Best and Worst of Technology and Topics

I would have to say that the best part about this class is that is has a relaxed atmosphere. I think that the ability to be comfortable (as difficult as that is being 9+ months pregnant at this time) made the class enjoyable. I am a firm believer in the fact that you can learn more when you enjoy what you are doing. While some of the assignments were better than others, overall the atmosphere of the class and Mr. B.'s easy going personality made this an enjoyable time.


My favorite assignment was the presentation and learning new presentation software. While I felt it took me longer to complete the assignment because I did not know the program as well as "the old stand-by," I feel that I learned something useful for my future as a teacher. I also enjoyed finding new technologies such as polleverywhere.com and thinking about ways to incorporate technology into the curriculum as a future educator.

My least favorite assignment was the textbook critique and reading level assessments. I did not feel the reading level was a good indicator of an actual assessment because the scores were much higher than should have been. It also took a lot of time to count all the words for each passage...BORING! And I couldn't get by without referring to the portfolio. As tedious as that was, after I began filling in all the indicators for my major, I started to realize how valuable this actually is. And besides, I think it is pretty neat that I am creating my own website in the process of bragging about myself.

Best of luck to everyone!

Does Technology Change the Way We Teach?

Indisputably, yes. Technology in the classroom today allows for much more content, connection, and communication with students. With web 2.0 technology like YouTube, there is so much more real content to supplement what is being taught in the curriculum. Students can see real world consequences and applications. It allows teachers and students to make bigger connections with all subjects.

As a teacher, technology also allows us to communicate with students on a different level. Through the use of e-mail, blogs, the internet, and social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook, we can be in constant contact with our students about something. We must be careful to filter our interactions and not become too comfortable with students in a faceless, and unemotional "cyberworld." It is also very easy to throw something at students and tell them to research it on the Internet, blog about it, or send me an e-mail. As teachers, we must be more cautious about authentic assessments and utilize this massive world of technology for the greater good and not just to make things easier on ourselves.

However, I do think technology allows for so much more advancement for students in special education. There are many wonderful tools for these students. Teachers must keep up with technology in order to help students succeed through the use of these mediums. This requires diligence on our part to stay current and truly continue to be lifelong learners.

Web 2.0 Instructional Tools

The Web 2.0 tool that I chose to highlight for my presentation is from a site called www.studentpublishing.com. This is an interactive book publishing tool for multiple grade levels. As a special education major and the experiences I have had with students with disabilities, this tool is a great way to incorporate technology and instruction. Studentpublishing.com is an online book publishing tool for grades K-8. Most of the books published are free of charge with certain requirements. Students can log in under their own identity and create books by typing their story into various book templates. They can choose, text, pictures, set-up, layouts, and even color the pictures using a simple MS Paint type technology. I think this is a great tool for students with multiple disabilities who may have trouble writing, speaking, or even using the tools to make and color their own books by hand. For a child with severe Cerebral Palsy to create anything requires the assistance of someone. This tool would allow a child to create and publish a book, who otherwise could not even hold a pencil on his own.

Is There Truth in Fiction? Movie Reviews

For my movie comparison I watched Stand and Deliver and Lean on Me. I really enjoyed Stand and Deliver, starring Edward James Olmos as Jaime’ Escalante. While I was dually impressed by the story of Joe Clark in Lean on Me, I didn’t find the movie as inspirational as Stand and Deliver.

Jaime’ Escalante’s story begins when he is placed into a remedial high school math class in East Los Angeles, CA. From the movie I gathered that Mr. Escalante began his teaching career after leaving a technology job working with computers during the mid 1980’s. I admire this quality of someone leaving their career and deciding to change the lives of young people through education. I also gave up a career to return to school for a career in teaching.

I found that Mr. Escalante was humorous and confident in his teaching. Jaime’ also set high expectations and showed a lot of dedication for his students. This was evidenced by the rigorous schedule he set for his students to learn calculus in order to pass the AP test. Additionally, Jaime’ showed empathy for his students and gave them the tools to learn how to survive and succeed. By not showing too much sympathy or providing “crutches,” he did not debilitate them to the point of the learned helplessness phenomenon.

Other positive aspects about Mr. Escalante’s teaching methods included the use of movement, real world applications (field trip to the computer company), the establishment of respect, and student dedication through the use of a student contract. Accordingly, his cross-content area example with History in Math demonstrated interest learning when he stated “it was your ancestors, the Mayas who invented the concept of zero.”

One the flip side of my movie watching experience was the story of Eastside High in Patterson, N.J. and teacher-turned-principal Joe Clark portrayed by Morgan Freeman in the movie Lean on Me. As I began watching the movie, I was less excited about Mr. Clark’s teaching methods after he became a principal. Mr. Clark exuded a very authoritarian style of discipline as exhibited by the rule of making students sing the school song on demand, or receive detention. I enjoyed the methods he used in the first scene when they showed him teaching what appeared to be a Social Studies or History class.

