Servive Project Wrap-up

This was our last week for service projects, and our class was really busy putting the final touches on everthing. As on online correspondent, I have been busy e-mailing my peers to ask if they needed help with anything. I have been mainly corresponding with group 4 (mealworms) and I commented on their blog. Group 4 was really on top of things, and the only help they needed was comments. Their blog and VoiceThread look great.

I reached out to other people to through e-mail asking if I could do anything to help, and they either told me to just comment on their blogs for the kids to see, or that they are already finished. So, at the end of this project, I ended up being more of a "commenter" than an online support, because the other education majors that I was in contact with really had it under control. I really enjoyed being able to look at all the ECDC group blogs, and I was amazed at how well they turned out. When we first started, I thought that it would be really tough to get 2nd graders comfortable with the technology, and that the education majors would end up doing the bulk of the work for the students. But, when I look at and interact with all the student blogs, I can tell that the students really did the research, and the education majors were really there to facilitate learning.

I did get to practice with VoiceThread on my own, since in our previous assignment I used SlideShare. I explored the site, and I know I will use VoiceThread not only in the future, but in the present. I have already started setting up a VoiceThread for one of my clients with autism to do. I think that all the technology applications we have learned this semester will really revolutionize classrooms as well as private clinics like the one I work at.

Week 2

Because of my job, I cannot attend face-to-face sessions with the kids at the ECDC, so I will be helping my group out with online correspondence. I emailed the members of my group and asked how they were progressing with the students and what I needed to do. Katie replied with everything and said that the group we are working with is off to a great start. They have their KWL charts up on GoogleDocs, and they also have their blogs up with their first entry.

Because I cannot phyisically be with the students in my group, I will be corresponding with other education majors who are able to meet with the students at the ECDC this week. They're goals are to collect photos of mealworms and embed them into their blog, and also get their VoiceThread started. I will be working behind the scenes, so I will be commenting on blogs, working on the VoiceThread, and doing anything else I can.

Because I am now assigned to a group, I feel much more comfortable and confident about this project. I wasn't sure what to expect last week, but I have a feeling that all the education majors are going to help these students complete wonderful research projects.

This week we were given the basic principles of our service projects. I will be working with students in the ECDC, and although we have not had a chance to meet with the students, I have been thinking about and preparing questions that will help the students with their researching and incorporating technology into their projects.

Here are just a few open-ended questions to ask the students to help them think deeper about their project. I am excited about getting to help them learn about the different technology that they can incorporate into their research project.

Spreadsheets

This week I learned how I could incorporate spreadsheets into my future "classroom." I have always enjoyed using spreadsheets (my dad is FANATICAL about them!) I really love how a simple equation can do so much so fast in Excel. You can type it in one time and then just drag it down a whole column.

Thinking of ways to use spreadsheets with my students was a little tough for me. I tried to think of ways that spreadsheets would really help them master their goals, and I couldn't. But, spreadsheets are an invaluable tool for behavior therapists. Behavior analysis is essentially data-based decision making. You take data on a behavior, which is anything that is observable and measurable, and then you take that data to develop or modify behavior plans and goals. Without data, ABA is nothing. But, you also have to look at that data and make decisions using that data. Spreadsheets are an easy way to chart and graph data, and I have used them many times in my ABA experience.

Here is my Google Docs spreadsheet.

Making Movies!

This week was the first time I had ever used Movie Maker, and I was quite apprehensive about using the software. It did take me a while to get familiar with it, and I had quite a few problems converting my media into files that Movie Maker accepted. I think the hardest part for me was figuring out to convert the video shots I took into a file that was compatible, and I ended up having to purchase something to convert my files.

My movie is about making friends. As I mentioned before, one of the hardest things for someone on the autism spectrum to do is to create meaningful relationships and friendships with people, and keeping those friendships. Originally, I wanted to make a movie that modeled for children with autism how to make friends, but I had a tough time finding kids that could be in the movie. I think that before I would use this with one of my clients, I would get more footage of actual people making friends to make it more meaningful for the child. A lot of children with autism need to be shown how to do something, not just told.

In my movie, I incorporated some of my original photos of my friends and some students I know. I also shot footage of a friend and her brother answering the EQ's I asked, which were "What is a friend?" and "How do we make friends?" I also used a video that I found on YouTube that a teacher had make for his class on the meaning of friendship. The song I used is very calm, yet still upbeat, and it is called "Din Din Wo" by Muso Ko. All in all, this was a very tough assignment for me, and I think I need more time to immerse myself in Movie Maker, as well as learn how to convert files, pictures, and video into compatible files. Here it is!

