Assistive Technology

I really like the Magnifier option on windows. This application can be very helpful. This assistive technology allows you to magnify what ever you roll your mouse over on the screen, up to 16x. This would obviously be of great use to students with visual impairments. It is easy and simple to use, and could provide a simple solution, allowing students that may have not been able to previously, participate in work and classroom activities take part. I posted a screen shot to the left, of what the screen looks like when using magnifier, with just a 2x magnification.

I also really like Speech Recognition software that windows provides for computers. This software allows you set up the computer so that it can be controlled by voice. You are able to control all the computers functions by using only your voice, such as opening programs, clicking buttons, and dictating text into documents and emails. You can do just about everything that you can do with a keyboard, with your voice. This method of assistive technology is extraordinarily helpful and beneficial for students with physical impairments or disabilities, or poor motor skills. Students who can't use the keyboard are able to independently use the computers due to this software.

This is an example of my iGoogle page, where I have RSS feeds of several different Elementary Education websites and blogs. This is very helpful because I have compacted a wide range of information on to one homepage, where I can go, and checkout all the updates on my favorite and most informative websites!

I recently edited my Facebook privacy settings, to make it so that only certain people could see the material associated with my Facebook page and profile. I did this because, there are ways for future employers to look at your Facebook page, and it is important when trying to obtain a job to remain professional, in all aspects of you life, but especially in what you post on the Internet for the world to see.
To make my profile more private, I went into my privacy settings located at the top left hand side of your home page. There is then a "manage privacy" option. I clicked on that, and began to edit my settings. First I adjusted it so that only my friends could view my profile, and anyone who searches me is only able to see my profile picture and friends. I then made a limited profile list, I added to that list anyone that I thought should receive only a censored version of my profile and information. I then created a "limited profile", in this profile, I only included my personal information, friends, and profile picture, all other information is withheld in this version of my Facebook profile. I then created another list, labeled "People Who Can't See Pics" this list excludes only pictures tagged of me, but lets the people I put on this list view all other aspects of my profile.
I am very happy that I created these new privacy settings, I feel much more at ease knowing not just anyone can have access to my information and profile.

The chart to the left is a chart of the 413 college students' responses to the following true/false question.

We experience seasons because of the earth's changing distance to the sun - closer in summer, farther in winter.

-True

-False

Almost 2/3 of the students answered TRUE.

The correct answer is false, the Earth's seasons are due to the tilt of the Earth. It is clear that if these were the results I obtained in my own elementary classroom I would definitely have to revisit the topic, and probably reteach, so that the students obtained a better understanding.

Leap Pad

Leap Pad is a fun and engaging content exploration tool for elementary school students, just starting to learn how to read.  Using Leap Pad you can insert a variety of different books for students to learn how to read.  The student using the pad can take a pen and tap on any word that they don't know or cant pronounce, and the Leap Pad will say it out loud for them.  Also for students just learning how to read that know little to know words, they can use the pen, and follow it along the words, and the leap pad will read them aloud at what ever pace the student chooses.  This makes it very easy for students to follow along, and get a grasp on the pronunciation of words.

I plan on teaching elementary school somewhere between 1st and 4th grade, and I would definitely use this tool in my classroom.  I would also recommend it to any parent or teachers that are having trouble getting their students to engage in books, and reading.  This tool makes reading fun and interactive, and will have students eager to get started on their reading!

Fun With Letters

This site is awesome for young students just learning how to write, and form words and letters. It is a website that assists students in writing through fun games and activities. The site provides basic education such as learning how to write letters, through a tutorial taught by a spider, then as the students learn, they can begin to do more and more. The site offers things such as activities to help start writing stories and making scrapbooks.

I believe this site overall covers all three e's. It enhances learning by making it fun for students, through games and activities, this there for makes it more effective because they are having fun and engaging in the activities therefore getting much more out of it than if they were bored, and it also increases the efficiency because since it is done on the Internet, it is easily accessible and saves the teacher a lot of time.

Here' s the LINK! http://www.meddybemps.com/letterary/index.html

International Children's Digital Library

This is a website for an online children's library. It contains thousands of children's books, that are free and accessible online. I found this website to be very easy to find things on. It has an amazing array and variety of all kinds of children's book, for every reading level. There are also books available in multiple languages. Almost every book on the site provides illustrations, this is a sure shot for getting kids to have fun while reading.

This site really increases the effectiveness of teaching students how to read and also in getting students to enjoy reading. The site lets the students browse around and enter different search criteria to find a book, the suits exactly what they like or want to learn about. This is a great way to let the students have fun and because they are having fun they are more likely to retain more of what they are reading and learning.

Here's a link! http://en.childrenslibrary.org/