Students with AT

    Students with disabilities are often in need of more help than regular students and may sometimes be left out of various activities or assignments. Teachers would need to revise their lesson plans and activities to accommodate the students or with the tools needed the students would be able to participate with their classmates. Classrooms should be equipped with tools or technology needed for different students whether. As a future elementary teacher, being able to create an environment to accommodate all students would be challenging and to making sure all students have what they need to strive in their academics. 

    In today worlds, assistive technology can help students with certain disabilities.  The use of the technology is to enhance learning in a different approach. In the video "Stem and People with Disabilities" it demonstrates different ways for students to participate in activities and the roles the instructors have in modifying their lesson plans. Modification to the lessons should be made if the student is struggling understand the work. Students with disabilities would benefit to a lesson plan that will aid in their academics. Some modification such as materials, setting, scheduling, or even different teaching methods would be beneficial to the student (TeachThough, 2019). In the video, students and teachers communicate to one another to find the appropriate way to accommodate their needs. 

    When I was in K-12 on Saipan, I did not see students that needed assistive technology.  My school had couple of students with disabilities, but they never had any device that would assist them in daily activities. I believe the reason for lack of technology is because it is too expensive for the school to purchase during that time. Students and teachers would need to work around the disability such as they would not participate in the assignment or they would be taken to a different room to do something else. Only now, they are using assistive technology. My brother is a SPED teacher and he says the AT are helping the students be part of the classroom and learning has become easier for student and teacher. AT can increase the student's self-reliance and independence (Stanberry, 2009). There are many ways to incorporate AT in classrooms. One way I would incorporate AT into my lesson is by using speech-to-text for students who are blind. They give students a way to respond with their voices and covert their comments into text. This will help students to complete their assignments and use the Internet to search. 

    When I become a teacher and I have to create an activity that includes all my students, I will make sure that all materials or technology needed would be present during the activity. First, I will modify the rules of what all students can and can't do. Next, provide extra time to work with students one on one or by group. These changes will make sure that all student participates in the activity or game. I want everyone to feel included and I want to have communication between every student.

    

    In conclusion, AT is helping many students achieve their goals and to have a normal life in school. Students with disabilities are benefiting from these technology as they use it to complete daily activities or school assignment. Every student is capable of doing anything they dream off like Stephen Hawking who used AT to compensate for mobility and speech difficulty. AT gives students a chance to make dreams possible. " For people without disabilities technology makes things easier, for other technology makes things possible"-Anonymous.

References:

Staff, TeachThough. "15 Assistive Technology Tools for Students with Disabilities." TeachThought

           3 Dec. 2019, www. teachthough.com/technology/15-assistive-technology-tools-resources/

           

Stanberry, Kristen, "Assistive Technology for Kids with Learning Disabilities: An Overview." 

           ReadingRockets, 2009,.www.readingrockets.org/article/assistive-technology-kids-learning-

           disabilities/

Technology Tools For Review

https://moodle.uog.edu/login/index.php

     Moodle is a learning management tool.  Moodle is one of the tools used for the University of Guam for students and Teachers. Students are able to check their grades, keep track of assignments, communicate with their instructors, and many more.  Teachers are able to post assignments, quizzes, or resources that would be beneficial for the students assignments. Submitting assignment has become even easier with moodle. Moodle is able to remind student if a deadline is approaching. One of the reasons Moodle is my preferred tool for school because my instructors are able to post my grades on the work that I have done with comments, so I would be able to do better next time. 

Rating:5/5

https://www.google.com/chrome/

      Google Chrome is a free web browser created by Google that uses basic design to make it simple to use. Chrome is a fast web browser that displays pages quicklier than other web browsers. There are many features included in Chrome such as task manager that shows the user how much memory and usage each tab is using or dragging a new tab to its own window. Chrome has many other features that makes using the Internet easier to use. Many tools or platforms are able to open on Chrome and when one page freezes the other pages displayed will not be affected. I prefer Google Chrome over the other web browsers because I hardly had any problems and I am able to access all the things I need on the Internet. 

Rating:5/5

https://edu.google.com/products/gsuite-for-education/?modal_active=none

     Google Apps are web based messaging and collaboration that Google host on their own server. There are a number of features included such as productivity applications, calendar, email, video conferencing, etc. Students are able to collaborate or communicate with one another on various projects or assignments. Google Apps may be used an an education tools for students. In Google Docs and presentation, students are able to share their presentation to one another through Gmail. Sharing makes it easier for students and for teachers to give feedback or to  input ideas. As a college student, I use Google Apps for my assignments and projects, I have never came across any problems while using these tools. 

