Thing #12 Evaluation & Assessment Tools: Google Forms

l think this tool is great!  I am going to use it alot.  I used Google Forms to create an online educational survey.  I asked about Unique Curriculum implementation and sent it to my staff.  I have 14 responses already!  I will use the results to answer questions, provide additional support and professional development.  I plan to take the results to a meeting this week with other supervisors about the Curriculum with other supervisors.

Capstone 8-14 Activity using Video Prompts

In "A Comparison of Picture and Video Prompts to Teach Daily Living Skills to Individuals with Autism" (Focus on Autism and other Developmental Disabilities, Vol. 25, No. 4, Dec. 2010) VanLaarhaven et. al look at the use of picture and video prompts.  Using vidual supports--text, line drawings or video based materials has positive outcomes for a broad range of learners and is considered to be an evidence based practice.  Much of the research involves using picture to prompt students to do tasks.

Research on the use of video has focused on video modeling, where the student looks at the whole sequence and then completes the task. This is called video priming or video rehersal.

Video prompting is a different approach that involves showing a step and then having the student complete it.  It requires access to a television, computer or handheld device in the actual environment the skill is completed.

In this study, students were taught making microwave pasta and folding laundry.  They were taught using either a flip book or video steps on a computer.  The goal was to see if they could learn to independently manipulate the system to complete the task.

Both were effective but the video prompting was more effective and efficient.  It takes less time to make the video prompts than picture prompts.  Some students prefer the video technology but those who need their environment quieter may not prefer it.

This method can be an excellent tool to meet the functional goals of ASD and MOCI students in some of the areas that do not relate to GLCE's but are still important for them to learn.

Capstone 8-14 Useful "things"

So how can I use the newest technology "things" that I have learned to improve my practice and help staff and students in the ASD and MOCI programs--as well as the OTs and PTs I supervise?


Thing #8 Copyright & Creative Commons covered copyright, fair use and Creative Commons.  It is useful for Marzano's standard of generating and testing hypothesis.  It was good to learn how to find what can be used in classrooms legally. GRPS emphasizes that we need to use technology resources in accordance with the policy we sign.  This protects us as well as the District. 


Thing #9 /Digital Images covered FotoFlexr, Picnik, Picasa.  It is useful for Marzano's standard of non-linguistic representation.  Pictures and photos are an excellent resource to use for positive behavior support and instruction in autism and moderate cognitive impaired classrooms.  These resources allow staff to edit, organize and create learning materials for students.

Thing #10 Digital Story Telling:  Photo Story 3, iMovie.  It is useful for Marzano's standard Generating and Testing Hypothesis.  Students with autism and MOCI learn very well with modeling and video modeling is an excellent resource.  These can be used to show students how to do something or to help them learn content.


Thing #11 Presentation Tools:  Prezi, Glogster, ZoomIt.  It is useful for Marzano's standards  Nonlinguistic Representations; Identifying Similarities and Differences.  Teachers can use these tools to present information to students.  It is more representational to use Prezi than Powerpoint which may help students who learn best that way.  Zoomit is good to show students something specific on a computer based thing so that it highlights the relevant information for them.


Thing #12 Evaluation and Assessment Toos:  Google Forms, Rubistar, Data Tools, FERPA/HIPAA.  It is useful for Marzano's standards Summarizing and note Taking; Non-Linguistic Representations; Cues, Questions and Advanced Organizers.  Staff can use google forms to give their students a quiz.  Rubistar can be used to give the students a rubric for behavior or social skills as well as the standards for a project or a piece of writing.  It is important for staff to also know about the data tools available to us in GRPS in order to make teaching decisions and the privacy that goes along with student records.


Thing #13 Online Interactive Learning Tools:  Quizlet, Google Earth.  It is useful for Marzano's standards Reinforce Effort and Provide Recognition; Interactive Games; Non-Linguistic Representations; Generating and Testing Hypothesis.  Quizlet is a great way to give the students lots of opportunities to practice content.  The content from Unique Learning System, for instance, could be put in here for students to practice.  Google Earth is a good way to show students where things are related to map reading and community based instruction.


Thing #14 Online Video & Audio Resources:  United Streaming, Learn 360, School Tube, Teacher Tube, iTunes, iTunesU, Podcasting.  It is useful for Marzano's standards Non-linguistic Representations; Summarizing and Note-taking.  Students can learn content by using these video and audio resources.  For instance, before a class came over to Hillcrest for community service to help pull the invasive plant Garlic Mustard, their teacher showed them a uTube video about this.  The students the year before did not see a video and they were less knowledgeable and less engaged in the project.