Planning to Make a Movie

This week I decided that a good movie to make for my students with autism would be a video about social interaction. I think that making a movie about how to interact with others would be helpful for students with autsim. I could show them a movie about social interactions before we went out to a park, or for the kids in school, out to recess.

For my movie, I plan on using the 7 elements of digital storytelling in the following ways. First, I plan on having my movie illustrate the point of view of my students. I want them to feel that the person in the movie could be them so they will be more likely to imitate the actions. For my dramatic question, I will be asking, "How do we make friends?" For the majority of people on the spectrum, making and keeping friends is one of the hardest skill to master. I will be using the gift of my voice, and I will ask questions and talk, while leaving meaningful pauses for the student to reflect. I am still searching for the perfect soundtrack that will compliment my movie, but not over power it. I will also not overload this movie in order to not overwhelm my students with autism. This is a common problem for these students, especially with "verbal clutter." It is sometimes compared to Charlie Brown's teacher (WA WA WA) when people with autism are bombarded with too much information, and they simply cannot process it. This deals with the economy and pacing of my movie. Here is my storyboard for my movie and my lesson plan for my movie.

Slide Share (Session 6)

Slide Share (Session 6)

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Digital Storytelling with VoiceThread & SlideShare

Digital Storytelling is a great way to get students actively engaged in material. Students in this day and age need to be challenged with technology, and incorporating it into their learning is a great way to reach them on their level. It gets them using their creative minds while learning content, and most students would be more engaged by this than lecturing or learning from the blackboard.

VoiceThread is a great tool and I can definately see how I would use it. As I mentioned before, I do not want to be a teacher, but instead a behavior therapist for children with autism. Nearly all the kids I work with now have significant speech delays. Some are nonverbal, and some are verbal, but sometimes their speech is broken and forced. One of my higher-functioning kids is verbal, but his speech sounds very forced and unnatural, and I don't think he is aware of how it sounds. For him I could create a VoiceThread for him where I ask him questions pertaining to his ABLLS (Assessment of Basic Language and Learning Skills) goals and he has to answer them through leaving an audio comment that he has to playback to himself. That way he is addressing his goals and targets, as well as learning how to make his voice sound more natural.

SlideShare is a very similar to VoiceThread, except without the option of adding audio. I chose to create a SlideShare and I made it into a sample probe of the goals and targets of a student. Like I mentioned in a previous post, generalization is the hardest thing for children with autism. Taking the goals and targets that are normally taught and probed at the table or desk, and putting them into a digital format for a student to read and answer would be a great way to help them generalize that task. Instead of being a "drill" it turns into almost a game or quest that child goes on the answer the questions before he moves on to the next slide.

SlideCast is closely related to SlideShare, except now you have the option to add audio and video to a slide. This tool seems amazing to use, and I would have chose to create a SlideCast, except I was sort of overwhelmed at first with all the different tools on SlideCast. But, I can definately see myself creating SlideCasts for my students with autism once I get a good chance to practice and play with all the different settings.

Internet Resources

Using the Internet to support teaching is a wonderful way to connect students to the material. Students in this era grew up with technology at their fingertips, and playing towards that talent would help students understand the information. There are so many resources readily available and free of charge on the Internet, and incorporating them will make the material more accessible to students. Some researchers say that students are becoming much more visual learners because of the onset of technology, so showing a short video about the information or having them find charts and images will help them grasp the concepts. Kid-friendly search engines are a great tool to use because it lets students "have a hand" in their own learning because they are the ones researching. Informative sites provide students with all kinds of information, as well as activities and ideas. For example, my unit plan was on citizenship and I found the website of a foundation calling Kids Making A Difference, which is a kid-led foundation. It shows kids how they can make a difference in their communities and impact the entire world.

My link to my works cited.

Using Blogs With My Future Students

David Warlick - 2 Cents Worth

To be honest, I never wanted to be a classroom teacher. I never dreamed as a little girl that I would stand in front of a class, I never played "school" with my friends, and I certainly still do not want to be a teacher in the sense that most people think about. However, I want to work with children, and I want to teach them. Before I can answer how I would use blogs with my non-existent future classroom, I must first say how I got here.

