Saturday 30 April 2016

Technology Tool Assessment

       If the Emaze presentation is not available on this page, please copy and paste the link to view it. https://www.emaze.com/@ACWRWTWQ/presentation-name
Powered by emaze




The following are YouTube videos that I thought would help explain the technology tools I chose.

Moodle




Google Chrome





Google Apps





LiveBinders




OoVoo



Emaze




Jing
Jing did not have a YouTube video, but they do have a video on their website. Click here to view it.


iRubric



References:

[Chrome Help]. (2013, December 13). Using Chrome on Different Devices. [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zdmqbp99ETI


[emazecom]. (2015, October 26). Welcome to emaze!. [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=icdAGL96ap8

[LiveBinders]. (2015, August 17). Introduction to LiveBinders. [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dM-FgpyVoJU

[Moodle]. (2014, January 23). What is Moodle?. [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wop3FMhoLGs

[Oovoo]. (2015, April 7). 3 Reasons Why Oovoo is the Best Video Chat. [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ITFTWOowcs

[RCampus]. (2010, January 14). iRubric for Sakai. [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjKTeCv07dI

[WiLuCo InDec]. (2013, March 12). Why Google Apps?. [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWDI_249CFY


Thursday 28 April 2016

Digital Safety in the Classroom

Today we live in a world where everything is becoming more technologically advanced—classrooms have smart boards, most establishments have Wi-Fi-, and Google is working on a self-driving car. Along with all the technological advancements, younger generations are gaining access and being exposed to technology devices at a faster rate, so I believe digital safety is an important subject that needs be taught and discussed in all schools and all grade levels. I think that if we start educating students about digital safety at a younger age, we can protect more students from the dangers they may come across online and encourage better online citizenship.
       I feel that if a teacher chooses to have their students use the computer and access the Internet for resources, assignments, or educational games that it is the teacher’s responsibility to educate their students about digital safety before doing so. As a future special education teacher who is interested in working in the elementary level, I would use BrainPopJr.’s video “Digital Safety with Annie and Moby” to teach my students about digital safety. The video covers the dangers of chatting with strangers online, sharing personal information, and downloading content without the permission of a teacher or parent. The video covers the major areas of Internet safety, but teaches it in a way that is easy for kindergartners to understand. BrainPop Jr. also has assessment tools the teacher can use. After the video, there is an option for the viewer to take a short quiz. After the viewer has taken the quiz, there is an option to print out a certificate with their score that verifies that they were able to comprehend the lesson in the video. Below is a YouTube video titled "Using BrainPop  Jr. to teach about internet safety," form BrainPop Jr.'s channel that shows educators how to incorporate the internet safety video into a lesson. The video also highlights the activities and resources below the video that can be used in different teaching strategies. As a student who does not have any experience of teaching a class, I found this video to be very helpful. It gave some really good tips about what to go over before playing the video and it also showed viewers where they can access lesson plans that would go well with the video and the topic of teaching internet safety.
       
