Thanks for a Great Experience

Wow! I have to say that today was truely inspiring! Thank you for sharing your experiences with me. I have to say that over the years I have taken courses that when the final class came nothing within me or my teaching practices changed. Fortunately, that is not the case this time. I am excited about my new found knowledge and appreciation for the role that Assistive Technology can play for my students. And that there is a process for matching and implementing AT! I am no longer in search of that program that is perfect and will suit the needs of all of my student, I now understand that is not a reality. That the diverse needs of students plays a role in all aspects of their programming including the AT. It has been a pleasure to work with you Barb and benefit from your knowledge. I have enjoyed everyones AT stories involving the good and the bad. These experiences lead me to the conclusion that we need to get out there and advocate for AT and share our knowledge with our colleagues. We need to work toward making AT a priority in our schools and others. That no matter how small our success' are we need to stop and celebrate as small success' add up. Hope you all enjoyed the course as much as I did. Keep moving forward!

Karen

Everyone Wants the Answer

Since I started talking this course people have started asking my advice about AT...my husband included. Within these questions I have noticed a trend..everybody wants the solution and everybody wants the solution for all students within one program. There is a search for that perfect program that will work for everyone and as I have discovered within this course that does not exist. I have to admit before taking this course I too did not realize the importance of matching the AT to the personality and the milieu. My husband has called me at work several times with a scenario regarding a student and asked the question what program would be best. I now find myself explaining that depends on the student/personality, milieu and the technology. Last week as I was working on my casestudy, I excitedly displayed the before and after work of the student I was working with in the office. She had used cowriter. The comment was made well so and so used that here before and they didn't like it. My response " not every program works for every student but it definitely works for her"

Clicker 5

I have to say I walked away from our last class very excited about Clicker 5. We have 9 students on the Autistism spectrum, 2 students with Cerebral Palsy, 2 students with Down Syndrome, 1 student with Williams Syndrome, 1 student with Anglemans and many others who are cognitively delayed learning within my school. Clicker 5 could support these students in many ways. I think about our Autistic students and echolalia. This is an excellent writing tool for those who struggle with creating ideas as Clicker 5 leads their writing and can provide them with choices. Not to mention the social stories that could be created!! And the writing activities around these social stories. It was with great excitment that I went back to work and asked to order Clicker 5. It was a tough sell... my administrator explained that we have alot of teachers whom go to inservices and come back wanting computer programs...the school orders them and then they never get used. I begged and promised it would get used and then offered to pay for it from my own pocket. I told her I would put my own money on it to guarantee that it was useful and would get used. Clicker 5 has been ordered and the school made the purchase!

Scientifically-Based Research Validating Kurzweil 3000

The article by the Kruzweil Educational Systems, An Annotated Review of Current Rearch Supporting the Use of Kurzweil 3000 in the classsroom is an excellent literature source. The article which was divided into two parts: Why Kurzweil 3000 provides essential support to students who are reading significantly below grade level and Kurzweil 3000 The Ideal Classroom Accomodation are then broken down into skills that are challenging to struggling readers. This is where the literature comes in. Under each of these skills there are titles listed that correspond with the skill and a summary of the text. These titles were easy to locate by googling them. There were several that caught the interest of my husband and myself .... The Reading Crisis: Why Poor Children Fall Behind. I see some excellent resources for future courses anyone might be taking or professional reading around your interests and student needs. As well, I found a quote within this text that I think does a good job summarizing the benefits of using text to speech software like Kurzweil which would be useful in explaining to teachers who are hesitant who these tools are essential for some students..."ways of exposing struggling readers to subject matter content at their grade level while helping them become more accurate and fluent readers."

Using a New Tool

During out last class, I literally sat in the same chair from 9:30-3:30, getting up once to use the washroom, and experienced 6 hours of stress, self criticism and feeling like I was lagging behind everyone else. I can only imagine what it must be like for some students who experience such stress 5 days a week. Trying to complete a task when you struggle with the language can be exhausting; just as trying to use a piece of assistive technology can be without knowing this language. For assistive technology to be an effective tool for our students we must know all the ins and outs of the tool so that we can answer any and all questions for our students to avoid adding to the stress they already experience. Thus, knowing your student and keeping their needs in mind is essential. Not only do we want to eliminate the stress of navigating a new tool but ensure that the tool itself is appropriate and is used in the most effective way for the student. Kurzweil has many gagets and these can be used in a variety of ways to engage a student; however, for the student I had in mind these gagets could distract rather than engage if his strengths and weaknesses are not considered. It is easy to create bells and whistles, sit back and oo and aw over the impressive show; it is also easy to get caught up in this and overlook specific needs. When these things are considered and are reflected in how the program is used it can aid students in becoming an active reader.

