Form Pilot Activity

The form pilot activity wasn't terribly hard and is definitely a good resource. While it's definitely originally created for filling out forms or applications, I also feel like it could be a great classroom tool for having students complete quizzes or worksheets on a computer. Once the teacher has created the template, it would be simple for students to use after minimal instructions are provided. And because of the way it is set up students wouldn't even need to be capable of using a mouse. As for the additional "brownie point" challenge, I found this quite difficult at first and almost even gave up on it after getting rather frustrated but I did finally manage to work through it in the end, and I think it is a worthwhile tool to have especially if it was going to be used in a classroom where the bold type may be easier for a student. The only other part of the project that I found frustrating was actually handing it in, hence why I haven't so far even though I am already blogging about it. I saved it as a form pilot document and the digital dropbox won't accept it. Any thoughts on how I can get digital dropbox to send the assignment?

Alternate Formats Reflection

So I am done with the Alternate Formats Activity and definitely pretty excited about it as I found it definitely rather frustrating. There is definitely a lot of frustration that builds for me out of the uncertainty of working with a program I am not knowledgeable about. To start with I had a lot of difficulty finding the most recent version for the Mac and even after I found an update and downloaded it I couldn't find the features that I was supposed to have...leading me to believe that I had not actually downloaded the newest version. Regardless, thanks to some good friends who don't have Macs (PC users aren't all bad) I was able to add a bubble note anyway. I was actually pleasantly surprised on the other hand about uploading the PDF biology file into Kurzweil, as it was easier than I expected...that is if one is willing to accept the orange worm turning pink, which I was. I read the help section and apparently color not being displayed quite right is a fairly common issue with the Mac version when uploading other file formats. Overall the project wasn't as much work as I expected, just one of those rare days though that makes me think maybe life would be easier with a PC.

Universal Design is Done

Before...




After...
So here's my UDL Project....well a link anyway. After a lot of effort trying to figure out how to post my power point presentation so you could all see it, I decided to go with the best possible option I could find. Not ideal, so here are some necessary steps if you want to see it...

Visit the website below, which will take you to pocket knowledge and my file "Pollution and Recycling". Pocket knowledge may require you to sign in first so if you don't already have an account you may have to create one, it's free! Also when you open the file you will need to go to Slide Show and then click on View Show to see the presentation. If you have any questions or problems, feel free to email me.

http://pocketknowledge.tc.columbia.edu/home.php/viewfile/35732

Universal Design on the way to after...

So I apologize for the lack of explanation and detail attached to my directions. I was hoping to be able to acquire a picture to go with it and then explain the two, but as of recently no one has been to my parent's house, where the rest of the project presently is, so I will get that posted as soon as possible. So the directions are actually directions for a center I created for my third grade students last year. Therefore, I was hoping to also post a picture of the center itself (and will do so as soon as possible). The center and consequently the tasks were focused on pollution, garbage and recycling. At the center there was a variety of non-fiction books and magazine articles about these topics for students to read and look through in order for students to find information pertaining to the different areas and work through the tasks.
From a Universal Design for Learning (UDL) perspective there are certainly many things that could be changed about these tasks that could improve the likelihood of success for a variety of students. To start with, as I just described the center, there could be a wider variety of media at the center from which to acquire information. For example, there could be a laptop or computer with a list of various websites (or even with websites bookmarked) with information about recycling, garbage, or pollution. There could also be books on tape (teacher-created or bought). As well as newspaper clippings or fictional books on the topic.
Although the center did contain rubrics to guide students in meeting the criteria for each task there are other accomodations that could be made in order to aid students in better understanding expectations. This could include having samples of what exemplary finished products might look like or having directions available in an audio format.
Finally, expectations for student outcomes could be varied to make the center more accessible to a variety of students. Presently, students were expected to move through the tasks on each card in order. One easy accomodation would be to allow students to choose only a couple of tasks, therefore disregarding order, for each section, possibly from a wider range of options, so students can choose tasks that align with their skills and interests. Another possibility, which could be easier to accomplish given the presence of a computer (as discused earlier in reference to other informational media) would be to allow students a greater variety of media options in presenting their information, such as typing or drawing on the computer rather than by hand. In the center's present state there were folders with a few different types of papers for students to choose between depending on what they felt was most appropriate for the task at hand. These are just some potential changes to the present tasks and directions to move them, and the center as a whole, into a UDL-friendly envronment.

Universal Design Challenge (Before)

