Wednesday 4 June 2014
Online Assignment #3
Online Assignment #3
AT for Physical Disabilities
High Tech
Eye-tracking
Eye tracking
technology is a form of assistive technology designed for individuals with no
control, or only limited control over their hand movements. The devices are designed to follow the
movement of the eyes, or in some cases head, and allows the person to navigate
through the web or their computer system with only slight movements of the eyes
or head. This type of software allows
the person to complete any number of tasks on the computer including typing,
games (socialization) or essentially any other sort of task. The software and hardware associated with
these has improved drastically and continues to get better. A drawback is that they can be very expensive
so they are less common than the less sophisticated forms of AT, items such as
mouth sticks and head wands.
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Medium Tech
Oversized
trackball mouse
A trackball mouse, and mice in general are no longer
considered to be high tech forms of assistive technology but nonetheless continue
to be very effective tools. Someone may, for example, use a trackball mouse in
conjunction with a head wand or mouth stick. It is relatively easy to
manipulate a trackball with these devices and much harder to manipulate a
standard mouse. Someone with tremors in the hands may also find this kind of
mouse more useful because once the person moves the mouse cursor to the right
location, there is less danger of accidentally moving the cursor while trying
to click on the mouse button. A person with tremors in the hands could also
manipulate the trackball mouse with a foot, if there is enough motor control in
the feet. (http://webaim.org/articles/motor/assistive#other) A challenge for this form of technology would
be its accuracy depending on the physical disablility, Something like eye tracking
would be just as effective and potentially far more accurate.
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Low Tech
A low tech form of assistive technology for students with a
physical disability is pencil weights.
These weights are designed for students with fine motor or sensory
integration problems who may have issues placing enough consistent pressure on a
pencil for its effective use. While we
do often tend to look for more technological forms of assistive technology to
assist students with writing, voice recognition software, that technology is
not always available in all places. Pencil weights can be a useful backup in
the right situation.
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Monday 2 June 2014
Assignment 3: Article Reviews
Article #1
Improved Lesson Planning With Universal Design for Learning (UDL)
Teacher Education and Special
Education: The Journal of the Teacher Education Division of the
Susan Joan Courey, Phyllis Tappe,
Jody Siker and Pam LePage
The
authors of this article began by identifying a need amongst teachers. They found that while most schools are moving
towards an inclusive environment it is often assumed that teachers already
possess the necessary skill set to allow them to diversify their instructional
methods. They found however that many
did not and that a framework such as UDL becomes an important part of a teacher’s
tool kit in preparing and delivering diversified lessons.
An aspect
of the article that I found interesting was that during the study, particularly
the modifications part, was that teachers were able to identify and plan to use
a wide variety of means and methods to help diversify their lessons that during
the implementation section that they often returned to their traditional
methods. Forgetting or unable for
whatever reason to make use of the modifications that they had planned
for. This happens all the time when new
ideas or strategies are introduced into classrooms. Without on-going support or evaluation new
ideas are often brushed aside in place of traditional or comfortable
techniques. For real change to happen,
teachers must be provided with adequate long term support. “UDL training maintained
over time from the second to third lesson plans and students’ use of principles
increased as demonstrated by the increase in scores”.
Article #2
Making Youth Sports
Accessible to All Athletes through Coaching Based on Universal Design
for Learning.
Margaret M. Flores, Ph.D., BCBA-D Auburn University
Robbi Beyer, Ph.D. California State University at Los
Angeles
Tiffanye M. Vargas, Ph.D. California State University at
Long Beach
As a
Physical Education teacher I often find myself looking for various ways to
incorporate UDL into my planning. I have
found that while we recognize in the classroom that students learn and take in
information in a variety of ways, when it comes to sports we forget this lesson
and quickly adapt a one shape fits all mentality. The authors of this article point out that
all students, having a learning disability or not, often enter our phys.ed
classes with very different backgrounds in sport and physical activity in
general.
Part of
this article that I feel was very beneficial, and something that I will be
incorporating myself is rather than changing the game, to modify the
equipment. Anybody watching young
children play baseball has witnessed the confusion on a child’s face when told
to run to first base. The authors point
out that “bases can be physically numbered rather than simply called by name
(first, second, third, and home)”.
Another option would be using oversize equipment to enhance student’s
chances of success. I have incorporated
this into my classes, teaching baseball to the early grades I have them use a
tennis racquet rather than a bat. By
doing this I’m able to show them how to swing/stand properly while taking away
a great deal of stress in actually hitting the ball.
I
enjoyed this article and think that we must continue to look outside of our
traditional academic settings in incorporating UDL into our schools.
Article #3
Article #3
Getting it Right from
the Start: Employing the Universal Design for Learning Approach to Your
Curriculum
Lieberman, Lauren JView Profile; Lytle, Rebecca KView
Profile; Clarcq, Jason A. Journal of Physical Education, Recreation &
Dance79.2 (Feb 2008): 32-39.
“Imagine a learning environment where all students are
engaged and challenged at a level that meets their learning needs; where content
is presented in multiple ways and with multiple methods; and where diversity is
celebrated and creativity encouraged.”