The Complexities of Reading and Writing

The fact that people learn to read is amazing. In the video The Secret Life of the Brain - The Child's Brain, Syllable from Sound reading was described as "a high wire balancing act..reading never just happens...one of the most complex everyday performances that happens..." It is a complex process where "the child has to learn to put these hundreds of concepts together to learn to read". With so many components to reading it is not surprising that challenges can develop. As educators we need to be aware of the many components of the process, teach them, assess them and address them. A big job! Assistive Technology can be a useful tool in developing the reading process and assisting students when faced with a challenge. It can be as simple as Bailey's Book House or more complex like Kurzweil. However, before chosing to use AT with our students we need to remember, as Barb explained it, " AT gives us another tool to expose students to different experiences..We need to understand the processes involved in the reading process so that we can identify where the student is having difficulty in that process so that we can match the AT to the person..." Which again brings us back to Shearer's MPT model. It is easy to get caught up in the wonders of all the programs out there and forget the essential components of Milieu, Personality and Technology. We need to match the AT to the person while addressing the MPT.

The Secret Life of the Brain - Keeping Connections

I always knew the brain was a powerful thing but wow! The complex processes that take place are truly amazing. As a mom of two small children I found myself enthralled in the video, to think that all of this is taking place in the brains of my children and others. What I found most interesting and yet disturbing is that experience determines which connections to leave and which to take away. Take a look around any classroom, we all know the experiences are not the same and we all know that economics plays a role in that. I always knew that poverty affected what children are exposed to but I am now left with the realization that the limited experiences that can come with poverty can determine what connections are left in the brain and what are not. As educators, we must remember this. Our students need to be exposed to as many experiences as possible (AT being one of them) and we have a responsibility to provide these experiences. What we do not only provides our students with knowledge but shapes how their brains will develop. A powerful thing! PBS has created an excellent resource that I believe all teachers should watch as it is easy to get caught up in the everyday and forget the importance of every task we provide our students no matter how small. I think of those comments you hear in every staff meeting or school when discussions come up around school events and you hear teachers saying "but I don't want to..." It is not about us! It is about developing every child in our school as a whole, about keeping those connections.

Assistive Technology Day 1 Reflection 2

Matching the a person with the most appropriate technology reminds me of my fathers grumblings as he roots through my garage examining my husbands scattering of tools "There is a right tool for every job and when you don't have the right tool it makes the job difficult or impossible". Dr. Marcia Sherer's MPT (Matching Person and Technology) model is a thought provoking tool for the assessment, matching and implementation of successful assistive technology use. It is easy to become struck by the wonders of technology and start throwing it out to our students to use. "Finally, the answer to my students needs"; however, as Sherer explains in Chapter 8 (Dilemmas, Challenges, and Opportunities) from Living in the State of Stuck Version 4 it is not that simple. The influences within the Milieu(environment), personality and technology contribute to the outcome of the assistive technology and in turn are all interdependent and constantly changing. Thus, we must always be reassessing these influences and know exactly what our students needs are. These influences can contribute to a state of optimal use as well as a state of partial/reluctant use, avoidance or abandonment. As I read Sherer's description of the milieu and the facets within in this I became more aware of the social and emotional challenges that my adolescent students face when using assistive technology. It is not surprising that something as basic as an alphasmart is often avoided or abandoned. I am left with the thought that as an educator it is my responsibility to attempt to control aspects of the milieu by normalizing assistive technology within the classroom by perhaps placing several alphasmarts in each classroom and letting everyone have a turn.

Assistive Technology Day 1Reflection 1

Today I was reminded of the importance of independence in each of our lives. Something that can easily be taken for granted by many. I was amazed by the video footage we viewed today and awakened to the fact that the possibilities for my students are endless. This awakening has led to a great desire to learn and experience as much assistive technology as I can get my hands on. The more knowledge I have the better myself and the program planning team can meet the individual needs of each student, help them achieve their learning outcomes, achieve a greater quality of life and develop independence. Assistive techonology is vast and always changing, just as our students needs are always changing, thus assessing our students and finding the right tool for them is vital. The Assistive Technology: Supporting Student Success document (published by the Nova Scotia Department of Education) can guide you and the program planning team in this process. This document outlines the categories of assistive technology, guides you through the program planning process, contains a list of resources, give suggestions for instructional adaptations, strategies and ideas and provides many checklist and forms to guide you through the file review and assesment process. Each school board as a team of people who can help support you and your students with assistive technology. I thank Barb for reminding me of that. This week I sent one quick email out and the rewards were plentiful. A wonderful person from our tech team named Janet showed up at my school and was excited to share with me the possibitlites of assistive technology. I asked for a laptop on loan with as many programs as I could get to take home and explore in the wee hours after my children have gone to sleep. The next day I received an email stating that a brand new lap top on its way, I will be the first to use it (not sure I handle that pressure with two small children in the house). However, the hope is that after I use it the laptop will continue it's journey to another resource teacher to share with them the world of assistive technology.