My Photo Story

 

When initially presented with this assignment I felt a little overwhelmed.  It seemed like such a complicated task.  I have to say that once I picked a topic it flowed very quickly, except for some difficulty uploading it to youtube!  I could see how e-story books would be very useful to prepare a child with autism, or any child that could be easily thrown off, for some sort of change or desired expectation.  I think I would also make a version in print that could be physically carried around by the child.  That way he/she can refer to it as needed.

I chose the topic of having a substitute teacher in class.  I thought that this could very easily set off a child that relies on routine and consistency, making it a great topic for a social story.  Not only will the teacher be different, but a planned lesson might not happen, and the other students usually act differently when there is a substitute.  

As with many things were have learned about in class, social stories were a foreign topic for me.  They remind me a little of a simplified task analysis, the way it clearly lays out instructions to complete a task.  Social stories help people with autism sort of predict how a certain social situation will play out, offering a narrative example to follow.  Eliminating some portion of confusion, lessening the amount of distractions during instructional time. "Social Stories provide a little distance between teaching and the possible stresses of the social situation itself; they give the child a chance to practice the skills often and on his terms". (Wallin, J. 2004)  

There are several things to remember when writing a social story.  Always write the story from the child's perspective, taking into account their functioning capabilities.  When possible it is often a good idea to actually include the child in the process of writing the story.  Try to focus on what causes the desired or undesired behaviors, instead of the behavior itself.  It's also important to clearly define the response that is expected from the child.  Also, keeping in mind that these stories are written specifically for the child, therefore the language used must be tailored to the student.  

Electronic versions of social stories can take things one step further by being able to use pictures of familiar places, people and the child the story is written for.  This helps form an even stronger attachment to the desired behavior.   "Children enjoy viewing pictures of themselves and people they know. They point, name the people, and often tell stories about the pictures of familiar faces. Given recent advances in technology, the use of digital media in classroom settings will be the next step in the technological progression". (More, C., 2008)

Adaptive and Assistive Technology

I've really enjoyed researching the different types of assistive technology that is available.  Many of us use assistive technology on a regular basis without even knowing it.  Highlighters, sticky notes, spell check, dictionaries, etc.  We all need it, just some of us need more specialized tools.

As a future special education teacher I will need to become well aquainted with the technologies that are available to my students.  We all know how technology is, it is constantly changing and evolving.  The importance to continuously research new devices is crucial.  Something new may have came out that would be just what one of your students need to facilitate their success in learning.

Often these technologies do not just help in the classroom, but with every part of their life.  I can not imagine the frustration one must feel when they are unable to clearly communicate their wants and needs.  Sometimes assistive technology is the tool that finally gives an individual a voice to be heard.  What a relief that must be for the individual, their family, friends, teacher and anyone they come in contact with.

Want to go on a WebQuest?

Who doesn't love a good scavenger hunt?  I think webquests are an awesome way to really engage students on a topic.  I kind of got sucked into looking at some of the webquest examples posted on the tutorial.  I think this type of lesson would be specifically interesting to a student with ADHD, it's a quiet, seated activity that can really keep a students attention due to the fact that you visit different websites, videos,activities, etc.

The ACC webquest we went on wasn't particularly exciting, but it also wasn't geared towards children.  The information provided was great, however most of the websites were very boring to look at and there were also several broken links that I came across.  Overall I think it did a good job of educating about assistive technologies.

Assistive Technology

To be quite honest, before departing on my webquest I had very little knowledge of assistive technologies and AAC.  It's difficult to have prior knowledge of these tools when you have little to no prior experience in special education.  I have seen students with communication boards before, but I had absolutely no knowledge of how they worked.  I imagine as a special education teacher I will quickly become familiar with various types of assistive technologies, as they seem to be very useful and effective.  I can't wait to jump in and get some hands on experience.  No matter how much I read about it, my real comprehension will begin when I enter the classroom!

Facebook for the Classroom?

Each day I become more and more open to technology.  I have several friends that are active in the teaching field.  A couple of those friends have accepted friend requests from students on facebook, which I find completely inappropriate. However, I think a good solution would be signing up for a professional facebook account with another email address, while keeping your personal account hidden.  Facebook offers many privacy options, one even allows you to only be searchable by a friend of a friend.  This drastically cuts the chance of a student finding your page. Facebook suggests that if you are viewable "You can also model safe behavior by being careful about what you share online".  This is a great point, however the social aspect of this makes it difficult to control what your friends post.  let's face it, most of cannot say that each person on their friends list would use the same judgement about the appropriateness of some material!

A classroom facebook account could be a very useful tool, especially for keeping contact with parents.  Also for parents, it will allow for better parental networking.  Everyone will have a better opportunity to stay in the loop.

In the online article, A case for social media in schools, written by Sarah Kessler she mentioned another benefit, this time out of the classroom.  The social aspect helps to better prepare you for the workplace.  So much school work has been focused on individual, independent work, but when you get out into the real world you are expected to work in teams to get work done.  the interactive nature of social networking may help with this transition.

Story Jumper

I've chosen a web 2.0 tool to investigate from Larry Ferlazzo's blog list, The Best Web 2.0 Applications For Education — 2010.  The list included many interesting tools that would be very useful in a classroom.  I chose to play around with Story Jumper because I thought it might be a fun activity to do with my son.  Story jumper is a website that lets you write, design and edit your own children's story book.  You set up a user account allowing you to save the books you write and you may also purchase the book as well!


I found this website to be very user friendly and easy to use.  Along with Dylan's help I was able to use a story that was already started, tweaked some names and characters and completed an entirely new and unique story book.  You can check out our new story here.


I think this could be a very useful program in an inclusive classroom.  I really liked that you had an option to start completely from scratch, or begin with a pre-designed template.  Since I had no story line in mind when I visited the site, I chose to use a template that was already started.  This really helped me get the story going.  One of the hardest thing for many children, especially students with a learning disability, when asked to write is creativity.  I found this to really help facilitate creativity by giving an initial starting off point.


We really had fun with this one.  I'm sure we will be back to create more stories in the future!

A 2.0 World

UDL, Universal Design for Learning, is generally about educating each person to the best of their ability, using the tools that work best for them individually. I think that UDL fits in perfectly in a 2.0 world.  Web 2.0 is incredibly interactive, allowing everyone to participate in their own way, with their own technology.  Having so much technology at our finger tips really allows us so many opportunities for learning.  One drawback of web 2.0 is that information can sometimes be a little off, due to the fact that so many people are capable of adding, deleting and creating the information available, especially with sites like wikipedia.(Dina Rosen, Charles Nelson, 2008)   It does take some educated reasoning to decide whether the information you are reading is factual or not.  It may be easy for students to be misled, due to this information.