Week 1

Today was our first class of ED 5173. Haven taken Assistive Technology ED 5163 during the summer semester, I felt much more at ease today than I did during my first summer class. We started off class by looking at individual student profiles and the assistive technology these students required in a school setting. Even though we touched on this in the last course, the convergence of technology, bringing everything together in one device, and the decrease in price because of this continues to amaze me. Apple has introduced iPads and iPods as universal devices, meaning they are accessible to everyone. Apple has made assistive technology more affordable for families and schools! How exciting and relieving is this! Barb also brought her new iPad mini to class. The iPad mini has some great options for students such as guided access. This option restricts access to one particular app. This would be perfect to help keep students on task with one activity. All of this chatter about how great apple products are makes me excited and frustrated at the same time. I own several apple products, so I'm always excited to learn new things about them and how they can be used as assistive technology. However, it frustrates  me when I think about how difficult it is to get these products into our classrooms. As opposed to rollouts of universal devices, our schools receive wonderful netbooks. Netbooks required several programs that cost thousands of dollars in order or them to be universal devices. Does this really make sense?

imovie

One of my favourite parts of these assistive tech courses is that we start hands on tasks right away. We paired up and had our first attempt with making an imovie that defined assistive technology. imovie is an app that is easy to use and it allows students to be creative using photos, video and music. Maureen and I had a lot of fun taking and searching for pictures, creating slides in piccollage and failing miserably at trying to incorporate a video into our movie. Unfortunately we do not have access to ipads at my school, but I think using imovie would be a very successful way for students to demonstrate what they learned across the curriculum. They can learn, have some fun and create their own movie trailer! Below is the link to the iMovie trailer Maureen and I created.

http://youtu.be/3FhAKepVcQw

Below is a tutorial for creating an imovie.

We watched the video Autism Is A World. This is a CNN documentary featuring Sue Rubin, a woman who has autism. My first thoughts were very different than my final thoughts. I am going to be honest here, I didn't expect Sue to be a college graduate, or someone who presented at conferences, but she did do just that! She was not able to communicate until she was 13 years old, when she learned to use a keyboard. When Sue began to communicate, her IQ went from 29-133. She was a very intelligent girl who quickly discovered a love for learning. She went on to attend college and present at autism conferences. I found this video to be very inspiring and sad at the same time. It saddened me to think that a child could feel so frustrated and and angry because she was unable to communicate with the people around her; family, friends etc. For 13 years of her life, she felt as if she were lost. This video also inspired me because technology has come leaps and bounds since Sue first started using the keyboard to communicate. With the programs and apps that are available, meaning the universal design for learning, communication continues to become more accessible for children and adults who are non verbal. 

Following the video Barb suggested that we google the term Presuming Competencies. I never really heard of the term before so I did just that, googled it. Presuming competencies refers to assuming that people are competent when you meet them; however, this is not always the case when people meet someone who has a disability. Some food for thought. 

Communication

Some days I wonder how effective my communication is in my classroom.....In order to have effective communication three things are required: 

1. Common language

2. Communication partner

3. Joint attention

Without this criteria communication can become very frustrating. It makes it difficult to connect with people and convey your thoughts and feelings. Proloquo2go is an app that supports non verbal communicators. It is mobile, portable and affordable. We took some time to experiment with this app in today's class, but we will be focusing on it more in the following class.