Thing #3: Communication Tools:: BackChannel chat & Skype

Skpe wouldn't work in our District since we can't download it but I have seen it in actual alot with relatives communicating.  I have used Adobe Connect for a meeting with a company when we were considering the Unique Curriculum.  We assembled the group of people in a computer lab, I worked with our HelpDesk to make sure that this could be downloaded.  It was very useful for getting information and also being able to communicate in "real time" to get our questions ansered.

I tried to go on the Back Channel during class but I must not have been on the one where the instructor offered back channel.  I will definitely look for this at conferences.

Thing #11 Presentation Tools: Prezi

I had no idea that you could make a presentation in anything but PowerPoint so finding Prezi was interesting.  It is a much  more visual/pictorial in how you put it together and use it.  I can see it being a neat resource for some of our older students to make a report.

Check out this presentation on research based methods for teaching:

<div class="prezi-player"><style type="text/css" media="screen">.prezi-player { width: 550px; } .prezi-player-links { text-align: center; }</style><object id="prezi_hcz--nxgqqx-" name="prezi_hcz--nxgqqx-" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" width="550" height="400"><param name="movie" value="http://prezi.com/bin/preziloader.swf"/><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true"/><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"/><param name="bgcolor" value="#ffffff"/><param name="flashvars" value="prezi_id=hcz--nxgqqx-&amp;lock_to_path=0&amp;color=ffffff&amp;autoplay=no&amp;autohide_ctrls=0"/><embed id="preziEmbed_hcz--nxgqqx-" name="preziEmbed_hcz--nxgqqx-" src="http://prezi.com/bin/preziloader.swf" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" width="550" height="400" bgcolor="#ffffff" flashvars="prezi_id=hcz--nxgqqx-&amp;lock_to_path=0&amp;color=ffffff&amp;autoplay=no&amp;autohide_ctrls=0"></embed></object><div class="prezi-player-links"><p><a title="autism training" href="http://prezi.com/hcz--nxgqqx-/autism-training/">autism training</a> on <a href="http://prezi.com">Prezi</a></p></div></div>

Thing #12 Evaluation & Assessment Tools: Data Tools

Data warehousing systems contain achievement, demographic or other data pulled from student information systems and other sources of data.  They are designed for us to look up or run reports about student performance, achievement, attendance, discipline or demographic factors. This information can be used to determine what a particular student needs to learn, how to group students, what changes need to be made to instruction for a group to be successful and many more.

What data tools do we have available within our District?  IGOR is available through Kent ISD and supports state assessments such as MEAP, MI Access, ELPA and District assessments such as MAP. Many differerent reports are available at the District, school and classroom level.

Also through Kent ISD is Curriculum Crafter.  The Curriculum Crafter tools assists teacers in improving student achievement.  It contains curriculum, resources, assessments and differentiation strategies.

The Medicaid documentation website is designed for staff to make progress notes for Medaid eligible students but can be used to document progress on all students.

Staff use WATER in GRPS to look up information on students related to achievement, absences, etc.  Our Total Recall system is used to house all student data which is used to report to the state, set up transportation with Dean, keep track of Medicaid eligibililty, track accomodations etc.

Staff are required to sign up with Learnport to access professional development opportunities which will also then keep a transcript of those for their re-certification needs.

Thing #11 Presentation Tools: Zoom it

This is a really cool resource called ZoomIt.  You can zoom in on part of something live in your classroom or take a picture of it.  You can draw lines and type--see my additions in red.

Thing #13 Online Interactive Learning Tools: Quizlet

 This is a VERY COOL website. It is free but a $10/year subscription allows you to down load pictures to the flashcards.  I used it to make Spanish vocabulary cards for my son.  Playing one of the games was a good study tool since the answers were there and you had to drag and click to match them up One of the games required typing in the term quickly--he didn't like that one.  You can record voice and you can print the fllashcards.  This would be great to us with the Unique Curriculum.

http://quizlet.com/3540036/spanish-competition-words-set-1-flash-cards/

Thing #13 Online Interactive Learning Tools: Google Earth

This is a picture of my work using Google Earth. Then I made a personalized bookmark.  This could be us
ed with ASD and MOCI students related to community based instruction

Thing #10 Digital Story Telling:

I used Voice Thread to narrate on a power point presentation that Deb Schuitema and I did about Utilizing Technology into the Education of students with disabilities.  http://voicethread.com/?#e1535855

There are a lot of applications for the various digital story telling options.  A website CogDogRoo has tons of resources.  I could see using this to show staff how to do something such as demonstrating an evidence based practice.  Staff can use it to teach students various concepts.  I am posting all this here instead of on the website I made since the website is a different topic.