I was introduced to autism at the age of 17 when I became a nanny for twin boys, one of whom was diagnosed with high functioning autism. Working with him was second nature to me, and his mom suggested that I look into the field of behavior analysis. My whole world changed then. The next year I was hired as a teacher at a learning center for children with autism that utilized Applied Behavior Analysis, or ABA. I worked there for 2 years, then decided that I needed a change of setting. I was hired by a Board Certified Behavior Analyst, or BCBA, to work with kids with autism in clinical and home settings, which is what I currently do.

But, blogging is something that I can still use in my future profession. One of the children I work with loves everything about computers and is a very strong reader and speller. I could definately use blogs with him. For example, one of his challenges is asking and answering "wh" questions, so to make it more motivating to him, I could ask him a "wh" question on the blog, and then he can answer it through the comments, and vice-versa. Besides using blogs with the children, I also work with a number of therapists. Blogging can be a great way to reflect upon each client together, since we all work with the same kids at different times of the day. We could blog suggestions, questions, and even words of encouragement, because even though this field is what we were all born to be in, it can also be extremely demanding and tough. We are all naturally reflective because we have to be. We have to analyze every single factor of the environment to draw a conclusion about why behaviors occur according to all the different stimuli in the environment.

Inquiry- and Project-based Learning

Throughout history, education has changed and evolved. Inquiry-based learning and project-based learning are two similar educational approaches that are old ideas, but are becoming more and more popular through the technological revolution. Both these approaches rely heavily on technology to make education child-centered and meaningful. They encourage children to be the advocates of their own learning. They detest the old style of fact recall, and instead center learning around the quest for information. Students need to know how to find information and draw conclusions based upon that information; not just memorize the information. All too often, students make it all the way through high school and enter college, where professors are seeing a huge lack of motivation and knowledge of how to research and answer questions insightfully instead of just rote recalling of facts.

The field of behavior analysis has historically gotten a "bad rap" for creating rote learners. ABA is a very specific type of teaching, and there is an incredibly fine line between teaching to rote and teaching to generalization. The hardest part of the learning process for most children with autism is generalization. For example, a child may learn that a toy car is a car. But, if they are only exposed to that one car being a car, they will most likely think that toy is the only thing called a "car." So, as a behavior therapist, you must expose them to all kinds of cars, including different pictures, different toy cars, and actual cars. You must also ask these questions in their natural environment. All too often, a child can label and identify all these things at a table, but when you ask them things while not at a table, they look at you like your speaking German. Generalization is often the missing link in the learning process, and when taught, the child usually becomes more responsive across the board. Essential questions and unit questions require a more sophisticated type of thinking. Even though a child with autism may have knowledge well beyond his age level, he may have an incredibly tough time communicating what he is thinking to you, so instead of an answer, you get a blank stare or a punch in the face. In my field, we can only address behaviors that are observable and measurable. Therefore, the behavior of thinking cannot be analyzed because it is not measurable. So, before we can ask questions that probably will not evoke a response or will evoke a response of frusturation, we must first teach and reinforce communication.

I did my EQ on citizenship, but I would probably use a different EQ with children with autism depending upon their level and behaviors. For example, if a child had a hard time making friends, which is typical of these kids, I would probably state an EQ of "What is a friend?" But, the process of answering this question would be to help the child first understand the word "friend." Then I would help him think of qualities that make good friends. He will probably need varied levels of prompting to lower his frustration level and set him up for success. My original EQ and UQs are:

EQ= What makes someone a good person?

This question meets the constructs of Essential questions because it is open to different opinions and does not have one right answer. Students can think deeply about this question and define their own idea of a good person. This question is very broad and open to discussions, and it is also a good question to break down into subjects.

UQ1= What do you do to be a good citizen?
UQ2= Which person who is known for their good citizenship do you look up to most?
UQ3= How can you promote and encourage good citizenship in America?

These unit questions meet the constructs of Unit Questions because they are all open- ended and thought-provoking. They require that students think about the question and encourage
exploration. It is also good for students this age to begin thinking of their own values and learning what makes a good citizen. They also let students see that even they can make an impact in the world. It also aligns with Bloom's/Gardener's view of learning because this one subject can be stretched into linquistic, visual spatial, interpersonal, intrapersonal, and bodily kinesthetic. It can be linquistic by having kids list characteristics of a good citizen and writing a letter on what it means to be a good citizen, for example. This one topic can be stretched into a number of activities in which students are actively engaged and take part in their own learning.