Class 3- Saturday, Feb. 9, 2013.- online class & webinars

It is a snow day here in NS today- we are being engulfed by a winter storm.

Normally this is the kind of storm teachers would pray for... on a Sunday thru to Thursday evening that is. This one coming in on a Saturday does nothing but put a halt to weekend plans. Today's plans involved going to the HRSB building to attend class for 6 hours and then an evening of dancing to celebrate a friend's birthday.

Our instructor Barb Welsford, click on her name to check out her amazing work with technology, didn't let a Blizzard warning stop us. The building was shut down and even some mall and stores closed here in HRM- for example the libraries, Pete's Fruitique, and some NSLC's did not even open, but thanks to the advancement of technology we were able to still have class (yippee)!  Through an online classroom forum called Blackboard Collaborate, the four of us who were in Florida attending the FETC were able to share our power point presentations, videos and blogs. We could talk through our presentations, read comments/questions in the chat room, respond and watch interactively. Barb was even able to send everyone a file of the Power Point presentations.

I think this is a great way to hold class on any given day- not just a snow day. It makes class accessible for everyone; people with  mobility issues (including someone who didn't have transportation to the course), those who couldn't find a babysitter for their kids, anyone who is feeling under the weather (like me), all you need is a computer with an internet connection and the latest version of Java installed. I prefer this version of classroom learning and sharing because I was able to stay in my PJ's, with a cup of tea for my throat, wrapped in a blanket for warmth and was able to share and receive the same information I would by going to class- the only difference being my coughing fits did not disrupt others and no one noticed I didn't have a shower yet!

I was hired as a personal tutor for a child a few years ago who was out of school for a few months due to illness. The school board paid me a decent amount of money/hour to work with this student for a minimum of five hours per week. If they had of employed the use of technology to assist the teacher and student- such as using SKYPE even to sit in on and listen to a few of the L.A and Math lessons, then the board would have been able to limit the amount of time they needed me to privately tutor her.

After the online interactive class, we were instructed to watch and Blog about three of the four listed webinars. If I was allowed I would post the webinar links here for you to watch because they contain a plethora of useful apps and information, but these webinars have a nominal fee that is donated to the Assistive Technology Centre Society (a non profit organization that helps children with disabilities) and I would not want to take away from any monies they could receive. I would suggest checking out her site and the webinars for yourself. Here are the top three apps for each of the webinars  I watched:

Apps from Special Education webinar:

Dragon Dictation is a great free app for students who have good oral communicating skills, but who have difficulty putting pencil to paper to get out their thoughts and ideas. With a simple click of a button they can record all their stories, thoughts, questions, etc. When I tested it out, because I have a cold I did notice a few words were close to what I said, but not exact. For example I spoke, "Welcome to the learning and leisure blog by Tarah Henderson" and it wrote, "Welcome to the learning invasion blog by Claire Henderson". Students would have to learn to speak slowly and the teacher may have decipher a few words in context. I can also see using the app in the classroom myself as I am teaching or working with/assessing in small groups or one to one. I can talk into my device and have Dragon Dictation write notes of what I am saying. This will be great for helping me write observations and communications I have had with students at report card time.



Math Tappers are great free apps that interactively cover various subjects and levels in mathematics (for lower to upper elementary). Math Tappers covers number lines, sums, fractions, equivalents, multiplication and even time. A great feature is that it self monitors and corrects as they go. It allows students to work independently with the app. Students can set up an account under their name so I can see their scores and times; they can even email me a report of their progress. I could use this app for assessing, for extending work after completing a task, during free playtime, and during centers.

 



ABC Phonics Word Family is a free app that helps students recognize sounds such as short vowels, silent 'e' and long vowles, two vowels and three letter word families. It speaks the sounds clearly so students can self check, it also does not enable an inncorrect answer and has praise for the correct answer. Students have a recap at the end of each sound activity to match the word with the picture for added practise. This app would be good for students who are developing their phonics skills, beginning/ending sounds, to engage reluctant learners, as well as ESL students.

Apps from Fine Motor Skills webinar:

 

Dexteria App $3.99- I like the fact that it was
designed by Occupational Therapists (OT), it provides many different types of exercises for the whole hand that develops fine motor skills and writing readiness. The games develop tapping, pinching and writing skills. I really like the letter formation aspect that is like the popular Handwriting Without Tears program that I used in my classroom last year. I could see using this app in the classroom to support struggling writers as well as practise for beginning writers. A stylus can be used with this app to help develop proper pencil grip. It is very engaging and offers rewards for task completion.




Injini app $29.99 (FREE lite version available)- I LOVE that it is designed by teachers, too often teacher's experience and recommendations are not taken into consideration. It can be used to assess children in the early intervention program, provides engagement and sustains attention to task. It involves the use of the whole hand, not just one finger tapping the screen.You can use a stylus. Some of its great features are the countdown to prepare for the activity (3,2,1), a simple screen format, reinforce after completion, and it is self correcting.



Touch and Write app used to be a free, but now the charge is $2.99- it is a rewarding, self correcting, fun child centre app where players can choose what medium they want to "write" with (examples are frosting, whipped cream, shaving cream, etc.). Choosing what to write with can add an additional appeal to reluctant writers and is just plan fun. Who hasn't wanted to smear food over the table and write it at some point in time in their life?!

 Apps from Communication Disorders webinar:

While looking to download ABC Phonic Word Families I came across a family of apps called ABC Magic apps- these are free apps that also assist early elementray students, as well as ESL stduents, in language development. I had this as an extra I was going to talk about, but  then they were mentioned in this webinar so I moved it under this heading. I downloaded 10 of these apps in activities such as spelling, reading, matching, sentence structure and phonics at a variety of levels.

 Speech with Milo sequencing costs $2.99- it is not often that I would choose to highlight an app that costs money over free ones (and lots of free ones were mentioned in the webinar), but I am particuluary fond of this app because it helps develop story telling skills, sequencing, and 36 basic skills or routines broken into three steps. I like that they get to play a game after they have completed a sequence; this offers encouragment and reward. Sequencing is a skill that many students struggle with, but it is needed to help with organization in life skills as well writing.

 Communication skills was a free app when the webinar was created, but today it costs $0.99. I figured this out rather quickly because I had it downloaded and already told people about this great app within 5 min. of learning about it on the webinar. What caught my attention was the clip Barb highlighted on "Listening". There are 9 steps to listen attentively. I personally think there would be less divorces, fights, misunderstandings and a lot of counsellors would be out of business if people downloaded this app and followed it! Better yet, if they shared the videos with others and taught their kids how to communicate. This one video itself (there are many more included) is worth more than the $0.99. As someone who has been to couples counselling, I am not afraid to admit we spent many sessions learning how to listen to each other properly. If we had of had this skill going into the relationship, I am confident we would not have needed counselling. I will be playing this video, along with others, for my class on a regular basis. This is a valuable life skill that needs to be explicitly taught and modeled. Thank you apps!