Shane
Paul Robinson
Technology
Review ED 537
International
Society for Technology in Education
Teaching Your Students to Fail
Better by
Christian Long
Leading and
Learning
Feb. 2012,
Volume 39, Issue 5
Topic:
Christian Long invites failure to be part of the students on-line learning process.
Introduction: Long proposes the question, "if you were to create a classroom from scratch for the benefit of school
children what would be included? Long argues it should include not only a tolerance for failure but the encouragement thereof. The article is in line with the old adage nothing ventured nothing gained. Long believes students need to learn to, "adapt to the increasingly complex world to become a modern learner,
professional, and citizen."
Intended
Audience: Educators, school planners, educational futurist, and advocates for
innovative learning communities
Christian
Long’s key points verbatim:
- The classroom can’t just be a showcase for technology.
- Students must be the center of the program.
- Adults must serve as mentors, sherpas, and allies.
- Students must solve real problems that they come up with.
Long's Quote: I didn’t want to speak about just the general concept of failure, but I
wanted to celebrate the words of Samuel Beckett: "Fail, fail more. Fail
better." And I wanted to do so with an eye toward empowering students to
thrive. Christian Long
Relevance:
The ISTE Leading and Learning article entitled Teach Your Students to
Fail Better with Design Thinking tells of the importance of students
learning in a technologically advancing world, “to be comfortable with
failure.” The author of the article Christian Long argues, “Student’s need,
agility, divergent thinking patterns, and an ability to test ideas in a messier
way.”A paradigm shift is at hand in the evolution of learning for modern
day students and teaching for that matter for teachers due to technological
advances."
Ted-Ed Talks
Creator: Jon
Bergmann
Title: Just How Small is an Atom?
Complete
URL: http://www.ted.com/talks/just_how_small_is_an_atom.html?quote=1562
Date
retrieved: May 26th, 2012
Topic: Size and density of an atom as illustrated
through animation by award winning educator Jon Bergmann
Introduction: Just how small are atoms? Really,
really, really small. This fast-paced animation from TED Ed
uses metaphors (imagine a blueberry the size of a football stadium!) to give a
visceral sense of just how small atoms are. Lesson by Jon Bergmann,
animation by Cognitive Media.
Intended audience: Middle school and
high school science students
Key points: The atom is very, very, very small and the nucleus is
incredibly dense.
Relevance: Ted-Ed talks are relevant for students and teachers alike in
trying to grasp complex ideas.
Quotes:
“If I filled the Earth with blueberries, I would have the same number as atoms
in a grapefruit.” (Jon Bergmann)
Bergmann
believes educators should ask one guiding question: What is best for my
students in my classroom?
In 2009, I
took a technology class at the University of Oregon with the aim of catching up
on modern advances in technology. I hoped to learn the practical things I have
learned throughout this class instead what I received was a brief history computer
programming history and lifetimes worth of futurist theory. The class was
rooted in the work of Ray Kurzweil who reuters.com calls an inventor and
futurist. Forbes magazine referred to Kurzweil as “the ultimate thinking
machine.” When provided the opportunity to watch a ted-talks-technology I chose
check out if anything was new in Kurzweil’s world. Kurzweils ted talk video was
sort of a Kurzweil’s greatest hits in less than five minutes. In it Ray very
briefly goes over his belief in a steady and predictable Law of Accelerating Returns in technological advancement, his
stance on nanotechnology, and the growth and power of solar power. After
covering his life’s work in less than five minutes he speaks of his newly
constructed Singularity University which was founded in partnership with Dr.
Peter H. Diamandis. Singularityu.org is founded on the premise of being a, “new
university that can leverage the power of exponential technologies to solve
humanity’s grand challenges (http://singularityu.org, 2012).” Ted-talks in my opinion is a very user
friendly and informative website that I will be sure to revisit in the future.
Youtube Webinar video: web page http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gz2wBT9gZfo.
According
to a Youtube video entitled, The Beginner’s Guide to Webinar a webinar is an online seminar or workshop
delivered over the internet. Gotowebinar is the most popular web site used to
set up and utilize a webinar. There is a
host and attendees who register, sign in and then wait for the webinar to begin
at a pre-arranged time.
Youtube
features a video of a Special Education Law and Discipline webinar hosted by
two attorneys at law. David Nash an NJPSA Legal Consultant along with Teresa
Moore from Rutgers Law School.
David
Nash co-presented with Teresa Moore on Special Education with the primary focus
on discipline and some of the due process rules protecting students. They tried
to work through the basics of the subject at hand via power point slide show.
Fortunately,
the Youtube video showed the slide show so I could follow along. The goal of
the presentation was to answer these four questions:
Is
there a significant change in placement?
Did the incident involve weapon, drugs, or serious bodily injury?
Was the behavior a manifestation of disability
Is the student a danger to himself or others.
Did the incident involve weapon, drugs, or serious bodily injury?
Was the behavior a manifestation of disability
Is the student a danger to himself or others.
The
answers were just as hard hitting as the questions which is great for a
candidate such as me to be exposed to so early on in my career. I thought it
was very practical for the attendees of the webinar to be able to type in
questions. The answers were prompt and to the point. I appreciate how this made
the whole experience more interactive.