Rating:5/5

https://www.livebinders.com/

     Livebinder is a free online bookmarking site that provides a method for storing online storing online resources and sharing those resources with others. As a future educator, Livebinder is helpful in organizing my resources that I would use in my classroom. Livebinder is able to store many resources found on the Internet such as videos, images, links, and documents. In the beginning of this semester, I have never heard or used Livebinder before and I thought just by looking at it, I would have a hard time navigating the website and adding resources. However, I created my first binder and it was not difficult as I thought it would be. 

Rating:5/5

https://www.wix.com

  Wix is a cloud-base website development platform. Wix is free service, but users can opt to improve their website by subscribing to the premium plan. Students are able to create their own personal or educational website. Some features included: free templates, mobile friendly, logo maker, communication tools, etc. I have used Wix for several projects and I was able be as creative as I want. With Wix, I am able to add anything on the site such as videos, games, images, and discussion forum. Creating a website on Wix is not difficult, but it takes time because of different elements to add on the site. Their are a few disadvantages of Wix that I came across such as ads, no unlimited plans, and free plan limits use of site. However, other than those few disadvantages Wix is still a great site to use. 

Rating:4/5

https://www.videoscribe.com/

  VideoScribe is an intuitive tool for whiteboard animation and explainer videos. Students are able to create presentation videos that looks to be hand drawn. Some features of VideoScribe include: premium images, import music and fonts, work offline, record voice overs, etc. VideoScribe is great for grabbing the audience attention because it is different then any other presentation tools. When I become a elementary teacher, I want to create presentations that would be entertaining, but the students will learn something. Like Prezi, VideoScribe uses a large canvas and the person can zoom in and out of text or images. One disadvantage of this tool it is not free. The cost of Videoscribe is $35. I used VideoScribe couple times for projects and my class was entertained and they thought it was creative. 

Rating:3/5

https://www.haikudeck.com/

    Haiku Deck is a presentation creation website and app that uses images, text, audio, and video to stunning presentation.  In Haiku Deck, their are a variety of designs available. All features of the tool is made simple to use. Students are able to add few lines of text and bullet points or a bullet list up to five items. I have personally never used this type of tool for my presentation, but I have tried it out to see which tool I would want to use. Like other presentation tools, students are able to add videos and into your presentation. One disadvantage of this tool is there is not basic version only free trial. 

Rating:3/5

https://prezi.com/

    Prezi is a presentation that is one of the alternative to Powerpoint or Google Slides. Prezi makes use of a large canvas that can pan and zoom to different parts of the canvas. Like Powerpoint, Prezi has a variety of templates or backgrounds to choose from. Collaboration is one of the features the tool carries for students. Prezi can be shared with different people that would make it easier and faster to complete a project. With Prezi, organization of presentation information would be easier. It helps emphasize the beginning, middle, and end. The audience would be able to get an overview of the whole presentation. 

Rating:4.5/5

Images from Google Search

Stay Safe Online

   For students, the Internet can be an opportunity to learn, explore the world, and socialize with friends. But online access has many risks such as inappropriate content, scams, online predators, and even cyberbullying. Using an online website or apps where students interact could be harmful because we do not know if the person we are talking to is who they say they are (Hertz, 2017)

    When I become a teacher, I want to teach my students about the safety of online and the reason we need to practice the guideline while using technology. I want to make my students understand the lesson, so I would involve a lot of group work in the lesson because students do well when they work in groups. The assignments will include researching depending on the grade level I teach and I want to have parents involved with the lesson because the students should still practice online safety at home. Parents will be able to participate in their Online Safety assignment by getting their opinion of the safety guidelines that the teacher handed out and setting giving their  tips on Online safety.  According to Morris, adults play a major role in helping students become safe, responsible, and productive digital citizens. Parents do not need to be experts in technology or Internet safety (2019). However,  they should be in communication with their child's teacher. Teachers are in the position to listen and deliver advice to the parent to ensure they are on the same page.

  

    I want to encourage my student to take precautionary measure while going online such as never giving out information, be aware of the people you meet online, and do not post or send someone any explicit materials. Digital safety is an important topic and should not be taken lightly because online is dangerous in many ways and without learning about safety students might not know what to do and parents might not be well informed to guide their child. 

    For our group project, my group and I used Wix to create our presentation because Wix was simple to use. I was able to add my group member as a contributor to the site so that we could work on the site together instead of one person doing it on their own. First, I created google docs and shared it with them. Google docs is a helpful tool in group work because we can add information anytime, and the others can see on their end. When we were done with creating our website and putting the finishing touches on it, I created a zoom meeting so we will be able to practice presenting. Among all the web conferencing tools, Zoom was the best because I did not have major problem screen sharing as I did with other tools. One minor problem that I did have when I was screen sharing was my presentation was lagging a bit. I did not mind the lagging because we manage to deliver our presentation. Zoom and Google Hangout would be a good tool to use for this project because it was not complicated to use and the features are similar to one another.