This quote is an excellent example of a very good
paper. The authors chose to emphasize
that UDL is not simply a framework that modifies what we do for our students
with learning disabilities. It points
out that everything we do within the UDL framework benefits everybody within
our classroom, regardless of ability, prior knowledge or disability. An example that the article uses is closed
caption television. While we primarily
think of it as a way for people with a hearing impairment to watch Tv, the
article points out its usefulness for people watching in a loud environment or
a situation where no volume is available.
This article also discusses the use of the FAMME model of
UDL. The FAMME model is based around the
use of four steps in planning UDL lessons.
The steps are, Determine the Underlying Components, Determine
the Students' Capabilities, Match Modifications to the Students' Needs, Evaluate
Modifications. While all of the steps
are important I believe one that is too often overlooked is the need to
Evaluate the modifications that were made.
It is important that we review the modifications that we make, both to
better understand success but also to make changes for the future.
Article #4
Article #4
UDL in the Middle
School Science Classroom: Can Video Games and Alternative Text Heighten Engagement
and Learning for Students With Learning Disabilities?
Matthew T. Marino, Chad M. Gotch, Maya Israel, Eleazar
Vasquez III, James D. Basham and Kathleen Becht
Learning Disability Quarterly 2014 37: 87 originally
published online 4 October 2013
With
much of our conversation in this course focused around the use of various forms
of adaptive technology in the classroom and how it is revolutionizing UDL, I
was curious as to the effects that something most if not all of my students are
currently engaged in, video gaming. I
had not considered that video games could be an aspect of UDL, despite the fact
that I am currently researching an interactive text book for my elementary
science class next year. The title caught
my attention, the article supported it.
One of the underlying principles of UDL is finding various
ways to present information to our students.
By only targeting one learning style we are ignoring the needs of the
majority of our students. The purpose of
UDL is to reach all of our students. In
considering video games as an educational tool, “These games allow repeated
practice opportunities where students can interact with alternative representations
of complex vocabulary and phenomena” essentially meeting this requirement of
UDL.
This paper studied the results of incorporating different
video games into the science classes of selected schools. The games “were Cell Command (cell anatomy
and functions); Crazy Plant Shop (genes and inheritance); You Make Me Sick!
(bacteria and viruses); and Reach for the Sun (photosynthesis and plant life cycle).” We often speak about the importance of
collaboration between teachers but often neglect its importance in our
classroom. While playing these video
games “Students expressed a clear affinity toward the video games and reported
collaborative engagement during game play”, creating a collaborative environment
within the classroom. The best way to
solidify knowledge is to teach it to someone else, something that these
students who are only ‘playing games’ were excelling at.
I enjoyed the premise of this article and hopefully along
with my interactive textbook will be able to incorporate some of these games
into my science curriculum for next year.
Article #5
Article #5
The Three Block Model of Universal Design for Learning
(UDL): Engaging students in inclusive education
Katz, JenniferView Profile. Canadian Journal of
Education36.1 (2013): 153-194.
I chose
this article because I was interested in the different form of UDL that the
author was proposing. Her “Three Block
Model” was not something that I was familiar with and because of that decided
that it would be a good article for me to investigate, I was correct.
As with
all UDL frameworks, this model seeks to provide the most inclusive, user
friendly classroom possible. The author
identifies the three different blocks as “Social and Emotional Learning, Inclusive
Instructional Practice and student autonomy”. Social and Emotional learning emphasizes a
democratic style of classroom where students and teachers are involved in the
decision making process. The second
block focuses around the teachers ability to design and plan lessons and units
that develop a student’s interest and learning opportunities through inquiry
based learning. The third block, student
autonomy as it has “been shown to increase student engagement and achievement,
and develop higher order, deeper thinkers”.
I did
find the Three Block Model interesting and believe that if properly implemented
could be a very useful tool for teachers to have. It’s implementation however, according to the
author, seems to require large amounts of PD so as to instruct the teachers on
its use. Unfortunatly for many schools
and boards this may be impractical as effective PD needs to be on-going, rather
than once up for it to be effective.
Article #6
Article #6
Universal Design for
Learning and Elementary School Science: Exploring the Efficacy, Use, and
Perceptions of a Web-Based Science Notebook
Gabrielle Rappolt-Schlichtmann CAST, Inc., Wakefield,
Massachusetts, and Harvard Graduate School of Education. Samantha G. Daley,
Seoin Lim, Scott Lapinski, Kristin H. Robinson, and Mindy Johnson CAST, Inc., Wakefield,
Massachusetts
I once
again chose this article based on my changing teaching requirements for the
upcoming school year. I will be moving
into a science classroom where UDL will be a day to day practice for me, not an
occasional modification. As I intend to
use technology to its utmost, this article interested me as a possibility for
the upcoming year. The purpose of this
article was to research how the use of an interactive notebook could remove
some of the traditional barriers (reading comprehension, writing ability) from
an inclusive classroom.
The
authors of this article focused on a single example of an interactive notebook
for the purpose of their research. Their
research did indicate that “as this work demonstrates, when technology is used
to foster a supported learning environment in which the emphasis is on core
learning activities” it can prove to very effective. As I had hoped this paper did point me in the
direction of a number of different more
modern student notebooks that I may be able to incorporate. Some of these being,
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