What a great class! I had such a great time learning about how people are integrating assistive technology into their teaching contexts. I was surprised at the variety of teaching jobs and the challenges AT was used to address. IT really opened my eyes to how many different ways AT can be used -- I should really think of it each time I do adaptations (How could technology compensate or remediate for this student?). It was so apparent that AT can give students much greater independence! Here's a quick summary of my takeaways from each presentation:
Amanda: Amanda's student JH could produce simple sentences with support, but was slow to write and had difficulty reading words phonetically and maintaining attention. As a result, he used Read&Write for most writing tasks. He experienced success with Speech-to-Text and loves Read&Write! We discussed idea generation and I thought of a tool I often use in Google slides and docs with students is in the regular toolbar. Click Insert, Image, then Search the Web. Students can look up an interest in this built-in search engine to find images related. I find this can help with generating story ideas on a topic of interest.
Jenn: Jenn's grade 3 student was articulate with strong language skills. He has organizational, attentional and movement challenges and a fear of failing. He has good ideas for his writing (lots of strengths)! Speech-to-text through Read&Write helped him express himself in writing. He started using more expressive language and lovely vocabulary such as 'lurking' and 'cruel'. Using the Play, Pause, Stop functions helped him to edit his writing, especially the need for punctuation, because that was previously challenging. I had never thought of using Play, Pause, Stop to read for punctuation and immediately thought of a student who struggles with knowing where to punctuate and would love to try this out with him.
Melissa: This grade 1 student loved books and loves participating. Challenges were behaviour, fine motor skills, and difficulty writing. Melissa wanted to help her build confidence and learn letters and sounds and used Hearbuilder, ABCMagic1, Montessori Crosswords, Simplex spelling and Clicker 6. She progressed to Level F in reading and the sounds and spelling are progressing in her writing as well. I also thought with this student that other fine motor activities in class and at home could help remediate some of her difficulties; simple activities like stringing beads, cutting out shapes or tracing squiggly lines could help.
Nicole: Student E has a great personality and is kind and hardworking. He has DCD, ASD, ADHD, anxiety and selective mutism. Communicating his ideas is difficult as speaking orally is challenging and writing is as well. Nicole tried the Tellagami app to use a character to present his words. He was able to write the text and choose his 'gami' and the background and present to the class with this avatar speaking his words. He felt so proud and successful and that is absolutely essential! This was so incredibly cool and a wonderful alternative to presenting in front of the class for students for whom public speaking is too much. I was thinking of a few of my students who are anxious about presenting and how they might react to the app, but wondered what capabilities it has in French. That's often the challenge with cool new apps.
Sara: Sara described her student as beginning as 'rude, defiant, unlikeable and unhappy'. Certainly a challenging beginning! He struggled with writing and was disengaged with his school tasks. Sara used Read&Write to help him articulate using Speech-to-text, until her personal account began to be abused (Hello Zac Efron?). Sara said her student was very happy to be using it and that she hopes that next year he will use a headset and have his own version of the extension so that he can use it more fully. I loved how Sara got the whole class thinking about UDL by creating routine checklist for the end of the day for everyone that benefited from, but particularly her case-study student.
Bethanie: Lex had difficulty retelling and spelling was very hard. Writing was a challenge. Bethanie used artwork to create ideas and help students add detail and inspiration to their writing and Lex was able to draw from her art. She began using an iPad and the apps Sent builder, Bitsboard, Wordplay to remediate her language challenges and Bookcreator to compensate. I liked how Bethanie really considered Lex's interest in art and how that affected her engagement in the apps and media she selected. It's clear that the iPad is the right tool for her with the ease of access, independence and the way her interests were engaged. It could be neat to engage the whole class in some digital art creation and to draw writing from that! Google Draw is perhaps the least used app by teachers, but you can really do some neat things with it.
Wendy: Wendy's student was a strong reader and willing to work hard. Articulation, language and structure were challenging for him. He also had difficulty with his fine motor skills. Wendy used Co-writer to help him with his poor articulation so he could express. She started with think alouds to help him generate ideas. He was very successful and was using it independently. It was a great fit for his 1-1 classroom which also had a variety of other needs. Wendy provided a good reminder of how important it is to teach the teacher. If the teacher isn't confident with the technology, it's unlikely that it will go well for the student!
