One Last Blog

I almost forgot - I made a class website for my afternoon course, and tried to use Universal Design for Learning.  It has a Tellagami in it!  Check it out at http://windsorforks4.weebly.com

Final Reflections

So...as you can see from reading this blog, I came in with a great deal of skepticism about the use of the iPad in the classroom.  I felt that it was just one more fun gadget, and I certainly had not seen it being used much except as a source of games.  What this course made absolutely clear is that the iPad is, beyond any doubt, the device of choice for anyone with learning difficulties.  It is cost-effective, it is flexible, it is portable and it is far more effective at actually helping these students than any devices we have had until now.  The other thing this course has made clear is that to be fair to our students we must employ Universal Design for Learning in all of our courses.  Now that the technology exists, we have no excuse not to make our programs accessible to all.

The course has also shown how the iPad is a game-changer not only for students with learning difficulties but also for learning in general.  There is something quite astounding about the ease with which you can do so many creative things - like make movies and animations - that were tedious before.  It opens up a lot of new creative opportunities that will, beyond any doubt, change the way we do education.  It is a disruptive technology.

I continue to have many questions about the broader issues:  How do we control the increasing amount of screen time that our students are getting in class? Should all students be using iPads?   Will we all move away from traditional print media and what will be the effects of this?  What will be the long-term costs of having private interests so heavily involved in the education system? What about the environmental costs?

Despite my own questions...which I have about all kinds of things, anyway...I will be using the iPad extensively in my class next year.  Having taken this course, and knowing how this technology can give my struggling students full access to the Grade 4 curriculum, it would be unprofessional, in fact, it would be unethical, to deny them this opportunity.

Thanks for a great course, Barbara!

July 17th Part 2

Before making our iMovie trailer, we had a chance to play around with Clicker and CoWriter.  Clicker is an app that I would use with some of my IPP students, who typically participate in the class with the help of an E.A.  They do some of the same written activities as the rest of the students, but in a highly modified manner, relying heavily on their E.A.'s for writing out the words and directing them where to put them.  What I like about Clicker is that it helps create the so-important element of independence for these students.  Once the app is set up, the student can create his project more or less independently!  I like the fact that I can slowly add more complexity to the tasks, encouraging these emergent literacy skills while including the special needs child in the regular classroom.

CoWriter is more for my students with suspected or diagnosed learning disabilities who are capable of the same degree of thought and description as their peers, but who struggle particularly with writing.  They need to  have prerequisite skills.  They need to have the vocabulary in their heads that they want to use, and they need the rudimentary spelling skills to prompt the app to bring up those words.  CoWriter provides advance word prediction - using topic dictionaries that you can build yourself or get the app to build - so that students can type their thoughts fluently.

Christie and I were wondering whether using CoWriter would discourage a child from ever learning to write.  Two responses to this.  First, If CoWriter allows struggling writers to get their thoughts on paper freely, without all of the frustrations of pen-and-paper, they will end up having far more practice with the writing process - with fleshing out ideas, organizing, revising - than they would ever have had without it.  So they will actually become better writers because of this.   And second, once these students start using it, they will have access to CoWriter or a similar technology for the rest of their lives.  There is no teacher, parent or administrator who would deny a child access to this technology after seeing the child herself use it fluently. And as an adult, the student will be able to use whatever technology she wants to make her work easier.  So lets make sure she learns to write well with technology - to have the same degree of expressive clarity that we expect from all good writers.

July 17th Part 1

Today we used iMovie to make a trailer about what we have learned in this class.  It was really fun!  What a great device for introducing students to the medium of film-making...a way of showing understanding that involves a completely different set of skills from those used in traditional literary projects.  What I liked about this app was that it was so EASY to USE!  Really, even a newby like me can use the app to create something entirely satisfying...in 45 minutes.  I can absolutely use this app in my classroom, with the regular students and those with learning disabilities together.

I often have book clubs in my reading class.  My students are grouped according to their reading levels, so the strong readers get to read exciting novels that they have chosen...while my weak readers traditionally get stuck with a book that I have chosen...that they labour through.  And a lot of time, their books aren't long enough or complex enough to do much with.  So..new plan.  While I will keep doing small-group remedial reading instruction with the students who need it, when it comes time for book clubs, they will choose books based on interest.  The struggling readers will have options for compensatory assistive technology so that they can enjoy the same, grade-level novel as their peers.  And then the groups will make iPad trailers about their novels.  Done!

