#8: In Full Bloom

Touring the Florida State Lab of Assistive Technology was really an eye-opening experience. Upon watching and engaging with the different technologies, my personal favorite was the Smart Pen. The utility of being able to record voice, sync it with writing, be able to electronically store all of that information... It is an EXCELLENT resource for students and an effective way to positively influence student success. I can see where having that type of utility would be awesome for students without learning needs, but having them available for students who do need them is a wonderful resource to Florida State and I'm glad we're able to support students in that manner.


On a different topic, we've been exploring PowerPoint functions, and it's easy to see how the Microsoft application can be a vehicle for Bloom's Taxonomy.

PowerPoint facilitates the intersection of all of the aspects of Bloom's Taxonomy. Absorbing the information starts at the "Remembering" stage, but then is understood, applied, analyzed, and evaluated within the process of creating information. For a student to be able to create a PowerPoint on information, they would have to first fulfill all of the other aspects of the taxonomy, then produce the final work. 

After reading an article called 10 Ways to Stay on top of Emerging Technologies by TechRepublic, the most effective I felt was find a technophile. With resources like YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook, it's getting easier and easier to find people who are passionate about technology. Linking up with these people and watching their patterns would give one the insight to be able to stay up-to-date and aware of what's going on in the technology world. As in ways to integrate it into the classroom, I would bet there are professional teachers who also double as technophiles, or, this would be an opportunity for teachers to collaborate and get out their own creative hats! 

Education Integration: ILP#2

For this project, I chose to complete a Lynda on something that wasn't just something that I wanted to learn more about, but also something that has heavily influenced my productivity at school -- the Google Suite. I've been familiar with the Suite for several years now, but despite my vague familiarity, I hadn't really seen what all it has to offer until this year, being in the Educational Technology course, and then even with the learn -as-you-go environment, I was hoping this Lynda course would acquaint me with some aspects of the Suite that I hadn't learned yet. and, update: it did. I didn't realize the countless options for organizing and searching files. These options include photos being organized by the people in them, and being able to "star" items across multiple types of files. Google Docs is an ideal platform for collaboration and great for classroom use. However, I did feel that the collaborative aspect was not hit on as much as it should have been in the video. HERE is a link to the Lynda tutorial.

I chose to do the Prezi again because in my last one, I noticed there were some concepts I would like to improve on. Particularly, the clarity and comprehensiveness of the presentation. Using it again gave me the opportunity to improve. I felt like it was an effective form to display the information given because it could read like an instruction manual, but considerably less boring. HERE is the link to the Prezi.

DIIGO: We all need a little help sometimes.

In this week's Diigo activity, I learned about the assistive technology and various ways that technology can assist ESE, ELL, and ESOL students. In fact, much of the technology that we are acquainted with and use readily now started with being a form of assistive technology. Assistive technology can range from a PowerPoint presentation to touchscreen technology; many forms are useful to the learner.