ECOMP 5004: Reflection Using wallwisher

Directions: Use the wallwisher site to state your brief impression of  article, Picture a World Without Pens, Pencils and Paper.
http://www.wallwisher.com/wall/ecomp5004Exeter

Article:  Picture a World Without Pens, Pencils and Paper
Bromley, K. (2010). Picture a world without pens, pencils, and paper. Journal of College Reading and Learning, 41.1, 97-108

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ECOMP 5004: Biopoem Project

Assignment #1 - Biopoems in the Classroom


The biopoem project can be used in classes and courses across the curriculum, as we did, as an kind of ice breaker activity where students have the opportunity to learn some basic facts about their peers. For students, this will kick off the making of connections between one another. For the teacher, this will help foster the development of the classroom culture.  Biopoems also provide teachers with the opportunity to integrate a potentially new piece of technology, like Glogster, as a possible choice for students to express their knowledge and understanding. 

Teachers could also use this concept with students so that they will construct another biopoem, but this time the students get to do a little role-playing. In language arts class, for example, students chooses a character from a book they're reading for class. In social studies, students do their writeup on a pharaoh they've been studying from Ancient Egypt. When we get to science, students must create a biopoem based on an element form the Periodic Table. Teachers could also use the biopoem project and turn it into a game of "Guess Who?" where students must use of their detective skills to figure out who the poem is about. The possibilities may be limited only by one's imagination.

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Biopoem.ME

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Biopoem.TEACHER

ECOMP 5007: Final Project #2 - Field Research & Presentation

WriteRoom, Distraction-Free Writing

Overview
In our second final project, I was excited to have the opportunity to work with a staff member who is strong in this area of knowledge to create a meaningful product to share with my fellow teachers. Actually, it was a random comment of mine to our assistive technology specialist about a recent application I had heard about on our MLTI laptops that sparked this great conversation on how WriteRoom could be a great tool for both mainstream and special needs students. I knew for certain we were on the right track when she and I presented our findings to the language arts department and saw the light bulbs come on almost immediately. One teacher made the comment that WriteRoom is, “just cool enough that every student will want to use it, so that special needs students won’t feel singled out or segregated when they need to use it for their classwork.”

• View web presentation below, or click here.

WriteRoom

More PowerPoint presentations from Nick Shuman

ECOMP 5007: Final Project #1 - Resource Brochure

Tonic-Clonic Seizures

a How-To Guide for Teachers

Overview

For our first of two final projects, it was uncanny how the timing of this assignment synced so well with the introduction of a student into my school who suffers from tonic-clonic seizures. It gave me the perfect opportunity to sit down with the school nurse and construct an informational resource for teachers, administrators, and support staff. Where knowledge is power, now we as a staff know what tonic-clonic seizures are and what to do if the student experiences one. In addition, we have learned how to incorporate this disability into our school culture so that the student can have as much of a normal middle school experience as possible while also being ready to give aid when it is needed.

• View brochure online from iWork.com
• Access embedded video "What Would You Do…?" here.

ECOMP 5007: Web Accessibility

In class we had an opportunity to see some of the accessibility features built into the operating systems of today’s computers. We also saw a variety of assistive technology products that allow students with or without disabilities to perform better in the educational setting. All of these things provide accessibility; but what about the World Wide Web? How accessible is it, and what is being done to improve accessibility?

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Web accessibility is a topic that has been around for a while. I remember the topic coming up back in college when I began designing my first website using Netscape Composer. Even then such webpage editors were including prompts and fields to encourage the writer to make their content more accessible, such as alternate text when adding an image. Today, more and more web editors are working to provide accessibility options for web designers; I noticed several extra fields in my Wordpress blog editor just last week. These extra fields were prompting me to include additional information that would help visually impaired users of the Internet to be able to consume the information on my blog easier.

