Presentation highlights and thoughts

The presentations tonight were excellent and a great way to access to so much information in a relatively short time. I feel much more prepared in recommending apps to fellow educators after viewing these presentations.

The first presentation on New Apps for Learning Disabilities showed us some great apps that seem to be very user friendly. Out of the 3 apps that were discussed Paperport Notes and Book Creator are the ones that I am really excited to try out in my classroom. I can see how these apps, especially Book Creator, will be able to bring out the strenghts our students have. I only wish I had known about these apps for a few of the students I had taught in the past. It would have spared us a lot of frustration and allowed my students the opportunity to show their skills in a way that suits their learning style. I was surprised to hear that a school with 500 students with grades 1-9 didn't have any mobile devices :(

Top Free Apps in Special Education
I was so happy to see so many wonderful free apps available. I was interested in learning how the basic apps on the iPad could be used to assist students in ways that I never thought of. I was really impressed with the variety of apps out there that serve a variety of needs and grade levels. Of particular interest to me were Tiki Notes and Pocket Pond. I can certainly see Tiki Notes as being a valuable tool for writing for many students in my school. It would help to allievate some of the stress these students feel when writing. I also can't wait to try Pocket Pond and similiar relaxation apps for the student with Autism in my room. I can see him loving it!

The second presentation on New Apps for Learning Disabilities also shared important information that is important to assisting students with LD. I think WordQ would be an interesting app to use with students. I also think many teachers are unaware of the Puffin app that allows users to use apps that require Flashplayer. This would allow a commom website that my school uses, Starfall to be used on the iPad.  I also found it sad that there is such a disparity between the schools that were surveyed. There was a large 7-12 school that had no mobile technology at all, while another school has access to several mobile devices. It is disappointing that there is such a difference between schools. It is the students who end up suffering in these situations.

Executive Function Apps
I found this presentation to be very informative and left me wanting to experiment with many of the apps that were mentioned. I can see our school using many of these apps for our LD students. The relaxatation apps (Take a Chill, Let Panic Go) are of great interest to me as I can think of 3 specific students that they would be very beneficial for.

Exciting New Apps for LD-although Dawn's presentation topic was previously covered, she was still able to add new information and a new perspective to the topic. I loved the video with Piper who discussed overcoming dyslexia. She was a voice advocating for students who learn in different ways and how we need to ensure they are learning in a way that best suits their learning style and needs. Her story is one that many educators should see to gain perspecitve about how students such as herself struggle in some classrooms. I was particularly interested in learning about the Read Iris app that allows users to conert paper documents to editable and searchable text files. This is an app that I plan on investigating.

The final presentation on New Apps for LD gave us a review of the apps they considered to me the most beneficial to students and educators. As mentioned in previous presentations, there are several apps that can be used

Class 3 post

During class 3 we had the opportunity in our group to discuss the importance of the webinar we viewed on apps for students with severe Autism. I found this webinar to be very informative and encouraging. I immediately shared some of the apps I learned about with the Autism Specialist in our district, who is always looking for new apps for the students she works with. She was excited to hear about the information I had learned and looks forward to any other information I may be able to share.

As I have a student in my room who has Autism, I was looking forward to the information presented in the webinar. While he is not totally nonverbal, he does have issues with communication, so I was interested in learning more. As the webinar mentioned, video modeling can be very benefical in helping students with Autism with communication and social skills. I am hoping to implement this in my own classroom soon.

The section on sensory regulation were also of interest to me as I am always looking for ways to keep him engaged as well as prepare him for transitions. I look forward to trying Fluid2 and Pocket Pond.
The Pictello app is also of interest to me in that social stories are a big part of this students programming. He does seem to be bored at times with the social story books, so I think being able to present the information to him through this app will be a great way to keep him engaged.

Autism is a World

Susie Rubin-Autism is a World

This short video has such a profound impact and really gives us a glimpse into the life of Susie. By listening to Susie you can tell how much of an impact AT has had on her life. She talks about how difficult it is to describe autism to someone who hasn't experienced it, and until she was able to communicate, no one would know or understand her true feelings or how lost she felt. Looking at the role of Presumed Competency, we can see how her caregiver is allowing her to take control of the technology and only assists her when needed. She realizes that Susie is able to put her thoughts and feelings into the device and it seems as though she believes in her abilities.

Class 1

After reflecting on our first class I am excited about the new learnings and knowledge that I can share with my staff and school. I look forward to making learning more accessible for my students while providing them engaging and interactive lessons within the UDL model.

As teachers we always want to ensure we are doing our best to meet the various needs in our classrooms. It can get overwhelming at times, however by using assistive technology we can make that job a bit less stressful and more engaging for our students. In our first class I was pleased to hear the focus on UDL as it is an area our school district has been concentrating on recently.
When examining the UDL placemat I was so excited to see the various apps that could be used for a variety of needs in our school and my own classroom. I quickly e-mailed the placemat to our resource teacher and principal. We had a chance to review some of the apps for our newly purchased IPads and have found several new ones that we want to try. I had the chance to try one out for a student in my own classroom that has communication difficulties and he loved it! Asking him to segment sounds when spelling was one of my biggest challenges, but now with this app he is doing exactly that but doesn't even think of it as the same task he didn't like to do previously.

I am pleased that the terms we researched and discussed in class are starting to become a part of our conversations in schools. There are so many opportunities for our students to show their learning with assistive technology and I am anxious to learn about them and try them myself. As technology continues to evolve I think we will be able to give our students the opportunity to express and show thier talents in ways they could never have before.