connect is slow, it may disrupt the presentation of students or yours. A great thing about Prezi is that it in online, so if your computer breaks down, it would still be available online. It gives me a headache sometimes because of the transitions it makes. To go to another slide, you would have to keep pressing back, other than stopping it to go to a certain slide.

Assistive Technology Meeting Needs

        Not all students are going to learn what is taught during one lesson. One thing that all teachers should know is that no two students are alike. There will be different types of learners in a classroom, such as visual learners and audio learners. But to what extent are we teachers willing to take to ensure that all our students are able to participate and learn during our lessons? According to the article “Supports, Modifications, and Accommodations for Students”, the key to success for a child with disabilities in the classroom is to have the appropriate adaptations, accommodations, and modifications made to the classroom instructions and activities.

        As a teacher, we have to be aware of the different things that are going on with our students. We have to perform certain tests that tells us how our students are, how they learn, how they think, and what drives them to do certain tasks. After we have conducted tests and spoken to the student’s parents, this is where we will create an Individualized Education Program (IEP), to set goals for the student. Having an IEP will also notify us of the student’s needs and it is our job to meet those needs.

        Learning the difference between modification and accommodation is especially important when dealing with students with disabilities. So what is the difference? Modification, according to the Jersey City Public School’s “Accommodations/Modifications/Interventions”, is defined as altering the expected content knowledge and the assessment administration practices. Also, they defined accommodation as not altering what the student is expected to learn but makes learning accessible to them and to show what they know.

        In the video “How Assistive Technology Enables Dreams”, they accommodated Lukas Bratcher with an instrument that was modified because his hands were not fully capable of pressing the necessary tools in his instrument. He showed a passion for wanting to play the instrument so Lee Shook, his first band director, sought out to find a way to do it. Though he felt it to be a very difficult task, they were able to find a shop that welcomed those with arms that were not able to play with instruments to fit their needs.

        Assistive technology has played a part in also creating modifications in classrooms because they can be assigned to each student and whatever meets their goals for their IEPs are included in their technology, such as iPads and computers. George Rehmet, a teacher at the Redwood Heights Elementary School, found it effective in meeting the needs of their content. In the video, they mention that first they have to teach the students how to use their device, which makes them believe that the earlier they learn to use their technology tool, the more proficient they will be with it, and will be able to teach their students more and more.

        Sadly, not all teachers are too familiar with all the assistive technology tools out there, which students can use. It brings a disadvantage to both the students and the teacher because the student would have been able to use tools earlier in their education and teachers would have had an easier time meeting or coming close to the goals set for a particular student. An example is Susanna Martini. In the video, she was currently attending college and has cerebral palsy. She said that assistive technology is a part of who she is because she would not be able to walk or do the things she is able to do. She even mentioned how she did not get a computer until her mom requested it and believed that if she had the equipment when she was in high school, it would have made her life easier.

        There are many ways to revise an activity to meet the needs of students with disabilities. In the video, their differences were apparent and their needs were meet with the help of their teacher and their assistive technology tool. A step to getting to know what to revise is to test them in order to complete their Individualized Education Program and to get to know the needs of the student. Another step to revising an activity is to know whether that student needs any modifications or accommodations in order to learn from the activity. Lastly, as teachers, we need to do our part and educate ourselves on the different types of assistive technologies that would help our students and ourselves when it comes to achieving the student’s annual goals in their IEPs.

References:

Accommodations/Modifications/Interventions. (n.d.). Retrieved November 17, 2015, from http://www.jcboe.org/boe2015/images/pdf/depts/speced/13-14/links13-14/accommodationsmodificationsinterventions.pdf

Supports, Modifications, and Accommodations for Students | Center for Parent Information and Resources. (n.d.). Retrieved November 17, 2015, from http://www.parentcenterhub.org/repository/accommodations/

Yes and No in My Lesson

For one of our assignments, we were required to create an ASSURE lesson plan and be able to teach a class using that process. I decided to teach a 6^th grade middle school class because by that time, they would have already have acquired the skills needed in order to complete the objectives that I have planned for the lesson. The two objectives of my lesson plan were to (1) Students will be able to solve the difference between the amount of sugar, salt, and fat from the cereals and the Recommended Daily Allowance and (2) students will be able to visually represent the difference between the 3 cereals using bar graphs. As I was creating this lesson plan, looking through the plans I have created for this assignment and thinking of the different things that would have occurred during the lesson in a classroom, there are a few things I would do differently and some things that I would do the same.

One thing that I would do the same is put my students into groups of 5. Doing this allows for them to work together. They also get to decide who is going to record their information, do the research, and input their information, which encourages collaboration and agreeing. According to the article Cooperative Learning: Assigning Individual Tasks to Group Members, this is called cooperative learning. It promotes friendships and support. Living on Guam, there are many diverse groups and cooperative learning would be a great way to get the different groups to work together. Not only is it just group work, but assigning the facilitator, recorder, and other positions in a group helps with also completing an individual task.

Another thing I would do the same is the use the materials. I believe that using technology is a great way for them to learn how to conduct research and input their research. In elementary school, they rarely have students do research and just give them handouts and direct them to where they need to go. In using the computers and the internet, this enhances their ability to gather liable research, of course with me assisting them when they have any questions or need help.

Though there are things that I would do the same, I would like to change one thing about my lesson plan, which is the activity. Though it was enough for students to get the concept of graph their research, I would have wanted my students to represent it kinetically. According to the article Three Learning Styles, there are three types of learning styles, which are visual, auditory, and kinetics. In my lesson, there are two that I use, visual and auditory. As a teacher, wanting all of my students to learn is something I want, but what I needed to add to my lesson is hands-on learning. I would have wanted my students to use sand to weigh the difference of the amount of salt, sugar, and fat in the three cereals compared to the Recommended Daily Allowance.

No lesson plan will be perfect. The most teachers can hope for is that each student has learned at least a little part of the objectives if not all. As an aspiring teacher creating a lesson plan before actually teaching, I believe that incorporating group work into my lesson plan creates more to the objective than just doing the research. I also believe that using materials such as computers and the internet will help further their ability to conduct other types of research. However, I would have wanted to do a more hands-on activity in this lesson plan to accommodate the three different types of learners in a classroom.

References:

Cooperative Learning: Assigning Individual Tasks to Group Members. (n.d.). Retrieved November 3, 2015. http://www.dailyteachingtools.com/cooperative-learning-tasks.html

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis IUPUI. (n.d.). Retrieved November 3, 2015. http://blc.uc.iupui.edu/Academic-Enrichment/Study-Skills/Learning-Styles/3-Learning-Styles