Curriculum Connections

It is true that you can learn something new all of the time! I did not know that October is "Disability Awareness Month". The lesson plans are informative and creative. They look like activities that most students wouldn't mind doing.

One of the things that I learned during this program of Discovering Assistive Technology is that I can easily reach out to other departments in the school and inquire as to things that I can do in the media center to make accommodations for students with disabilities. There are many highly qualified people with great ideas! If we only had more time, or we had some control over our professional development days at school, cross curriculum planning would be wonderful. If this ideal planning session ever took place, I would gladly recommend this site! (Discovering Assistive Technology listed above). The books on the recommended reading list look interesting, and I think some of them would be a great addition to our teachers section of reading material. And finally this is my only BLOG and I have linked your site several time :)

Thank You
Thank You
Thank You

Etiquette and Awareness

This weeks module explores Etiquette and Awareness. Although two of the hyperlinks provide in the module were not working, I understand the idea. There is power in the words that we use when we are communicating with a person with a disability. The You-Tube video was a nice switch demonstrating an able bodied man as he navigates the world of that is occupied only by people with handicaps. I passed the Quiz on knowledge and attitude relating to a person with disability with a 100%. The last part was interesting, the ten commandments with the increasing font size. I was wondering why it was like that until I pushed the glasses up further on my nose! It was much easier reading the larger size font, as a I'm sure a person with low vision would agree:)

Resources for Independent Living, Inc. Is Burlington County New Jersey web site that is a good source of information on programs that serve people with disabilities.
Here are the web sites that I felt would be useful for Assistive Technology:
1. The Aliance for Technology Access This site was designed to help students with disabilities increase their use of technology.
2.Assistive Tech by Tobii ATI is another great source of hardware and software specifically for assistive technology.
3.Family Guide to Assistive Technology has many links to helpful sites including funding AT, making AT decisions, and making AT a part of a childs education.
4. Assistive Technology for Children with Autism I liked that this site had specific information for children wit autism. Some times it is nice to get specific information
5. Assistive Technology partners is the next web site I would like suggest for my students and parents to review this site offers persons with disabilites to reach their highest potential through the addition of appropriate assistive technoloy.

AT - Software

I chose to look at two programs that look at text-to-speech for my high school students that suffer from auditory processing disorders (APD). Both programs - Kurzwiel 3000 and the Natural Reader offer similar features - voice options, speed of reading, compatibility with Microsoft programs and mp3 audio files. I think the Kurzwiel 3000 will appeal to students aesthetic needs. The Natural Reader can also function just as well, but the final say has to be with the students who would want a program that they would LOVE to use.

My original plan was to look at a speech to write program , like Dragon Naturally Speaking. I felt that the APD students would benefit from this technology in the classroom. When I stopped thinking like a teacher and more of a media specialist I felt the reverse would work best in the media center.

AT- Hardware Selection

Hi again, Sorry for the delay in posting here. I have had a rough two weeks. I lost two students, one was killed, the second was locked up for killing the first, and we just lost a teacher from her fight with breast cancer. UGH....

I spoke with the lead councilor in our child study team, the director of our special education department and also with our speech therapist at the high school to identify an area that I could focus on as I work to transition into the position of media specialist. We all felt the one of the areas that would be helpful to our students is assistive technology for auditory processing disorders (APD). Students with this disorder do not have hearing loss they are just unable to decode and understand the information they are presented with. I did like the hardware I found called a Frequency Modulation (FM) System which allows students to clearly hear what the teacher/media specialist is saying while blocking out the background interference. This is the most immediate solution, even better I would love to see each student with their own lap tops and headphones. After all we should be teaching them to work in their world of digital natives.

A book I found that looks very interesting on the topic is by Teri Bellis When the Brain Can't Hear: Unraveling the mystery of auditory processing disorders. if you get a chance, check it out.

Working my way through the web site Discovering Assistive Technology I discovered MANY different keyboard configurations that looked like it would meet many users needs. I was really touched by the video clips that were provided that gave a voice and independence to the graphic designer Leigh-Ann Tompkins.