       I would also refer to Richard Byrne’s article titled, “Five Good Resources for Teaching Digital Safety and Citizenship for Elementary School Students” (2014). The sources in this article are fun and age appropriate that teaches students about responsible digital behavior and how to spot dangers on the Internet. This article is a good resource for all elementary teachers to have so when they need ideas on how to teach digital safety to their students, they have at least five in mind and ready to use.
       For this assignment, my group and I used Emaze as our presentation tool and we used iMovie to create a video to help the class identify copyright infringements and issues. I really enjoyed using Emaze because they had really fun and exciting templates. Emaze was very similar to Microsoft PowerPoint so it was simple for us to use. I was not aware that I could download the presentation to my desktop so I could present without having to be online, but that is something I will keep in mind when I do future presentations with Emaze. The only thing I did not like about Emaze was that the user was not able to share the project and collaborate with others. This made it difficult for us to edit our individual parts at our convenience. We had to list down all the adjustments we needed to make on our Google Doc and assign one person to fix everything. It was not too much of an inconvenience; it just made the process of finishing the project a little longer. My group also used iMovie to edit our short skit. IMovie is a tool that I had never used before and it took some time for me to get the hang of it. At first I tried to navigate through the tool on my own, but it was a bit confusing so I ended up looking at tutorials to help me finish editing the video.
       My group and I tried to use a different communication tool while putting together this project, but it did not work out the way we hoped it would. At first we tried to use Join.me. Each of us downloaded the application to our desktops and set up a time to hold the meeting. Once everyone was logged on and was in the meeting, we started to have some issues. The audio lagged really badly and the video kept freezing. Since Join.me was not working for us we tried to use OoVoo again, but the audio and video started to lag as well. I think we were having issues with lag on Join.me and OoVoo due to poor Internet connection at our locations. After a while, we gave up on trying to video chat online because it was taking too long, so we ended up calling each other to assign our individual parts.
       Digital safety can be a very dry subject with a lot of information for students to take in, but I think the class did very well. Each group covered all the basic content areas for their topic and their audience interaction made the lesson fun and exciting. I really think that all five topics of Fair User Practice and Copyrights, Digital Safety and Privacy, Cyberbullying, Textual Harassment and Sexting, and Phishing and Pharming should all be included when teaching digital safety for secondary level students, post secondary students, and educators. Many of these topics are correlated, so it makes perfect sense to go over all 5. For this assignment I would add at lest 10 more minutes to each group’s presentation. I feel like each topic had a lot of information to cover that many of the groups were rushing towards the end so they could stay within the time limit. I feel that by allotting an extra 10 minutes to the presentation would allow the groups to give a smooth and proper conclusion to their presentation and it would allow a few more minutes for the class to completely understand and appreciate the interactive activities. Another adjustment I would add to this assignment would be a digital pamphlet or a handout with the basic information of the groups’ topics along with the links to their resources. I feel like it would benefit us as future educators to keep this information in our personal file so we can reference them when we need to. If we have the resources on hand, we can share them with other educators and we can send the digital pamphlets to our students at the beginning of the school year so they are aware of the dangers on the internet and they will know what behaviors are expected of them when they are online and when they use other peoples’ works.
       In conclusion, I feel that the digital safety project was very informative and that each group did a great job. The two main adjustments I would make to the project would be to add more time to the presentation and to have the groups create a digital pamphlet with the major points of their topic along with the links to their resources. I feel that digital safety should be taught in all school and all grade levels. If students are educated on digital safety at an early age, they will be more cognizant of the dangers they may come across while online and they will learn how to have better online citizenship and treat other people online with respect.


BrainPop Jr. Digital Safety with Annie and Moby. (n.d.). Retrieved April 26, 2016 from https://jr.brainpop.com/artsandtechnology/technology/internetsafety/


BrainPop Jr. Using BrainPop Jr. to teach about internet safety. (April 10, 2015) Retrieved April 26, 2016 from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_VnatA-Xdk0
 
Byrnes, R. Five Good Resources for Teaching Digital Safety and Citizenship for Elementary School Students. (August 5, 2015). Retrieved April 26, 2016 from http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2014/08/five-good-resources-for-teaching.html#.VyLlJj-9e9g