Autism Angel - Carly Fleischmann

Here is a link to the Carly Fleishmann video mentioned in the Leslie Broun article...

AT and UDL: Two Sides of the Same Coin

Assistive Technology and Universal Design for Learning:Two Sides of the Same Coin

David H. Rose,Ted S. Hasselbring, Skip Stahl, and Joy Zabala

This article discusses the relationship between these two concepts.  Assistive technology, on the one hand, is designed for individuals.  Whether it is a pencil grip, a wheelchair or a particular text-to-speech solution, AT begins with an assessment of an individual's particular difficulties and needs.  Universal Design, on the other hand, is concerned with all users.  It is a global application of accessibility features right from the beginning, like buildings with wheelchair ramps, or classrooms with LCD projectors to allow projection of videos.

What the authors point out is that one cannot work without the other.  Assistive Technology without Universal Design would be like having a wheelchair, but no wheelchair ramps.  Universal Design without Assistive Technology would be like having wheelchair ramps on every corner but no wheelchair to fit the individual who needs it.  In the field of education, Assistive Technology needs to intersect with the curriculum at the point which provides the simplest, most cost-effective solution, and which reaches the largest number of learners.  While there will always be a need for very particular and expensive devices designed specifically for severely disabled individuals, there is also a real need to move the whole curriculum towards greater accessibility for all.

 What is interesting is that when you design for special needs, the whole population benefits.  Wheelchair ramps are used by parents with strollers, the elderly with walkers and commuters on bicycles as much as they are used by people in wheelchairs.  And so in the classroom, having multiple means of representation, presentation and engagement can benefit  students with attention difficulties, ESL students, and any students whose preferential learning styles are not print-based.

The authors go on to discuss changes in copyright legislation that are making it easier for publishers to produce digital texts.  I have no doubt that the the very near future will see all textbooks digitized, with accessibility features - video options, text-to-speech options, touch screen features - designed into them from the very start.

THOUGHTS

I think that there has been general trend towards Universal Design for Learning in our schools over the past few years, without necessarily giving a name to it.  We all pair written and verbal explanations with visuals; we all show videos of concepts we wish to teach, and use our interactive Smartboards to provide greater engagement.  We have moved towards the use of many more varied means for students to show their knowledge, from designing posters, making sketches and videos, to participating in group discussions.  When UDL is paired with AT, however, it opens up whole new possibilities for enriching the classroom environment, not just for whole-class instruction, but for the students' silent reading time, writing time and research time, to name a few.

 

 curriculum to  

Diagnosis and Intervention for Disorders of Written Language

Diagnosis and Intervention Strategies for Disorders of Written Language
Margaret J. Kay, Ed.D.

This article is another summary of written disorders and interventions to support students.  A couple of interesting facts are that dysgraphia causes losses of up to 30 million dollars a year to the U.S. economy  in lost output (how did they calculate that?)  Also that writing is the last and most complex skill to develop, and therefore is most susceptible to being compromised some way or another.  The term "developmental output failures" is one that I have heard of in the learning disabilities field.  "Output failure" is certainly a problem that I have seen frequently in my practice.

The author goes on to look at various types of dysgraphia:  dyslexic dysgraphia, which is related to specific learning disabilities; dysgraphia due to motor clumsiness; and dysgraphia due to a defect in the understanding of space.  She discusses the assessment and diagnosis of students with writing disorders.

One of the things I found interesting was the discussion about teaching philosophies and dysgraphia.  The author mentions trends in literacy education such as allotting less time to practising writing, and abandoning the formal teaching of mechanics and handwriting, as possible causes of dysgraphia.  At the same time, she mentions research that supports an approach of teaching writing through real-life projects requiring the writing process.  This article really makes it clear that an accurate assessment of exactly why a students is struggling, is essential before planning remedial or bypass (compensatory) actions.

There is no date on this article, but I guess that it is fairly old as there is no mention of compensatory strategies from more advanced computer software or from iPads.

As I was reading this, I was thinking about how we are certainly not teaching the mechanics of writing to the extent that it was done in our parents' generation...and as a result, many in our generation are not as good at handwriting, spelling and grammar as previous generations.  But the question is...does it matter?