Reflection #3

Reflecting on the first three parts of the course.
Wow, what a busy, stressful time. It is apparent we need more hours in the day, and I need more hours in the night to catch up on sleep. No, daylight savings time did not get me the extra sleep I need. 
I am still amazed at the professional learning going on in our discussions. Everyone has something meaningful and helpful to improve our learning. 
I have been using Google Drive in my school for the last few years. It was only during this course when it was so obviously pointed out that our students have accounts to work in and collaborate as well. For the most part throughout my school students are still using email to send their work home to their home computer. The time and effort that could be saved if they just used Google Drive they wouldn't have the headache of files not converting or not converting properly.

As I reflect on the activities in the course I realize how many workshops have been attended and the content lost as time has past. I'm not just talking about PD workshops that I myself have attended and not had the time to implement into my classroom but in general. In this course I have had to leave my comfort zone, from just the few programs I have been using for the last 10 years. As teachers we all stay current with our board practices and curriculum changes as a necessity. However, many teachers go to workshops, on new trends within the board, but they are never followed up on what they learned or asked if they actually implemented what they learned in their classroom. We mentioned this several times in our discussions and many of us believe that to succeed at implementing changes it needs to be done during class time and facilitated in the classroom right from the start.

What is the Chinese proverb trying to tell us... "Tell me and I’ll forget; show me and I may remember; involve me and I’ll understand." That is how I feel about technology right now. I am involved in a course "doing" for learning purposes I am involving my students and staff. I will have learned and understood the programs I will continue to develop technology in my classroom.

Necessary for some, good for all

‘Necessary for some, good for all,’ how true this quote can be regarding assistive technology. How fitting that the last comment I read from one of my colleagues in my course included a statement of how useful the automatic saving tool in Google Docs is for everyone. Saving should come second nature to everyone that routinely uses electronics. However I myself when I am in a groove and accomplishing work may forget to take a moment to save my updated work during my working period. How many times have we seen students lose work as they are sitting at the computer working and the computer freezes up on them?

I can think of any software designed to change speech to text and understand how useful this feature can be for everyone. Especially thinking about young students partaking in creative writing or story writing where their ideas are coming far faster than they could possible type or write. As teachers we forget that some of the best writers in the world do not always use pen and paper to document all their ideas. Some famous writers have audio recorders to help them contain all their ideas before collaborating everything in writing. Ideas that are lost because of taking the time to write out everything are not recognized for our assessment. We need to remember that using assistive technology does not mean students without special needs have no purpose for these educational tools. These tools can assist and enrich any students’ education without taking away responsibility from the student completing their own work. I am confident that assistive technology has a place for all learners if applied correctly with the curriculum.

Reflecting IITC Part 2 Midpoint

In my last blog I discussed the idea of being able to use assistive technology with all students to improve their learning experience. However reading the discussion comments from my classmates technology in the classroom in our schools has to come a long way for this to be possible. I was shocked at the lack of computers in some schools let alone assistive technology and software, this is a significant issue that needs to be address for our education system.

Through this section of the course I have learned how to benefit from the resources on the internet. In the past I have tended to look to limited software and technology, colleagues, board resources and books for my educational needs. Now I have found the internet is also a rich educational resource. To name a few of the resources the internet has could include educational Blogs, online articles like the ones from TeacherTips.com, on-line mind mapping sites and YouTube videos covering many things such as how to use assistive technologies for both on-line resources and computer software. Just like doing any other research you need to double check the source and references to note the credibility of the site. The discussion in this section of the course have offered insight on how to use technology within the curriculum and colleagues offering specific websites and programs.

Contributing in the discussions during my course has been a learning experience. The ideas we are sharing truly addresses the concerns for all students to learn and experience success. We have many teachers across Ontario taking part in AQ courses to improve their professional knowledge and stay current. As I have already noted some teachers are doing this not having the appropriate resources in their schools (i.e. like computers, others may be just material like text books). I believe this experience has demonstrated that standards of practice for the teaching profession is alive and well.

I am not usually one to ask questions. Therefore at this time my thoughts are to farther develop my interest in using the internet as a source of assistive technology. I would like to explore story making programs either on-line or using software that would be appropriate for grade 8 students.