My son watched this section with me and gave me some feedback on my product.  He was excited to learn of two websites to get free music that is usable under copyright law but he didn't like my music choice!  He thought adding music and narration to a power point I have done was a neat way to then make it usable in another format such as a blog or website.

Thing # 12 Evaluation & Assessment Tools--Rubistar

I 

I made a rubric using Rubistar.  I am going to use this for either our program learning walks or staff evaluations.

Thing # 12 Evaluation & Assessment Tools--Google Forms

https://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?formkey=dDBuYTBtWl85dW94NDh6VmxLeVdUUlE6MQ

I have created an online survey with Google Forms to assess how implementation of our new Unique Curriculum is progressing.I am e-mailing it to staff I  work with and will let you know how it turns out. This is the link to the survey.

Thing #9 Digital Images: FotoFlexr, Picnik, Picasa

I used Picasa to upload a picture to share with you.  Here is a screen shot of the photo before editing:

My handsome son at Homecoming!  Here is the same picture after editing:

This is a fun and easy way to use photos and other images in ASD and MOCI classrooms.  You could make name tags on lanyards and label what activity the students are to be in when wearing that lanyard.



http://www.shutterfly.com/lightbox/view.sfly?fid=134c2ac6ad6019386d9889752d9a603c

Here is a cute photo I uploaded that you can edit!

Capstone 1-7 Lesson using Thinkfinity for a weather lesson

A common lesson in many of our self contained classroom relates to weather.  Students can work in the group on identifying picture from the Unique curriculum to determine what season is represented by the clothing.

ES.E.2 Weather- Weather changes from day

 to day and over the seasons.

E.ES.01.21 Compare daily changes in the

 weather related to temperature (cold, hot,

 warm, cool); cloud cover (cloudy, partly

 cloudy, foggy); precipitation (rain, snow,

hail, freezing rain); wind (breezy, windy, calm).

E.ES.01.22 Describe and compare weather

 related to the four seasons in terms of

 temperature, cloud cover, precipitation

, and wind.

E.ES.01.23 Describe severe weather

characteristics. *

E.ES.01.24 Describe precautions that should

 be taken for human safety during severe

 weather conditions (thunder and lightning,

tornadoes, strong winds, heavy precipitation).

Students can work in the group on identifying picture from the Unique curriculum to determine what season is represented by the clothing. Then  go to the Thinkfinity website, click on Classroom, go to K-2 science, then weather and there is a link to a really cool lesson plan with lost of activities.  One activity is at this link where students can see what clothing items go with different types of weather. They can then sort the picture by types of weather or body part.

http://sciencenetlinks.com/Esheet.php?DocID=202

Capstone Reflection Things 1-7

I am a third of the way through the 21 Things for the 21st Century Educator:  Technology Every Educator Should Know course through Kent ISD.  It is time to reflect on how I might use the tools that I have learned so far before going too much farther.


First of all, it is misleading to thing that I have only learned seven things so far! Each thing is a category related to technology and I have learned many,many technology "things" within each category  One of the first things I can say is that I plan to recommend this course to the staff that I supervise.  I can see many things that teachers of students with autism, teachers of students with moderate cognitive impairment as well as OTs and PTs can learn and use from this course.  One of the ways I will begin to do that is to share this blog with them.

Thing number one was "About Basics" where I learned about MS Office Keyboard shortcuts and Delicious.  Relevant effective teaching strategies identified by Marzano that fit with these tools are summarizing and note taking, objectives and feedback, and questions, cues and advanced organizers.  The shortcuts are now posted by my keyboard.  Delicious is  a good resource to store sources I want to go back and find and share with staff.

Thing  number two was "Collaboration Tools" where I learned about Google Docs.  Relevant effective teaching strategies identified by Marzano that fit with these tools are summarizing and notetaking, and cooperative learning. I am looking forward to using this to collaborate with others instead of being limited to those people on my shared drive.

Thing number three was "Communication" where I learned BackChannel chat and Skype.  Relevant effective teaching strategies identified by Marzano that fit with these tools are identifying similarities and differences, effort and recognition, objectives and feedback, summarizing and note taking. I am going to look for BackChannel at the next conference I attend.  My only previous use of Skype was communication with distant relatives.  I am looking forward to finding ways to collaborate with far flung colleagues using this.