Emily: Emily's student B has a provisional autism diagnosis and has delayed language concepts. Like we learned about in class, comprehension is a challenge. Fortunately, B has an involved family and is excited to learn. Emily set a goal of having more meaning in his writing. Emily used a variety of apps like writing wizard, Sentence builder, Moose Reader, Endless Reader, and Simplex Spelling to help remediate the language delays and focused on sight words. She also used Book creator with Speech-to-text to improve access to writing, as well as the Chromebook. She was able to see big progress in B's expression, clarity and voice. I always find that's how you know a child is really feeling like a writer and enjoying herself when her voice starts to come through in what she writes.
Kate: Kate's student JD is in Grade 5 and has an IPP for literacy. Most of his academic abilities are in the average range, but he has difficulty understanding text and multistep directions, recording ideas and thoughts, and forming opinions independently. He now uses Read&Write and Co-writer to write and is able to produce more and be more creative with it. Again, the Play Pause Stop function was super helpful for editing and punctuation. Kate would like to see JD's teachers buy in more to the technology to support JD's progress and help him along the way. Setting appropriate goals for him was an important element.
Kate (the other Kate ;) ): Kate is a behaviour support teacher and her student V loves to read, create, make, and use technology. She has a difficult background with dysfunction in the home. She has ADHD and anxiety. Peer relationships and emotional regulation are a challenge. She has not completed work and avoided work a lot. Kate used Book Creator to motivate V to write and express her knowledge. Since V is capable of writing and intelligent, she did not need Read&Write, but Book Creator was the right fit as it appealed to many of her strengths and interests. She produced a wonderful book on Rocks and Erosion! A new goal would be for V to use this technology and others to motivate her in her classroom.
Denise: Denise's student S had a very challenging education in Saudi Arabia. The schools were not really inclusive and once they identified ADHD and possible autism, the school in Saudi Arabia encouraged his family to take him to a 'special school'. His education suffered for many years but now he is learning in Canada and has a great attitude toward learning. Academically, he has difficulty with comprehension, writing, organization and interpersonal skills. Denise used Google Read&Write with him with the Voice-to-text and Word Prediction. He was thrilled to use the tools and began independently identifying uses for the extension and advocating for its use to other teachers! Looks like he will continue to make progress using the tools.
Erik: Erik's student A likely has ADHD and social anxiety. She was tasked with completing an end of term reflection and writing and presenting to others made her feel anxious. She said she feels like her brain and her hand are not connected when she writes. Erik introduced her to Speech-to-text, play pause stop, and the dictionary tool and she was very excited about using it. She said she felt it would be a big help in her courses to use it with her assignments. It's really exciting to see how older students really quickly grasp Read&write but also see the potential impact it will have on their studies. They know they need it! How cool to see the ripple effect into other courses as well.
Jenn: Jenn's student had a history of missing school, aggression and avoidance, as well as distraction and impulsivity. He struggled to meet outcomes in Grade 6 writing because he has difficulty spelling and he was unwilling to write. He has a big personality and is 'always on'. Jenn introduced the Merge Cube to work on his solar system assignment and he changed his tune from 'oh no' to 'oh cool'. Using Read&Write, he was able to bypass his organization deficit and speech-to-text bypassed his spelling challenges. He started figuring things out on his own and that independence is amazing to see in a student with a history of avoidance!
Quite a day! We really ran the gamut of strengths, challenges, and assistive technologies. As I said earlier, I do really think I'll think AT for students and look for solutions for them. I can so easily see how assistive technology reduces barriers to students and creates independence for them. Digitize, digitize, digitize! I'm looking forward to being an advocate for AT in my school and hopefully helping others integrate it more readily. I think after the experiences we've had today, we can all see the potential to change students' relationships to literacy. Let's do it!
Overall, I am very thankful for everything I have learned in this course and how practical it has been. There are those phrases that will be rattling around in my brain for the rest of my career-- "take the pencil out of the process" and the idea of every student being 'jagged'. I'm thankful for all my classmates' contributions and everything Barb has taught us! On to the next adventure!
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