Technology

Over the course of the semester I have collected information on different kinds of technology that can be helpful in the classroom. In my CEP class, we had an instructor come in and talk to us about different assistive technologies that can be used in the classroom for computers. One interesting program that is free and can be downloaded online is Microsoft Reader. It is a program that reads text that is on the screen to students, a huge tool that could be useful for students with visual impairments, or for students who are just struggling with reading. The program can even work with Spanish and French languages, making it useful for ELL students. There are other programs such as this one that will read the text on the screen to students, including NaturalReader, and an add-on to Firefox that will read to the students. We also discussed some speech recognition software that can be used. Some examples include the IBM ViaVoice, along with a program withing Windows Vista, even though there have been problems that are still being worked out in the Vista program. Below are some links that can be used for information and how to use these programs.

http://www.microsoft.com/reader/downloads/pc.asp
http://www.naturalreaders.com/download.htm
http://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/918/
http://www-306.ibm.com/software/voice/viavoice/
http://www.istartedsomething.com/20060808/vista-speech-recognition-screencast/

Dynavox

Recently I went home and saw some of my kids from my summer camp. One of the kids had his dynavox with him, a tool that helps him communicate with other people. It has many different icons that he pushes on the touchscreen, and it then will "talk" from what was previously recorded. There is a section in his dynavox for the SCAMP counselors, and when he pushes one of our names it says it. Each one of us recorded our own name during the summer. It's a really cool device that helps him communicate, even though he is not always comfortable using it around people that he does not know. When he first brought it in to camp we had to encourage to show us how he uses it and what he uses it for. Now because he knows me, he will use it more willingly, which is great to see.

The Past Week

This past week in the field was interesting as I learned that two of Mr. Munson's students had been placed into the special education program at Bingham elementary. I knew about one of the students possibly being placed in the program as he was being tested a couple of weeks ago, but did not know that another student was being placed in the the program. The student that I knew was being tested is one that I help a lot on a weekly basis on almost every activity that he does. Whenever they are working on individual work, he comes over to get me to help him on his assignment. Even when I help him, he seems very unmotivated to do his work. Still, I am not surprised to see him in special needs because of the struggles that he has in multiple areas. When I talked to Mr. Munson about what will happen now, he told me that the student will be out of the classroom and in a different one for about 3 hours each day, working on mainly literacy and math during that time he is gone. These are the two areas that I have mainly seen him work in, and I definitely agree that he needs extra help and attention in his work. I look forward to seeing if he improves in these areas at all over the final couple of weeks.

In The Field

The past couple of times in the field, I have had the opportunity to work with students either individually or in small groups out in the hallway. We have worked on literacy skills and math skills. With literacy, we worked on reading short stories in some of the language arts textbooks. When I have groups of 2 or 3, I have the students take turns reading pages aloud. We would read the story 2 or 3 times, then go over some of the words that they had trouble reading. The kids were more involved in this reading because there were only a few of them and they were, for the most part, constantly reading. I have also helped some students in their individual writing, mainly helping the students who struggle more in the classroom. Both circumstances were good experiences because I am helping students who are struggling in the classroom. I can use what I learn from these experiences when I have my own special education class because there are going to be some similarities in some of the kids.

Different Types of Technology

Recently in my special education classroom, we watched a video that covered many different interesting types of technology available for people with special needs. I was truly surprised by some of the technologies that are out there. The video was called Freedom Machines. One of the technologies that is talked about is a speech program for the computer. It was interesting to see, though, because it involved a student that was in college and how she used it to write her papers, etc. Another machine that was mentioned was the JAWS program, which reads information on the computer screen to the user. Another interesting technology that was talked about is how a keyboard was programmed with larger keys because the man's daughter could only use her fists. Programs that go along this include intellikeys, which also uses bigger letters. These are technologies that I have heard of before, but it was interesting to see how people use them in their own unique way.
There were also some technologies that I was more unfamiliar with. One of the technologies that is talked about is a scanner that works with the computer that enlarges print for the reader. Examples that are used in the video including books and mail, and this program can definitely be useful for many different types of print. Finally, one thing that really stood out to me was a wheelchair that worked in a way that locked its wheels and rotate to move it up a flight of stairs (this is kind of hard to explain in writing). Some of this technology can be useful in a special education classroom, which is why the movie was so interesting to me. Trying to incorporate technology into my classroom is important to me, so knowing what is available and how its used is obviously something that is important for me to know.
http://www.freedommachines.com/