Thing  number four was "Content Area Tools" where I learned Thinkfinity. Relevant effective teaching strategies identified by Marzano that fit with these tools are generating and testing hypothesis, questions, cues, and advanced organizers. This is definitely a website I will be sharing with teaching staff as well as using at home.


Thing number five was "Differentiated Instruction and Diverse Learning" where I learned Learnport, Nettrekker, UDL Strategies, and Vozme.  A relevant effective teaching strategies identified by Marznano is non-linguistic representations. We already use Nettrakker in GRPS but it is something people are just learning to use. The resources related to UDL are timely and proving useful as we learn to differentiate our new Unique Learning Systems curriculum.

Thing number six was"Digital Citizenship"  where I learned about, Digital Citizenship, Acceptable Use, Critical Evaluation, Bogus/Hoax sites and CyberSafety.  Relevant effective teaching strategies identified by Marzano are objectives and feedback, and generating and testing hypothesis. I actually learned some things about this area I didn't know.  I am using the quiz to educate staff I supervise to make sure they know this information.

Thing number seven was "Face of the Classroom" where I learned Weebly.  Relevant effective teaching strategies identified by  Marzano objectives are summarizing and note taking, homework and practice, non-linguistic representations, setting objectives and providing feedback.  I need to work more on my website but was excited to learn that I could make one myself.  I think I have staff who may like to do this and plan to share it with them.

So far I have to say that I have learned more than I bargained for!  It is hard to figure some of these things out since it doesn't come "naturally" to me but the more I "play" with things, the more familiar I am becoming with tools.  This is meeting my personal goal to become more familiar with technology that I can use are well as learning what my staff need to know about.

Thing #7 Create a Web Presence: Weebly

Well, I had no idea that I could create a website!  I made one and it is very simple right now but I can go back and edit and add to it if I like  Teachers could easily do this for parents or students and make lots of information available this way. I can use this to increase my ability to "spread the word" about applied behavior analysis and how it works for students as well as being a well researche.d approach


  Check mine out!  bcbasupervisionservice.weebly.com

Thiing #8 Copyright--It's Easy with Creative Commons

I have already copyrighted my website--even though it is still under construction!  It was easy using http//creativecommons.com

More on Thing #6 Digital Citizenship

The MOCI and ASD students who learn how to surf the web also need to be taught that everything they see is not true.  This website about velcro http://home.inreach.com/kumbach/velcro.html would be a good one to show students that all they find may not be real.
otos.asp
Another good one since they look up pictures for reports frequently is http://snopes.com/photos/photos.asp
This one will let them see what was untrue or misleading in various news accounts and other sources of information on the web.
Here is what it looks like:

Thing #5 Differentiated Instruction/Diverse Learning: VozMe

 Check this out!  VozMe is a great way to do text to speech conversion.  It is free and you can use it on your computer to have it read text or you can convert text and add it as a mp3 file to your website.  I am thinking about how I might use this with a student who has blindness that I want to communicate with.

Thing # 6 digital citizenship

Since I supervise teachers of students with ASD and MOCI, it is important that I communicate to staff about digital citizenship. Cyber bullying to our students could happen. They could accidentally share personal information on the web. The students and the staff need to know the acceptable use of the internet. They need to be able to evalutate websites to make sure they are legitimate. I can do this by sharing this blog with them, publishing information in my "Weekly Happenings" which is e-mailed to them and reviewing my handbook that they receive every year.

I thought the information about evaluating resources on the web was good. Many of them I knew but having them all together made a comprehensive way to decide if a website, wikki or blog is one you should rely on.

Is it credible? Who published it, wht is their credentials and expereince?
Is it accurate? Can you verify the facts another way?
Is it reliable? Is there a particular view or bias, are they selling a product?
Is it relevant? Does it directly support the question I am trying to answer?
Is the date significant? When was it created? Is it still maintained?
What are the sources behind the text? Are their reliable and creidble? Popular or scholarly?
What is the scope and purpose? Is it a compre3hensive or peripheral treament of your topic? Scholarly or popular? Too simple or too challening? Are they trying to expalin, persuade or sell?

In the interest of full disclosure for the readers of this blog:

I supervise staff for GRPS autism and moderately cognitively impaired programs. I have a master's degree in education and am a certified behavior analyst. I am learning about technology and have used more and more the past few years. The content being posted in this blog relates to a course I am taking through Kent ISD on 21 Things related to technology.

