April first

Our assignment for the week was to create a nine cell board to communicate a student's wants and needs in the cafeteria. I am beginning to feel very comfortable with Board Maker, and like how it feels fast now to whip off boards. Idid forget to use manners in my board, and also forgot to do this with our project with Christine. I tried to have the buttons read exactly what was written on the button, and there isn't much room. I realize now that it is ok to have more spoken, including manners then what is actually on the button. The button is a visual cue for the person to press the button to be read.

March 25

In this class we acted out a discussion about the economy bailout with one person being non-verbal and how to involve them in a discussion. I found this a major challenge. Although Paula was the 'translator' I had a very hard time not focussing the whole conversation on her. Every time I looked at her, I thought "don't look at her, look at the non-verbal person for communicaton" this was a very hard task.
20 ways to communicate
Verbal
Text
Pictures
Gestures
Facial expression
Sign language
Pecs
Hand written
Computer text
Cell text
Music
Art
Eye contact
Props
Interpataion
Braille
AAC

We watched the video In My Language. I was touched by how poetic she was with describing her feelings, and reasons for her behaviour. I felt this allowed me to see the genius within

Last week's class

I am a bad blogger:( Can I do this on facebook?I take notes every class, and plan on posting them as catch up proof LOL
I enjoyed making the boardmaker project with Christine for a 10 year old student. I did find it very overwhelming to decide where to stop, and how much information to include while maintaining an activity for a ten year old. We seemed to have a lot of choices, however, we felt it was necessary and probably could have kept on going. It was interesting the last few minutes of class to google devices to help hearing impaired students.

I first watched the Itsy Bitsy Spider presentation and was blown away. I had no idea that power point had the ability to animate!! I enjoyed watching Barb do the step by step showing the screen as if we were doing it ourself. I found it helpful to see it, and also hear Barb's voice giving step by step instructions. LOL having said that, watching the second power point I had to re-read it twice to make sure that I got it all, I had no idea I was such an auditory learner, I would have sworn I was a visual learner. Last week I liked watching everyone's presentations with chooseit. Our group did one on blends, and th was one of our blends. I went online and through my books and found tha th is both a blend and a dipgrh, so we were both right. I have begun to think about my final project and will try to do a project using the same software to see what my daughter Charlize knows and if she can point and make choices, wish me luck!

I was late this class, and missed a presentation. Very sorry:(

Choose it maker and Switch it maker
Cause and effect software is hit the switch or mouse and have something happen on the screen. One of the activities is to learn how to ‘read’ rebus. I found this great and also learned that a photograph can be made into a rebus symbol through photo shops.
Always have text to go with options for person using program to see text. This was something that I wouldn't have thought about, but seems to make so much sense. Ideally we want our students to read, how would they do that without text exposure?
After typing out the instructions for Choose it Maker, I realized that the instructions are written on the side, thanks Christine! I am loving Choose it maker, and wondering if my 11 month daughter would be able to do an activity with it for my case study. She always wants to play with the computer, so it may be a possibilty. What does anyone think? I suppose the case study is about the attempt and effort, if it doesn't work, will I still be graded as a pass?
I am excited to finish up the inclass assignment tonight with Christine and Laura. They are great and I think they will be useful in my P/1 class.

Last Week's class

well i must say that after last week's class I feel much better about Boardmaker. When I was home trying to figure out how to create my book I was very frustrated. After about 5 hours, and a call to my PST I thought I figured it out. Then... I saw some of the books that my classmates created. wow you guys did a great job!! I enjoyed the rest of the class when we experimented with assistive technology. It was great to know how to do the online keyboard, and the sticky keys. I felt a lot of frustation, and it put things is perspective for me. I find it hard to type hitting the space bar when I see a key I want, and others find it frustrating not being able to type quickly. It really is true you need to feel teh experience to really get it.

Matching Assisitive Tech

I can remember in elementary school when my best friend got glasses she was embarrassed to wear them, thinking that she would stand out, despite knowing they would help her see and succeed in school. In high school she wanted contacts, her parents said no, leading her to not wear her glasses in school. She skimmed through school by the skin of her teeth, never being able to see a board or text is part of this problem. No one ever considered her wishes leading to her not using the technology. I know that this seems unrelated, but reading the first page of the chapter that 8-75% of technology is abandoned made me go mmm.

The article made me think/realize everyone needs to be on board for what is truly the best option for our students and children. At school if we are going to invest resources in helping students we need to know that adults at home are supportive and want to be involved in the process, as well and foremost the child must be wanting the assistive technology. Although it feels some days like all of our waking hours are at school, in reality it is not. I am left thinking now how unfair it is to a student to have technology at school for assistance, then go home and use another system. We do not turn off and on easily, why do we expect a child to? Matching children up to assistive technology needs to be a detailed procedure to ensure that the child and all who live and work with the child are comfortable with the assistance. The twelve questions listed in the article are very important to consider. I enjoy that question one is What do you want to do? After all it is about the person using it.