Through my research I have found out that assistive technology comes in both the form of hardware and software. I have recorded a podcast using GarageBand whereby I list various examples of these technologies which can be purchased for use in the classroom as well as for personal use in the home.
The below video is based around the education of Elina a 10 year old American student who suffers from Athetoid Cerebal Palsy (CP). Elina uses assistive technology at home and during school time in her classroom. Elina uses KeyStrokes to assist her typing, and Proloquo which aids her through speech. Keystrokes as a form of assistive technology helps Elina to type and compose on the computer. This technology is implemented through the use of a hand manipulated device which acts as a replacement for the much smaller and common computer mouse. Elina is able to move the cursor around the computer screen vertically and horizontally like a mouse would normally do. This device is supplemented by a large disc button which allows Elina to select letters and words in the way the buttons of a normal mouse would. This disc is a large adaptation therefore of the common computer mouse and allows for Elina to easily use without the troubles using a normal mouse would cause her due to misformed fingers and inability to grip and manipulate the buttons. One of the best features of this technology is the language and spelling aid it provides to Elina – the technology recognises misspellings and attempts at words and offers the student various options as to the word they may be wishing to use. For eg. if Elina has begun a word using the letters “hou” the technology will offer the word “house” to be selected and use within a piece of writing. Proloquo is a system whereby the students words are vocalised through the computers speakers and instructions are offered orally. My favourite part of the video is when Elina, at age 10 states that “the computer means life to me!”.
Download Video: Posted by davidn at TeacherTube.com.
This application, specifically for Macintosh computers is a technology which gives the student/teacher the ability to use pre-scanned text in such a way that text can be highlighted by single words, sentences and paragraphs. I found that an effective tool within this application was that the user is able to decide how many words per minute are read aloud, in order to adapt the oral reading of instructions or information to their own reading pace. This tool would be extremely effective for students who have trouble with handwriting as they are given the option to type text into the pre-scanned document eg. to fill in a question sheet.
Download Video: Posted by jeubank at TeacherTube.com.
Laura in response to Linda’s posting about Northcott mentioned a particular text-to-speech software called TextAloud
After viewing my peers blog sites I have been broadened by the ideas and issues they have been uncovering over the 2 weeks investigating technology and computer based education. I was especially amazed at a organisation that Linda found called Northcott Disability Services. The service is absolutely amazing and so beneficial for students with either learning difficulties or disabilities and even offer short term loans of the equipment they provide!!!! This is so that families looking at buying the assistive technologies are able to implement the technologies at home for a period of time to test its effectiveness and suitability for their child’s learning. I think its a fabulous service and the online tutorials are brilliant, and the assistive equipment is relevant, useful and extremely purposeful for all students, both mainstream and special needs.
This is an example of video based instruction included in a LAMS design sequence based on the theme of Democracy to be used within a Stage 3 class.
Using the online video recording application ‘Viddler’ this video was taped and then uploaded onto this edublog via the embedding of the html code. My partner for assignment 1, Anna and I were told by Matthew to be challenging ourselves by attempting this process as many of our peers were simply using iMovie for which they were more comfortable with and more familiar. We initially had some difficulty with the video opening up in our LAMS sequence but found this problem to be due to the fact we had not chosen the option of making the video public. Anna and I learnt however, if the videos recorded using Viddler we not to be posted on a blog, a private class count could be set up which would not allow members of the public to view the students videos!!!!
Today I came across of blog by an individual titled ‘aquiram‘ titled ‘TECHNOLOGY USE’ (June 12, 2006). In this blog aquiram explores the idea that commonly school teachers only use the internet to
‘finalize papers….(and to) allow blantant copy-paste plagirism by our students’
and strongly questions why this is the case. Aquiram discusses the use of blogging, classroom wiki’s, research using the technology tools, and online assessment. I agree strongly with the rationale aquiram gave for the use of each of these in the classroom, especially blogging to provoke and encourage discussion, and online assessment for immediate feedback for students!
Hey everyone.. I would have never thought I would have created the things I have in the psat few days! I have created podcasts, videos using iMovie and have learnt how to link urls, videos and images onto LAMS!!! My partner and I have well and truely begun to form ideas for our first learning design task.. we are going to base our internet activity design on the theme of Democracy, for a stage 3 class! Together we have investigated how to form question and answers, noticeboards, multiple choice and surveys on the LAMS application. I never thought I’d be able to accomplishj the things I have in the past few days. I have bluetoothed videos and audio to my mobile phone over the computer and have created this blog!!!!
Today I am going to share this blog with some friends an hopefully share some ideas with them using the wonderful world wide web!
x cass
Hey everyone this is my first every podcast.. describing to you all my passion…!! I created this podcast using the application GarageBand. I recorded my voice using this application and also imported a song from a cd opened on iTunes to play in the background of my voice! I also added images from google but was unable to view these through realplayer or quicktime because of the format in which I saved it – mp3! Please enjoy!!
Below is my mind map of thoughts as to why the Internet is used in classrooms!!