As I watched the two videos from WebAIM I sympathized with the students and recognized their frustration and disappointment in the Internet. I got to thinking about some of the websites that I’ve visited that I found difficult to navigate in and thought, if I am frustrated with this site how would a person with web accessibility issues feel? It seems like, as more and more websites move to flashier pages with animated graphics they are also leaving behind people who could be potential consumers, customers, and/or contributors. What it really comes back to is a very old yet very relevant concept: know your audience. Once you have that nailed down, you can adapt your content or message for maximum coverage and distribution. 

I think many of us take the Internet for granted with respect to how the information found on it is communicated. I was really impressed with what Curtis Radford, who is hearing impaired, said when he described himself in the first WebAIM video. He can think, he can read, he can write, and he doesn’t see himself as having a disability…he just can’t hear. So why shouldn’t he be able to consume and contribute to the wealth of content that the Internet provides?

Recently our IT director re-designed all of our school websites and made them more “interactive” with animated flash graphics, embedded Google calendars, and Twitter feeds. I decided to take a page out of my cohort colleague Chad’s handbook and tried to navigate the middle school homepage without using my mouse. Okay, I have to admit that it took less than a minute to cheat, but I had use my mouse in order to bypass the animated flash graphic at the top of the homepage. After that I tried again and, while I was moderately successful in navigating to where I wanted to go, it sure did take a long time to get there without a mouse. And I remember when computers didn’t come with a mouse and all of your navigation was done by keyboard commands…how times have changed.

ECOMP 5007: ELL

This week's assignment allowed you to take a closer look at our students who do not speak English as their first language.

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1.  What’s available in your state?

Web Resource: National Clearing House for English Language Acquisition (NCELA)

Before going to the website and investigating what programs and services were available to ELL students in the state of Maine I tried to think back and remember where I had previously seen any related documentation…I couldn’t. In my experiences working with the Maine Learning Results, my teaching internship, and my college courses I don’t remember the topic of ELL coming up. In fact, my first experience dealing with ELL was my first job as an Ed. Tech. at Kennebunk High School. Even then, my exposure was limited to the ELL teacher on staff due to some extreme deficiencies in her technology skills. 

In looking through Maine’s Department Of Education website, I was able to pick up pieces here and there that related to my classroom work such as the NECAPS standardized tests that we are preparing to administer next month. I was impressed with the number of webinars I found on a variety of ELL and ESL topics going back as far as 2009. I also went looking to see who were the ELL staff members in my school district because, I’m sorry to say, I didn’t know who they were. I feel like I should be concerned that we have only one person on our ELL staff for our entire K-12 school district.  Then again, I suppose this depends on the number of students who fall into the ELL category. Perhaps other specials who are cross-trained are also providing additional support? In any case, I need to investigate and find out.

2.  A “hot topic” in the world of ELL is the differentiation of students who are true ELL students from students with disabilities who demonstrate language problems, i.e., differentiating language differences and language disorders/disabilities.

Web Resource: LD online.org

One of the main conclusions I drew from this “hot topic” is, in my opinion, and old one. In order for students to be successful learners, whether they are ELL students or students with language problems or mainstream students, all members of a schools’ staff must work and communicate together to create a positive and supportive environment. Support for ELL students should not just come from when a student is pulled from class to work with a specialist. Rather, it should should come from the classroom teacher, the art teacher, the librarian, the principal, and so forth. In my teaching I am already in the position of trying to teach students a different language: the language of computer technology. While this can be a challenge in itself, if I have a student who also has difficulties with English then I need to know and be collaborating with other teachers and specialists to develop skills and strategies to help them be just as successful in my class as the rest of my students.

3. "What Teachers Should Know About Instruction For English Language Learners"
Web Resource: Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory (NREL) - Article

In reading this document and reviewing the 14 principles of interest, a couple of concepts really jumped out at me:

• P2-Conversational vs. Academic language: I had never really given much thought to the language that I use in the classroom as being academic, although it makes perfect sense. I am constantly working to use terms, concepts, and language that will allow students to make connections between their prior knowledge and that of “techno-speak.” Now that I think about it, I wonder if this could be considered an attempt to bridge the gap between these two types of language?

