Monday, September 29, 2008
More research and less hands on
Since my last post, I unfortunately haven’t been working hands on with any of the technology. Since that is my favorite part of my internship, I am a little bummed. Instead, I have been working more on scheduling visits to view the technology, getting permission to video students using the technology and trying to track down a digital video camera that I can use to tape. I have also been searching for related articles for my annotated bibliography. There’s a lot of research out there on assistive technology, but I am trying to find those that are related to using the technology in the classroom. Between this internship, my other class and my students, I am staying very busy, but am enjoying finding new technology that I have never seen before and learning all about what is being used in my district.
Friday, September 12, 2008
Assisting others through technology
My internship is well underway. I am really enjoying learning about the different products that are available and how much assistive technology is being used within my district.
Since my last post, I have been researching different products and journal articles on assistive technology. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to find a lot of research, but I am still looking. My supervisor is our lead assistive technology teacher in our district. She just completed the course work for her masters. One of the papers she wrote was on assistive technology and some of the research she found will be helpful to me.
I have also been making contacts within my district. I sent out an email asking for special education teachers to email reply with what products (software, programs and hardware) that they current use in their classrooms. As of now, I have gotten over 75 replies, not only from special education teachers but other teachers who teach inclusion. I have set up an excel spreadsheet to keep up with all the names, locations and products that I am interested in.
On Friday, September 12, 2008, I made my first visit to Ballentine Elementary School. I interviewed one of the music teachers. BES houses the Occupational Disabled elementary class. The music teacher works with these students when they come with their general education peers. I’m unsure whether the instruments she uses would be considered assistive technology or just an adaptation, but I really enjoyed looking through all her information. Even though I teach what I do and have worked with students with various disabilities for over 10 years, I never thought about how they would be able to play any music or how a regular music class would be adapted to fit their individual needs. The neatest thing she showed me was a recorder (remember Three Blind Mice? How about Hot Cross Buns??). All fourth graders must take lessons on playing the recorder. The adaptive on she purchased using grant money (it costs about $15.00 versus the $2.00 version used by most students) that comes apart. This is so the holes can be rotated to fit students with finger dexterity issues, or students whose fingers are missing.
I have scheduled two more interviews with teachers at Dutch Fork High School for Tuesday, September 16. These will be with self contained special education teachers, so the products will be more assistive technology. I have more the schedule in the coming weeks, but look forward to seeing everything that is being used. I plan on checking everyone first then scheduling times when I can video tape using the different products/programs and programming them for different students.
Since my last post, I have been researching different products and journal articles on assistive technology. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to find a lot of research, but I am still looking. My supervisor is our lead assistive technology teacher in our district. She just completed the course work for her masters. One of the papers she wrote was on assistive technology and some of the research she found will be helpful to me.
I have also been making contacts within my district. I sent out an email asking for special education teachers to email reply with what products (software, programs and hardware) that they current use in their classrooms. As of now, I have gotten over 75 replies, not only from special education teachers but other teachers who teach inclusion. I have set up an excel spreadsheet to keep up with all the names, locations and products that I am interested in.
On Friday, September 12, 2008, I made my first visit to Ballentine Elementary School. I interviewed one of the music teachers. BES houses the Occupational Disabled elementary class. The music teacher works with these students when they come with their general education peers. I’m unsure whether the instruments she uses would be considered assistive technology or just an adaptation, but I really enjoyed looking through all her information. Even though I teach what I do and have worked with students with various disabilities for over 10 years, I never thought about how they would be able to play any music or how a regular music class would be adapted to fit their individual needs. The neatest thing she showed me was a recorder (remember Three Blind Mice? How about Hot Cross Buns??). All fourth graders must take lessons on playing the recorder. The adaptive on she purchased using grant money (it costs about $15.00 versus the $2.00 version used by most students) that comes apart. This is so the holes can be rotated to fit students with finger dexterity issues, or students whose fingers are missing.
I have scheduled two more interviews with teachers at Dutch Fork High School for Tuesday, September 16. These will be with self contained special education teachers, so the products will be more assistive technology. I have more the schedule in the coming weeks, but look forward to seeing everything that is being used. I plan on checking everyone first then scheduling times when I can video tape using the different products/programs and programming them for different students.
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Blog #1
This is actually my first time blogging, so please bear with me as I begin this new experience. My internship for 650 will be to create instructional videos for assistive technology devices, then upload them to some kind of website so my fellow teachers and others will be able to have access to them. I am hoping they will use the videos to not only learn how to program the devices but but use it as a resource to find new technology or math students with the technology they need.
Like some or most of you, I was at a loss as to what I should do for my internship when I first began this class. I was under the impression that I would "shadow" someone at their job. I'm not sure where that came from, but I was highly mistaken. Dr. Wissick had emailed me back in the spring and told me to be thinking about how I could do my internship in special education and assistive technology. Since I was still under the impression that I was to be "shadowing" someone, I started thinking about people who work in that field.
When we actually got into the class, I was still pretty clueless about what to do, so I emailed Dr. Wissick again for some ideas. When she wrote me back with the idea I explained above, and I realized that my options were wide open, I was very excited. I took her idea and made it my own by adding more to it. I'm very excited about this opportunity to learn more about the different types of devices/software that is out there. I have also spoken to various people in my district who are looking forward to using the videos as a resource.
There are still some "bugs" that I need to work out, like determining where I can put the videos. Is there a place that can host my site that I can create, or will I need to post them to youtube/teachertube, then create a new page on my teacher site through my district to house the links? These are issues that I will be working on throughout the semester, and I'm sure others will come up as I am working but for right now, things are looking good!
Like some or most of you, I was at a loss as to what I should do for my internship when I first began this class. I was under the impression that I would "shadow" someone at their job. I'm not sure where that came from, but I was highly mistaken. Dr. Wissick had emailed me back in the spring and told me to be thinking about how I could do my internship in special education and assistive technology. Since I was still under the impression that I was to be "shadowing" someone, I started thinking about people who work in that field.
When we actually got into the class, I was still pretty clueless about what to do, so I emailed Dr. Wissick again for some ideas. When she wrote me back with the idea I explained above, and I realized that my options were wide open, I was very excited. I took her idea and made it my own by adding more to it. I'm very excited about this opportunity to learn more about the different types of devices/software that is out there. I have also spoken to various people in my district who are looking forward to using the videos as a resource.
There are still some "bugs" that I need to work out, like determining where I can put the videos. Is there a place that can host my site that I can create, or will I need to post them to youtube/teachertube, then create a new page on my teacher site through my district to house the links? These are issues that I will be working on throughout the semester, and I'm sure others will come up as I am working but for right now, things are looking good!
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