A speed day schedule means that teachers have all five of their classes in a row without breaks. Each class is about 30 minutes long. The students then go home and teachers have about an hour for lunch. Then return for professional development. This generally takes place about 2-3 times per year.
Teachers would for the first part of the workshop be watching my presentation from the projector screen. I plan to use a few different videos from both Teacher Tube and You Tube to help make my presentation more uplifting, motivating, and engaging. They would need access to Slideshare online. For a portion of the workshop I would like the teachers to access my presentation online and be allotted time to “play” with all the information. They would have time to click on various links, watch the videos and learn more about different assistive technology resources on their own. This would also be the time to ask me individual questions.
I would focus my workshop for Social Studies and Language Arts due to time constraints and my own background. I feel one afternoon isn’t enough time to talk about the assistive technology for music, math, science, etc. I would rather delve deeply into the possibilities for Social Studies and Language Arts teachers. I also feel I do not posses adequate background or knowledge of the other subjects to accurately access the needs and skills of their students. Because both subject areas share one computer lab, computer availability time is very difficult to secure and limited in it’s possibility and usage.
East Kentwood teachers just received a projector and screen in every room about two years ago. Many teachers still use their overhead projector due to their lack of knowledge regarding technology.
For the rest of this PowerPoint I plan to develop a barebones version of the presentation I would give to teachers in reality. In the notes sections I will give my reasoning, explanations, source citations, and activity descriptions for the class. I use Power Point on a daily basis in my classroom, but I have never tried to embed videos and hyperlinks into it before so bear with me. I have also never used Slide Share so this will be interesting.
Here I would highlight the fact that we as a district house more than 50 different languages! We have to start thinking about how to accommodate English Language Learners in our classroom. We just received projectors a couple of years ago, but many teachers have yet to realize their full potential within the classroom. We are currently under tight budget constraints so any software that would require financial support is beyond reach. My focus throughout today would be what is available and free to use for any educator. I feel that would be the most meaningful use of time.
Both underlined sections are hyperlinked to videos. The first is linked to a really good example of assistive technology I found on teacher tube. The second is the video “In My Language” posted on the angel website under week 8. I would introduce the topic by reading aloud the definition and showing both videos as examples. Quote Citation: The National Center on Accessible Information Technology in Education, University of Washington, http://www.washington.edu/accessit/articles?109
In this slide I would try to hammer home the point that assistive technology has been around forever. It’s not just computer related. When I mention lighting I would cite the article entitled “Illuminating the Classroom Environment” by John McCreery and Timothy Hill showing the link between lighting and student achievement as an unconventional form of assistive technology.
In this activity I would give pairs of teachers this picture, and the picture on the following slide. I would then give them a few minutes to discuss what assistive technologies they think are present in the picture. We would then reconvene as a group and share answers. Picture found at: http://picture-book.com/files/userimages/1156u/citystreet-shortcuts1cover.jpg
Picture found at: http://www.ecu.edu/cs-dhs/ot/images/Assistiveheader2.jpg
I would try to explain all quotes by talking about how assistive technology is meant to help. To fill the gaps in a students education experience that levels the playing ground in some way. I find the last quote particularly relevant to this group of people because the majority of students they work with on a daily basis with disabilities are learning disabled. The first two quotes come from Ira Socol’s blog SpeEd Change. The blog posting is entitled, “Teachers and Technology 2: The SEN component” It was posted on April 28 th , 2006 http://speedchange.blogspot.com/2006/04/teachers-and-technology-2-sen.html The third quote comes from an article entitled, “Assistive Technology for kids with LD: An Overview”, by Marshall Raskind and Kristin Stanberry. http://www.greatschools.org/LD/assistive-technology/assistive-technology-for-kids-with-learning-disabilities-an-overview.gs?content=702
This information was drawn from Cindy Okolo’s assistive technology wiki through MSU. http://assistive-technology-lab.wiki.educ.msu.edu/ My big focus with this slide would be the idea that assistive technology can motivate students to perform above expectations and engage them in the materials in way not previously thought possible.
Here I would have teacher volunteer what type of technologies they already use in the classroom and make a list on a white board of some sort. I would then try to conduct a discussion about how they use those existing technologies in the hopes of helping other teachers see what they can do with what they already have. I would also take a moment to talk about teacher tube and show them the website briefly in class. This is an untapped resource in many of the classrooms here.
Reading is an essential component of any Social Studies or English classroom. This section is meant to help teachers learn about the new ways to teach and practice reading within the classroom. I would add that the list of AT for reading is exhaustive and I am only touching the tip of the iceberg. Information drawn from, “Assistive Technology for Reading Disability Issues that Really Work!” Read more: http://www.brighthub.com/education/special/articles/53221.aspx#ixzz0hsjDgPYx
Info gathered from: http://www.brighthub.com/education/special/articles/53221.aspx
Info gathered from: http://www.brighthub.com/education/special/articles/53221.aspx
I only chose to post resources that were free and easy to install/use. I would choose a couple to click on and show certain attributes throughout this presentation. These resources were gathered from the CEP class assistive technology lesson resources section. The Virtual Screen Magnifier was under assistive technology resources on Wikipedia.
“ Using Assistive Technology to Support Writing” CITEd Research Center, http://www.cited.org/index.aspx?page_id=108
Research drawn from: http://www.cited.org/index.aspx?page_id=108 The words “general technology” are hyperlinked to a teacher tube video that shows a teacher demonstrating different types of general accommodations that are very easy to incorporate into a classroom. This video can be located at: http:// www.teachertube.com/viewVideo.php?video_id =75646&title= Assistive_Technology_for_Writing____Low_High_Tech_Options
http://www.cited.org/index.aspx?page_id=108
As I talk about all the different types of AT tools for writing I would pause at each one and further explain their meaning and usage in the classroom. I would also field questions related to each tool. http://www.cited.org/index.aspx?page_id=108
From Cindy Okolo’s presentation located in the MSU assistive technology lab website: http://assistive-technology-lab.wiki.educ.msu.edu/ The CMU Sphinx tool was found on the Wikipedia website under assistive technology.
As teacher clicked certain links and learned more about the software I would circle around to help with any technical issues and answer any questions teachers may have. After about 30 minutes has elapsed, I would bring the group back together and open up a discussion. What did they like? What was confusing? What was helpful? How might they use this new information in class?
The assessment of this workshop would take place at the end. I would break up the teachers into groups of four and give them each a sheet with four different student profiles. I would then as the teachers to study the profiles and review the PowerPoint using Slide Share, what types of assistive technology mentioned today could be used to make each student more successful in the classroom? Once finished we would go back to the full group setting and discuss their recommendations. I would close the workshop by showing them a video entitled, “A Vision of Students Today” located on YouTube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGCJ46vyR9o . I was first introduced to this video in our CEP class. It’s located under the assistive technology lesson page online.
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