Assistive Technology

It has been estimated that 54 million people or 20.6 percent of all Americans have some level of disability (standards.gov). Assistive technology helps make life easier for people with disabilities. Assistive technology (AT) can be defined as any item, piece of equipment, or product system, whether acquired commercially off the shelf, modified, or customized, that is used to increase, maintain, or improve the functional capabilities of individuals with disabilities (standards.gov). Assistive technology is not only something that runs by a computer but it can also be something concrete like rails or low, custom furniture.

A few examples include:

• Toilets and showers equipped with grab bars for persons who may fall easily or require supports
• A computer that can be programmed to talk for individuals who cannot speak
• Wheelchairs, both manual and power, for individuals who cannot walk due to paralysis or weakness in their legs
• Hearing aids and other amplification devices for individuals with hearing loss
• Large screen computers for individuals with visual problems
• Devices that operate lamps, radios and other appliances through a remote control switching device, that might be attached to a person's wheelchair (standards.gov)

Not only has assistive technology made daily life easier for people with disabilities but it has greatly helped in education too. School districts are required under law to provide appropriate AT to students with disabilities under the IDEA act. IDEA says AT can be a service or a device and that is must be provided for free by the school (after there has been an IEP). Deaf and hard of hearing is a common disability in schools. There are a variety of tools to help with this disability. They include: hearing aids,hearing implants,sound amplifiers, speech amplifiers, lip and speech learning programs, electronic sign language dictionaries, sign flashcards, text telephone, and many more. A child might also have a signal dog or a "communication aid person" as services.

I will incorporate awarness of AT in my teaching by keeping up on the latest devices and services; reading articles, visiting webinars, communicating with the resource teacher in my school and other staff, and possibly going to a conference. I will keep a record of resources for families as well. As I teacher I want to provide the best practice, experience, and environment for my students and part of the solution is to learn about the different resources out there. I think it's a good idea to learn about your students before the school year begins and see if there are any devices or services that any of the students will be using, this way you are prepared to help them. 

References:

http://standards.gov/standards_gov/assistiveTechnology.cfm

http://atto.buffalo.edu/registered/ATBasics/Foundation/intro/index.php

http://www.abledata.com/abledata.cfm?pageid=19327&top=13436&deep=2&trail=22&ksectionid=19327

http://medgadget.com/2005/04/nanoscience_mee.html

Resources: 

http://atlaak.org/ Assistive Technology of Alaska. It provides webinars and other information about AT.

http://www.abledata.com/abledata.cfm?pageid=19327&ksectionid=19327 tells about the different products out there and where to find them for different types of disabilities

Skype: Great Tech Tool

I have been hearing about Skype for sometime now and have always wanted to try it; this assignment was the perfect opportunity for me to look into it. Skype is a software that allows you to make calls over the internet and it's free! You can also video with people and chat too. Over 30 million people are using Skype and it has become a hit worldwide. Families, friends, and the rest of the world can connect with each other where ever they are.  I am really excited to try out Skype with my family in Russia. My uncle has had it for awhile and has been asking us to get it. I haven't seen him and his family since I moved here 16 years ago. 


Not only is Skype a great way to connect with people but it is a great teaching tool. Many teachers are implementing Skype in their classroom and are using it for a number of purposes. Below is a link I listed that discusses 50 ways Skype can be used in a classroom. Some of my favorite ideas were: connecting with an author or artist the class has been studying, inviting guest speakers, learning another language from people across the world, connecting with students who are ill, and lastly but not least taking a field trip!


Two video 's: first one explains Skype and the second ones shows how to use it

http://youtu.be/m1mflr-kQlk

http://youtu.be/KH80vs8DweU

Link: 

50 Awesome Ways to Use Skype in the Classroom

There were 5 categories and each one had great ideas and links:

• Promoting Education
• Promoting Community
• Skype Ideas for Teachers and Parents
• Resources for Getting Started and Using Skype
• Finding Others Using Skype

http://www.teachingdegree.org/2009/06/30/50-awesome-ways-to-use-skype-in-the-classroom/

Connecting Classroom Blogs

I followed Heather, Rochelle, Brianna, and Peter this week. After looking at my classmates blogs I learned that even though they all looked different we all have the same theme of using the blogs to better equip ourselfs for teaching. I noticed everyone is reading articles and looking at resources and taking away beneficial information from them. I like the idea of blogs and sharing them with classmates because we can see how everyone is  interpreting information; it's a good way to see other perspectives and get ideas.

I also followed the scholastic blog. Since there are many authors on this blog I chose to look at an article called " Planning a Productive Summer for You and Your Students" by Beth Newingham.

Here is the link:

http://blogs.scholastic.com/top_teaching/2011/06/planning-a-productive-summer-for-you-and-your-students.html

Beth Newingham is an elementary teacher who is partnered with Scholastic; she publishes articles for them. Newingham presented 10 great ideas for the summer but my favorite part was her own classroom library! She posted a short virtual video on how she sets up her library. This was really interesting to me because I have taken a few literature classes already (and am taking one right now) and I have been hooked on children's literature and read alouds. I liked this author a lot so I checked out her blog and she has many great posting and ideas! I found a neat resource that she uses. It is called "Teacher Book Wizard" and it helps you find reading levels for books (and other books tools as well). 

Here's the link directly to her library video:

http://blogs.scholastic.com/top_teaching/2009/10/classlibrary.html

Here's the link for the book wizard:

http://bookwizard.scholastic.com/tbw/homePage.do 

Just thought I would also share a great book I just read about reading (which I'm sure a number of you have already read).

Source: http://onceuponagoodtime.com/2009/05/25/reading-magic-family-summer-reading-program/

Copyright

I read the article called Copyright 101 for Educators: Winter 2003 by Wesley A. Fryer. The main thing I knew about copyright before reading more about it is that it is illegal to use other people's work. I didn't realize how severe and in depth the laws were about copyright. If you barrow anything from the internet or anywhere else you need permission from the person who produced the work. Teachers and students use other people's work being it for making lesson plans or doing a research paper. Copyright knowledge becomes important in teaching. Teacher's have a responsibly to educate the students about the wrong and right of using people's work. Fair Use is a guideline for teachers about copyright laws. In the article Fryer discussed the four factors to be considered when determining fair use:

1)the purpose  and character of the use, including whether such use is of commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes

2)the nature of copyrighted work

3)the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole

4)the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.

Understanding that I will be using Fair Use in education I would like to learn more about it.

Educational Blogs

I searched through a lot of blogs and found it was a bit difficult to find one that I liked. A lot of the blogs had loads of information and were hard to explore/navigate. I thought it was also a challenge plugging into a blog that has been developed for a long time. Blogs that had individual topics (info about the iPad) were easier to follow instead of a continuous topic that been discussed for quiet some time. I found that some of the resources posted on blogs were no longer available if you clicked on them; that was a bummer but is understandable because things change. Even though I thought looking through blogs was a somewhat challenging I still like the idea of them; I do think that they are beneficial. I found that blogs provide a lot of resources and tools as well as discuss current issues and things going on in the education/global community. I think blogs are a great way for teachers to get ideas to use in the classroom, get help with problems, share their own ideas with others, and so on. I am following the second blog (scholastic).


Blogs I explored: 
http://davidwarlick.com/2cents/
http://blogs.scholastic.com/top_teaching/ 
http://edte.ch/blog/
http://www.techfridge.com/