On the positive, Mr. Clark was a very passionate man with inspirational speaking abilities. I do feel that his tough love attitude was necessary for the condition of the school at the time. The changes that were made (if portrayed accurately in the movie) were astounding. I feel that as he stressed discipline he was able to achieve a better educational atmosphere for the students at Eastside. It is difficult to learn in a chaotic environment. Controlling the student body was necessary to achieve learning. Eventually he was able to loosen up a bit and become more compassionate when he was confronted by the assistant principal. I do not think he realized the impact of his negative reinforcement until this time.

Both Mr. Escalante, and Mr. Clark exhibited confidence, respect, and in some ways they both utilized tough love. Parental involvement was also demonstrated by both when Jaime’ visited the family restaurant where one of his students worked, and when Joe offered to extend the weekend reading program to parents. Both stories and instructors were very inspiring and I feel that the tactics employed by each were right for the situation. Both succeeded in accomplishing the task they set out to do. It is through success that you realize, the methods and strategies you use in the classroom or school are appropriate.

What Value is there in Portfolio Assessment?

I think portfolio assessment is one of the most underused and valuable tools for assessment in education. Yes I agree that you must test students basic knowledge for various concepts and skills, but taking one test at one point in time does not measure the true ability of a student. Being a Special Education major, we talk about the use of portfolio assessment for students with disabilities. I think there is much more room for creativity when using portfolios and they can be valuable to assess the multiple and various skills that a student possesses; not just how well they can cram, memorize, and spew information back to you in question and answer form.

If you think about Bloom's taxonomy, the ability to create is one of the highest levels, falling in the synthesis category (2nd highest). What better way to assess what a student has learned than by asking them to create something. The biggest issue that I can see with portfolio assessment as a part of a graduation requirement is the ability to be consistent with evaluation techniques. There would need to be a very detailed and clear rubric created for the assessment along with strict guidelines that teachers/evaluation teams must adhere to.

What was it like to critique myself?

Critiquing oneself is always awkward. At first I focus on how my voice does not sound the same. I have watched myself on video before, but never with a critical eye. I think that it helps to improve our public speaking abilities when you take a critical look at yourself. It was helpful for myself to see that I may not project my voice as loud as it seems. Here is my official critique:

"Watching yourself in video is always interesting. For some people I know it can be difficult and awkward. It was not too awkward for me because I have done this many times throughout my career before coming back to school for education. After watching myself in the past I would always try to think about what I could have done or said better, but until now I have never really had the time to sit down and reflect on these things in writing.

As usual, I talk a lot with my hands. This has always been something that I do. I don’t feel it is a big distraction, but I was a little annoyed that I kept placing my hand on my belly. I guess as I have a nice shelf due to my status of being seven plus months pregnant, I do this more than not while talking. I was also a little disappointed in my posture. I think I need to improve upon that to have a more confident look in the classroom. It might actually make me look a little taller.

I think I have a pretty nice speaking voice and am pretty comfortable speaking in front of people. I did feel that I could have projected a little more throughout the room, as I tended to talk toward the screen throughout most of this lesson. This may not have allowed my voice to carry to my right, or the audience’s left. Next time I might try moving to the other side of the screen more frequently."

Video Editing

Video editing to me before taking this class was a very long, boring, and complicated project. I used to be in the business world and had an office next to two video editors. The language and "tech-speak" they used was very foreign to me. It seemed like a long process as they were always "rendering" which would take hours for them. Granted they were professionals who worked for companies like P&G and the like. After learning the software from class, it seemed like a not-so-daunting task. I think it's pretty cool that a 34-year-old grad student and working mother can even learn and enjoy video editing. Who care's what they say about old dogs and new tricks! If I can prove them wrong, anyone can.

How did I incorporate technology into my lesson?

In my lesson, I decided to use the old tried and true PowerPoint to present the content. While learning the other presentation software has been helpful and I really like them better, I needed to use PP because I am testing out a new technology with text messaging which required the PP program. The new technology is called polleverywhere.com. It is a cool tool and was very applicable to the subject of Math which I chose for my mini-lesson. More to come on polleverywhere.com during my lesson in class tonight...

What's Wrong with HTML?

I don't know. I need more information to make a judgement on this topic. The only real thing I know about html is that sometimes you should send e-mails (or write blogs) in that format so others don't have a problem viewing the special features of text and formatting. I guess if I had to make a judgement right now, I would say that html is, well...boring.

Creative Commons Photo - Happy Valentine's Day

I think the biggest copyright issue that teachers might face is the use of pictures and making copies of information from books for students. Teachers like to use visual aides for their lessons and sometimes make copies out of other books to supplement learning from the required text. In all the haste, I am sure that teachers may sometimes forget to site something every now and then.