Assistive Technology and Universal Design

This week I read about technology plans in Odin Jurkowski's book Technology and the School Library. I understand better the necessity of getting a technology plan in place, I will be serving the need of the entire population of my school, not just the 100 students I teach. As a classroom teacher it was easy to make modifications to meet LD students needs because clear modifications were made in the students IEP (individualized education plan). Some of the standard modifications include supplying a copy of notes, seating close to the board, extended time for tests, and a few students took notes on an alpha board. I like the ideas that Universal Design advocates. And the sooner the modifications are adopted, the better served my entire population will be. As a media specialist I will no longer have to worry about extended test taking time, but I will need to provide a room that all students can use and enjoy.

Watching the you-tube presentations on different types of disabilities and accommodations was very interesting. I have minimal contact with differently-ables people, that I know of that is. Many people could be suffering from Mood disorders, and could have had speech differences in their life. For years I had speech therapy and I share that information with my students that are in speech classes in high school. I spent some time reading the Blogs of students that are visually challenged as the talked about their experiences at a camp. I know how difficult it is for me to find my way around a new place, and here is a group of kids taking on that challenge as blind students! I was amazed at the glimpse into their lives and I have been thinking of way I could help a blind student at our school. I know we have several books that are in written in Braille, but I wonder how easy it would be to purchase newer material for students? I'll have to investigate that!

I just spent a few minutes on Amazon.com looking for braille books. And my first search reminded me that I have to be careful of the search terms I use. I had to remove the word 'adult' from my criteria, um.., I was able to locate a separate section for visually impaired readers. There was a list of 250 books ranging from Dr. Suess to Stpehen King, not extensive but at least there were choices. The site also has under its sponsored link section a link to a books on braille web site. When I stop to think about it, there are many reasons to put modifications in place for students that need or may need assisitive technology. I am looking forward to examining my high school library and seeing whet I can do when/if I move over into the media specialist position.

Week #9 Thing #23

WOW, this is the end of my journey through the blog classroom learning 2.0! It isn't the end of my learning, just using this particular avenue. I was particularly surprised that I was able to complete these tasks, some times I feel like I could be to old to learn new tricks. What I have discovered is that with a little exploring, and asking if necessary, I can figure out new things.

The part I love the most from this exercise is my Google Reader! I check the site often. My least favorite part was the mashup assignment. It is difficult for me to see an application right now.

Two things about the blog classroom learning 2.0 that I would change if I would: The light blue text is difficult to read, and the menu on the right that leads to all of the hyperlinks is different. When a site is hyperlinked, I am used to seeing the text in bold colors or underlined... I did figure it out eventually, but that was an unnecessary stress.

If I had to describe my learning in one word I would say : rewarding ! Who knew that I could learn so many new things about technology that I will be able to take with me. Thank you :)

Week #9 Thing #22

The easiest part of this week is talking about audio books. I have listened to audio book for a long time. It started when I had an hour long commute to work, I would listen to a book while I drove often sitting in the parking lot unwilling to leave the car! A few years ago I started listening to Audio books with my kids during the summer months, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire read by Jim Dale, was the first book we "read". We would bring the CD player from room to room cleaning as we went. My daughter complained that our house was 'freakishly' clean. I was very happy :) A few recommendation I would make to others looking into audio books are 1. Generally... Authors do not make good readers...one exception is The Graveyard Book by Niel Gainman... He did a wounderful job. 2. I ALWAYS want the unabridged version of the book.

I am very interested in e-books. As a matter of fact when I graduate from Clarion, my graduation gift to myself will be a Kindle... or some version of an e book reader. For this assignment I went on the Project Gutenberg to check out free book to download. I did successfully download a book but after a few paragraphs I discovered that it is hard to bookmark my spot, and I didn't have all night to read. Today I went online to my local library and found a section of e-books from them. I downloaded Adobe Digital Editions and was able to download a book that I would like to read. It has a pleasing look, black background, the cover of the book is colorful, and the adobe has pages that I can turn to read each page, and a bookmark, so I won't have to search for the page I stopped at. It looks like fun! My one question I was unable to discover is ...what happens after my 21 day check out period? How is the book 'removed' once my borrowing time is over? I guess I'll just have to wait and see.

Week #9 Thing #21

I chose to explore PodCast.com and, one of the reasons I picked this place is because the link worked from classroom learning 2.0. I subscribed to a podcast called The Teachers' Podcast. It was interesting hearing two people (Kathy and Mark) interview an author (Lawrence Peters) about his book "Inspiring Students: Global Education using technology to bring technology to your students." The conversation was interesting, so much so that I went to amazon.com to look up the book! Here is the link to the book!