Dr. Keller's Interview

First of all, I think the availability of the interview in such a wide variety of mediums was very appropriate considering the content of the interview, and personally much appreciated as it meant I could combine listening to it with training (I'm training for the Avon Breast Cancer Walk-a marathon and a half, so training is unfortunately rather time-consuming, so thank you for making it available as a podcast.
I thought that Dr. Keller had some really interesting perspectives both on technology and on special education. I found his connection between the different paradigms relating to special education and the terminology used for technology particularly interesting. As I have had little experience with technology I assumed that there was a difference between assistive technology and adaptive technology and didn't realize they were interchangeable terms. However, after Dr. Keller acknowledged this fact and explained his preference I found myself really relating to what he said and able to see how these different terms are indicative of the paradigm that he connected them to. As he said assistive implies the person requires assistance from others, that the person is broken and needs to be fixed, this definitely follows the medical model assuming that there is some inherent problem to be fixed or corrected in the way a person's body works. Whereas adaptive technology makes me think of technology that simply changes the environment so that this person's unique needs and strengths can be used more advantageously in a new surrounding that suits them. This focus on changing the environment feels to me like the way that special education reform should be moving, it is truly representative of the type of equality that is supposed to be our country's foundation.
Along the lines of adapting the environment rather than assisting the person was Dr. Keller's comment about the creative use of materials. The compensatory use of materials is something teachers often don't consider, myself included, and can be of enormous benefit to everyone. Rather than waiting for the money for the perfect piece of equipment, which as we know can take a long time if government funds are required, or for the perfect equipment to be created we can look around ourselves and find something that will work just as well, as Dr. Keller did with his in-flight audio recorder. However, I do acknowledge that this isn't always the easiest thing to do. In fact often I think the easiest solution is sometimes the most difficult to see, even when it is right in front of your nose, as I'm sure was the case with the pencil for the astronauts scenario.
From there, Dr. Keller went into his story about Washington Square Park. I think that story would be a wonderful story for not only teachers, but students with disabilities to hear. As I have never been a student with a disability I know that I can't even begin to imagine the struggles that my students will have not only in learning, working, and everyday tasks, but in coming to terms with who they are including their strengths and weaknesses, as we all do, but with the addition of their disability and how that affects their life and how others perceive them. I think for students to be able to hear from someone who really has accomplished so much in his life about how hard it was for him, they will be able to understand that those types of feelings are normal and expected.
Dr. Keller's next story involving the color identifier brought a question to my mind that I don't know if there really is an exact answer to. Dr. Keller talked about the independence and control he felt at being able to choose to learn that information, the colors of his surroundings. However, Dr. Keller did used to have sight and therefore has an association with what he perceives brown or gray or blue as, but what about a person who has never had sight or has always been colorblind, would this person really benefit from a color identifier? Would there be any association for them of what brown or gray or blue means?
Finally, the last thing I wanted to discuss was when Dr. Keller brought up the curb cuts for people in wheelchairs and the negative impact these have for some others with disabilities. I hadn't ever thought before about how one person's access to an environment is actually a potential block of access for another. It made me sad when he said there's no perfect solution because I suppose I had never thought about that truth before, that there isn't any way to really meet everyone's needs regardless of how long we work at it or how thorough we try to be.

As for the Points to Remember document, to be perfectly honest I didn't find either one particularly clear. I definitely found the word version easier, but the print was still small and close together. The PDF format was very difficult for me to read as there was little sense of directionality and presented itself more as an image then text. As was discussed in Chapter 3, everyone has different issues or strengths in perception and I suppose that my strength coincides with our society's norm, print. I find things easier to follow that are in a sequential order and I am lucky enough to be a good reader, a definite advantage in our print-focused society. On the other hand, the PDF format appeared to me to be more of an image with less of a sequence, allowing students to read it in the order they choose. This could definitely be beneficial for students that have issues in sequencing.

What is Problem Solving?

I think both the introduction and the article give great insight into the expectations of this class, and I think as presumably all of us are or will be teachers it's definitely an appropriate goal. I agree with Martinez's assertions about the importance of problem solving and I feel as educators in order to find the best way to teach our students problem solving we just may need to go through the process of learning to problem solve ourselves. That's not to say we don't all already problem solve as Martinez stated, but there is definitely a difference between our natural problem solving skills and this explicit teaching of problem solving.
While I agree with Martinez that problem solving does need to be a greater focus in schools, I know from my own experience that not all schools focus simply on "the cognitive resource of knowledge" and many do also teach problem solving. This past year I worked with a group of third grade teachers, most of whom had been teaching for quite a while, who introduced me to a diagram of problem solving steps. At the bottom of the stairs was step one-reading the question and finding out what information is known, then on step two-reading the question again and distinguishing what information you are trying to figure out, next on step three-choose a strategy to solve the problem, and finally on step four-use your strategy to find the solution and check your answer. While this was an effective tool to teach students the process of problem solving and I felt it was completely adequate during the year, after reading this article I can clearly see some of it's limitations (that's not to say however that I don't think it's at least a 'step' in the right direction). First of all these problem-solving steps were limited to use in the mathematics area, which didn't help students to understand the process of problem-solving as a generalized idea that could be applied in all areas where uncertainty was encountered. Additionally, while students were encouraged to use different strategies to solve problems the types of strategies used and discussed were far more often specific heuristics and not general heuristics, which could be applied to a far greater array of situations. On the positive side, when problem solving, students were required to show all work and at the end present not just their response, but to talk the class through their problem-solving process so others could learn from their strategies and see that sometimes mistakes eventually led to the right answers and sometimes even though incorrect solutions were made due to computational errors, correct strategies were used. In both of these situations students received partial credit, hopefully learning that not only correct answers are valued.
What struck me most about Martinez's article however was that in all of my years of being educated and educating others I've never before heard or seen the term heuristics or had the process of problem-solving explicitly explained to me in that way. I think students could benefit immensely by seeing problem solving represented in this way using age-appropriate terms. I think if using more simplistic terms I had explicitly taught my third graders means-ends analysis or successive approximations they would have understood their own processes in problem-solving much better and therefore been able to engage in metacognitive skills and had more success in problem-solving.
I seem to be developing a pattern of pessimism at the end however and have to question one small comment in the article. Martinez discusses the detrimental effect of anxiety on problem-solving. I agree with his assertion that "Anxiety is a spoiler in the problem-solving process." However, I don't necessarily agree with his comment that "Those who cannot bear situations in which it is impossible to see the way clearly to the end are emotionally ill-prepared to solve problems." I think children can be taught to work through their anxiety and problem-solve despite this. However if we do choose to believe that Martinez's comments are true then what happens to the children who do have anxiety disorders or other disabilities and are therefore incapable of seeing the way clearly to the end without uncertainty clouding the way? Is he implying that these students are inherently incapable of developing problem-solving skills?