My Biggest Legal Concern as a Teacher

As a special educator the legal concerns are far and wide. Because everything we do is so confidential and documented, by biggest concern is that I will be bound by the IEP to do what I can to help a child, and have a parent say that I did not do everything stated within that document. From there I would be held accountable for a breech of terms and could be taken to court. Progress monitoring is a big deal in Special Education because that is the documentation that proves what you have done according to the goals on each child's IEP. With a caseload of 16 maximum, IEP students, how is one to get it all done and say they did everything they could and make the parents happy? Maybe I should say that my biggest legal concern as a teacher is the happiness of the parent's of my students.

Corporal Punishment in Schools - The Case of Ingraham v. Wright (1977)

Citation:         Ingraham v. Wright 430 U.S. 651 (1977)

Topic:             Corporal Punishment in Public Schools

Issue:

The case of Ingraham v. Wright presents the argument concerning the use of corporal punishment (CP) in the public school system. The first question involves whether the use of student paddling to maintain discipline constitutes cruel and unusual punishment and if it violates the rights of the Eighth Amendment. Additionally, in the extent that paddling is permissible under the constitution, does the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment require that prior notice and an opportunity to be heard need to be given to the student receiving punishment.    

Facts:

            The case of Ingraham v. Wright began in October 1970 when James Ingraham and Roosevelt Andrews, Junior High students at Charles R. Drew Junior High in Dade County (Miami), Florida, filed a complaint against the school. The complaint contained two counts for deprivation of constitutional rights for damages suffered by both students after a paddling at school by the school principal Willie J. Wright. A third count was a class action suit filed on behalf of all students in Dade County schools for declarative and injunctive relief. In essence, the third count was for the admission of a wrong doing, and to ask the courts for further judgment on the issue of corporal punishment use in schools.

            In the early 1970’s Florida law permitted CP in schools (spanking or paddling), but with certain restraints. Teachers were to get permission from the principal before paddling and it was to be limited to one to five “licks” on the student’s buttocks. Teachers, however, paddled without permission and many times gave more than five spankings.

            In October 1970, it was alleged that Ingraham was slow to respond to a teacher’s instructions. He was sent to the principal’s office, held over a table by his arms and legs, and received 20 licks with a paddle. His paddling resulted in the formation of a hematoma (a pool of blood under the skin on his backside), and several days of missed school. In the same month, Andrews was paddled on several occasions for breaking minor school rules. Andrews received multiple paddlings on his arms and lost the use of one arm for several days after. Another student was reported to have received 50 licks for making an obscene phone call.

            Both Ingraham and Roosevelt filed a lawsuit against the principals of the Junior High and the Dade County School District. Lawyers said that the schools violated the students’ Eighth and Fourteenth Amendment rights by using cruel and unusual punishment and not allowing a hearing before the paddling, respectively. The students were hoping to recover their damages and prevent future use of corporal punishment in the school system.

Findings and Rationale:      

            The trial court dismissed the case and the court of appeals agreed. From there the case was sent onto the U.S. Supreme Court. In a 5-4 decision, the Court ruled in favor of the school. Under the Eighth Amendment which states, “Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted,” the court stated that bail, fines, and punishment are part of the criminal system. Since schools are not part of that system, they do not have to obey the eighth amendment.

            The court also rejected the argument under the Fourteenth Amendment that schools should give students a hearing before administering the punishment. Laws in Florida allowed students injured by corporal punishment to sue officials for the recovery of damages. The court stated that forcing schools to hold a hearing for every case of corporal punishment would be time consuming and too costly.

            Since the United States Constitution does not explicitly grant the Federal government power regarding education, it is therefore reserved to the states. The court also recognized that schools are separate from the criminal system, and therefore corporal punishment in schools could not be challenged under the cruel and unusual punishment clause of the Eighth Amendment. Finally, under the Fourteenth Amendment, the power also resided back to the states to decide the Due Process of any action taken against the schools.

Implications:

            The implications of this case on today’s educators brings about the issue of corporal punishment and whether it should or should not be used as a way to discipline students. Immediately after this case went to the Supreme Court, two states passed laws making it illegal to use corporal punishment (paddling) in school. It was not until the early 1990’s that 21 more states passed similar laws. Today, in 2011, 20 states still have laws that allow CP in schools.

A big debate looms in the school system today over positive versus negative reinforcement. Which is more effective? Does the same type of reinforcement work for all children? While we may not have all the answers, this case set the precedent to abolish a practice established in a very different time, and under very different social, political, and educational regimes.

View my Prezi Corporal Punishment in Schools - Does it Still Exist? (a presentation on the topic).

INGRAHAM v. WRIGHT, 430 U.S. 651 (1977)

http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=us&vol=430&invol=651

What Makes a Good Presentation?