Thing #5 More info! UDL strategies wikispace

udlstrategies.wikispaces.com has an OVERWHELMING amount of materials! Go there if you are looking for ideas! You can find ideas for all the subject areas as well as visual, audio, etc. Under "Multiple Means of Expression" I liked the link to Batalugu. You can make your own book. The would be a nice literacy tool for students with ASD and MOCI. It could also be written about a student and behavior you want to see them display.

Thing # 5 Differentiation: National Center on Accessable Instructional Materials

Here is what I get when I try to link to the National Center on Accessible Instructional Materials website:



I like the 2 definitions:

Differentiation: Instructional approaches should vary and be adapted in response to individaul and diverse students in classrooms (Tomlinson,. 2001)

Universal Design for Living: Curriculum desigend approach to increase flexibility in teaching and decrease barriers that frequenlty limit student access to materials and learning in classrooms. (Rose and Meyer, 2002)

Here is a way to look at how computerized learning can help with differentiation:

Network-Appropriate Teaching Methods

To support diverse recognition networks:

Provide multiple examples
Highlight critical features
Provide multiple media and formats
Support background context
To support diverse strategic networks:
Provide flexible models of skilled performance
Provide opportunities to practice with supports
Provide ongoing, relevant feedback
Offer flexible opportunities for demonstrating skill
To support diverse affective networks:
Offer choices of context and tools
Offer adjustable levels of challenge
Offer choices of learning context
Offer choices of rewards

There are lots of other ideas in this website that I want to share with ASD and MOCI staff because it goes right along with the presentation I did for our recent collaborative day. We took the differentiation approach that Robin Fogarty uses and applied it to our new curriculum, Unique Learning Sysstem. We looked for how the curriculum already differentiated and ways teachers can further differentiate it for diverse learners.

Thing #5 Differentiated Instruction & Diverse Learning

Using Technology to Support Diverse Learners is a very comprehensive website! It basically has everything you are going to need. You can learn about getting started, digital text, audio, digital enhancement, software, visual, curricular supports and targeted populations.

Under curricular support there is a cool section on how to obtain leveled reading materials for students. Since students with ASD and MOCI need instruction in grade level content (GLCE's) but are often reading below grade level, these are great resources in order to find material to support instruction.

Here is the link:

Well. . . maybe I can give you the link later. For some reason blogger is not working for this but did on my last post. I will try again later!

Thing # 4 Content Area Tools: Thinkfinity

Well, Thinkfinity is a great go-to resource when looking for new things.  Sometimes when I google something, I end up with no way of knowing what is going to be good or what I am looking for.  This seems to be a good first step for content for students.  I didn't find anything on ABA but some cool things on differentiation which it one of our focus areas this school year.  I just did a presentation on this for PD using Robin Fogarty information on differentiation.  I wanted to add a video but the  only one I found was too negative.  Here is a link to several I could have used.  The first one is neat.  Check out the rap to see what fun people teachers really are!
http://community.thinkfinity.org/bookmarks/8357

A second thing I like on Thinkfinity is ReadThinkWrite.  I  think the essay map would be good for my third grade niece as well as my 10th grade son.  I neat thing they had is a cartoon maker.  I made a cartoon and couldn't save it--only print it so I can't share it here but this is the link:

http://www.readwritethink.org/parent-afterschool-resources/games-tools/comic-creator-a-30237.html

Thing #2 and more Collaboration Tools: Google Docs

Well, I am finally able to use Jing!  I didn't follow up with Help Desk.  Eventually they will decide if I can install it.  I convinced my son to let me install it on his computer though I hate using his.  I seem to hit his extra mouse all the time so typing this is a pain.  Over and o:ver I keep going back to the font size and type style that I found it on--finally gave up changing it!  It also shoots me back to an earlier spot in the text-- grrrrrrrr!

Anyway, I am ready to surge ahead and get all the work posted that I have done.

 Jing seems like kind of a fun tool!  I could see me taking pictures of everything and adding notes to it!  At work I often have to explain how to find something--for instance on the Unique Learning System website.

 I plan to invite Kristen Priem to look at the autism and MOCI learning walk document that we just used one time and need to alter.  She wasn't there so it is a good way to get her feedback.

Thing #2 Collaboration Toosl: Learning walk collaboration using google docs

What do you think about this before we do our next learning walk?