The Khan Academy at first was too much to take in at first. I was not expecting to go through the whole process of creating a avatar and all that just to visit the site. I mean, let me see if I'm interested in whats being offered first. I was just a little annoyed. I had to take a deep breath and start with a fresh view. I had to look at it as if I were a parent looking for a tool or site to help my child. Or as if I was looking for some additional self motivating help. After being on the site for a while it just seemed like too much information, but the videos and mini quizzes were really good. I found myself going through the whole subject of patterns and calling my son in to share the one video with him. I could and would encourage my student to use this web site with a specific subject in mind.My son said he was going to add it to his favorite folder to refer to later. The videos are very easy to follow and engage in. I love how after every other video you get a quiz to test your knowledge or recap the subject information. I do believe in Khans vision/theory of credentialing by use of technology and it is more assessable to students and parent to be more hands on and interactive with their child's education. All in all this is a web site that I give two thumbs up and is now on my list or recommendations. (👍 👍 for Khan)
Visiting the Coursera website I found that it was easy to move about and matriculate throughout the site. The homepage is clear a made for any and all types of users. Having the names of the colleges could be nothing more than a plus. That caught my daughters eye foe a quick second. She saw Stanford and almost broke here neck. Sadly none of the courses offered caught my eye; moreover, none about the site called any real interest to me. I am not that kind of learner. Online courses are hard for me, because I am more of an interactive learner and tend to shy away from doing to much of anything online. This semester I have really bit off more than I can chew by taking three online courses. Yikes! I feel like if I was taking only online courses I would be no good at retaining anything no matter how hard I tried. I started this assignment late, so I was unable to dig deep enough to see if Columbus State accepted Coursera credentials. I would say yes though be cause I had a CDA credential that transferred over into college credits here at Columbus State. I did find something from 2013 about Coursera contacting Columbus State trying to address concerns about incorrect placements English and Math classes. That leads me to further believe that this is true. The courses do not seem to be more challenging, they just don't seem to be for me and how I learn, but don't let me make your mind up. Please give them a honest review for your self. I do think that this might be the new wave in education, I'm just glad I am out in front of it before it completely takes over. (👍 👎 mixed feeling about this one)
Tuesday, February 28, 2017
Tuesday, February 21, 2017
Exploring Standard-Based Lesson Plans
The age/grade level lesson plan that I have chosen to use is for the preschool group (3-5 year old). I chose this age group, because I find myself always retuning to a preschool classroom when I drift off into other journeys. Although I am wanting to be more of an administrative role in a early childcare, preschool is the age group I love most. Looking around online for sample plans that connected the OELD standards was a challenge, so I decide to take the advise of my professor and use one of the lesson plans from Columbus States own Early Childhood Development and Education program. In this lesson the plans focus is on a read aloud Mama Cat Has Three Kittens (Literacy). The children are expected by the end of the lesson to be able to to predict what happens next and be able to name and sequence events within the story.
This lesson plan does not require the use of the Common Cores, instead for this age group the Ohio Early Learning and Development Standards are used, OELD for short. The area or domain I guessed right from the beginning after reading the name of the activity/area of interest and found out after reading the plan in it's entirety that I was correct in my guessing that the plan fell under the domain of Language and Literacy Development. The strand used was reading and the topics reading comprehension and print concept. Being a little familiar with the OELD Standards and the preschool age group, I recognized that all parts of the chosen lesson plan addresses the domain selected by the creator. The part that stood out most to me was open-ended questions and scaffolding comments. One could really see the standards at work here.
I would not anticipate any problems other then the children complaining that they cannot see the book and in this case I would adjust the book so that everyone can see, or give a nod to a co-worker to adjust the children in the area as I continue to read. As for other challenges, I would be kind of concerned about them not really grasping the standard of the print concept, so I would include some writing at the end. I would ask the group what they though would happen if we continued the story and write it down as they talk, then later have then draw pictures of what they said or write some of the words which ever would be more developmentally appropriate for each of them. By the end on the day we would have our own class book with there words, pictures and print.
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This lesson plan does not require the use of the Common Cores, instead for this age group the Ohio Early Learning and Development Standards are used, OELD for short. The area or domain I guessed right from the beginning after reading the name of the activity/area of interest and found out after reading the plan in it's entirety that I was correct in my guessing that the plan fell under the domain of Language and Literacy Development. The strand used was reading and the topics reading comprehension and print concept. Being a little familiar with the OELD Standards and the preschool age group, I recognized that all parts of the chosen lesson plan addresses the domain selected by the creator. The part that stood out most to me was open-ended questions and scaffolding comments. One could really see the standards at work here.
If I were to adopt this plan and implement it to a group of children I would start by putting the book, a large cat and three small kittens on a table near where I would sit. I would encourage the children to explore what they see as I take notes. I would then ask if they wanted to hear the story book to find out what happens to the kittens. As i read I would stop to key in on the part that is going to be repeated and ask the children to say the part with me as I go on. I would then carry on much like the creator stopping every now and then to have the children predict what is going to happen next.
