Assistive Technology in Education

All children have the right to a free public education.  Sometimes, due to special needs, some students might be at a disadvantage.  In fact, according to most statistics, over 6 million kids receive some form of special education.  In some of these situations, students may need something to help them along.  In order to accomplish scholastic tasks, assistive technology devices have been created to meet these special needs.  Assistive technology comes in all types, from low tech, to super high tech.  


So what is assistive technology?  The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act Amendments of 1997 defines assistive technology device as "any item, piece of equipment, or product system, whether acquired commercially off the shelf, modified, or customized, that is used to increase, maintain, or improve the functional capabilities of a child with a disability" (IDEA, 1997, 20, USC, Ch. 33, Sec. 1401 [25] US) (www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/methods/technlgy/te7assist.htm).  While the list is too long to go over, assistive devices can mean anything from a simple pair of headphones to something as complicated as a braille note-taker/printer.  The main point is that as long as the device is determined suitable for the child's needs, it is considered an assistive device, and allowed to be used in the classroom.  


So, how is a device considered "suitable"?  While rules vary slightly from state to state, a decision must be handed down from the student's IEP team that the device is necessary for the student's success.  These decisions are made based on need, disability, and whether or not an assistive device would actually help the situation.  These devices are provided free by the school district for use in the school.  Once again, while rules vary amongst states, if the device is purchased by the school district, the device stays with the district once the child leaves.

One device that I found particularly interesting was the braille note-taker/printer.  Portable and small, Braille note-taking devices allow students to take notes during lectures and also to complete word-processing tasks. With a Braille note-taking device, students can store a class's notes just as other students would store notes in a traditional notebook (www.ehow.com/list_ 6001006_examples-assistive-technology-school.html).   This machine is able to help blind students take notes and refer back to them at a later time.  It also acts like a translation device, converting braille into text so that the assignment can be turned in for the teacher to read.  I like this device because I have always been interested in Braille, and the process that people go through to write it.  The integration possibilities are endless, and I think it could be a tremendous asset in a classroom that deals with visually impaired students.

Dance Mat Typing

For my tech tool, I chose Dance Mat Typing.  As a person who still uses the "hunt and peck" method, I have always been kind of jealous of those who can type with out looking at the keyboard.  I just never learned.  Never took a typing class, never had a reason to learn.  I have tried, but my fingers are huge, and constantly hit the wrong keys.  One of those things that if I had learned earlier, then maybe I would see things differently.

Dance Mat Typing is a website put out by the BBC that uses cute little interactive videos to teach kids to type.  It's best for younger kids, but I did the lesson on the homerow, and found it pretty fun.  The characters are way British, so their accents were fun to listen to.  The whole program is set up around music, and at every step of the way, the characters will pop up and celebrate major milestones that the student accomplishes.  Even mistakes are okay, because instead of telling you you are wrong, the proper key (in a picture on the screen) asks you to hit it instead.  So kids are positively reinforced from every direction.

Computers are not going anywhere.  As our lesson plans rely more and more on computers and their proper use, it is only responsible of us to teach them the basics.  Since most older kids already know these basics, this program would work best for lower grade levels.  Coupling it with reading and/or writing would work great, so that kids are learning multiple skills at the same time.

Teaching an Old Dog New Tricks

     For our assignment, we were supposed to introduce three people to the commoncraft videos.  For the first person, I tried my son.  I showed him the video about Twitter, because he is always asking me about it.  He seemed to think the video itself was entertaining.  But when I asked him if he wanted to start a Twitter account, he looked at me and said "No.  I just wanted to know how it works," and promptly left the room.
    The next person to show a video to was my mom.  As the least computer literate person in my family, she regards the computer as some magical box.  I sat her down, and asked her if any video interested her at all.  She decided on the video about BitTorrent, since my brother is always downloading music for her using BitTorrent.  She watched it, and I wasn't sure she was getting it.  But after the video was done, she asked to watch another one.  So I set her up with the list, and she spent the next hour watching videos.  While I am pretty sure she still can't DO any of it, at least she understands the idea behind most of hat she watched.
    The last one happened by accident.  When my mom started watching videos, she called my dad in, and he started watching it.  Of course, being my dad, he insisted he already knew all of this, but found the animations to be quirky and worthy of his time.  Personally, I think he was learning a couple things, but he'll never admit it.  Overall, my experience with Commoncraft videos has been positive.  Everyone in my family learned something, even if they didn't mean to.

