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!!

Day 6 July 11

Today our group redesigned our blog to make it more aesthetically pleasing and more user friendly. We are always trying to keep in mind that the information needs to be grouped in a way that makes sense and is accessible to our target audience. We also want to insure that it serves the many purposes for which it is intended. For example, we want it to serve as a resource that can facilitate discussion in the areas of Project Based Learning, disabilities, and assistive technology. We want the blog to show the relationship between these various areas. I feel that the remaining task analysis and Assistive Technology application piece will pull the whole thing together. Some of the videos and websites that we found today were exciting. They illuminated what is going on in the world of plastic but they also demonstrated the amazing power of the internet for research and project based learning. Another part of our day was a discussion of the possibility of using our blog as our project based Learning product. This led us to a task analysis of the complexities of the blog design process and the skills that would be required of a student who was to design one. We still have thinking and exploration to do in this area.

Day 5 July 8

Today was not as much fun as usual because our group wasn't together doing our usual creative project development. It was a productive day, however, because I viewed two of the Assistive Tech Webinars. The first one was Apps in Action and the second was Apps in Action for communication disorders. This information will be critical for our project as we analyze tasks and choose assistive technology for the students in our class profile. I also thought of the many ways that I will be able to use the apps with the students I work with as an IRT. I particularly like the Pictello and Director apps in the second session. I have used video extensively in the past for many purposes. The process of creating and planning stories or tasks is quite exciting and teaches a wide variety of communication skills. These new apps have make the process much easier. I can see how students will be able to run with this on there own. We just have to get many more ipod touches in the hands of the students and teachers.

Day 4 July 7

Today was very productive. Our group began to visualize what our presentation would look like as we gave it to the B.Ed. class. This was useful because it helped us create an appropriate sequence and also enabled us to review the elements that needed to be included. We used Inspiration to design our presentation outline and were able to represent the same information in the form of a flow chart. We then choose subject areas and explored the grade 7 outcomes from the NL department of Education. Our goal was to find outcomes that would relate to one area of the project. The area we choose in the plastic theme was the section of the web, which explored the implications of replacing plastic as a material used in our society. When we had a sampling of subject area outcomes made we posted them to our group blog.

We also posted our “plastic” web to the group blog and explained the purpose of it in terms of our project planning and its function in the development of Project Based learning in any context. We decided to include the B.Ed. group in a sample brainstorming activity as a means of illustrating the variations that would likely occur in any given student group. We felt that this would further strengthen the flexibility that is built into Project Based Learning. At this point our timing seems to be good and we should be able to allow time to have a practice run before the actual presentation. The challenge is to limit our elaboration or development to one area of the project while developing enough to give a sense of how useful PBL is in promoting creative problem solving, collaboration, facilitating creative presentation and the application of assistive technology. I feel that all learning styles and needs can be more easily met in this way than in more traditional learning models.

Day 3 July 6

Today was intense as usual with the group quickly jumping into the task of tweaking yesterday’s work and moving on to setting up our group blog. We exported our inspiration diagrams as jpeg files which could be included in our blog. We then researched project based learning and created a working definition from information that we synthesized from a variety of web sources. We ended the class with a group discussion about the PBL and the excitement that the process creates. We were all discussing some of the reasons why it is not more widely used in our school systems.It is such a natural motivational way to learn that our other learning structures need to change to accommodate it. I hope that we are able to convey our excitement about the process to the B. Ed. class on the 20th of July. I really believe that life as teachers and students would be so much better if meaningful projects were used to unify curriculum outcome tracking and focus student interest in collaboration and learning.

It has become clear to me that PBL in this Assistive Technology course context is a perfect fit. As we design our project around plastic we will have the opportunity to analyze student tasks and consider how students with a variety of disabilities can be accommodated using the latest assistive tech available. Tools like “Inspiration” help us to visualize our task and the many layers and kinds of learning that this project is generating for us to, enjoy and share. How cool is that?!!!?

Day 2

Where is my class?? One administrative glitch and puff my class disappeared. We were looking forward to viewing the collaborative efforts in project based learning. Yesterday you could feel the synergy and the excitement. Fortunately, three members returned and revived the project based experiment. With a new group formed we spent the afternoon designing our project and imagining how we will present our work to the B. Ed. class when the time comes. It was nice that we had the choice to revert to a more traditional learning mode but I am sooo! pleased that our group choose the project approach. Time flew as our group roughed out our plan and divided up some of the work. We did much more than we all expected toward fleshing out our project details and directions. (Great work Margaret and Christine!)

I know that we are well on the way toward developing a project that will serve as a model for ourselves and our students in the future. Not only that but we have the opportunity to share it with a class of students who are beginning their teacher training. I feel that this strengthens our focus and adds even stronger purpose to the project. It is also neat that we get to demonstrate good project planning, learning task analysis, and assistive technology implementation all in one project. I feel that it will be very gratifying to see everything develop. Having the chance to share the work and work in such a focused group, makes me feel that I am part of a great learning community. Rocky start but away we go...Thanks Barbara on being flexible.

Day 1

The first class was FULL. The idea of designing the learning experience as project based learning seems like a great idea. My first impression is that it will allow for more flexibility in accommodating students with unique learning requirements. I have used project based learning in the past and have found it to be an excellent way to accommodate a variety of interests, needs and learning styles. I have also found that it creates a structure that students and teachers can use to attach a wide variety of learning elements. Outcomes, assessment, for teachers and research and self evaluation for students.The project makes assessment and learning feel natural, meaningful and purpose driven. I am looking forward to exploring this learning method as it pertains to the application of Assistive Technology.