The use of Blogs in education.

This course has allowed me the insight into various 2.0 web tools that I would have not otherwise been exposed to. I feel the most valuable tool I will be using in both my personal and professional life will be wikispaces. I think this tool is an extremely effective collaborative workspace that allows an individual  to update a document without sending a mass amount of emails to make changes. The podcasting is something that is relatively new to me and I enjoyed publishing my own on Zac Browser, a new software program designed for children with Autism.

My sandbox unit created an opportunity for me to research the evolving technology and techniques involved in encorporating links, tags, pictures, slideshows, audio & podcasting, social networking, and easier ways to research numerous topics via the web. It was a valuable experience that I am grateful for. Even more so, now that I have my own educational blog I can reference to.

In the future, I plan on learning and growing more in terms of incorporating technology into the classroom. I think that by modifying a teaching style to the advancements in technology can only enhance and improve a learning environment for every individual involved. It is quite hard to imagine all the tools I tinkered with over the past 13 weeks and even though at times I was exhausted, frustrated, and confused, I gained a great deal of knowledge, practice, and skills that I will be able to apply to almost any situation in the future.

- Thanks for reading!

My exploration of Ning, lead me to numerous sites and blogs that opened my eyes to different areas that I may have not discovered otherwise. For example, I am extremely interested in Indigo children and found a social network site called indigosocial.com. However, my main focus is Autism and the various techniques that increase socially appropriate behaviors. After engaging with many web tools, I realized that numerous advancements have been made in terms of technology and Autism. It was refreshing that many other individuals are interested in the same educational themes that I am intrigued by.

I felt that navigating Ning was a little more complicated than myspace or facebook and I am not sure if it is because I was more exposed to the others in the past. When I tried to create a personal page it was connected to the previous page I visited. I also had difficulty in finding pages that were correlated to education and autism. The majority of the pages I came across were mothers of children with Autism and while it was nice to read life stories, I wanted to discover more hard-core facts and research as opposed to the real life stories of families who are affected by this developmental disorder.

http://autism.healingthresholds.com/therapy/feed

This blog post is probably one of the most interesting links I have come across. It describes everything to the gluten-free diet to PECS. The topic that caught my attention was the effectiveness of visual schedules. A visual schedule is described as being a set of pictures or icons that communicates a series of steps that incorporates and displays the daily events in a student’s life. This particular schedule is set up for a student with Autism who has a difficult time with transitioning. It communicates the clear expectations of the day and it helps then predict and plan the numerous transitions that they may encounter throughout their day.

These daily schedules are created on the computer and a parent, educator, or student can select pictures from the Internet or specific computer software program designed to create a computer program.

After many hours of reviewing a plethora of sites, I determined to keep it simple and focus on a topic that was relevant to my practices and teachings. I had subscribed to many different topics on google reader and by narrowing down my search it made it much easier to select a topic. My brain is still recovering from RSS overload and now that I think I have worked out all the kinks, I feel I will not be so intimidated to research new topics of interest.  

http://www.jigzone.com/

“Mystery Reader” photo puzzles

This easy to use site is a great tool for both parents & educators for any setting. Especially for students with learning disabilities, particulary students with Autism. This site increases ones spatial intelligence and it elimates the opportunities for a student to swipe a puzzle out of frustation. Environmental disruptions are often challenging behaviors for students with Autism and puzzles are the usual activity. Also, this tool is a 100% way to ensure a puzzle piece will never be lost. It allows the student a choice in a variety of subject matter. Ex. Animals, flowers, and places. Sounds are incorporated to enchance to learning experience. A click is given if the correct piece is places and a visual graph is displayed to show the completion time, an average time, and the fastest time. Another great feature offered is a multitude of choices in pieces is given to increase or decrease the difficultly level. After the puzzle is complete, a person can email a postcard of the completed puzzle. I LOVE this site and plan to use it professionally and personally!!! I think the coolest feature offered is the opportunity to upload your own photos and create a personal puzzle! 

After researching the K12 online conferences, I decided that cell phones and learning would be an interesting topic to explore. I feel that a student’s interest in cell phones in the school setting is a topic that is controversial and to incorporate it into learning and the curriculum would be beneficial. Mobile learning opportunities includes audio recordings, like pod-castings. This process can be done by using an IPOD or gabcast.com., then a student needs to creating an account, which includes RSS feeds and a 1-800 number. After a student is done recording it automatically uploads to a website and it is a free tool to use. If a student does not have a cell phone a landline works as well! Each student has 60 minutes to record and then the choice of published or unpublished his or her work. It can be downloaded as an MP3 file or can be downloaded into a Blog.

While reviewing the posted comments of others who have attended the conference, I realized that the support of this tool was spilt, 50/50. I learned a multitude of factors and feel that this conference was without a doubt a great contribution to my professional development. It seems very complicated to include cell phones into lesson plans, but in all actuality it is very simple. Cell phones give students motivation to learn in the technological era they are being brought up in.

After the readings and tinkering around with Diigo, I am confident that I will be applying it to my educational and teaching practices. I just wish I was exposed to it in the beginning of grad school. It was a great tool to use when trying to gather information and plug in my own thoughts and ideas. I found a wealth of information that related to my sandbox topic and it was addicting to discover more areas of interest that I felt would be a great addition. I noticed that many sites I choose did not offer or suggest any tags. This at times was a little annoying because I wanted to discover what other individuals would classify their findings as.