Hope you like the information I found! I feel that technology is an important part of our students future, and we need to be on the cutting edge or at least flexible enough engage students to embrace 2.0 technology.

Week #9 Thing #20

With the help of my son (13 years old!) we figured out how to embed a video from youtube. We always seem to spend a few hours on Youtube once we go to that site. It is a big sink of time.

On the upside, my students LOVE YouTube!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NeUid2rv848



I know this is a little young for my high school audience, but it is still funny! Really I cannot help but think of some of the questions my librarian has to respond to in a professional manner, she has to field some unusual requests. I hope I can learn to be as patient with the teachers odd requests. Last week a teacher asked for travel brochures. Our librarian says the local library actually has copies of them for patrons! Who would have thought travel brochures would be available in a library. I have so much to learn.

Week #8 Thing #19

Library Thing is the topic for this entry. The specific request asked us to find material that would supplement our Web Quests. My topic is on the world biomes, and I have found several books that would be wonderful resources for my students to use. At least I think they would be a good resource. They look age appropriate for my ninth and tenth grade students, but I was disappointed that there wasn't more information available. Try my link below for my picks for Biome research !

Library Thing

Week #8 Thing #18

I like to use	tables in my work	but I am unable to	change the column
width...	The auto save	feature is different	too. I like that the
work is saved often.	I'll try to post it to	my blog.

Ok.. Here is the table I made using Zoho writer. The table was difficult to manipulate, I often move the column width to meet the needs of the contents. I did like the online ability to edit documents. I have been working with my husband to compose a formal letter for an event he is hosting. It is much easier to look at the same place, even at the same time compared to sending e-mail messages back and forth. I really like the fact that I am able to send the work to my blog. That is very nice. As I am typing I have no idea where my USB mass storage device is hiding, if I used Zoho writer... this wouldn't be an issue. Zoho offers a lot of convenience. I briefly looked at Google Doc's and it looks like their program offers many of the same features of Zoho writer.

OT (off topic) I wonder what my grandparents would think of this technology. Even better I wonder what the future will hold for my kids I wonder how archaic Blogs and Zoho writer will be to them :)

Quest update!

I worked on this web quest with another teacher in my science department, Kristi Rose. It will fit in perfect with our topics we are covering in the next two weeks!

I was able to update the sandbox on the Classroom 2.0 web site I am not sure how to get the same pages here. I will try.. keep your fingers crossed.

Biome Web Quest

Thanks Erin! I read your blog and discovered that I need to copy the URL from the sandbox in classroom 2.0....

There is one problem with my web quest that I am not happy about. All of the links read the same thing .... rollyo.com/rcarvin/ecology.... when in fact there are five specific roll search sites (related to specific biomes). I could not figure out how to post them indvidually. I know I found the specific URL last time, but I could not figure it out this time. The students will still be able to find the location, but it isn't as 'neat' as it could be :(

If you have any advice I will gladly take it. Our department will be using this webquest in two weeks!

Week #7 Thing # 17

Hi I am still waiting for my password to be sent to me. I have acquired many accounts in my journey into becoming a media specialist, and I try to remember my username and password combinations, but sometimes I forget. So long story short..ha ha.. I am waiting for my new password to be sent to me so I can play in the wiki sanndbox :)

Ok success I was able to post a comment in the sandbox. I'm off to work on my quest. TTYL

Week #7 Think #16

In a previous class at Clarion I was introduced to the Wiki format, and I like the examples provided via classroom learning 2.0. I think using a Wiki page from the media center is a perfect forum for busy students that would like to participate in group book discussions but have club or sport obligations. This would allow the students the flexibility they need to fit another activity into their hectic schedules.

I like the way you are able to protect the content of the page and that only authorized persons can edit information. On a VERY positive notes, I know that Wiki pages are not blocked at my school! The is great way to work with the students.