The Following

It was a dark and stormy night.  As usual, I was up, with a case to solve.  I felt like I had my finger on the answer, I just couldn't see where my finger was.  You see, the blogs were lighting up all around me.  Stories connecting copyright and education blogs were all around me, and one of them was the killer.  So here I was, at my desktop, puzzling through each one.  JJ's blog was about a magical digital world and the effort of a group of friends regarding copyright.  But then, Sheng's was also about a group of friends and copyright, but minus the fairy tale setting.  Teresa's blog showed promise, but there didn't seem to be any story, just a lot of words.  Which was exactly how Brianna's was as well, no story, but the connections seemed to be there.
I was getting frustrated and hungry, which in my line of work is never a good combo.  Harder to think.  So I got up from my desk and went over to my tech fridge.  I opened it and was astounded at all the stuff I could choose from.  "Someone must have restocked it while I was away," I thought.  I was always surprised at the usefulness of this particular site.  Variety and lots of it.  Helps me think.  I never walk away without some kind of idea from my tech fridge.
No sooner did the idea hit me than I heard the door close, and before I could turn around, a gunshot rang out.  I turned around and sure enough, I was right.  She thought she was being so sly, but I recognized that face staring down at me from her blog.  But as the warmth left my body, I knew it didn't matter.  She had gotten the last laugh.  And I was dead.

Copyright? Or copywrong?

This week, our assignment was to read an article on the internet about copyright.  This is an issue that seems to come up a lot, especially as the internet continues to grow in power, and file sharing programs continue to become more and more popular.  While I personally download a good portion of my music from the internet, I have paid for every minute of it.  All of my papers are my own, and if I quote something from the internet, I will usually reference my source in a bibliography, so I never thought about copyright very extensively.  But after this assignment, I began to think about copyright laws differently.  So here are five questions concerning copyright law:

1. What selection did you choose to read?
My selection for this assignment was "Copyright 101 for Educators" by Wesley Fryer.  I originally tried reading material from the copyright "official" website, but it was really long and kind of confusing.  This article was short, simply written, and easily understood.  Many of the issues surrounding copyright were clearer to me after reading it.

2. What is copyright?
Copyright is "a form of protection provided by the laws of the United States (title 17, U.S. Code) to the authors of "original works of authorship," including literary, dramatic, musical, artistic, and certain other intellectual works. This protection is available to both published and unpublished works." (Fryer, 2003).  In other words, it's the way the government protects artists and businesses from others using their creations without consent or pay.

3. What are some of the issues around copyright for teachers?
While there are laws that protect education from extensive copyright law, teachers do need to be aware of the material they are using for classroom instruction in regards to what is used and where it will be stored later on.  Teachers need to be aware of what their students are using for their projects/papers.  They also need to understand that copyright law is a constantly evolving circus of changing rulles and guidelines, so awareness of current law is important.  www.copyright.gov has a lot of information to wade through, but would also be the most up-to-date.

4. What is Fair Use?
Fair use is determined by these factors:

(1) the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;

(2) the nature of the copyrighted work;

(3) the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and

(4) the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work            (Fryar, 2003)

In other words, fair use is the set of guidelines that determines whether or not a copyrighted work can be used legally by another individual or not.

5. What are you going to do differently based on this information?
Personally, before reading this article, I used to steal pictures off of the internet like crazy.  I never really thought about the fact that those pictures are the creative property of another human being.  WHile I understand that images can be used in projects such as powerpoint projects, I do need to be aware of how that powerpoint is going to be shared.  If it is within a classroom or with a small, private, nonprofit audience, then it can be used.  So I need to be careful how such projects are even displayed.  Private sites are fine, but displaying these images on a public site or non-educational basis is dangerous.  If I can do everything possible to document sources in every situation, then I can avoid working in any gray area, or worse, allowing students to see me "steal" copyrighted material right in front of them.