I wasn't sure if we were supposed to wait to post this topic since we missed a class, but I went ahead and did it regardless...

A good presentation is one that does not make you fall asleep! I think that good presentations possess at least three key elements, A dynamic speaker (someone who can engage the audience), a relevant topic, and differentiations or variations in the presentation method. The dynamic speaker is one who can capture the audience in some way shape or form. It may be the way they dress, actually speak, or just find a way to grab the attention of their audience. This may include the way they pose an essential question which brings about good discussion. The topic of the presentation is also important. Of course this may be a "chicken and egg" type thing. You must have a relevant topic to pull in an audience. However, sometimes you already have an audience (college course) and you must find an appropriate topic to present. Finally, I think that including variations in the medium to which you present are important. Not all individuals learn information in the same format. Research shows that most people are visual-auditory learners which is why many schools and teachers employ these presentation styles in their classrooms. But it is also important to utilize other methods to engage the different learning styles that might be found in your audience. Personally, I have always enjoyed presentations that include a really great opening story which makes you think deeply about a topic, some sort of interactive "learn by doing" activity, and visual aids. Additionally, some humor and a schedule that allows for breaks is important as well.

Journal Article Review - “Promoting Independent Performance of Transition-Related Tasks Using a Palmtop PC-based Self-Directed Visual and Auditory Prompting System.”

The focus of this article is the use of a palmtop computer for transition age students with cognitive disabilities to increase independence on vocational and independent living tasks. The researchers for this study began with the hypothesis that using a palmtop computer with Windows CE platform with touch screen abilities and the Visual Assistant Program would 1) decrease need for external prompts from instructors, 2) increase number of steps completed in a given task without external prompts, and 3) decrease duration of time spent on each task for students with intellectual disabilities.

There are a number of student-directed learning strategies identified and used to help people with cognitive disabilities self-regulate life-skills and vocational living tasks. Among these are antecedent-cue and picture-cue strategies which both utilize audio and visual cues respectively. Audio involves recorded instructions for completing a task that the student can listen to while performing a task. Visual strategies involve a sequence of photographs or illustrations of the person performing an activity to completion. Both of these strategies promote on-task behavior and independent work performance for persons with mental retardation. These strategies also aid in reduction of reliance on others to complete a task, difficulty with remembering sequences, remembering all steps, and can assist with generalization.

This study used four participants with cognitive disabilities (mental retardation) receiving community-based vocational supports or who were enrolled in a community-based transition program in a local school district. The students were trained to perform a vocational task, such as setting a table, rolling silverware and napkins in a restaurant, and doing their own laundry. All students had been performing their jobs for several months utilizing an instructor or job coach as the primary source of direction for task completion and prompting.

The study involved two sources of technology: a palmtop computer with Windows CE platform and touch screen capabilities, as well as the Visual Assistant Program. A palmtop computer is a small handheld device much like a PDA. The Visual Assistant Program is a program which allows people with special needs to view step-by-step pictures with audio instructions for completing a task. Initially, pictures were taken of each student performing their assigned task with verbal instructions from a teacher or coach. Each student’s pictures with audio instructions were then loaded onto Visual Assistant. The program displays a picture step in the task with a play button and a next button. Play will result in audio explaining the step. The done button is pushed once the step is complete and signals the device to move to the next step.

The study first began by retrieving baseline data of the students performing their tasks without the use of the aforementioned technology. The number of prompts, total steps completed and total time to complete the task was recorded. Students were trained to use the Visual Assistant program and given a demonstration on how to perform their assigned tasks using the palmtop. Training continued until the students were able to use the device independently. Once students reached total independence (no prompts from the instructor) data was again recorded for change in number of prompts, total steps completed and time to complete each task. The study found that fewer mistakes were made when using the software and students required significantly fewer prompts. Time was not reduced because some students chose to listen to the audio instructions for different steps multiple times.

I definitely think this type of technology would work to help many students with special needs. Having worked with students in a vocational training program, this system would give students more independence and could be used in many different types of vocational fields. This also relieves instructors of repeated prompting and modeling, thus allowing instructors more time to work with students who may need more attention. This program is also very effective because it tracks the number of prompts and the time required by the student. The ability to collect data electronically allows for more accuracy in recording and more time for the instructor to focus on teaching and instruction. I also think this program could be used in a lower educational setting (elementary or middle) to help students self-regulate educational tasks.  Subjects such as writing and math operations could be programmed so students can follow detailed steps for editing publications, or adding and subtracting multi-digit factors.

Source:

Riffel, Laura. “Promoting Independent Performance of Transition-Related Tasks Using a Palmtop PC-based Self-Directed Visual and Auditory Prompting System.” Journal of Special Education Technology. 20.2 (2005): 5-14. 

Here it is...

My first blog...more to come later!