Class #11:   Thursday, July 17^th

During today’s class we looked at a few more apps that used to produce written output. The first two apps, “Clicker Sentences” and “Clicker Connect” would be beneficial for use in the Learning Center at my school.  I will be sharing these apps with our LC teacher as there is at least one ipad that is accessible for LC students at this time. The LC staff currently spends a significant amount of time developing hard copies of similar sentence activities that are presented in this app, having the versatility of the app would be beneficial for staff and students.

 

In terms of the “Co-writer” app, I can see this app being very useful for many of the students that I work with in Resource.  As mentioned previously, a few of these students have been trained on the Dragon Naturally Speaking software in the past, but due to limitation of licensing and the amount of time it takes to have an AT rep from the board visit and train the student, the software is rarely used.  As we gain access to more ipads, I can see using Co-writer with many students who have writing LD’s. I can think of one student in particular that has been receiving SLD (Severe Learning Disabilities) support for the past year, and he was in my grade 10 English course last year.  This student communicates well orally and has a very strong auditory memory.  He tends to thrive during class discussions, but when it comes to writing, he will write a minimal amount because he spelling is a huge challenge as is punctuation and sentence structure. As this student has some prior knowledge of spelling patterns and often uses phonetic spelling, I can see him benefiting from many of the features of Co-writer.

 

Here are a few notes regarding the apps that were reviewed today:

Clicker Sentences:

-students on IPPs in high school may use Clicker Sentences

-use grids in clicker sentences from learning grids.com

-possible goal for IPP: write three sentences by the end of the first term

-removing the mechanical processes required by writing

-settings are individualized for each student

-clicker connect is the next app that would be used after students have mastered this app (higher cognitive demand)

-app to use with LC students

Clicker Connect:

-does not have a model sentence option

-give more choices to students

-students can be creative and tell story about a picture

-words are provided, words will be read for students, as required

-can use prompts as sentence starters

-another app for LC students

-license for software for this program is approx. 300.00

Co-writer:

-use with students who have higher cognitive (LD)

-may not have the skills for siri or Dragon program

-students start to write words, and are given choices for words (uses word prediction)

-io8 will have more capable word prediction built into new version

-this is not on VPP program

-teacher creates topic dictionary or uses pre-made dictionary (click the book icon in top right hand corner) to use students when they are writing

-need some prior knowledge, can have phonetic spelling knowledge

-some students who have used co-writer have been able to come off of IPP after using this for period of time

iMovie

For our final assignment, we created an iMovie trailer to demonstrate our some of our take-aways from the course.  This was the first time that Mark and I had used iMovie, so we spent some of the time getting to know how the app works. The templates in the trailer section of this app are very user-friendly, and once we got started, it was easy to navigate through the program.  We shot a few videos in and around the building, and retrieved several still images from our previous coursework regarding AT and using google images to support the ideas that we were presenting.  After seeing the creative presentations of the rest of the class, we realized that we could have taken more of a creative approach with the trailer. I think that I would use iMovie trailers as a method in my classroom to have students introduce a text to their classmates (in English class). I can also see using it in my Child Studies class for students to represent different types of families or parenting styles using images, video and text.

Final Reflection

In reflecting upon the past two weeks, there are so many ideas that I am going to take away from this course.  First, the introduction and review of a significant number of apps for reluctant readers and writers has been a complete eye-opener for me.  While I was familiar with the use of some of these apps, I had not realized the versatility of the iPad, in comparison to other technologies that are currently being used in our schools.  The first assignment was a fantastic method of encouraging the use of a number of the “show what you know” apps, it not only required us to review the apps for possible uses with our students, and we had to assume the role of the “student” in order to demonstrate the concepts required by the assignment.

Having been familiar with the strategies involved in UDL, I have been working with teachers to promote the use of inclusive strategies and develop accessible learning opportunities within own practice.  However, the discussions and activities surrounding UDL in this course have given me a better understanding of integrating UDL practices with Assistive Technology. I have learned that UDL and AT are not one and the same, they are practices that complement one another. While UDL strategies should be practiced in every classroom so that all students have access to learning experiences, AT comes into play when an individual student requires a tool to enable them to participate in the learning experience provided in the classroom. 

In order to apply these strategies and tools in my classroom, I will first be looking at ways to support my school in attaining applicable technology to support our students.  In reviewing my course notes, I have been looking at the application documents regarding the PDAF Grant that was mentioned by Janet during one of our classes.  I have started to brainstorm ideas that I could use to apply for this grant during the upcoming school year. I am interested in applying for funding for iPads for use in our school’s resource room, for students in grade 10-12.  In my understanding, I must develop an innovative project that is directly related to the PSP.  The application mentions that the innovation may include “taking an established curriculum practice or program and using this in a new and unique way”.  In addition to my position as a resource teacher, I also teach English 10 O2.  The majority of the student in the O2 program are on the Resource caseload and receive supports for reading and/or writing through programming adaptations and/or direct support. I am considering the development of a project that would support the English 10 curriculum and integrate the use of iPads.  I would appreciate any feedback that anyone has regarding my application for this grant. I will also be looking at other methods of financial support for attaining iPads for our school, the first of which is the Telus Community Board funding program.

Link to PDAF Grant information: http://nstu.ca/default.asp?mn=1.22.91.178

Link to Telus Community Board Funding:  http://about.telus.com/community/en/how_to_get_funded/ 

At this point, our school has about 10 iPads for use in our tech-related courses such as Film and Video and Multimedia. Until we attain more iPads for general student use, I will be looking at ways of integrating some of the ideas that I learned in this course using the technology that we currently have available.  In the past, I have assigned an article response journal project for my Child Studies 11 students where they are required to summarize and critique articles relating to the topics we are studying in class. I would like to adapt this assignment so that students develop a blog where they record their key take-away messages from class, as well as article or videos relating to the content. I will be checking with our board to see if blogger is accessible by students. If not, I will be looking for another blog site that students will use for this project.  In the Resource setting, I plan to introduce students in Resource to the Shmoop website as a web browser that they can use for research purposes that will provide information using student-friendly language and supporting audio and video material. The language options in Wikipedia will also be useful for supporting students who require support in attaining the main idea when they are performing research related tasks. 

Thank you to all of my fellow-students in this course; it has been a pleasure learning with you over the past few weeks. And, thank you to Barb for all of the insightful experiences that you have shared with us. I am looking forward to taking EDUC 5173 in the coming year!