    There is no suggestion I could make regarding this project. If we were doing this project on-site, then the only suggestions I would make is a longer time limit. The reason why allocating more time would be helpful is so we can further explain more information and still have time to do audience interaction. Considering the circumstances that we are under, we had no other choice but to present virtually.  With this being said, an online audience interaction was not necessary and we used the entire 20 minutes strictly for presenting.  However, if we had to do the interaction then there would have been not enough time for web games or discussion question.  Overall, the project went well and this topic is important for students and for a future educator.

    

    

    

                                                      Sources

    Hertz, M. B. (2017, September 28). How to Teach Internet Safety to Younger
               Elementary Students Retrieved from https://www.edutopia.org/blog/

               internet-safety-younger-elementary-mary-beth-hertz

   Morris, K. (2019, January 17). 10 Internet Safety Tips for Parents (How to 
             Help Your Child to be Safe Online). Retrieved from
             http://www.kathleenamorris.com/2019/05/16/internet-safety-parents/

Challenges and Utilizing Online Tools

In the project assigned to us, we had to find an online educational game and create presentation with audience interaction. There were few challenges in doing the project. The first challenge was finding a suitable game to use. There were many games that I found interesting, however they had instructions that were complicated that I felt for students in 2nd-3rd grades. We found a game that we thought would be fun and educational for the grade level we selected. The game we selected is called Shot Clock. This is a math basketball game that had elements that would be appealing for young students; however, the game may not be interesting for students in 5th grade and above because of the repetitiveness of the game.  

Moving forward, the next step in our project is creating a rubric for the game. We chose criteria that the student and instructor could easily grade based on playing the game myself. The game had features that were lacking such as music and redundant questions used on same level. If a student were to play this for an extended period of time, then all they would need is to recall the information because the questions repeats itself. The game may lack in these areas, but it has its strengths such as different basic math concepts to focus on.  For instance, once the student’s masters the concept of addition, they can move on to subtraction or try their knowledge on multiplication. 

Next, creating a rubric was not challenging at all because I am used to creating rubric to assess presentation projects. However, one challenge I faced while doing this project was choosing different technology tools that would benefit my group and myself. We chose Prezi for our presentation because it was simple to understand like PowerPoint, but it had more animated features that we could utilize for our presentation. There were a few reasons why my group and I chose Prezi. The first reason was Prezi gives an overview of the entire presentation. Prezi puts an  emphasis on the beginning, middle, and end. The transitions and zoom feature assist to visually explain how the different ideas and points relate to one another. When zoom out, the audience could see the big picture that would give them an idea of the where the presentation is heading (Sutton, 2014). Collaboration is another reason that we chose Prezi. One of my group members created a Prezi presentation and she was able to share the presentation with us. It made creating the presentation easier to do. We did not need to rely on one person to create the presentation. Since Prezi could be shared, we were able to get it done faster than if one person had to complete presentation by themselves.

Another challenge that we also faced was creating a way we can utilize technology for audience interaction.  It was difficult because we never used tools online to include the audience. We were in between using Kahoot or Quizizz, however another group used Kahoot and we did not want to use the same tool as them. We chose Quizizz because it was similar to Kahoot and I knew we could create an online quiz game that could include the audience. Quizizz would be a good tool utilize because it organizes the data of the players and gives feedback that may help students (Reid, 2016). I wanted to try if it would work as well as another quiz game that I was well familiar with. In my group, I was in charge of creating the game. I learned a great deal when creating the quiz game.  An issue I encountered while I was on Quizizz was when I finished there was no code included.  It took me a while to fix the issue and I learned that my quiz did not provide a code. It was because I was signed in as a student. I created another account, but as an instructor. When I recreated the quiz, the code was included, and I practiced the game with my group.  The quiz game was executed smoothly.

In conclusion, there were some minor issues we managed to fix as a group, but the end result was better than expected. There were tools I have never used before and we as group went out of our comfort zone in creating this presentation. I enjoyed working on this project because as a future Elementary Education teacher, I could use this as a way to get my students interested in a lesson. I believe there should be some entertainment when it comes to learning because I want my students interested in learning even if they learn from an online game.

 References 

Reid, S. (2016). Why Quizizz is better than Kahoot. Retrieved from https://medium.com/@Stephen_Reid/why-quizizz-is-better-than-kahoot-9d585cb1ee3e

Sutton, C. (2014). 5 Reasons to Use Prezi Rather Than PowerPoint. Retrieved from https://www.business2community.com/tech-gadgets/5-reasons-use-prezi-rather-powerpoint-01050463