The first webinar was about executive functioning and apps to support students who struggle with this. Executive functioning refers to a whole set of processes that have to do with managing one's own actions. Like the conductor of an orchestra or the CEO of a company, the executive functioning processes help with deciding which tasks to attend to, initiating tasks, managing time and controlling emotions. In short, executive function helps us to THINK - DECIDE - ACT.
In school, students with executive functioning disorders may learn new material adequately, especially in a very structured classroom. This is because the teacher, acting like a conductor, is actually mediating the executive demands of the task. It is when the student is asked to demonstrate learning - to produce something on his own - that problems arise. Students with executive functioning deficits typically have trouble with tasks such as independent writing, completing projects, completing homework, and managing their belongings. Diagnosed conditions such as ADHD, oppositional-defiant disorder and autism spectrum disorders all involve deficits in executive functioning, which is located in the frontal lobe of the brain.
Three apps that I would like to review from this webinar are:
1. The i-Book Store which provides access to enhanced books and enhanced textbooks. I picked this because I think it is one which I would likely use. It seems to me that in applying UDL to my planning, I need to have quick, easy access to texts in alternative formats which will allow better engagement for my students with executive function disorders. I have a number of students who display difficulties in reading comprehension, in part due to difficulties with attention. Digitized texts, while not the only answer, can certainly help engage these students in the reading process.
2. Pictello I can see the use of this app in helping students with executive function disorder complete book reports, research projects and other writing tasks, since it allows students to record their voices, download pictures and in other ways organize and present their learning. I can also see its use for creating social stories.
3. Sock Puppet I can see that my students would love this app, and I can see all kinds of uses for it, not just in the case of social stories for students with AST but also for my general class. It could provide a good, quick opportunity for cooperation and group work - I can see using it for some aspects of health class - and also for such things as French class.
THOUGHTS
I have to say that I am a little disappointed in the apps in general. When I think of my students who display signs of executive function disorder, I think of two areas in particular in which they struggle: the writing process, and cooperative group activities. Tools4Students and Inspiration are designed to help with initiating the writing task by providing graphic organizers to plan writing before doing it. Doesn't having many different graphic organizers on an i-pad just add one more layer of complexity for the student? "First I have to decide on my graphic organizer...and its colour and style and size..." If I, the teacher, select the graphic organizer first- and I find it works better to just have one, which we use all the time - then it is a lot easier for me to just have it on a piece of paper. Or just in a word format on the computer.
Also, in completing research projects, my students with executive function disorder have trouble with the whole deal of making a plan, reading for meaning, taking notes, transferring the notes to printed text, editing, etc. While enhanced books will certainly help with step one, I can imagine a whole lot of trouble getting student to move out of the enhanced book to step two: taking notes in some format. I hope that having some combination of the enhanced book and then a voice recording function in Pictello will help with this.
For cooperative group work, I suppose that the apps that help make social stories might be helpful. But it would be nice to see some more apps specifically designed to help lead groups of students through cooperative activities.
Finally, many of the apps do, virtually, what can be done simply, easily and successfully in the real world. All of the apps for emotional regulation, anger management, playing games, can be done so much better with real things. How sad that we would use more unnecessary screen time for these things! What a sad world when a child has to play four-in-a-row by herself on her i-pad instead of the real game with a friend! What a sad world when a child retreats to a corner with her i-pad to calm herself down instead of going to watch the fish, pat the dog, sit under a tree or be taught some TRULY portable strategy that can live within herself, however simple it may be. What a sad world when I de-stress by throwing my negative thoughts into a virtual shredder instead of by going for a walk or a run! I am not just being facetious here. In a time when there is increasing evidence that too much screen time actually LEADS to stress and mental health disorders in children, surely we should be using the i-pads judiciously, when they really are necessary for UDL, and look for ways for increasing direct human-to-human contact when they are not.
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