Aggregated Website Journey

Although I had a difficult time getting any of the apps to work as feeds, it seems that Netvibes may have more capabilities than Protopage.  However, without searching for videos or learning from someone who is a user of Netvibes, it is easy to reach a level of frustration that leaves you wanting to try the next option.  Protopage was a completely different experience.  It was easy to use without seeking additional help.  I was able to easily add everything that I wanted to and look forward to using it in my classroom.  I have already envisioned having a tab for each of my students (I only have 11) with various links to websites and media they use.  I loved how it brought all of the information from this course into one, easily accessible format.  Before putting everything into Protopage, each of the tools I wanted to explore, links for this class, twitter, the tools I had reviewed, and my blog were all open in various tabs.  This is a much more efficient and usable way to contain all of that information.  I really, really like this tool!

Continued Twitter Adventure, YouTube Adventure, and Group Project

Continued Twitter Adventure

As this Twitter Adventure continued, I consulted the person (in my house) most likely to use Twitter regularly, my 13 year old son.  I talked to him about my struggles with the tool - that it seemed to be very output only.  For example, someone from our class mentioned the use of a tool to communicate with students and I asked how other districts were responding to the use of these tools (mine has not been very positive about it).  I got no response.  Tools that I have used (before now) have more back and forth, so I struggle with this.  My son said he follows people/groups who have something to say that might interest him.  For example, the Dallas Mavericks and a person who posts YouTube videos he tends to enjoy.  I think it is possible I haven't appreciated Twitter because I was basing it on other tools.  I will continue to explore Twitter and use it in this way.  So far, however, I have not appreciated the tweets of the "friends of friends" type situation.  For example, I followed WFAA (local news) and have gotten several tweets from other people who WFAA follows.  I am not a fan of this, and would love to know if you can turn it off.

YouTube Adventure

I have used YouTube in my classroom for various videos and at home (I removed and installed my alternator with a YouTube video).  However, I had not played with the channels or playlists section.  Side note: I am a huge fan of Pinterest.  I love the fact that you can search for ideas for any facet of your life and find great ideas.  YouTube is like Pinterest squared!  I can spend hours on Pinterest, but I could spend days on YouTube.  I was a little frustrated by my inability to find videos about my specific type of classroom, but it is such a specific type of setting.  I will continue to look for these videos, but then again, maybe I will just make my own.  :)

Group Project

I will say, honestly, that I have never enjoyed group projects.  I tended to be the one to do most of the work and, even worse, be the 'nag' of the group in an effort to make progress.  However, this was so much worse.  I never had a problem contacting my group members before - they had to come to class. This was not the case.  I know (at least last week) the 2 MIA members were at least still enrolled, but that is basically all I know.  The third member doesn't respond quickly to emails and is more of a procrastinator than I am.  I am still not certain that he has added his reviews to mine.  So, I am sure there is a lesson in this, but group work is not my cup of tea.

Review of ShowMe

I recently started using a tool with my students and have truly enjoyed the outcomes.  When I was tasked to review some technology tools, I knew this is one I wanted to explore further and review.  The tool is called ShowMe and has allowed my students who struggle to understand the concepts in comprehension questions to show me (no pun was intended) they understood and appreciated the book. My review, using the tool, is here and, even better, one of my student's retelling of the book No, David is included here as well. I hope you can find a way to use this great tool in your classroom.


My Review



My Student's Retelling

My Twitter Adventure

Oh, what an adventure it has been.  I have felt lost, found, confused, abandoned, and ignorant.  I have managed to utterly disgust my 13 year old son several times.  He almost never looks at me that way.  I already knew that I had to stop referring to "The Twitter", but apparently telling him I was unable to find the "Twitter tweets" of my class was even worse.  I am not a person who is uncomfortable with technology.  I can write code in a variety of languages.  However, some of these tools have come into our world and seeing no use for them, I have let them pass me by.  Twitter is one.  So, I am still not sure that I have mastered Twitter, but I do no better than to say "hash tag" out loud.

