Classroom Applications for Newly Learned Technology
We have taken time in this class to explore various kinds of assistive technology. Some have a singular purpose, but most have many. Think of one kind of technology and discuss how you could use it to address learning in a 'universal' manner. Remember keep your teaching goal in mind and stay as close as you can to a grade and subject area within the program of studies in Alberta when you post your idea....v
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
9 comments:
I was very excited to discover the Read and Write Software that Lisa Boone presented to us yesterday! Initially, I was thinking that it would be an excellent tool for our family - however I was thrilled to discover that it would have a very valuable application for our accounting program students! This software is an excellent tool to assist all learners in following through the process of writing research papers. In addition to assistance with capturing and sourcing relevant quotations and other information, this software could help learners to organize the structure of their papers. Our students would get benefit from the self edit feature too.
Further, when Lisa demonstrated the "highlighter" feature, with the variety of colors available,I couldn't help but recall how I went through the exact same process - only manually when completing my literature review for my capping project! This software would be very useful to grad students and academics as a digital and consequently more time effective method to synthesize volumes of academic literature for the purpose of composing a literature review.
I really like the concept maps that you can make in Kidspiration. I can see that using this program for lower elementary grades would be very useful. Many students have difficulties organizing their ideas before writing. This tool gives them a structure that they can build on when they go to write a story or even a report.
Boardmaker: I know that our short little session with this software gave us some exposure to how it works, but like many other things we are only using a SMALL amount of what the program can actually do. I was interested to see that there is a Boardmaker component in Classroom Suite. I haven't explored it, but am interested in seeing how it works.
I am very excited about the potential to use Boardmaker for all emerging readers. The most important function is the "SILLY MAN" function. I was disappointed that the in-class Boardmaker tutorial didn't challenge us to use this function. Let me challenge you, my peers, to go back onto Boardmaker, open a new board, click on the "Silly Man", and type in a nursery rhyme. A link to a colour photocopier is wonderful. The pictures will automatically appear as you type in the text. Once you get comfortable with the way this matches symbol to text, you will want to learn how to insert pictures for words that have none. It's really quite easy once you get onto it. You can also add sound & animation with the dynamic button to make the material more interesting to read. As I introduce this technology to kids, first they stand beside me at the keyboard, and tell me a story. They watch as the symbols appear on the screen as I do the word processing. The classroom teacher (or EA) can compile each of the children's stories into a classroom book which can be read & enjoyed by all. By the end of the year, even youngest students can do keyboarding themselves.
April is Poetry Month, & at our school each student had to find 2 or 3 poems that they particularly enjoyed reading. Then, they got to come to me for some fun 1:1 time, & we entered one of their poems using the Boardmaker "APPELATE" function (which is what the "SILLY MAN" is really called).
Classroom teachers or EA's or volunteer parents were able to then post the finished product up on the walls when guests visited our school for our Poetry Cafe. During the cafe, each student recited their chosen poems in front of an audience. Some chose to memorize, some read the text version, & some read the Boardmaker
version.
In Classrom Suite I was delighted to find a math section in which you can teach students how to add and subtract 3 digit numbers using base 10 materials. I have students in grade six who still do not understand the concepts of carrying and borrowing. This program shows the student how 10 ones get traded for 1 group of 10. It also shows how one ten gets traded for ten ones and so on. I believe it is also fun to do, so the students will be actively engaged in doing their extra math help. I also feel that students can work on this program unobtrusively in the classroom so will not mind doing it while others may be on a higher level of questions.Classroom Suite has a lot of excellent sections on language arts reading and writing as well as text to speech to help. I really enjoyed using this software program and feel that it will be very useful in my classroom.
I had the opportunity to try the Classroom Suite software the other night and was captivated by the many applications it offers. In my work as a learning assistance teacher, I work with up to 30 diverse learners from grade one to six. While this is mostly in Language arts, I need software that is dynamic and that help me keep track of how my students skills are progressing throughout each term. Creating individual portfolios for students sounds fantastic (although I would use it in addition to my current practice of individual portfolios that contain work samples, testing, works in process etc...) and would be an excellent to conference with teachers, parents and students about their strengths and weaknesses.
One of the other features that would be really useful is the the Show Me option where video-like sequences can be added to a lesson or activity or Practice which provides strategic and corrective feedback. I could use this with a group of division one students who require considerable practice in phonemic awareness in order to master these skills and move forward. With such a variety of learners, providing targeted practice in an engaging and responsive format can be a challenge.
Penny
After playing around with Boardmaker awhile I realized that the program could be used for much more than just a communication device for a nonverbal child. The pictures with acompanying words could be enlarged to make sight word cards that could be used in K-2 classrooms. Also, cards could be made to do classifying activities. For example, grouping insects, mammals, community helpers or weather etc. Lastly, the pictures could be used to initiate brainstorming as a whole class. For example, an enlarged picture of an insect could be posted on a chart paper and the students could brainstorm the characteristics of insects. The chart could be used as a reference point throughout the unit of study.
I find Boardmaker to be a very useful program, particularly in my classroom setting. I have used it in a variety of ways. There are posters in various places in the classroom, outlining daily routines with picture symbol support. These would include steps to follow when you first arrive at school, steps to follow when you are getting ready to go home etc. I use it a lot for early reading for those students who need picture support. I make flashcards with word/picture and word alone for matching. I add picture symbols to reading text as a support. I also write social stories for various behaviour issues and social skills. We also do a fair amount of cooking in the classroom, so I use the Boardmaker symbols when I am writing out the recipes. One of my favorite activities is 'School News'- the younger students who are not writing a lot yet have a 'menu' of pictures of various school activities. They can circle or stamp the things we did that week. They then have a starting point for talking to their families about what they have been doing at school. I will definitely be purchasing the updated version of Boardmaker when I return to my classroom!
As I was going through the Classroom Suite demo, I really liked the customizing aspect of it, that is customizing the templates for each student. I also appreciate the aspect that all the activities are accessible by switch (this I found out by reading the little booklet that comes with the demo) - I would like to try this out - although I don't have access to a switch at home !!! But that really makes the software really accessible to all. The activities, I could see, could be really exciting to do for the young learners - nicely rewarding with stars and voice feedback - speaks to the children's affective networks!!
Re: Classroom Suite
I have spent most of my time with this software in the "Creative Applications" section & making multimedia presentations of a few some of my favorite kindergarten songs & chants. I'll show them to you on Friday. I still have to learn it better to make it smooth, but I know this is technology I will use in my work place.
Also, the challenge I gave with boardmaker, I've decided to incorporate into my presentation, & have you all try it then, so you don't need to do it on your own.
Post a Comment