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Jan
23

Which Doors Will You Open for Your Students?

Which Doors Will You Open for Your Students?
Technology opens doors, both literally and figuratively, for people with and without disabilities. For example, it allows us to obtain advanced degrees from universities in other states. It opens a door for us when entering a building in a wheelchair or with a dolly loaded with boxes. It increases access to content in all parts of our daily lives. Just think of the times when you could not remember the name of that actor or that book; did you look it up using that handy little cell phone in your purse or pocket? 

When it comes to the classroom, technology is offering our students the same opportunities and is pushing us as their educators to engage our students with the curriculum in new ways. For example, technology is enabling students to learn about the importance and implications of financial loans through sites like Kiva.org that allow them to invest real money in global projects. Technology allows our students to improve access to reading and writing through speech to text or text to speech apps, software, and built-in features as well as through ePubs and digital textbooks. Technology brings content to life through captioned teacher and student made videos. It can even bring your recorded and captioned instructional message to your students when they are working with a substitute. 

Yet, with all of the possibilities and positives that accompany the use of technology in our daily lives, and especially in the classroom, some schools, parents, and educators are pushing back against the use of tech in the classroom. Is their hesitancy legitimate? For a while now, I have been reflecting upon this question and a few arguments and solutions have dawned on me that I’d like to share for your consideration whether or not you’re on or off the technology bandwagon.

Firstly, screen time. After a recent conversation I had with a friend who has a student in Kindergarten, it dawned on me that screen time guidelines may have something to do with the hesitance some feel when it comes to embracing technology in the classroom. We all know that too much screen time is typically not a good thing and that there are pediatric guidelines for screen time and young children. Not to mention, we know that screen time is sometimes used as a free or low cost babysitter. But, it does not have to be this way.

There is so much learning that can take place on a screen when we use technology as a tool (see next point) and when we take the time to interact with our screens together. I believe it’s when we remove the social aspect of screen time that the learning experiences we desire for our students and children are heavily diminished. We must intentionally design screen time so that we are supporting our students in their discovery of new information and the meaningful application of it to their lives. Screen time does not always equate to “me time,” it can and should be a social experience in both school and home. 

Secondly, it comes down to how and why the technology is being used. To be honest, there was a time in my classroom when I was gifted an iPad by my administration and told to use it with students. All I could come up with at the time was an app that allowed two students to face off in multiplication fact challenges. Probably not the best use of the tool or their time. 

Now, many classrooms have the opportunity to allow all students to use a device for an activity, for a day, or to keep for the year, and it is our duty as educators to use these devices as tools to create a learning experience that previously was not possible. We have the power to turn each device into a point of access for our students - access to content, access to accommodations, access to one another, and access to our world. 

We must step away from the thinking that the only ways these devices can be used is for digitalization of worksheets or for running learning management systems. Technology is the way of the future and there’s no getting around that. So, let’s utilize devices and tech to provide new experiences for our students that improves access to information while inciting curiosity and new perspectives. Below are a few websites to inspire your creativity. 
Remember that you don’t have to reinvent the wheel. Many resources, strategies, and ideas are already out there for you to take and make your own. You don’t have to do this alone. Ask your colleagues what they are doing. Ask your personal learning networks on Twitter or Facebook. Visit DonorsChoose.org to see what other educators are doing and for what they are requesting funds and do the same. Reach out and ask our team how to make your tech work best for you and your students. 

You have the power to teach students how to make the most out of their tools and to use them for growth and advocacy. You have the opportunity to teach life skills like digital literacy and understanding fact from fiction. The time is now to support your students’ intentional use of technology to empower their lives and to prepare them for tech-based careers that we cannot yet comprehend.

3
Jan
16

Blue Crayons


January is when I go for my annual eye exam, and as a specialist for issues regarding vision, I suppose my optometrist braces himself for that lady who has all the questions about eyes. My eyes are worsening each year, in no small part, due to screen use for work and I admit, due to viewing flowers, babies and political nonsense on social media. I’m working on reducing my screen time, and literally, taking a longer view, by scheduling time to look out the window.


My traveling views over the dashboard this winter are taking me frequently to my hometown of North Manchester. Manchester Community Schools is one of the several districts receiving our PATINS AEMing for Achievement Grant this year, and I have been assigned to help them with guidance and training. I’ve enjoyed visiting, and being reminded of my childhood in this small college town. The sledding hill at 5th and East Streets looks impossibly smaller than when I was 11. The injuries I sustained couldn’t possibly have happened there. The playground next to the little league field at the old Thomas Marshall School no longer has maypoles or tether balls. If you don’t know what either of these are google “playground hazards from the 1970’s”. Mr. Dave’s restaurant remains the same as does their tenderloin recipe. 

Part of the grant for Manchester’s schools provides specialized assistance with finding the right communication device or system for a student with more intensive needs. Jessica Conrad, PATINS specialist for AAC and I consulted with a teacher and speech therapist about a student who had puzzled them for a while. 

