Assitive Technology

Introduction: Some students simply need extra help. As educators, I believe it is our responsibility to have programs on hand that will maximize a students learning potential. The following programs are just a few examples of tools to give aide to those with special needs.

EZ Keys- http://www.words-plus.com/website/products/soft/ezkeys.htm

EZ Keys is designed to give a voice to those who cannot speak. It allows for communication in the classroom between a teacher- student and student-student to be more like an ordinary interaction. Unfortunately, our current system does not teach sign language to all students, and I think this is the next best thing. EZ Keys allows for these students with this special needs to participate in classroom activities much easier and faster.



Easy Listener - http://www.centrumsound.com/Easy_Listener.html

Easy Listener is designed to give aide to students with hearing disabilities. Its design allows it to work with ear aides to help combat background noise in a classroom. Easy listener is one of the most popular choices for upper level students because it is convenient as well as effective. By using easy listener, students are able to participate on the same level as any other student. This means that the student can now gain valuable information simply by being able to interact with other students.



AskSam - http://www.asksam.com/

AskSam is a program that gives assistance to anyone who struggles with Organization and Memory. It is able to organize documents in Web page, Email, PDF file, text, and Word document form. Hundreds of private businesses use AskSam every single year.

How could this be helpful to a student who needs assistance in their school work? Well, once a document is in an AskSam database, it can be edited, rearranged, and organized much easier than other sources. Students who have a memory disability now do not have to remember what they searched the day before because it is right there for them in an AskSam database. In fact, this database is not limited to students with disabilities at all, it can be used by all students, and makes remembering and saving documents much easier on the student.


Assistive Technology is very necessary for the success of students who may have disabilites. In order to maximize those student's potential, teachers and adminstrators must be aware of these types of tools, and work to get them into their classrooms.

Voki!!!!!

Voki.com

English Companion Ning

Heres the link: http://englishcompanion.ning.com/

The English Companion Ning is basically a technological conference for English Teachers across the country. It has articles about important topics in English Education such as Plagiarism (as seen above). It also has forums where teachers with questions can get feedback and advice from other teachers to gain from there experience.This Ning also contains information about events for professional development and personal improvement. Finally, what I found really beneficial about this Ning is that it has a collection of blogs for teachers to read. This allows teachers to learn even more from other teachers who may have more experience.


The English companion is efficient because allows teachers to find a large amount of information in one spot. So they spend less time finding ideas, and more time putting them into action

The English companion is effective because it gives hands on advice from teachers who have experienced different situations before. Also, it is a method for professional development for teachers

The English companion enhances student learning by being a marketplace of ideas for teachers. This allows teachers to gather information and perfect their lessons to help students grasp them in a whole new way.

Mac vs PC

This is an example of Parody featuring characters from the comedic series South Park. What do you guys think can we take anything away from this that tells us something about our culture. What does this say about business practices in the United States.

-- Todd

Wii Fit

What does this parody tell us about our society and our use of technology?

Hey guys,
I found this video on youtube, and I thought it was a good example of parody. Please comment below the implications of this video on us today. Do you agree with what the creator's message is?

-- Todd

Plato's Cave

What is Plato saying here about our humanity?

Hello All,

I found this video on Youtube as well. I have always like Plato, so this popped out to me immediately. To me, this is an excellent example of Satire. What do you guys think?

-- Todd

In Class Workout #9

Station 6: Language Arts- Persuasive Speaking Survey

Members of the Group

Samantha Shockney
Josh Quimby
Jeremy Harrison
Courtney Payne

This station worked on persuasive English. The debate was whether or not it would be wise to reconstruct the 45/46 bypass to include more lanes. Some felt that the bypass was unsafe, so we decided to create a survey that determined how many people shared that opinion. Not only did we want to determine whether people felt the bypass was unsafe, but whether the accidents on the bypass were due to the road itself or due to highly aggressive driving in that area. The results of the survey were sent to a Google Spreadsheet. (see link below). I contributed by aiding the other members in our group create the questions on the survey. Together, we collaborated to create the survey questions.

We found that many people feel relatively safe on the bypass, however, 100% of the surveyed population agreed they'd feel safer with more lanes on the bypass. All the surveyed individuals said that they drive on the bypass, so this is clearly a widespread issue. While none of the people reported being in an accident, they reacted differently about the safety of the road. One reported that it's often "hard to get where I need to go" on the bypass. It's safe to say that more lanes would aid in this problem. Overall, although most people have managed to avoid accidents, it is clear that they would be open to construction to add more lanes to the bypass.

http://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?formkey=dEtkMGxHSi1OZXhqX0c3QlZIWHhSQ1E6MA


I think that this type of activity would be very valuable to students because it allows them to experience being persuasive in a way other than giving a speech or writing a paper. It also allows students to analyze data and combines persuasive thinking with scientific analysis. I think that combining these skills makes both stronger and improves the quality of education. The teachers can also benefit from this activity. They are able to see how well students are able to articulate and present their ideas. It also lets teachers see how well students are able to analyze data.

One drawback is that this activity really depends on the ability to ask questions that will give them good data. If students are not able to ask good questions, they won't get good enough data to make informed observations. Also, it takes a lot of feedback for the survey to get much data. The drawback for English teachers is we don't get to see how well students can write about their ideas. The answers are relatively short, we are unable to get much detail about student's opinion.

The most surprising aspect of this activity was how easy it was to make a decision and argue that position based on the data we collected. This could be a valuable lesson to students encouraging them to argue rationally.