Week 3:Technology and Autism

This week our attention is brought to how technology is incorporated with students with autism. The word “autism” scares a lot of educators; they seemed intimidated and have a hard time wrapping their head around it. For me, “autism” is just a word; maybe its because I work with students who go through the trials and tribulations of autism on a daily basis. I witness first hand the struggles of students not being able to communicate what hurts or what’s wrong or why they are jumping up and down and the list continues…I’ve become really good at guessing why my students are doing what they are doing.

 But my guessing abilities are enhanced by technology, as this weeks articles and webcasts showed. The article “Technology helps children deal with autism in school” offered an expansion on the use of apps as a teaching tool for students with autism to use to improve upon their ability to communicate and other skills. Through the use of the various types of technology that could be used from low (topic boards) to high (videotaping) along with software and hardware that are also available educators can focus on teaching students to effectively communicate.

 In my classroom (12:1:4), we offer numerous different types of assistive technology from hardware such as a Dynavox equipped with a head mouse, to enlarged print keyboard and an adaptive keyboard. We also offer numerous different type of software such as Zoomtext to enlarge the screen and Co-Writer to help students write. Additionally, we have an iPad to help reinforce positive behavior. The iPad has numerous different games as well as educational resources that help students count money, learn geography, and facilitate critical thinking. 

As shown in the webcast, “A Clear Picture: The Use and Benefits of PECS, in my classroom we  utilize the PECS system. With the help of Boardmaker we create symbols for our students to communicate effectively. These tools are essential at helps students focus on their abilities while putting aside their disabilities. I also enjoyed reading through the Autism Speaks website. This website offers great insight to finding apps for students with autism. It’s a great place for parents and teachers to start if they lack experience with incorporating technology for students with autism. Additionally, Autism Speaks is a great resource to research about autism and how to help a student with autism become successful in the classroom.

Week 2: Misunderstood Minds

I found this activity extremely engaging for myself due to my background as an educator in a special education environment. The Misunderstood Minds website provided compelling activities that helped me gain insight to what my students encounter on a daily basis. My staff and I often say “I wonder what so and so is thinking about right now.” By utilizing this website it helped me gain a better understanding what my students are experiencing in the areas of math, reading, and writing and what they experience when we ask them to complete various tasks.
Currently, I have several students who lack the ability to decode while reading. I witness them day after day become increasingly frustrated while we work on reading. The decoding activity made me realize why they have such difficulty because they don’t posses the vital foundational skill and how much that is interfering with his reading ability. During the activity I found it very difficult and frustrating trying to decipher the message even with the code substitution and that was with just a small passage. I now know what my students are going through while reading. I can’t imagine having to look at an actual book with more words and pictures to concentrate on as students who lack decoding ability often rely on illustrations for word meaning. As an educator I owe it my students to find a way to help them read. I believe I can do this through incorporating audio books through the use of an iPad or laptop.
Common Core sets the bar extremely high for students, especially those with disabilities. Misunderstood Minds only confirms my thoughts, I have come to the realization that some students are just not ready for what they are required to do now under these new Common Core standards.  My students struggle enough with number recognition, asking them to solve multistep is very unreasonable. However, standards dictate otherwise. As a result become increasingly frustrated like they did during reading. After going through the Misunderstood Minds activity, I found myself extremely frustrated and irritated. My goal as an educator is to make learning fun, more so even math. I have used a few different apps in hopes to make this happen.  
Taking into account all the difficulties students encounter given a learning disability I feel it important that teachers continue to find strategies to implement into their teaching to provide students with the opportunity to overcome their disability. Assistive technology can help bridge the gap. However, this site offers that unique opportunity to do so and gain a deeper understanding of what our kids are coping with.

Week 1: Diversity in school

The two articles that we read this week allowed me to become more knowledgeable of specific teaching strategies that can be used to adapt and adjust instruction to better educate students.  The first article, Using Flexible Technology to Meet the Needs of Diverse Learners:  What Teachers Can Do by Lisa Wahl and Julie Duffield investigated the use of technology integration into the classroom to better assist students with disabilities. The strategies shared throughout the article give students access to technology advancements that can enhance their learning ability in the areas in which they can improve upon. The second article, Chapter 2 of Diverse Teaching Strategies of Diverse Learners by Marietta Saravia-Shore shares strategies that teachers can utilize on a daily basis to reach out to their diverse learners. Through the utilization of these strategize one can further strengthen their relationship with students and allow them to strengthen both their academic and social abilities.
One use of technology I would like to discuss is talking text.  As discussed by Wahl and Duffield this type of text to speech functionality can assist a variety of students.  Working in a classroom that contains students with severe and multiple disabilities, I see students utilizing pieces of assistive technology to communicate on a daily basis. Additionally, students who have difficulty with comprehension, students who are at a low reading level or even those who enjoy listening to a book can expand their abilities through this assistive technology.  As a person who works in this environment in a daily basis, I can safely say that through the use of assistive technology students confidence in their to complete a task is greatly increased.
Not only can talking text be a useful tool to help those who have reading comprehension difficulties or struggle at communicating, but it can also help those who will profit from the reinforcement of both print and oral language such English Language Learners.  As laid out in the article, Teaching Diverse Learners, Equity and Excellence for All: Oral Language “Many ELLs go through a “silent period,” during which they listen and observe more than they speak.  Effective teachers are aware that ELLs who are quiet in class may be hard at work listening and comprehending. ELLs may take longer to answer a question or volunteer a comment because they need more time to process the meaning and to formulate an appropriate response.  Effective teachers monitor students’ listening comprehension.”  (p. 1) As educators we must take into consideration our students background and culture to successfully engage them in everyday learning allowing them to be successful. This often is a time consuming process to become successful but in the end can be greatly beneficial to both student and teacher alike.
Many great tools exist on the internet to help bridge the communication gap for students with disabilities and ELL’s. Educators need to take the time to get to know their students and select tools that will benefit students in their quest of communication.