Robert+Schaefer

=Using my homepage while making it more helpful for visitors...= Hi, my name is Rob Schaefer and welcome to my personalized home page brought to you by NLU and Dr. Wu. On my home page we will discuss, explore, and examine how assistive technology (sometimes refered to as adaptive technology) can be used to enhance the learning process of special ed students in kindergarten to senior year in high school range (i.e. K thru 12). This homepage will give me the opportunity to share with you my experience, knowledge, and personal strategies for how best we can use assistive technology in the classroom. Some of the things you will find on my personal home page are my philosphies on education as it relates to assistive technology as well as some useful websites, recent articles related to assistive technology, and integrating those technologies into the classroom. As I get to know the world of assistive technology better, I will update my homepage so that we can all share in my latest explorations. Won't you come join the fun? I thought you would! Now I have a question for you: "What is assistive technology?" Don't know, that's ok. Let's explore, according to the assistive technology act of 1988, assistive technology refers to "any item, piece of equipment, or product that is used to increase, maintain, or improve functional capabilites of individuals with disabilities." _ = = =Rob's Philosophy towards technology in education...= = = =The use of technology in education today, to put it mildy, is an absolute must. After all, this is the reality of our world in the 21st century. The main value of assistive technology is its potential to level the playing field for persons with disabilities in a manner that gives them maximum independence to control their learning environment, communication with others, control their physical environment, and in general access the world around them and interact with other people. Exposure and training should begin with pre-school students. Teachers and administrators should have a firm grasp of the potentials of various types of technologies and assistance with integrating these into the everyday classroom experience.= = =

Five Helpful Web-Sites for Teachers related to AT...
http://cnets.iste.org/teachers/t_stands.html

Building on the NETS for Students, the ISTE NETS for Teachers (NETS•T), which focus on preservice teacher education, define the fundamental concepts, knowledge, skills, and attitudes for applying technology in educational settings. All candidates seeking certification or endorsements in teacher preparation should meet these educational technology standards. It is the responsibility of faculty across the university and at cooperating schools to provide opportunities for teacher candidates to meet these standards.

The six standards areas with performance indicators listed below are designed to be general enough to be customized to fit state, university, or district guidelines and yet specific enough to define the scope of the topic. Performance indicators for each standard provide specific outcomes to be measured when developing a set of assessment tools.The standards and the performance indicators also provide guidelines for teachers currently in the classroom.

[|www.4teachers.org] 4Teachers.org works to help you integrate technology into your classroom by offering online tools and resources. This site helps teachers locate and create ready-to-use Web lessons, quizzes, rubrics and classroom calendars. There are also tools for student use. Discover valuable professional development resources addressing issues such as equity, ELL, technology planning, and at-risk or special-needs students.

http://natenetwork.buffalo.edu/ NATE -- the National Assistive Technology in Education Network -- brings together information from the many fields and disciplines that are involved in assistive technology services in educational settings. We provide that information in a cohesive, integrated manner, so that people from all disciplines can access it. We promote and encourage increased collaboration between people from different disciplines at the local team level and at the larger regional and national levels.

http://www.startechprogram.org/stech/startechprogram.html

STAR Tech is an exciting research-based professional development program that helps teachers integrate a full range of technology tools into the curriculum. The Star Tech program is designed to help teachers improve the performance of students with diverse abilities and needs by using a variety of low-, mid-, and high-technology tools. The centerpiece of the professional development program is the STAR Cycle, a process of engaging teachers in looking at student work. In this continuous cycle, teachers examine the work of a diverse group of students, apply new ideas and strategies in the classroom, and reflect on the results. This process creates a supportive learning community of teachers engaged in exploring questions related to understanding students' abilities and needs, clarifying curriculum goals, and using scientifically-based strategies. The STAR Tech Professional Development Program has been developed and tested by Education Development Center, Inc., and is based on five years of research funded by the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs.

http://www.nextup.com/TextAloud/assistive-technology-software.html In theory, students in a classroom are supposed to be learning the same things at approximately the same pace. In reality, teachers know that this is often impossible. Students learn at their own pace, and this is particularly noticeable when blind, visually impaired or dyslexic students are integrated into mainstream classrooms. To ensure that everyone can keep up, teachers reach for assistive technology software - and few products are as flexible, powerful and cost-effective as TextAloud. This text-to-speech solution reads computer-based text aloud in a range of different pleasant, human-like voices. It couldn't be simpler: any text can be read, ranging from Internet pages and emails to text documents and eBooks. With the help of assistive technology, students that previously struggled often feel a sense of real empowerment. They can now absorb textual information without any help from their teachers, and can reap the same benefits from their computers as their classmates. Classroom users of TextAloud have commented on how easy it is to start using. There is no slow learning curve, and no long, dense manual to struggle through. Instead, teachers and students alike can simply highlight the text they want to hear, hit a key, and start listening. Assistive technology really doesn't get any easier! __ [|http://www.jstart.org] We know every child enters the world with potential. Jumpstart ensures that those children most at-risk still reach this promise. By providing extraordinary attention in yearlong one-to-one relationships, Jumpstart inspires children to learn, adults to teach and communities to progress together… the results are transformational. [|http://www.literacy4kids.ca] Literacy For Kids have made learning to read fun and easy! Our two literacy and reading programs "Acting Out the Alphabet” and "Little Books” make the teaching of reading fun, easy, and effective! These teaching aids can be used by parents or teachers in Kindergarten and Grade One. [|http://www.kidseq.com] KidsEQ is a children's media company sharing the joy of emotional literacy. [|http://www.booksforkidsfoundation.org] The Books for Kids mission is to promote literacy among all children with special emphasis on disadvantaged children and youth by donating books, creating children's libraries in underserved locations, and participating in reading initiatives with community based organizations.
 * Helpful websites for students who want to expand content-area learning and literacy... **

