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?