Monday 4 April 2016

Limitless with Assistive Technology


       Teachers need to understand that everyone has a different way of learning and that no two students are exactly alike. When a teacher creates a lesson plan, they need to know the demographics of each student and find a way to meet each student’s needs. In order for specific needs to be met, the teacher may need to add some accommodations, or modifications to the lesson plan. According to Texas Project First’s “Accommodations Vs. Modifications” chart, there is a distinct difference between the two. Instructional Accommodation and Instructional Modification both change how the content is taught, made accessible, and/or assessed. The main difference between the two is that “Accommodations do not change what the student is to master. The objectives of the course activity remain intact. Modifications do change what the student is expected to master. Course activity/objectives are modified to meet the needs of the learner” (n.d.).
       Edutopia’s 10 minute video titled “Assistive Technology: Enabling Dreams,” (2005) featured a variety of assistive technology tools and instruments to demonstrate how important and how much of a difference they make in the lives of individuals with disabilities. The video showed how motorized wheel chairs helped students get around, how a technologically modified instrument helped another student play in his school band, and how speech communication devices helped non-verbal students communicate with their teachers and families. It was truly amazing to see how these tools helped these individuals to do so much and live independent and fulfilling lives despite their disabilities.
       During one of my observations at a local high school, I was able to shadow a deaf-blind student and their paraprofessional educator for one full school day. This student used a number of assistive technologies to enhance their mobility and educational experience at school. The school provided hearing aides and a small microphone along with a small speaker so the student could hear lessons and have conversations with other people. The special education resource room provided a walking stick for the student so they could walk around the classroom independently. The class also had a braille typewriter so the student could complete written assignments. The student was very bright and was able to complete assignments in the recourse room because of these assistive technologies.
        The deaf-blind student had some classes in the general education classrooms, but the classes did not provide the same assistive technologies so it was difficult for the student to participate in class activities and complete work independently. In one of the student’s general education classes, the teacher did not modify their lesson to meet the student’s needs. According to the paraprofessional educator, the teacher would regularly write notes on the whiteboard for the students to copy in their notebooks. After the students copied their notes, the students would receive a short worksheet related to the notes and they were to complete it during the class period. Since the student was blind, and the teacher did not add any accommodations for this particular student in their lesson, there was no way for the student to complete the assignment independently. The student’s paraprofessional educator had to write the notes for the student. While the paraprofessional was writing the notes the student was left out and did not have anything to do. After the paraprofessional copied the notes for their student, they would read the notes aloud for the student. The paraprofessional would also read the questions on the short worksheet aloud for the student and write the student’s answers down.
      As a future special education teacher I was very disappointed with what I observed. The same student who was able to walk around the class and do independent work during the previous class period was now excluded from the rest of the class and was left fully dependent on their paraprofessional educator because this general education classroom did not have the tools the student needed and the teacher did not adjust their lesson plan to accommodate the students needs. As a special education teacher I would have used the student’s Individualized Education Program as a way to revise my lessons and to evaluate the appropriateness of the revised activities. According to Stanberry’s article titled “Understanding Individualized Education Programs,” she stated that, “If your child receives special education services, he must have an Individualized Education Program (IEP). That’s the law. An IEP is an important legal document. It spells out your child’s needs, the services the school will provide, and how progress should be measured” (n.d.).