http://www.parkview70.net/technology.htm http://www.ataccess.org/** http://www.brainpop.com/ http://www.beyondplay.com/
 * Below are links related to software, toys, and assistive technology devices that assist with early childhood learning...**
 * http://www.brainpopjr.com/

[|**Opinion: Teacher morale plummets at school with latest technology**] A new $98 million Virginia high school complete with cutting-edge technology seems to have greatly improved student behavior while having the opposite effect on teachers, writes veteran English teacher Patrick Welsh. Instead of integrating technology into teacher's lesson plans, administrators are trying to mold lessons to fit the technology, which is frustrating many: "They would rather have a cyborg teaching than me," one young teacher said. "It's technology for the sake of technology -- not what works or helps kids learn." [|The Washington Post] [|**Schools need help with tech support**]**:** Information technology (IT) staffing shortages are keeping many schools from realizing the full benefits of technology inside and outside the classroom, an eSchool News survey reveals.[|http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/top-news/index.cfm?i=51522]
 * Articales related to technology and/or assistive technology as it relates to education and students in the classroom...**


 * My professional assistive technology development plan is as simple as A, B, C:**

//A is for Active:// I plan on attending numerous professional development workshops related to assistive technology, as well as take more computer related courses that explore how best to use assistive technology. I will observe experienced AT teachers at other schools and interview them as to how I can best use AT to advance my students' learning. Unless I stay active in continually learning about the latest AT advancements, I will not be as good a teacher as I could be and by my own definition, I will have failed not only myself, but my students.

//B is for Be a good listener:// Students are introduced to AT at an earlier age now more than ever before! Perhaps we should take a cue from them, asking students their opinion as to what AT would best serve their needs as individual learners. Their input would be invaluable to me as an educator as well as to the school that I work for. Plus, I think this would give the students a sense of ownership with respect to AT, thereby strengthening their overall relationship with AT. This would give me and the school a better understanding of how to evaluate and meet all of the students' needs through AT.

//C is for staying in constant Communication:// When it comes to AT, communication is the key to unlocking its success. Communicating with parents, faculty, staff, school broad members, and AT experts within the field about how best to use AT to serve the students is critical. Whether through informal conversations, or through an exploratory committee that might be working on a development/purchase plan for the school, or sharing ideas about lesson plans, we can all learn a lot about integrating AT by commmunicating with one another. There are a number of ways we can learn from each other since we all bring something unique to the table but none of this can happen if there isn't open communication about AT and its possibilities within the school. Forming an AT communications committee might be one of the better ways to explore all of the possibilities that AT has to offer and help bring those ideas to fruition.

Wikispaces can be used as a classroom tool in many ways. All any teacher really needs is time, a computer, access to the internet, and a little imagination so that the site can be developed for his or her students' needs. The ways any K-12 teacher utilizes Wikispaces to enrich the lives of their student population for learning is really only limited by that teacher's ability. Wouldn't it be neat for the students to create an on-line diary, portfolio, or log of progress that can be shown to Mom and Dad during parent teacher conferences. Parents and teachers could use Wikispaces as a means of communication about their child's achievements (or lack there of) since everything would be merely a click or two away! Older students could use Wikispaces as a means of debate. Currently, we do this in another class I take at NLU only it is via e-mail not by posting on a website. Parents and students could use Wikispaces as a means of always knowing what homework assignments are due and when...some students might not like that, since it limits their excuses...LOL? The school as a whole could create a Wikispaces account that gets shared with another school that cooperates - perhaps in a foreign country. This way students in both schools learn about each other's culture and worldviews. Word's translation service could be used to jump the language barrier. Wow, what an idea! And imagine a foreign exchange student coming over from Asia and an American student traveling to Asia and each person's school being able to share that experience via Wikispaces in real time. The possibilities are endless!
 * How Wikispaces can be used in K-12 classrooms...**

I plan to integrate my already established LiveText Portfolio with my Wikispaces homepage by creating my own educational home based website. Some of the website domain names I have looked into are: robschaefer2.com, specialed.com, specialeducation.com, iteachspecialed.com, etc. My personal website would be maintained and updated on a bi-weekly basis with new articles, links to websites related to AT, and any relevant experiences related to AT that I felt were pertinent. Anyone logging onto my website would have access to my NLU Live Text webpage as well as my Wikispaces account.
 * I plan to sustain the usability of my homepage by...**