• P4-Background Knowledge: This principle also made a lot of sense to me. With language comes culture and differences in what is considered acceptable behavior, classroom expectations, etc. This concept needs to be considered when interacting with ELL students so that the teacher can help them see the differences but also acknowledge that both have value. I mean, is not one of the reasons we want English students to take foreign language is so that they can appreciate the similarities and differences between cultures?

4. Looking at some specifics…

While at the elementary level YouTube is a resource that is blocked by our district filters, at the middle school our students have been able to show the responsibility and maturity to use this resource (most of the time). Hence, the ManyThings.org website could be a handy tool to have and use. This current generation of students tend gravitate to video resources whenever possible, and as a result YouTube has been a hotbed for teachers to find academic-related material. I can also see this resource integrating nicely with our 7/8 graders and their MLTI laptops. I was also impressed with the site having a section for iOS devices (e.g. iPad, iPod-Touch). These types of devices are entering schools and classrooms at a ever-increasing rate and I was pleased to see a site that is making efforts to find resources that will work with different types of technologies such as these.

ECOMP 5007: UDL

Remember our class discussion on Universal Design for Learning (UDL)? This week your assignment provided you with some more detailed information about UDL and the outcomes it may foster. You dug a lot deeper into this topic, and you looked at some tools that provide UDL foundations.


After reviewing the different resources offered this week about universal design, what is being modeled here? How does design afford higher levels of access and learning? Are there ways for you to bring these kinds of strategies and techniques into your own work with students?

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What is being modeled here is a broader perception of the what, how, and why of learning. It attacks the notion that students are like machines and that an “assembly line” education system will allow all of them to emerge as adults ready to enter the real world. Far from it, we are all unique individuals who learn, comprehend, and express our understanding in unique ways. This concept speaks not just to students identified with special needs but also to students who are considered mainstream.

Design affords higher levels of access and learning by helping teachers to stay focused on the “big picture.” At the same time, teachers need to recognize that each student is unique in their learning styles and abilities to express understanding. I see it as an interesting contradiction: Don’t loose sight of the overall goal of educating all of your students by also being aware of the uniqueness of each and every student in the class. When you see classroom teachers, special education instructors, and support staff working toward this goal of Universal Design of Learning I see yet another example of how teachers need to be “quick on their feet,” ready to change, modify, and reconfigure their mode of teaching at a moments notice as they move from one student to another. This is not an easy skill to acquire, and I give great credit to those teachers who are successful at this each and every day.

During my internship to become an educator I latched on to the concept of designing lessons that would address the three main learning styles: visual, auditory, and tactile learners. Having read the material on UDL I see that, while this concept is a good start there is more to the spectrum than just three learning styles. This is certainly the case when I factor in students entering my classroom in need of accommodations.

Last year was my first time using an audio enhancement tool with two different students who had hear impairments. While I don’t have a problem making my voice loader for everyone to hear, I also tend to move about the classroom as I teach. I realized that this could be problematic for these two students. Wearing the voice enhancement microphone allowed me to continue teaching in this style while also allowing these students to hear my directions clearly.

In looking at some of the tools provided in this weeks assignment, one that I took notice of is the Web Notes tool. I try to post all of my teaching materials online via my website so that students, parents, and teachers can access the content at any time. When combined with Web Notes, students with memory impairments could attach key words and phrases right onto my digital documents and webpages to help them recall the information later. Another tool that could easily integrate into this framework is Natural Reader. Again, since I put all of my materials online in digital format, students with visual impairments or dyslexia could use this tool to have the computer read such things as the directions off of a worksheet or speak aloud the copy of my notes from the previous lesson. Text-to-Speech tools like this give students power and control over their learning so that they can be and feel successful in their journey as a lifelong learner.