I would not anticipate any problems other then the children complaining that they cannot see the book and in this case I would adjust the book so that everyone can see, or give a nod to a co-worker to adjust the children in the area as I continue to read. As for other challenges, I would be kind of concerned about them not really grasping the standard of the print concept, so I would include some writing at the end. I would ask the group what they though would happen if we continued the story and write it down as they talk, then later have then draw pictures of what they said or write some of the words which ever would be more developmentally appropriate for each of them. By the end on the day we would have our own class book with there words, pictures and print.
For more information about where I obtained my sample lesson plan please visit the link below
Tuesday, February 14, 2017
Assistive Technology for students with Speech and Language Impairment
The IDEA disability speech and language impairment is defined as a communication disorder that adversely affects the child's ability to talk, understand, read and write. IDEA actually divides these up into two groups, which I always thought of them to be one in the same, but they separate them as speech impairment and language impairment. Speech Impairment is the broken down into there categories: Omissions, Substitutions and Distortions and Language Impairment is then broken down into five categories: Phonological disorder, Morphological disorder, Semantics disorder, Syntactical deficits and Pragmatic difficulties. Student with speech and language impairment might struggle in a general classroom setting, not being able to articulate there wants and needs within the group. These students may become frustrated when their teachers and peers are unable to understand them, sometimes this can lead to behavior issues. If a child's speech and/or language is off it can affect their reading and writing skills as well and cause lower grades or scores. These student are also likely to misread or understand social cues making if difficult to join or stay engaged in a conversation with peers.
There are so many assistive technology devices and apps for families and schools to choose from. I like "My Talk Tools". It is and app that you can download onto a tablet, dest top, cell phone or even an iwatch. I like it because you do not have to purchase any special device, just use what most people have already in their homes. My Talk Tools have several different apps. the most basic one is free of charge, bit the more a person advances the heavier the price becomes ranging from $99. up to $179. This app is not just for those with speech and language impairment, but also for those identified with Downs, Cerebral Palsy, Autism, Hearing or Visual impairments. Visit Mytalktools.com for more information. https://www.mytalktools.com/dnn/2/Home.aspx
My Talk has features such as, video modeling, switch capable, language generation and scanning. You can program the child's name into the app and select a voice as well when you set up the app you can let the system know if the child is male or female. With all the research I have done, I have come across the warning of too much screen time, so with that being said limit time use on any device that you choose to download the app on.
The future of assistive technology is growing and I believe that smart phones and other devices are making life of everyone better and easier. A person would just have to take the time to learn all the systems and the ends and outs of the technology world. I'm trying to be more technically inclined by taking courses like this education technology course at CSCC. I know its just a start, but it took me a few years to learn my idevices.
Methods for AAC can be divided into three levels of technology complexity.
No-tech methods [PDF] include signing, using pictures and objects without voice output, facial and body language, and eye gaze.Low-tech/medium-tech methods [PDF] include devices with voice output, but only one choice or one page recorded on them.Higher-tech methods/devices [PDF] are capable of using a number of pages and a larger vocabulary can be stored. The highest-tech devices are like computers, allowing for the greatest number of options.
References
http://www.parentcenterhub.org/repository/categories/
http://www.readingrockets.org/article/helping-children-communication-disorders-schools
Monday, February 6, 2017
Ohio DL Schools
After looking at each of the above options for online schooling in Ohio, here's how they stack up in my opinion on a scale from 1-10:
Clarity Understanding Look Feel
So, which of the five DL options would I pick for my child? I would have to say that choosing between Ohio Virtual Academy and Virtual Community School of Ohio would be a challenge. I really liked what both had to offer. At first glance I liked the home page of OHVA, the schools contact number appear right there with no effort to find it. The flow of the website was nice and easy to navigate and I loved the break down of each grade and program. It also gave faces to some of the staff that a family might have contact with. Likewise, OCA was fairly easy to find my way around within the site. Some things that I found very helpful was the live chat option. I would defiantly benefit from that as well as the fact that there are three teacher and administration centers in OH. There is one in Columbus, Cleveland and Cincinnati making it easy to reach out to a live person when absolutely necessary. One more reason I liked this school is because of the five this was the only one that offered a video on how to enroll, explaining the process. This is helpful to both a parent with little technology skills and an older student trying to enroll on their own to make up credits who may not understand exactly what the forms are asking for.
Let me now state which of the five DL options I would NOT pick for my child? The Virtual School House did not have much to offer at first sight, but I wanted to give it a chance, so I continued to click around and check it out. I was disappointed by both the pictures and the lack of up keep of the site. The photos show no kind of diversity as if they are only targeting a specific group. As I moved on to announcements, I found that it has not been up dated since 2015. What? This is crazy. Hello, It's 2017. I hope the curriculum is more up to date. I'll never know, because after doing a little check on the staff I got out of there. Several of the staff members had no profile information available and that is important to me. I need to know as much as I can about who will be working with my child.
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