May 25th,
I took an Ipad to my workplace for the first time. My assumptions that the
students I work with would treat it as a toy to be played with until they lost
interest. I was wrong on both accounts. Initially, I sat down next to a student
with traumatic brain injury and started looking at Baby Signs myself. My goal
was to have this student who I will call AM develop her own interest in the
Ipad as opposed to my shoving it front of her face. I felt this approach would
be more authentic. As AM looked through magazines repeatedly, I browsed around
the apps on the Ipad. After a few minutes AM’s eyes started wandering over to
look at what I was viewing. Within five minutes she was insisting in her own
way that she wanted to try. I opened the app Beautiful Planet HD for her and
within seconds she figured out how to manipulate the pages to go forward and
backwards. This feat was appreciated in amazement by the newly formed audience
of instructional aides and the teacher. Interestingly, AM was very hungry and
on the verge of what some call a meltdown. For the first time something
distracted her from food long enough for her to be fed at the appropriate time
without having a fit. Essentially, the Ipad competed with and beat out AM’s
desire for food which is incredibly strong. After a while changed apps and had
AM look at Baby Signs. This was not as engaging as the beautiful planet HD
pictures but it was still holding her interest. We worked on Baby A.S.L. for
the next twenty minutes until it was time for her to eat via G-tube.
The next opportunity
I had to use the Ipad was in teaching two students general life skills. One
student (I’ll call CD) is trying to learn his address. The premise is if he is
lost he will need to be able to communicate his address or at least his street
name to a police officer. After two months he has learned his street name but
has a hard time speaking it in a clear manner. I had no idea how the Ipad was
to help in this manner but I figured it was worth a shot none the less. As soon
as I opened the Ipad, CD went straight to the Google Maps app.
I asked him
to input his address as best as he could. We struggled at first as we had been
originally given the wrong spelling of his address. Once I remedied this we
placed it in the Google maps search bar and up came the location of his house. From
there on I became the student as both of the students gave me a tutorial on how
to use a Google Maps. They zoomed in and looked directly at their house. We did
this one by one for the whole group. CD then pulled out his newly acquired
Iphone and completed the same sequence on hi phone and place a little red pin
in the location of his home address to save it, one more way in which CD could
tell a police officer where he lives if he happens to get lost. To reward them
for behaving well and participating I allowed them to play with the Drawing Pad
app on the I pad which they had a blast with. It turned out that two of the
four students I eventually ended up working with that hour owned I pads. It’s
pretty cool how I ended up with four students in front of me as well. Two of
the students were working independently on reading comprehension across the
room. They worked extremely hard to finish their assignment as fast as they
could in order to participate in working with the I pad.
Educational Apps
In
exceptionality class we were charged with looking up technologically advanced
devices that aid deaf people. I instantly went for the I pad, interestingly
Aarron was the only one in the group wanting to use the I pad as well. I looked
up three different free apps that a deaf person could use to help them in
various circumstances.
PhraseBoard
Allows people to communicate when they are unable to speak. PhraseBoard was designed by a Registered Nurse experienced with clients who were unable to speak or for whom speaking was too taxing. http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/phrase-board/id380424676?mt=8
- Large “Yes” and “No” buttons allow for simple usage.
- Scrollable lists of having/feeling statements and want statements provide quick and easy communication.
- Custom messages input and saved by the user.
- Message bar reiterates statements chosen.
Pain page facilitates quick and easy expression of pain.
- Slider displays one to ten pain scale.
- Type
- Location
- Frequency / Duration
- Body illustration provides clarity.
Allows people to communicate when they are unable to speak. PhraseBoard was designed by a Registered Nurse experienced with clients who were unable to speak or for whom speaking was too taxing. http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/phrase-board/id380424676?mt=8
- Large “Yes” and “No” buttons allow for simple usage.
- Scrollable lists of having/feeling statements and want statements provide quick and easy communication.
- Custom messages input and saved by the user.
- Message bar reiterates statements chosen.
Pain page facilitates quick and easy expression of pain.
- Slider displays one to ten pain scale.
- Type
- Location
- Frequency / Duration
- Body illustration provides clarity.
The T2 Remote application takes advantage
of a new breakthrough technology from Audibel that allows users to control
their hearing aids with a simple touch on their iPhone and iPod touch. This
avoids the need for any additional hardware. T2 discreetly and instantly
classifies the tone signal from the iPhone or iPod touch and automatically
adjusts the hearing aid to the desired setting.
American
Sign Language App’s including Baby Signs and other generic ASL apps were
already downloaded on the Ipad prior to class.
ISTE SPED Article: http://www.iste.org/store/my-virtual-products.aspx
Author names: Elizabeth West, Phyllis Jones, and Sarah Semon
Title of article: Promoting community for online learners in special
education.
Title of journal: Journal of Digital Learning in Teacher Education
Date of publication: 2012
Volume of
the journal: 28
Issue number
of the journal: 3
Article Page
numbers: “pp. 108-116”
Topic: Community for on-line learners
Introduction: The sense of
community in an online environment may contribute to students’ success and
satisfaction (Knapczyk, Chapman, Rodes, & Chung, 2001).
Intended audience: M.A.T. Candidates , Educators
Key Points: West, Jones, and Semon believe the key points drawn
from their study are on-line communities should include but not be limited
to: learner-centered activities, safe environment, communication,
and a supportive instructor.
Relevance: This journal article explains how an online community
of graduate students can be created, fostered, and nurtured from start to
finish.
No comments:
Post a Comment