Adaptive technology

The adaptive technology that I explored was a program called Kurzweil. It is a program that helps students with writing, studying, and reading assignments. At adaptive technology they take a students textbook and scan it into the program, once they scan it, they send it to the student and they are now able to use their textbook in the program Kurzweil. The program offers many things to the students such as reading the text aloud, the use of a highlighter, note taking right on the text of the page, and much more. This helps the student in comprehending their material and also understanding it. This program also offers a option to read a paper a student rote so they are able to hear their mistakes rather than just read them. When students write papers they often misspell words, and have grammar problems, having their paper read out loud through Kurzweil allows the student to hear their mistakes very easily. This program is free to all students and is a great tool to use!

Assistive Technology

This is a keyboard that is on the screen that allows students that can't use their hands right, to use the keyboard! They are able to use the keyboard by clicking the mouse. This is a great tool for students that are not able to use their fingers properly. This is a great tool to help the students feel like they can still use a computer, they just simple have to use the keyboard a different way.

This tool is to set the mouse to look different on the screeen. For student that need a different color or a different object as their mouse. This option also alows the mouse to get larger or smaller, so if a student can't see the mouse curser very well they are able to change that by adjusting these settings. This is a great tool for students that can not see the mouse!

This tool is the Narrator tool. This allows the computer to announce certain things that the student is doing on the computer. This is a great tool because as the student types, they can have the computer say what they are typing. This is a great tool for students that mispell words because they will know right away if they spelled it wrong.

Formative and summative assessment

Formative assessment and summative assessment share a common goal of evaluating student knowledge.

• Formative assessment is intended to inform and guide adjustments to instruction on an ongoing basis.
• Summative assessment is intended to monitor progress and evaluate the overall success of both students
and instructional programs on a long-term basis.
Other distinctions stem from this difference in purpose:
• Formative assessments are often (though not always) informal and either embedded in classroom work or closely aligned to specific instructional activities, while summative assessments are more formal and separate from classroom instructional activities.
• Formative assessments are primarily intended to inform teachers and students, whereas summative assessments are intended to inform a broader range of stakeholders, including students, parents, teachers,administrators, the community, and various levels of institutional accountability.
• Formative assessments can take many different forms, all of which contribute to an understanding of a student’s learning, while summative assessments typically consist of a few standardized measures. Commonexamples of formative assessments include informal reading inventories, running records, oral questioning in a group setting, and oral or written
retellings of what students have read.

In-class workout #9

Elementary- Measuring Ourselves

Group Members: Michelle Ross, Alicia Smith, Jenna Myers

This module was created to have students, in this instance, college students, take measurements and then record them using a data collection/analyis tool.

We were asked to measure out height,wingspan and foot length. Then we had to use InspireData to record the measurements and create a spreadsheet and then scatterplot.

The role that I played in this was helping to get the measurements of our wingspan, height, and foot length.

My work:

As height increases as the wingspan increases. I could tell from the graph because of the plots on the graph, the height increases as the wingspan did. Height increases as the foot length increases. I could tell from the graph becuase the point on the graph increased.

What I thought:

I thought that this activity was helpful to know. I think students would find this interesting because they most likely do not know what their wingspan is. Students in elementary school would really enjoy this because they most likely don't know this information about themself. If I were a teacher I would also like this because it is interesting to know this information. What I didn't like about this activity if I were a student would be that it was hard to measure and get the exact measurement. If I were a teacher I didn't like that the group was only 3 people was it was hard to compare each students infromation. The most surprising part of this activity was that I found out my height and I though I was shorter!

Kidspriation

Kidspriation is a vey easy tool for students to use. It allows them to practice certain skills and aslo to create things! This is a drill and practice. It allows students to drag the correct animal to the way that they defend themselves. Students are able practice what animal protects themself. After they do this activity, they can give feedback on how they liked the activity and how well it helped them. The education value of this is that they are learning how animals protect themselves and is important for students to learn about.

Podcast

http://edcommunity.apple.com/ali/story.php?itemID=19252

Our favorite dinosaurs

Attention is given to the students recalling facts about dinosaurs, creating a KidPix background page, projecting their voice when speaking, while being video taped, and learning how to use a video camera. Fourth grade students collaborate by helping the Kindergarten students with the Kidpix page and with videotaping. The students talked about their own dinosaur that they picked and how that certain dinosaur lived. I really enjoyed this video and it really uses technology!

In class workout #4

1.http://edweb.tusd.k12.az.us/ekowalcz/math/elementary_web_sites.htmk12.az.us/ekowalcz/math/elementary_web_sites.htm

Elementary Math

A place where students can learn math by playing a variety of games using their math skills.
It is efficient because It saves teachers from having to do boring math worksheets that the students don't like doing. It is effective because the students will want to learn by playing these games to learn the math skills that they need to know. It also increases inhancement because the students will be highly engaged in what they are doing, and also be motivated to get a "high score" on a game!

2.Scholastic News for Kids

http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/scholasticNews.jsp?FromBrowseMod=true&Ns=Pub_Date_Sort1&CurrPage=scholasticNews.jsp&TopicValue=Scholastic%20News

This is a place where students can go to learn about what kids there own age are doing around the world!
This is efficent because it saves time with a simple click of a button, where kids can learn about news around the world. This website increases their engagement because, I think the students will be more motivated to go to this website and read about news then they would in a book or magazine. It is also effective because they will be learning about news involving kids, and also working on their reading skills.

3.National Air and Space Museum

http://www.nasm.si.edu/

This is the site for the national air and space museum, and has lots of great links for kids to look at. It has news, upcoming events for the museum!
This website is efficent because students are able to see what the museum is like before actually going to the museum. It is effective because students are able to learn about the museum and what they have to offer. It increases enhancement because they will be motivated to now go to the museum and learn many things!