As of lately, I have been hearing the word “tags” all over the radio and tv. Also, it is amazing to educate  others to these new tools in technology. In another class I am taking, I suggested that my group use a wikispace for the collaboration of a presentation due at the end of the semester. An older woman was a little imtimidated about the idea but after I explained the concept and how easy it really is, she feel in love with the idea and is actually teaching her husband. Word of mouth is incredible and I hope that others are as receptive to trying new sites and tools in regards to technology.

http://www.diigo.com/user/zenthompson

AutismIt was very difficult to find photos that were permitted to post. Especially when trying to find children diagnosed with Autism engaging on the computer. Eventually, I narrowed down my search to just students and computer. I did find some photos posted when I searched “Autism & Computers”  but, the parents reserved all the rights. Those pictures that I could not post displayed a great amout of tags, and boxes that outlined a particular area of the picture and popped-up a text box, explaining more details of the person and objects.

I can’t wait to start adding my photos to FLICKR. My computer has crashed twice within the past year and I lost a variety of photos from vacations, reunions, and my family. I want to be creative with scrap booking online!

The slideshow I am displaying will be of pictures of students using the computer. I feel that learning through technology enables a student with Autism the ability to explore their thoughts. My sandbox topic is developing far beyond my expectations and I am excited to expand this throughout my career.

Enjoy!

I have discovered that it is easy to get creative when you skip the intermediaries. Also, when you share your creative work you can accomplish great things. I believe that through Creative Commons, anything is possible. People from across the world can share, reuse, remix, and build upon any piece of literature, document, blog, song, poem, and any other form of creativity an individual expresses. In my personal life, I can upload potential pictures for my sales on EBAY and even generate some descriptions for the listings. Professionally, I can acquire some information on new advancements and techniques developed for students with Autism. CC is a great outlet for educators in regards to lesson plans and curriculum. I think that CC will have a tremendous impact on the way students learn and create projects. It will permit students the freedom to explore and expand without the fear of plagiarism.

Currently, I do not use any audio or video clips from the web in my teaching practices. However, I do use digital images for my visual learners. Some examples I use are pictures of food, and leisure activities.

In the past, I have created and shared numerous blogs and websites about Indigo Children. I feel that full copyright is too restrictive and that creative commons allows anyone to collaborate on a topic that may be of interest. In the past, I have not noticed the CC logo on any websites. Now that I am familiar with it, I will be more observant as to what materials I can tweak to my own preference. 

 

After searching some CC directories, I found that by using the keywords: Computer & Autism my results were in fact, just what I was looking for! I broadcast my Podcast on Zac Browser and wanted to continue on this path. My CC searches lead me to more information and practices I want to incorporate into my teachings. The Creative Commons resources allowed me to find other articles directly connected to my sandbox topic. (1. Zac Browser brings autistic children into their own digital realm

http://search.creativecommons.org/)

 

From the CC I found an amazing website (2. Autismkey.com). This website was created by a man who is a software engineer, whose son is on the Spectrum. The father wanted to create a forum for parents and educators connected to Autism. It allows anyone to watch videos, post messages and blogs, and even broadcast a Podcast!

 

Techpsych & HASTAC were some other CC sites and blogs I came across in my search that were of great interest to me. These blogs are for teachers, related professionals, parents, technologists, and others interested in using technology more effectively for learning and communication.

This was my first attempt to create a podcast. I hope you all enjoy listening to it as much as I enjoyed creating it. It is an introduction to my sandbox unit. First, I speak of the importance of students understanding technology. podcast-1 Followed by a description of a new software program that could be a possible solution to the issue described. podcast-2

After reviewing and analyzing online scholarly databases through UMB’s Healey Library, I discovered numerous articles related to the application of instructional technology. Specifically, involving the teaching of students with autism and/or other developmental disabilities through the use of computer software.

The tutorial through the Healey Library link was extremely helpful. The extra tips and hints for narrowing down a search without a doubt helped. I tried every example they had given and each time my results were different. This definitely helped in my search for a needle in a haystack. The topic I choose seemed to be difficult to pinpoint. The key words I tried were: Autis?, Development?, Disabilit?, Computer, Educat?, Technology, & Zacbrowser. I even tried using the (), “ “ , and the Not, And, and Or. I felt the online database search often lead me to websites and I had to redirect myself back to the scholarly articles.

There were few articles in relation to the actual implementation of a lesson plan to the introduction to the computer for students with Autism or computer rules. However, the articles I did review, included many issues educators encounter when educating through technology and the importance of an understanding of the software and the hardware.

In the article “Creating individualized computer-assisted instruction for students with autism using multimedia authoring software” it was discussed that software design guidelines were important when an educator is trying to create an individualized computer-based instructional materials. I felt that this empirical research described, is extremely valuable to my sandbox topic.

The individual child’s learning needs should be assesses. The sensory, auditory, visual, and students’ motivational level all need to be considered when an educator plans on implementing lesson plans through the use of technology. Many topics must be considered before a student is introduced to the software. For example, is the program age appropriate? Are there any prerequisite skills a student will need to possess before interacting with the software? (Focus on Autism & Other Developmental Disabilities; Summer96, Vol. 11 Issue 2, p69, 10p, 5 charts, 2 diagrams.)

In my research, the desire to encourage and help students with disabilities understand the meaning and achieve many important milestones in life through the use of technology, has increased dramatically. After reviewing the article “Elementary School Students Understandings of Technology Concepts”, it states that within public schools there has been an increase in the expressed amount of concern regarding whether students understand the structure of design and the actual technology concepts. I agree with this statement and feel that if an educator truly know her students’ strengths and needs the individual can reach he/she’s highest potential benefits. This will also make for a fun, safe, and  comfortable learning experience for each student in the classroom.