ILP #2 - "Participation" - Accesibility Lab

Here are some notes from our class trip to the accesibility lab at FSU. It's a short description of what we did, mostly.

The first example of asistive technology were the various devices, and products for blind people. I thought the printed anatomy books were especially amazing. I have a friend with severe disabilities in his eyes, and he uses similar technology, and it made me extremely happy to see these products available for all the students.

I found the comprehensive nature of the technology lab to be really awe-inspiring, and I think that it really showed me that FSU has no problem putting out top dollar for their students to have every resource available to them. It made me extremely proud to be a student here.

#9

I personally like the idea of a flipped classroom. It seems like a really interesting way to flip the formula of the classroom. It also seems that it could be a new way forward for teaching that allows teachers to be in the classrooms for the most crucial part of the student's learning process; the part where they really wrestle with the material.

Here's a video of a couple teachers explaining why they "flipped" their classroom. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2H4RkudFzlc

I really like the idea of Open Resources as well. I think that the textbook industry is absolutely inflated, and that the public education system suffers because of this. This means that the people get taxed more, and our government struggles to provide a quality education to our children because of one industries base greed. Its great to see a way out of that.

The hyperlink and actions feature, as well as the insert audio tab are new skills I learned from these assignments are awesome. I wish I was better at making the slides more aestehtically pleasing. Some of the pictures were ugly, but I enjoyed putting together the quiz and lessons.

#7

I'm pretty impressed by adaptive technologies, particularly the ways in which they help bring the education for students with serious disabilities up to par with the rest of the system. As Americans we are guranteed a quality and unobstructed education, I feel thats an integral part of the pursuit of happiness that was insured by the people who founded this country. In the past many students with disabilities were cordoned off from student's without any hindrances or even denied an education, but I see that we've begun to overcome that with our technological advances. That brings some joy to me knowing that a child with a disability will be able to pursue what is promised to all of us.

Anyways, I set up a website for professional use. It doesn't fit all of the criteria set by the grading rubric, but I tried to make up for that in other ways by adding links to places I have been published, as well as a gallery of inspiration where I'll add links and images that have spoken to me. I left a lot of room to grow, and I actually expect to use this going forward, and even upgrade my plan with weebly. I learned some pretty useful skills, just through learning to navigate and interact with simplified web building tools like this. I definitely want to get some more personal pictures up on the sight. Unfortunately I don't have any just yet, besides the one from my "Open" reading, but that'll change over the course of the week. I'm definitely going to shop around the other well known web development sites and see which one works best for me. It's important to have a homebase for your internet presence in poetry. I know I use other poet's websites a lot to keep up with what they're doing.

link: http://willandersonpoetry.weebly.com/

I've learned a few things from Diigo, mostly how to actually work Diigo. It was a little complicated at first, but I see the potential of the platform. I like that it can be used as a hive-mind aggregator of cool content for a project of group of people. I can see myself using this with a widespread group of people to explore the internet in search of resources for a research project, or in general just as a place where we can say "Hey! Look at this cool artist I found!"

ILP "Design" - Prezi

http://prezi.com/8ulooobdlwjd/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy

I just made a presentation setting class guidelines, brainstorming tools, writing strategies, as well as in-class & field assignments to help jog student's writing muscles. It was fun!

#6

http://www.taylor.k12.fl.us/?DivisionID=15678

There doesn't seem to be any specific class pages on the Taylor County High School website, which can become a problem if you want to keep parents notified. This seems to be a serious failing on the part of the school and the teachers - but this is a rural county. Teachers are able to keep in touch with parents fairly easily, and may even be friends or past teachers of the parents.

I envision myself using collective, and collaborative, writing applications to congregate my student's works. This will allow me to effectively read and comment on creative writing pieces and keep up to date on editing and grading their pieces. This will help me become a better teacher, and I feel that it helps integrate technology into the classroom in very interconnecting and efficient ways that the books talks about.

I did not go to the technology sandbox :(

#5

My favorite Web 2.0 tool that I've experienced so far (mind you I don't have much experience with them) are wikis. I like the community experience, as well as the teamwork that the format supports. I also think that the responsibility of admining, managing, and contributing content makes for a great lesson in the subject of internet citizenship. This could be a useful way to introduce students to the social constructs nesecary for the internet to function.

One Web 2.0 tool I might use is Prezi - it's just such a smoother alternative to Powerpoint and I think that it allows student to have more creative freedom with their collaborative peer-education content. More freedom in assignments is something I feel is always constructive and allows students to excercise their minds more.

I really like the notion of "gameification," and the energy that education games brings to the classroom. Like even when I heard about Oregon Trail in class I got so excited! I played it for a bit and saw how strangely educational it was - but I never got bored of it. And its a great way to get an idea to really invigorate a educational concept kids

Post #4 (THE REAL ONE)

I didn't like twitter in the beggining of the class because of previous experiences in my personal life in which Twitter just seemed like an echo chamber.  So far twitter has been a distraction for me, and not incredibly beneficial. I've interacted with Dick, Tori, and Christina mostly, but this is primarily through GIFS of Action Bronson and other silly things. I don't see Twitter being beneficial in future careers.

The digital divide affects student success by making some teachers incompetent with crucial pieces of tech, and if the teacher is not knowledgable then the student cannot learn. One cause of the digital divide is simply age, and the lack of technological immersion that comes with being a millineal (or equivalant), As a classroom teacher I may experience technology that is simply out of my field of knowledge, or comfort zone. I'm going to have to simply get used to that and research the technology I'm using, as well as look into future tech.

I expect to use math programs the least, and writing applications and programs the most. Why? Mostly because that's what I'm educated in, and what I'd be best at. Also, writing classes at a senior level will need technological supplements to keep the classroom connected as a whole. The actual writing, as well as comments, will need to be utilized so that my students can grow as writers (and even humans)