       I feel that the general education teacher could have made some minor adjustments to their lesson that would have made a major difference to this student’s learning experience in their classroom. The teacher could have delivered the notes and the worksheet to the student orally, or provide them in braille. Also instead of having the paraprofessional copy the notes for the student, the teacher could have requested that the student bring their braille typewriter from the resource room to their classroom so the student could write their own notes. I believe that students with special needs can accomplish so much more than what others give them credit for; they just need to be given the opportunity to show us what they can do and they need the proper tools to accomplish these feats.
Me at age 3 with my brother at age 2.
        Another personal experience I had with someone who used assistive technology was with my brother, who was born with clubbed feet. According to the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons, “clubfoot is a deformity in which an infant’s foot is turned inward, often so severely that the bottom of the foot faces sideways, or even upward.” My brother was considered physically disabled from birth until he was about 3 or 4 years old when he completed treatment and physical therapy. My brother went through three different methods to correct the position of his feet, which included multiple surgeries on each foot, wearing casts, and using solid bar braces. The casts and solid bar braces are considered assistive technologies because it helped in the process of straightening out my brother’s feet to improve in his functional capabilities.       
My brothers, cousin, and I after a soccer game.
       I completely forgot that my brother had a disability until this assignment. I think the fact that that my brother was born with a disability slipped my mind because my parents did not treat him any differently from the way they treated my other brothers and I. Yes, he may have only been considered physically disabled until he was about 4 years old, but I believe that by seeing beyond a person’s disability and seeing who they really are and who they can become makes a huge difference in the way we treat individuals with disabilities
My brother, left center, along with his teammates celebrating their win after a local competition.
       With the help of the assistive technology, my brother is now able to walk, run, and be physically independent. When we were in elementary school, he was able to play on the soccer team with me. After the soccer season ended my brother wanted to try a martial arts, so my parents enrolled him in Taekwondo. My brother became very dedicated to the sport that he made first-degree black belt by the time he was a sophomore in high school. He also represented Guam in the 4th Oceania Taekwondo Championships in 2010 and came home with a silver medal. When my brother started high school, he was enrolled in the Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps (JROTC) program. Since he was in the class, he decided to tryout for the school’s armed drill team. During all four years on high school, he was able to compete in the local JROTC competitions and his school won each year. Each year my brother’s JROTC team went on to compete in the Golden Bear National Drill Competition in California and they would bring home trophies each time. By his senior year in high school, my brother made Cadet Colonel, which is the highest rank a student can get in high school.  He also became the Battalion Commander for the school’s JROTC program. Right before he graduated from high school, my brother was awarded with a full scholarship to the University of Guam under the university’s ROTC program.
       I did not share my experience with my brother and all his accomplishments to boast about him, because who wants to openly admit that their sibling is cooler than them, but to show that with the proper support from families and the community, and the help of assistive technologies no matter how simple, or high tech they may be, individuals with disabilities can reach their full potential and can essentially be limitless. As a future teacher in the special education department, I will certainly do my best to ensure that each student’s needs are met and to see beyond their disabilities to help them have a full and meaningful life.
My family together with my brother after he was awarded with a full scholarship to the University of Guam.