The student had a few words and some gestures to communicate but they felt like he had much more to say. Using picture communication had been inconsistent for him. As they described the student I started to hear some behaviors consistent with a cortical visual impairment. Cortical visual impairment, or CVI is where the eye itself is healthy but the visual pathways in the brain struggle to process an image. When the teacher mentioned that the student always chose a blue crayon or marker for a task, I was pretty sure that CVI was a possibility. Students with CVI often have a strong color preference (although it is usually red or yellow). 

The teacher contacted his parent to schedule an appointment with an ophthalmologist. The student’s team also immediately began to offer the student assignments copied onto blue paper. They changed the settings on his iPad so that a blue overlay would cover the display. They used communication symbols highlighted in blue. 

The team was excited to report after only a couple of weeks that they were seeing dramatic improvement in the student’s attention, engagement, and accuracy in pointing at communication symbols. 

view looking over a boy's shoulder at his iPad and school assignment printed on blue paper.

The brain never ceases to amaze me. As educators and humans, we need reminders of how perception can vary so widely from individual to individual. Whether it is the filter of perception through color or through the lens of long-term childhood memories, our view is highly individualized. Keeping this in our awareness as educators can only lead to better results in our work. The staff at MCS are also benefiting from an initiative in Indiana called Project Success that supports higher academic achievement for students with disabilities. I’m grateful for this initiative and the educators at Manchester Elementary who hadn’t given up on finding out what could give this student a voice, and a means for academic success.

How are your eyes?
Where are you looking?
How are your perceptions expanding?
3
Jan
10

Humbled by Technology

I have always embraced technology which is one of the many reasons I enjoy my job. I have embraced challenges when others were ready to throw in the towel.

Technology has made enormous advances, just when you think you have them understood or mastered, things change. Here is my case in point.

I have never really considered myself a gamer. Over the years, I have had an Atari, Gameboy, Nintendo, Genesis, Commodore 64, Amiga 500, etc. 

I have been lured into these systems by the technology and most importantly the graphics that continued to get better and better.

I had for all intent and purposes “grown out of” chasing the latest and greatest systems so I have been out of touch for some time. Again, look at my previous systems.

I have been aware of the PlayStation and Xbox but they really didn’t interest me because of their price and their intimidating controller. However, I was always amazed by the graphics.

It wasn’t until I watched my grandsons play on their Xbox that I felt mesmerized by the details and the smoothness of the scrolling graphics that started to draw me in like a moth to the light.

I was amazed at the mastery they had at controlling the buttons and joysticks to move about with ease. It was almost effortless. It was if they became one with the system.

I mentioned that I enjoy technology sometimes as a challenge, but would I be any match for what is now at my fingertips.

I say fingertips because the opportunity became available to me when a pre-Christmas sale lured me (well not really) into buying an Xbox One S. It came with the Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order.

My grandsons had told me how “Awesome” the game is and I had it on MY system! It felt like when I got Frogger, Tetris, Super Mario or Sonic. It was well, like Christmas.

I pulled it out of the box and started to assemble the components. It took me back to an earlier time of putting bikes and vanities together for my daughters for Christmas. It wasn’t nearly as involved until I had to download and install the game software.

I realized then that our Internet connection could probably use an upgrade, but I was already committed to waiting it out. During that time, I had the opportunity of handling the controller.

Remember that “one with the system” statement earlier? It wasn’t happening for me. There isn’t one or two buttons, but ten and two joystick controls I think in total. I can’t find my home row on the computer and it’s labeled! 

Pressing forward the game installed and it was time to meet my Jedi assignment. After what seemed to be forever to load, I was put in a futuristic repair yard to start my mission.

Me and my futuristic thing comrade were given instructions. My comrade took off leaving me to try to catch up with buttons and joysticks commands. I would have been better off watching the movie.

Let me say, however, the graphics are STUNNING! It was worth just standing in one place moving my Jedi figure around in circles and watching what was going on around me. I was content.

Let me jump ahead a couple of days to Christmas when we had the families together. I had three grandsons prepared to take turns to play Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order.

Let me recall the number of buttons and joysticks and my inability to comprehend the necessary interaction of each. That was not the case with any of my grandsons. 

I watched in awe as they managed to move through the labyrinth of settings and situations as if they were there. The orchestration of their fingers was amazing to witness.

In the weeks that followed, I have made it to the other side of the garage bay. I am not sure where to go from there. 

I have since purchased a couple more games that use a minimal amount of the controls and maybe that might help me along. Fingers crossed.

My expertise in this technology has been humbled by a quad trillion while knowing it is feasible to master. 

I saw on the news that schools are offering gaming classes. I wonder if I could sneak into a few or maybe just hire my grandsons as tutors. I wonder what their hourly rate is.

But wow the graphics…
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