Day 13 July 20

Today we did our presentation to The B.Ed. class. It was a great culmination to a very intense learning experience. We learned about the value of project based learning and how assistive technology can be integrated. Thank you to Margaret and Christine who were a pleasure to work with. Thank you to Barbara Welsford our facilitator for your direction and giving us the opportunity to participate in this creative learning experience. In case you are reading this blog and wondering about "The Project" follow the link below.

http://pblplastic5163pm.blogspot.com/

Summer Institute Day 12 July 19

Day 11 July 18

Today our group added some finishing touches to our blogs. We also made a few additions to our presentation outline, for Wednesday's presentation to the B. Ed. class. We were able to find a room in the Seminary building which allowed us to go through the presentation, observe the flow of it and assign tasks. It is very rewarding to see the work that we have done and to have the opportunity to share it with people who might find it useful. I have said in this blog that our project is multifaceted. That is an understatement. The many tasks, perspectives, and sheer volume of information has made organization for presentation a huge undertaking. When the presentation is finished the whole thing will feel like a great and satisfying accomplishment.

Day 10 July 15

Today our group finished our Assistive Technology blog which details the Assistive technology that we would possibly use to help the students in our class profile, access writing tasks. We did more research on apps and downloaded several to test them for suitability. We also did more research on disabilities and technology and searches for video and pictures to round out the content of our blogs, making them more informative. Our next step on Monday, is to complete our presentation outline in "Inspiration" in order to identify possible glitches and to fine tune the process. It seems that we are nearing the end of a multi-faceted "sick!" learning experience. When the presentation goes well, we will have a product and an experience to be proud of.

Day 9 July 14

I can see the end of our project coming into view. Today we focused on describing the students with special needs that are part of our class profile. We also continued with the process of describing what their participation in the project would look like and the types of assistive technology that would be useful in facilitating that participation. This task analysis is complicated enough when designing a learning experience with limitless resources. It would be quite different in a real class setting where it often takes time to get access to the software and hardware needed. Nevertheless, this process is very important and should take place as early as possible. Ideally, the student should have the technology at the beginning of the year or as soon as the need is recognized. It is a reality that budgets and other priorities often intervene. Hopefully, building blogs and sharing them, as we are doing, will help with awareness and contribute something to the ways and means of moving toward more efficient application of Assistive Technology.

Day 8 July 13

Today I felt like we were a group of mad scientists Working on an experiment that grew several new and unexpected appendages. Keeping track or staying on track seemed overwhelming. Having said that I am pleased with the decision to create a new blogs to contain our class profile and some videos that show children with the disabilities that we are discussing. This put real faces to the issue and sometimes gave insights as to learning issues and solutions. We also have a third blog which will contain information on the assistive technology that our students will use. This will help them participate in the writing tasks that will be required in the blog design around the plastic theme. This is the key part of our project because whether we use project based learning or traditional models, the bottom line is what we can do to help students learn. How can we help them get past the impediments that stand in the way of their success. I feel that our blogs will be an excellent resource toward that end. So it is worth finishing every day feeling wiped out. I think our group will be proud of the outcome....especially if we meet our presentation deadline with time to practice.

Day 7 July 12

Today I participated in a virtual classroom experience through elluminate Live. It took a few minutes to adjust to using the interface but it went smoothly. What a great way to learn and work on projects as a group. Today was also another productive day working on our PBL project. We linked the various students in our target class with sites that describe their disability in detail. We also finished our task analysis related to creating a blog. To restrict this project to 2 weeks instead of 2 months we are only dealing with the reading task. That alone presented as something that we could devote a lifetime to. We are, however, going to demonstrate the reading process in a simplified manner using information from Sousa which we have represented using an inspiration document. This project with its many elements can be compared to a website. Every time you click on a topic it expands into a series of topics which can in turn be expanded into a vast array of possibilities. The challenge continues to be to choose good information that meets all of our purposes and display it on our blog in a way that makes sense. I would love to see an inspiration web of the skills and process that we are using to create this project. Maybe that could be another project. Not for this course though!!