Kurzweil

I am pretty excited about learning how to use Kurzweil, because it seems like it has a lot of applications for the various populations of students that I have worked with, from children who have ASD, children with intellectual disabilities,  children with learning disabilities, to children who have hearing impairments. All of the populations of students I have worked with want to be learning the same things their "typical" peers are learning, and technology like Kurzweil is one of the tools that will enable children who are unable to access  information from unaltered print to learn grade-level information.

Kurzweil is a text-to-speech software that enables teachers to upload texts to be read out loud to their students, at various speeds, and teachers can also supplement this text with bubble notes, footnotes, highlighting,  magnified text, directions, and teacher-recorded voice-notes. Students can also alter the text, by highlighting in different colors to enhance their comprehension and take notes in the document. Although it primarily reads documents out loud for students, it can also be used for children who a are hard of hearing because of the ability of a teacher to highlight and annotate and add bubble notes to text. Additionally, students can use Kurzweil to  type  their papers using word-prediction technology so that the actual task of writing is not so laborious that the children focus more on the production of the words, and not on the meaning of what they are writing. Also, Kurzweil will read back to students what they have written.

I think Kurzweil has potential for Jack, because of his limited working memory and fine motor difficulties. Jack can use Kurzweil to compose papers if typing papers is difficult for him, because of the word prediction function, and the bubblenotes, spoken note recording, and footnotes can help him organize his thoughts. Also, teachers can alter the text for it to be more comprehensible for Jack and they can help him interpret the material by adding notes and highlights to the text to help him isolate main ideas. Kurzweil can also be useful for Rebecca, because she reads far below grade level and can be aided by visual cues in her reading. Rebecca can have grade-level text read to her, and teachers can include definitions embedded in the text for words that she is unlikely to know. Also, Rebecca needs help comprehending what is being read to her, so Kurzweil notes can help her access teh meaning of the material, and predictive words and a word bank will help her compose papers, Kurzweil is also useful for Luke because he has dsylexia, and if his assignments are read to him, he can focus on the meaning and not expanding all of his energy on trying to access the written words.

I think Kurzweil could be great to use in one of the current classrooms that I am volunteering in, a room for students who have very limited mobility. Many of the students are quadriplegics, so a technology that could read the words to them, without them having to turn cumbersome pages, could be very useful

Interactive Whiteboard Use

I was very excited about all the possible interactive whiteboard uses that we learned about in class this past week. I think one of the reasons is that it coincided,coincidentally, with the start of my volunteer position in a classroom at the John A Coleman School that relies heavily on its Smartboard to maintain student attention, to magnify images and print for children with visual impairments, and to enable nonverbal students to participate in class.

 For example, when Joe mentioned that a student who cannot point can still manipulate the Smartboard using something other than his pointer finger, such as a tennis ball, I got very excited and starting thinking up ways that one of the kids, J., a nonverbal boy with limited mobility and no use of his fingers  could use a tennis ball attached to his handbraces (Ah the wonders of Velcro!) to manipulate the Smartboard. 

To answer the weekly questions, I think that Smartboards are both instructional technology and adaptive technology, because they can clearly be used as a mode of presenting information to typical learners, but they can also be used to enable students to participate in classroom activities who might not otherwise be able to participate,  and they can magnify texts for students with visual impairments, and hold the attention of children who have difficulty attending. The goals of using this technology are to make information exciting and accessible to students with a variety of learning needs and strengths. It can also be used as a reinforcer for students in order to motivate them to express particular behaviors or work

I think that it is highly accessible to a majority of students. For example, a Smartboard could be an "even playing field" for Sarah to participate in class activities if adaptions were made that enabled her to touch the board itself. She could click on items, use the board to read aloud things that she had typed on it, and if the board were used to ask the class questions like the Math Tunnel Questions demonstrated in class, she would be able to particpate in that activity and be further included. Smartboards would also be useful for Rebecca, as they can be used as a visual display of information. If she were having difficulty accessing auditory information, she could read that information on the screen, and if images were presented on the screen to illustrate the information, it would help her access it even more. Because Luke is a technology guru, the use of a Smartboard might help him overcome his reticence to take risks and participate in classroom discussions. 

I would like to learn more about how to use the Smartboard to teach children who have profound intellectual disabilities, and how to integrate audio information into presentations. I saw how Joe included videos and  audiofiles into this Smartboard presentations, and would love to learn how to do that!

Redesigning a library bookshelf to make it accesible

Hi guys, I am still trying to figure out how to rotate this picture, but what I have here is a possible modification to make bookshelves accessible to the greatest number of people. My redesigned bookshelf is only 50 inches high, so that people in wheelchairs and people with short stature will be able to access the books. I have widened the aisles, so that people can maneuver wheelchairs, walkers, or other asisstive devices in order to access the books. I have also changed how the books are displayed. Instead of stacking the books side by side, with their covers touching,  here I have the books facing forward and not touching each other. While this would take up a lot more space, I think it would  be easier for someone with impaired mobility or strength in their arms and hands to pick up a book displayed in this manner, rather than trying to yank out a book that is sandwhiched tightly between other books. There are more ways to grip a book if they are displayed in this manner. The shelves can be clearly labeled in large print to reveal what genre of books is displayed in each section, and with directions posted in simplified language on each bookshelf to help people know how to locate the books on the shelves.

Blog 4: Web 2.0 as a tool to ensure UDL

• I think that Web 2.0 tools are crucial if you want to create a classroom using the principles of Universal Design for Learning, because  when they are used by a teacher, they allow students to access information through multiple modalities, and when they are used by the students to complete assignments, they allow students to access their strengths and bypass their disabilities, meaning that they have full access to the curriculum. For example I think Web 2.0's will be excellent tools for teaching students like Jack, as he is attentive to novel technology and these websites might be ways to present information to him and retain his attention, thus helping him actually learn the information. If, for example, Prezi was used to present information, it might be helpful for highly visual students like Jack and Michael, if used to compliment  a lecture. Also, presenting information Prezi could be very helpful for Finn and Rebecca, because if she misses any of the information due to her hearing impairment, or he misses anything due to his auditory processing disorder, they both will  still be able to access the information appearing on the Prezi page. 
• I think Web 2.0's like Prezi and TitanPad  can be used as both instructional technology and adaptive technology. They can be instructional tools if you use them to facilitate discussions (Titanpad)  or if you use them to present information visually (Prezi, Bubbl.us,  or Poplet). They can be assistive technology if they are used to present information to students who cannot process auditory information. 
•   I think the goals of this technology is to create new, exciting ways for students to access and disseminate information, and thus learn in another manner besides taking notes during  a standard  teacher-delivered lecture.