Posts Tagged ‘Technology’

Learning about Autism

Thursday, August 18th, 2011

Many people have had their awareness of autism raised by the media, a family member, or a member in their community. As more and more people become familiar with autism, it is important that we all be educated. On this blog post we are going to take a look at some new advances in the education of autistic students, and then we will provide some websites for further information about the disorder.

People on the spectrum of autism disorders have trouble with social interaction and communication, which can be a liability when it comes to education. Of course, there are special education classes for such students, and there is a variety of help a family can get outside of school, but now, thanks to the wonders of the iPhone and other smart phones, there are special education apps as well.

Check out this  article in the Scranton Times-Tribune. In it, the writer talks about various apps for Apple-related smart devices that can be helpful when dealing with autistic youth.

One of them shows sign language signs so that the family can learn to better communicate with a non-verbal child who uses sign language. Another shows pictures of commonly desired objects or activities. It allows the user to pair one of those objects with the image of a person. Then the image can be made to say the words “I want.” This app would be used as a way of helping an autistic child learn to ask for what he or she needs.

There are, no doubt, many other apps out there. So, if you are looking for a little extra help with special education, the App Store of your smart phone may be a good place to go.

In other news on the technology front, the University of North Carolina at Wilmington recently purchased six robots for its Watson School of Education to study whether autistic students might better learn from and interact with them.

According to this article from StarNewsOnline.com, there is evidence that autistic children are able to develop good bonds with computers, something that it is difficult for them to do with other people. The hope is that using these robots, educators will be able to teach sign language, words, social interaction and more to autistic children.

If you want to learn more about autism, we also have five sites that may be helpful.  They were taken from this article from healthnews.com.

They are:

The National Autism Association

Autism Speaks

U.S. Autism and Asperger Association

Autism Society of America

Center for Autism and Related Disorders

Autism is a disorder that is becoming better recognized, and it is rare for anybody nowadays to not know somebody who has it or is affected by it in some way. Technology is offering new ways of dealing with autism, but it is also incumbent upon all of us to have a better understanding of what autism is and how to deal with it. You never know when it might be your turn to lend a helping hand.

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Technology in the Classroom

Thursday, August 4th, 2011

A lot has changed in the classroom over the many years the United States has offered public education. Perhaps no change is as obvious as that occurring in technology. Typing on a computer has replaced the emphasis on writing by hand. The Internet has added a new layer of connectivity to classroom lessons. And the traditional chalkboard has morphed a bit as well. Today, interactive whiteboards (IWB) are all the range. But how beneficial are they really?

This is a topic covered in this Education Week article

In the article, mostly anecdotal evidence and explanation is given one way or another. It does explain that some studies have linked technology and better grades, but it also makes the statement that any progress depends on the teacher.

One of those teachers talked about in the article is Sandra Simoneaux, a 3rd and 4th grade teacher at Parker Elementary School in Oakland, Calif. She said an interactive whiteboard can give her “immediate insight” into how well students are learning. If she asks a question, the whiteboard can actually track how long it takes for students to answer. If it’s taking a while for the students to understand the problem, then she instantly knows that she needs to spend some more time on that lesson.

She also likes how using an interactive whiteboard can help her to teach the lesson at her own pace. With students relying on her use of the whiteboard, rather than questions on a sheet or in a textbook, they can’t jump ahead. Instead, they must move the same speed at which the instructor teaches. This helps keep everybody on task and in the moment.

The article also talks about the Urban High School of San Francisco. They use interactive white boards there, and school officials talk about how helpful they are with visual learning. The teachers can set up lesson plans and visual tools ahead of time, saving them from having to spend class time setting up something like a graph or chart on the board. Also, the whiteboards have the ability to save work written on them by the teacher. That way, students can download the teacher’s visual class lesson later. This allows them to skip taking notes during the actual lecture and focus instead on taking the information in.

Professional development and repeated use are both emphasized in the article. Just adding an interactive whiteboard itself won’t make for a significant change. That fact is highlighted in this quote from the Education Week article:

“Some people think [the IWB] is a magic bullet that will solve everything,” said Patrick Ledesma, a school-based technology specialist and special education department chair at the 746-student Holmes Middle School, which is part of the Fairfax County public schools in Virginia. He is also a current teacher-ambassador fellow for the U.S. Department of Education. But once interactive whiteboards have been installed, “teachers will do what they’ve always done, unless there is training or support to do things differently,” he said.

It appears that technology can really make an impact in the classroom, but not without the guiding hands of a well-trained professional.

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Time for New Classrooms?

Wednesday, October 27th, 2010

A recent article on slate.com pointed out an interesting fact. Ever since we have had schools and classrooms, our classrooms have basically been the same. Whether it was a one-room schoolhouse, or the sprawling high schools campuses of today, classrooms all generally follow the idea of placing students in rows of desks facing a teacher at the front of the room. Some small variants on this model are seen here and there, but no really radical changes have occurred.

This is odd. Especially in the last 20 years, revolutions in technology have given teachers far more materials at their disposal. Computers, the Internet and multimedia technology change everything. And yet classrooms have not had a revolution in design that reflects our new technology.

The slate article, which can be found here, mentions that there have been attempts to redesign classrooms in the past. In the 70s, “open classrooms” were the rage, though they made little sense. Walls were removed between classrooms so that there weren’t individual classes but instead one large class. If you read the slate article you will see that educators had little idea of what to do with this new design.

The article also points out that some schools which utilize experiential learning already have different classroom forms. Montessori schools have classrooms without desks. Little tables and rugs replace their function. Other schools have one large circular table in place of individual desks, and students can gather round for seminars.

Schools themselves have changed. They are made with an eye toward being more environmentally friendly. And skylights and windows are more the norm because educators value letting the sun in.

But despite some changes and some experimentation here and there, the basic form of the classroom is unchanged. A shift in thinking in the nation’s schools has not occurred. A student from the 19th century would be able to walk into most modern classrooms and recognize them for what they are, the slate article supposes.

The purpose of the article at slate.com is more than just speculation. It is actually trying to get people involved in coming up with designs for new classrooms, specifically fifth-grade classrooms. Go to the link for the article and you can submit your ideas for how classrooms should function and be shaped today.

Poor education is the big fear of parents and educators everywhere. If we are to ensure that as we deal with larger populations and more diverse student bodies we remain able to educate everybody well, then we must be thinking about ways to change the education environment. It’s time for a 21st Century school that serves our 21st Century students.

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