Diigo: Assistive Technology

Through exploration of the websites that I looked through and that others shared on Diigo, I learned that there are so many more resources and tools for students with disabilities. Programs that do very simple tasks--like highlighting the word that is read aloud-- can make a huge difference to a student.

#7 Webpage design!

Adaptive technologies are different types of technology that are designed to assist users under different circumstances.  The examples given the podcast are technologies that allow people with physical and other types of disabilities the capability of participating in activities involving technology that would have otherwise been unavailable to them. 

The podcast referenced tools used communicate that are not traditional—unlike a mouse for navigation—the examples were different forms of  input and output devices such as a trackball in place of the mouse or a braille printer.  The example given in the podcast for students with learning disabilities was voice to text typing as well as spellcheck.

             So The new skills that I acquired while working on the webpage design assignment was the ability to embed a calendar from Google calendars into my website.  This is not something that I’ve ever done before—I’ve actually never created my own website either.  This calendar function seems incredibly useful especially for this type of website.  I had also never used Weebly to create a website before. 

I had a lot of fun with this website—I love the creativity involved in making one!  I think that I can improve my website the next time I make one by spending more time looking at the other features on this website construction forum.  I am not at all familiar with these tools in think that with more time I could come up with some more cool ideas.

 I can definitely see myself making my own website for my professional career—this would even be a good way to get a job!  It looks very professional and it was not very difficult.

Here’s a link to my website:

http://kalynkelso.weebly.com

Diigo 2: Teacher Tools

Teacher activity tools are for much more than just the act of teaching. There are tools that can be used to track student attendance, computing/organizing student grades, and compiling/designing lesson plans before you begin teaching.

#6 Professional Technology

The school website that I decided to visit was Lincoln high school—this is the school that I attended here in town.  From the Lincoln website I linked to the website of an English teacher at the school.

The website was called Ms. Harrer’s Reading nook.  The website seems to operate for the students similarly to the way that blackboard operates for Florida State students.  Available on the website was a document for library that contains what looks to be assignments and worksheets for this instructor’s course. 

Also on the website was an embedded reminder application that allows anyone who visits the site to submit their cell phone number to receive reminders about assignments in this class. There were also several vocabulary applications available to use on the site. Additionally, there were paragraphs on class policies similar to what one would fine in a Florida state course syllabus.

 The site can be accessed through this link: http://haarerreading.weebly.com

            Some of the technologies that I picture myself using my professional career that were mentioned in the podcast are spreadsheets(Excel), Google calendar, and a personal website.   As a student at the University I have found many opportunities to use Excel spreadsheet and Google calendar particularly.  I do not have a website but as a professional it would be incredibly useful for people to be able to receive information from me via website.

 The technology that I think has been the most important for me so far is word processing.  I cannot imagine any sort of professional career that will not involve some form of word processing.  The most significant tools available with word processing for me are grammar and spellchecking, document preparation, and tables.

 Another important Technology that I can see myself using in my professional career is database management.  Seeing as I will not, likely, be teaching the databases that I compile will not be much like the ones that we have compiled in this class but in my professional career (School Psychology) I will need access to websites that provide updated information and research as well as modern practices and techniques used in my job field. This is where I will need the sorting, queries, and archiving tools.

             One of the most interesting devices that I was able to use in the technology sandbox last week was the virtual reality glasses. One of the uses of these glasses could be in cognitive behavioral therapy (exposure therapy) for specific phobias—like fear of heights as suggested but I want to be operators.  In the classroom, I think that the most useful tool would be one of the interactive boards.  I think that the SmartBoard could be the most useful because it will allow students to write independently of the teacher—so that student working be tracked.

 This will allow for much more interactive student activities where Stevens will be able to come up to the board and do more than just write—they will be able to do whatever can be done on the Internet which may be to participate in online educational games at the entire class will be able to play together or possibly annotates an excerpt from a book or text online so that everyone in the class will be able to see.

ILP “Design” – Powerpoint-Google Drive

For my independent learning project, I decided to go with the Design category. I took French in high school and found that one of the more surprisingly difficult things to learn was the numbers 60-99. Reading/translating French numbers is more difficult because they have more irregularity than English. I decided to create a flash card PowerPoint game using hyperlinks. For the game the player will just click on the answer bubble that has the correct number in (##) form based on the written number given. I have based this game on the WL.K12.NM.2 CPalms standard about reading in foreign language (French).  

The game can be accessed at the following link—just click “Present” in the upper right-hand corner of the screen.

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1kukD1rzHQv0l5yY2tJOEhGeUSpW8KIycLRk2REjUcPE/edit?usp=sharin