I see how twitter could be useful to me as a learner and as an educator.  Allowing people to discuss the current training or class without having to verbally express themselves, is clearly useful.  In my old mind, it is a little like the old "passing notes" in class or the current texting during class.  Perhaps, not as harsh toward the instructor, but we could all use more practice in questioning without offending or critiquing without hurting another person.  To me, Twitter could allow that.  I am not sure that every teacher/instructor would like to know how their students feel about their instruction, but I think most of us would love to know when our students do not understand.  One of the big trends on Teachers Pay Teachers right now is exit tickets.  Basically a quick question for students to answer on the way out, often accompanied by an opinion on their confidence level with the topic.  Could Twitter not provide at least part of this?  Even a simple questions and comments request by the teacher at the end of class might allow those who need additional guidance to ask for it - before the test.

As a teacher of students who do not read and who do not have cell phones, I do not see this as a tool I could use in my current setting. However, in the future, I would like to be in a position to help other special education teachers and I feel Twitter could be a real value to me.

Thank you for making me take the plunge into "The Twitter".

Vanity Search 2015

I have heard of people searching themselves online, but never thought to do it myself. I consider myself one of the best at what I do, in the area that I do it, but have never considered myself worth searching.  When I searched myself, I found pretty much what I expected - a few blogs made for college.  I see this as a combination of my past and present...an engineer who shouldn't be in headlines and a teacher who wishes to spread her thoughts and ideas, but doesn't really know how. I predict, five years from now, that my search will be amazingly different.

New Directions in IDT

I feel that e-learning environments have a future in special education.  While the use may not be broadly used, I think it could make a huge difference in the lives of some of our most fragile learners.  The current method used to educate children with medical issues so severe that attending school would endanger them is frequent visits from a home-bound teacher.  The amount of time spent with the teacher does not come close to the hours that other children spend.  Additionally, these children are often very isolated and miss out on the socialization that school offers.  There have a few trials (and hopefully accompanying research will be out soon) of students attending school using e-learning via a stand in robot with the child’s live feed as the face.   According to the ABC News report, the parents seem to be much happier with this arrangement compared to the home-bound teacher method.  

Rich media, when used correctly, will add a great deal to the education of students with special needs.   Whether the visual is needed because the student is unable to successfully read the text or because the specific disability shows visual processing as a strength (autism, for example).  Usually, line drawings are the best for children in my classroom, especially when they are created piece by piece while the child watches. 

I feel that virtual worlds will have a significant place in special education, especially for social learning.  For example, learning to communicate in a typical, socially accepted way requires a lot of practice, with many partners.  Virtual worlds can allow students to watch social interactions and hopefully in the future to interact with a virtual person to practice social interactions (think sim with Siri-type design). 

It may take time for specific design for people with special needs, but could be a great benefit to the population.  I look forward to what the future brings!

IDT Positions

I am currently a special education teacher for elementary children with low-incidence special needs.  I am enrolled in the masters program for Educational Technology and this is my first semester.  I wanted to pursue my masters because I need to have one to move into a position where I can help more children with low-incidence disabilities.  I chose this program after accidentally stumbling upon it when looking into the educational leadership program and realizing that this program is an amazing combination of my previous (software engineer) and current (special education teacher) positions.  Upon graduation, I would like to eventually become a district level helping teacher for the program that I work in.

As a district level helping teacher, I would like to use the knowledge I gain about Instructional Design and Technology in three ways.  One is to evaluate and analyse the programs that are developed for the children that we serve.  I feel that sometimes higher level administration pay too much attention to the presentations that they are given and not enough attention to the actual program.  The second way I would like to use my knowledge to design and develop content materials for the students.  I know that the students in my classroom benefit greatly from my materials and I would like to expand that to the district level.  Last, I would like to use my knowledge to achieve better communication between special education teachers.  Each classroom operates as an individual entity, even though we are all attempting to do the same job.  While most grade level teachers meet weekly with their grade level, we rarely meet.  When special ed teachers do meet, it is not to share ideas, but to listen to administration.  I would like to change this using my educational technology knowledge.

There are several organizations mentioned in the book that I think would be beneficial to my future career and continued learning.  A few of those are Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education and Association for Educational Communications and Technology.  I absolutely think that joining these organizations prior to graduating would benefit me.  Not only would it be show my desire to continue learning about my profession, but it would also give me additional reading and information that would help me show my level of knowledge about the field.