Resources:
 

American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons. Clubfoot. (n.d.). Retrieved April 4, 2016, from http://orthoinfo.aaos.org/topic.cfm?topic=a00255

Ken, E. (Director). (2005). Edutopia. Assistive Technology: Enabling Dreams [Video File]. United States. Retrieved April 4, 2016, from http://www.edutopia.org/assistive-technology-enabling-dreams-video

Stanberry, K. (n.d.).  Understood. Understanding Individualized Education Programs. Retrieved April 4, 2016, from https://www.understood.org/en/school-learning/special-services/ieps/understanding-individualized-education-programs

Texas Project First. Accommodations VS. Modifications. (n.d.). Retrieved April 4, 2016, from http://www.texasprojectfirst.org/ModificationAccommodation.html



The Lesson Behind the Lesson Plan


       I am still in the process of taking my foundation classes for the School of Education, so I never had the opportunity to create a lesson plan of my own. I was very intimidated when we were given the assignment because it was something that I was unfamiliar with. I had not heard about the ASSURE Instructional Design Model until we were given this task. I had a slow start with my lesson plan, but with some help and tips from my wonderful group mates and a little research, I was able to move forward. According to Educational Technology (2015), “Assure is an instructional design model that has the goal of producing more effective teaching and learning. “ASSURE” is an acronym that stands for the various steps in the model. The following is the breakdown of each step: Analyze learners, State objectives, Select, modify, or design materials, Utilize materials, Require learning response, Evaluate.”
       My lesson plan was geared towards a mix of fourth and fifth grade students who were in a special education resource room. I used the salt, fat, and sugar content from three different cereals to better explain math comparison and math comparison symbols. I had a hands on activity to help the students transition to the main lesson, I used a YouTube video to keep them engaged, and I incorporated the use of Microsoft Excel as the technology tool for the students to create a bar graph with the data they collected from the cereal content. If I were to create a similar lesson plan for the same group of students I would adjust the time frame and spread the lesson and the activity over a span of a few days. Since the students are still young and they are performing below their intended math level, they may need more time understanding and completing the task. According to the article on Edutopia titled “7 Ways to Increase a Student’s Attention Span,” it stated that “If you need to adjust time frames for all or some of your students, do so. Using timers, have the student who is struggling with attention show his/her work after a short period of time. This breaks up the task and allows the child to continue working without feeling completely overwhelmed” (Reeves, 2015). Besides adjusting the time frame, I would still have the students work in small groups and have them do some hands on activities. Allowing the students to work in small groups can encourage teamwork and communication skills. Including hands on activities in can keep the students engaged and it can help those with different learning styles better comprehend the lesson.
       Based on the lesson plan I created I could teach another math lesson and tie it into the students’ personal health. I would print copies of a daily food diary and have the students keep track of all the snacks they eat everyday over a span of one week. After the week is up the students will bring their food diary to class along with some of their snack wrappers. If the students did not keep their snack wrappers, they can look for the Nutrition Facts online during class time. After the students have collected the Nutrition Facts for all their snacks, they will collect the salt, fat, and sugar content for each of the snacks just like what they did with the three different cereals. After they collect their data, they will make a bar graph. This will allow the students to use their previous knowledge in math to see how much salt, fat, and sugar they are eating and from there they can make healthier snacking choices.
       I created two rubrics for this lesson to evaluate the students’ performance. The first rubric evaluated the first three objectives in the lesson, which were: 1. Students will be able to find the Nutrition Facts with 100% accuracy on all 3 cereal boxes, 2. Students will be able to identify the salt, fat, and sugar content with 100% accuracy for all 3 cereals, and 3. Students will input the data of the salt, fat, and sugar content from the 3 cereals on a pre-loaded digital spreadsheet on Microsoft Excel with 80% accuracy. The second rubric was created to evaluate whether the students could create a digital bar graph with the proper title, labels, data, and unit measurements with at least 80% accuracy. By looking at each student’s evaluation at the end of the lesson I will be able to see if they were able to meet the objectives I set for the class and to see where each students may need extra help and explanation for future assignments. One point that was not included in the ASSURE Lesson Plan was that the teacher may need to specify that “sodium” is the same thing as “salt.” Depending on the company, some labels may say sodium and others may say salt. Students may not be aware of this, which may cause confusion and difficulty in finding the salt content for the cereals.
       I think this lesson plan is already challenging for fourth and fifth grade students in a resource classroom, but it can be adjusted for middle school students in a resource room. Instead of having a pre-loaded data sheet on Microsoft Excel, the students will need to create one on their own. This will allow the students to learn how to gather data from different sources and learn how to organize, input, and present their findings by using a technology tool. The students can still work in small groups but instead of orally presenting their digital graph to the class, the students must submit their assignment via email. The teacher can give feedback to the assignment via email as well. This will give students the opportunity to do basic work on the computer and will teach them how to use a different communication tool.
       This was the first time I ever had to create a lesson plan of my own and I was introduced to the ASSURE Instructional Design Model. I was surprised to see that there were so many templates on the ASSURE model online. I think the ASSURE model is a great lesson plan tool because it helps the teacher plan all parts of the lesson out from start to finish. This assignment allowed me to be creative and it gave me the freedom to tie the lesson to any content area. There were minimal changes that needed to be made to my lesson plan and I was also able to see how I could make it more challenging. Now teachers in the secondary level could use it if they wished. This assignment started out as an intimidating task, but it turned out to be a really great learning experience.


Resources:
Forest, E. (2015, November 23). Educational Technology. ASSURE: Instructional Design Model.  Retrieved April 02, 2016, from http://educationaltechnology.net/assure-instructional-design-model/


Reeves, D. (2015, July 10). Edutopia. 7 Ways to Increase a Student's Attention Span. Retrieved April 02, 2016, from http://www.edutopia.org/discussion/7-ways-increase-students-attention-span

