iPod Touch: Mobile Solutions for Special Needs Students (Eric Sailers' Slideshare Presentation)

iPod touch: Mobile Solutions for Special Needs Students

View more presentations from Eric Sailers.

Eric Sailers is a speech and language pathologist and assistive technology consultant who is on the cutting edge of innovative technologies and how they can be harnessed to support young people with special needs.  His blog, Speech-Language Pathology Sharing, is a great resource, and has information that would be useful to regular education teachers who are working in inclusive co-teaching environments.

Barriers to Technology Integration - Hello! It's NOT always the teacher: One "classroom for the future" teacher's recent story about barriers to technology integration in her high school history class

If you work in education, you probably heard the term, "21st Century Schools". All teachers must become skillful integrators of technology and pedagogy, and this will be the solution to cure all of public education's ills, right?!

Many teachers DO embrace technology, but find that despite the technological revolution, there are many barriers to moving forward.

The link below is to a 2009 thesis written by Barbara J. Wismer, a teacher who devoted much of her her life, 24/7, as a Classroom for the Future teacher while working on her Master of Education degree. Her classroom was provided with a set of laptops, an interactive whiteboard, an LCD projector, a video camera, a digital camera, and an assortment of applications.  In her thesis, Ms. Wismer describes numerous barriers that she faced nearly every day during her study.  These are barriers that hold true throughout many schools in the U.S.  Ms. Wismer provides a personal description of her experiences, a breath of fresh air when compared with most academic papers that have crossed my path:

Wired Students, Motivated Learners:  The Effects of Classrooms for the Future Technology on Student Motivation and Achievement

Here are a few examples from the "Problems and Shortcomings" section of the thesis (p. 89-96):

"The “right click” function is disabled (it is also disabled for teachers, too). This made the copying and pasting of pictures and information more difficult."


"Flash drives (USB saving devices) are the biggest gripe among teachers in my district. We are not allowed to insert a flash drive into a school computer; it can result in immediate dismissal. The technology department places such a restriction (the staff has all the same restrictions as students) on us out of fear that someone will bring in a virus or operating system that could compromise our school district’s system. It is frustrating to be treated like we are children. There is constant uproar in the district to treat the teachers like adults and respect the decisions we make – like not abusing the right to use a flash drive. Many of the saving issues that I brought up previously could be avoided with the permission to use a flash drive."


"Internet connection and network connection issues plagued us the entire semester. There were some days when half of the class would lose their connection and any unsaved work would be lost."


"By why is Google Images blocked? Why are all blogs (even educational ones) blocked? Why can I not download a video from United Streaming or a flipchart from Promethean Planet? We were told that if we wanted any of those things downloaded, we were to provide a list to the technology department. I did that and was told that I could download them myself at home and then save them to a CD-ROM and bring them in to use."


"The only complaint that I would have is that about half of the teachers that have the equipment actually use it. The other half just lets the equipment sit in a closet. I have found that those teachers only signed up to be part of the Classrooms for the Future program to have a laptop cart permanently in their room."


I had no idea that teachers could be restricted from access to the right-click functions of their mice at work, and could be fired for inserting a flash drive into a school's computer!   Both restrictions had a negative impact on Ms. Wisner's ability to do her job with efficiency.


There is a long road ahead.


RELATED


21st Century Tech for 21st Century Schools
(Mark Prensky, Edutopia)
Classroom for The Future
Partnership for 21st Century Skills
National Educational Technology Plan 2010

From Inclusive Technologies: Multi-touch "Tilt and Touch" provides flexible use for learners!

I recently learned that Inclusive Technologies, of the UK, has a North American office  in Waxhaw, N.C., a town in Union County, not too far from where I live and work. This is what I found when I was looking up some information:





The Tilt and Touch provides a high-definition surface that can accommodate multi-touch applications. It comes in two sizes, 42" and 50".  At the time of this post, it was only available in the UK.

Data-Information-Knowledge-Wisdom: IBM's video about the Internet of Things & the Smarter Planet

This video produced by IBM is an overview of the Internet of Things, and depicts how a vast  amount of data is generated every day through sensors and monitors that are embedded in everything around us. The concept of "systems of systems" is depicted in a cute graphical manner. 


In the video, a pyramid similar to the one below is discussed, outlining the data-to-wisdom process:


Knowledge discovery to wisdom, based on Giarratano and Riley, 1998, found on Ranjeet Walunj's blog.

Questions: What are mere mortals to make of all of this data flowing around? How should educators respond to the reality of the Internet of Things and the wealth of data that will soon be available?

FYI: Previous posts related to the Internet of Things

The Internet of Things Europe 2009 Conference: Internet Rabbits, Mirrors, Stamps, and More!
The IBM Web, or Internet of Things
The UX of SmartGridCity: Control Your SmartHouse Remotely, Online
"Web Meets World": User Experience of Embedded Systems and Wireless Sensor Networks
Will NoSQL Rescue the World of Data in the Cloud? (Info and Links for the Tech Curious)
Interactive Mobile Multimedia
Tangible User Interfaces, Part I: Siftables

More Multi-touch: Microsoft's Courier Touch & Stylus Input "Digital Journal"; Pre-order the iPad ---Possibilities for education!

Lately I've been thinking deeply about ways new multi-touch technologies, running on screens and surfaces of all sizes, can support learning and collaboration, in and outside of the classroom.  Microsoft's Courier and Apple's iPad are two tools I'd love to test out in the digital mix in the schools. Here's the latest information about the Courier, via Engadget:

The applications running on this demo look useful!

Apparently the Microsoft Courier, a dual screen 7-inch notebook, accepts multi-touch and stylus input:


-via Deeper2K's YouTube channel

According to Engadget, the Courier is "built on Tegra 2 and runs on the same OS as the Zune HD, Pink, and Windows Mobile 7 Series...We're also hearing that there will be a built-in camera, and there's a headphone jack for media playback. Most interestingly, it looks like the Courier will also serve as Microsoft's e-book device...."

More information can be found on the Engadget website:
Microsoft's Courier "digital journal": Exclusive pictures and details (update: video!)
Also read Ina Fried's article on CNET news:
More details leak on Microsoft's 'Courier'

-Engadget: Courier User Interface Gallery


By the way, you can pre-order your shiny new iPad from the Apple Store right now!


-Apple Store

For the Techies and the Tech-Curious:

The iPhone SDK 3.2 beta includes what you'll need for developing applications for the iPad. You can go to the iPad webpage and dowload the SDK, which includes an iPad Simulator, programming guide, sample code, human interface guide, and more.   But first, you must be a member of the iPhone Developer Program.  The fee is $99.00 a year.

I will share my thoughts about these devices and their use for learning/education in future posts.

Here it is. The Apple iPad Official Ad on YouTube.

If you haven't yet seen it, here it is:



Lots of potential for education, from what I can tell from the video. I wonder if Apple has tested it out with kids....