Wednesday 9 March 2016

Online Educational Games and Teacher Collaboration


       At the beginning of the semester, the class was randomly dispersed into groups. Each group was given the task to evaluate an online educational game and to find a way to use it in our respective content areas. My group consisted of one special education major, one secondary major with an emphasis in English, and two elementary education majors. Our first challenge was creating a rubric. As students we have received many rubrics from our teachers throughout our educational careers, but my group members and I never had to make one ourselves. At first we tried to make a rubric from scratch, but it quickly became very stressful and we felt like we were not making any progress. With the deadline in mind, our group decided that it was easier to look for samples of online educational game rubrics and to adopt the criteria we felt would make an exemplary game.  
       Our second challenge was to find a game we could all agree on. As a group we decided to test out some games on our own time and share the ones we thought would best fit our rubric. During our next meeting we each had at least three games, but found that the games focused on different subject areas and target audiences. Due to the vast variations among the games we found it difficult to evaluate them fairly. From there we decided to find a game that focused on Language Arts for elementary students. After searching for a few hours we finally came across Word Out.
       Word Out is similar to Tetris but instead of connecting geometric shaped units to clear the game area, the player uses a minimum three of letter blocks to create meaningful words. As a special education major, I would use Word Out as a supplement to spelling lessons and a way to help students expand their vocabulary skills. TeacherVision stated (n.d.), “To develop students' vocabulary, teachers must encourage a curiosity about the meaning and use of unfamiliar words and promote the use of strategies that will help students find the meaning of unfamiliar words". As a student plays Word Out, there are incidents where the player will set down a letter block and create a word they are unfamiliar with. I would have the student write down unfamiliar words in a Vocabulary Journal and look them up in a dictionary after they have finished the game. After defining the new word I would also have the student use it in a meaningful sentence.
       According to TeachThought’s (2013) “6 Benefits of Game-Based Learning,” game based learning can help with fast strategic thinking and problem solving, and it develops hand eye coordination. Word Out challenges the player to think quickly to place the descending letter blocks in a strategic manner in order to create meaningful words so they can earn points. Using the arrow keys to create words can help students develop better hand eye coordination and fine motor skills because they would have to follow what is displayed on the screen while simultaneously controlling the game’s actions.
       While collaborating with others, open communication is the key to success for a well-executed task. Aside from e-mail our group used a Whatsapp Group Chat. By using Whatsapp, group chat members are able to send messages, see who is online, see who is typing, share media such as pictures and voice notes, and see when all members have read the sender’s message. I really liked that Whatsapp gave notice when all parties saw the sender’s message so users will not have to wait for confirmation or worry if their message was received or not. It gave the group a general idea that we were all on the same page.
       Working with three other members with different lifestyles and schedules, there were incidents where one or two members were not able to physically make it to meetings. Since all the group members had iPhones and were Mac users, we decided to use FaceTime to help us conduct our meetings. Unlike Whatsapp where it takes a while for users to respond, FaceTime allowed our members to provide instant feedback along with face-to-face interaction. This helped us resolve issues and make decisions as a group in a smooth and quick manner and allowed each member to contribute and participate while being at a different location.
       By completing this assignment I learned that there is an extremely wide variety of resources available to educators online. I was unaware of many of the educational sites we visited and if it were not for this assignment I would not have known where to look for them. I also learned that there are many ways to incorporate online educational games in any grade level or subject. I was able to collaborate with others and find a way to connect a simple game to each of our majors and was able to see how much it can benefit the students. Although games are a great way to learn different subject areas and develop new skills, I would only recommend it as a supplement to a lesson and not as a way to replace the teacher. This assignment allowed our group as future educators to get creative and use tools we were familiar with in new ways and the opportunity to use new resources. I believe that it is important for students and teachers to be aware of what resources are available and to become proficient with as many as possible because new tools, resources, and skills help provide more creativity and opportunities for growth in the classroom.


Resources:
TeachThought Staff. (2013, March 15). TeachThought. 6 basic benefits of game-based learning.   Retrieved March 06, 2016, from http://www.teachthought.com/the-future-of-learning/technology/6-basic-benefits-of-game-based-learning/

 (n.d.). TeacherVision. Building vocabulary. Retrieved March 06, 2016, from https://www.teachervision.com/skill-builder/teaching-methods/48607.html?page=1