Week #6 Thing #15

The Classroom Learning 2.0 web page has the following disclaimer: Learning 2.0 is a discovery learning program created by Helene Blowers. Content and style for School Library Learning 2.0 and Classroom Learning 2.0 have been borrowed and duplicated with permission, under a Creative Commons License.
I was interested it the information in the article by Tom Storey, Where will the next generation Web take libraries? I agree that Library 2.0 is a great start, we will have to meet the needs of this digital generation, or we will be left behind.
Rick Anderson's article Away from the 'icebergs' really hits home. I have been helping our librarian weed the collection. specifically of the 900 books and next we are moving onto the reference section. I cannot imagine that these books have been looked at by more that a handful of people in the last ten years. I don't imagine I will be replacing these books if I become librarian there. I can see us becoming more of the roving librarians, visiting classrooms via skype or some other means to have an instructional period.

I really liked the video clip " A Fair(y) Use tale. I think this would be a great video to show the faculty at my school. I'll be sure to get permission first:)

Week #6 Thing #14

Exploring Technorati I entered the search term "classroom learning 2.0" and had 395 results. I changed the search to look for "school library learning 2.0" and there were 117 results. I like that there is an interesting site to connect with other bloggers. This could be helpful in the future. I like the tagging system. I know when I had an account on facebook my niece would often tag me in a random picture that I hadn't even know she had taken. Some nice, some I would not have posted in a million years.. bad angle...bad hair..you get the idea. I think that is a downside of tagging, what if you disagree with the original tag, can anyone edit the tag? Just curious.

Week #6 Think #13

This week asked us to look at the social book marking site called Del.icio.us specifically at the account highlight for Classroom Learning 2.0. I did not follow the suggestion to add it to my RSS feed, I have just enough information there to work with. Speaking of Google reader... I LOVE the fact that when I look in my favorites the number of unread posts will show up next to Google Reader! Right now I have 689 posts. But I know Science Daly has at least 500 of those posts, so its not really too much to look at. I have set up an account with del.isio.us and I even tried adding tags to organize my sites. I just have too many bookmarks to do at once. There are four people in this house that share my lap top, I really didn't know how many sites they bookmarked until I had this assignment. I want to check with them before I delete their sites.

I think this site can be very useful to librarians. Many of us will be working in isolation and having a network of sites to use can be very helpful. But once again this site is blocked through our filtering program. I did ask two of our computer technicians what they thought my chances of getting permission to access these restricted sites were, and they felt I had no chance at all. It appears that a former librarian at the middle school in our district wanted to test the filtering program for the students and entered in several pornographic web sites, she lost her job and the case is still in the courts. I may have to wait a little longer before I ask again.

Week #5 Thing #12

Thing #12 is about Rollyo.

As many have already noted...Rollyo is SLOW! So slow in fact that when I tried to access the Public Domain e-Book Search, the site was timed out. I tried the Rare Book, and after a few attempts to think of a rare book to search for (I finally settled on the Bible) I had several sites that were recommended. The site Free PhotosQuick Search was removed from Rollyo. Which brings up an interesting point... If we create a site that links to many other sites what happens when a site is closed down/removed. I guess it is not enough to set up a site, maintenance is required to make sure the links are still working.

I have finally finished my very own Rollyo, and it was dreadful! I am not exaggerating when I say that I spent over five hours on Sunday fussing with the site while waiting for the pages to load between changes. If there is an upside... I have a new high score on tetris... which I was able to play while waiting for the pages to load :)

If this site was faster, it would be fabulous. I love the idea, but it doesn't work for me. I have decided to offer the site exploration for extra credit for my students over the weekend. I'll let you know what they think.

http://rollyo.com/rcarvin/ecology/

Week #5 Thing #11

Thing #11 asks us to explore award winning web 2.0 sites.

I was surprised to find that I have already used/visited some sites on the list! Here is a list : Google Docs, PBwiki, Wikispaces, Google Map, Google Earth, Twitter, Pandora, Google Blog Search, Technorati, Facebook and YouTube.

I was NOT surprised to find out that there are MANY sites I had no idea about! There is so much out there just waiting to be discovered!

I did set up an account with NING, but here I am again with an account on a social networking site that is blocked by my school discticts filtering program. I am approaching this with an open mind, who knows where my lifes journey will take me? I may eventually work in a media center where there is access to the entire WWW!!! I have sent in my request to join the library 2.0 setting. I think that site could be the most helpful/informative in the future.

Week #5 Thing #10

Above is an OLD picture of my kids (2005) I'll have to update the pictures I have on this computer.. soon :)

Week #4 Thing #9

I LOVE the feature Google reader has + Add a subscription... I put in the search term Biology (the subject I am teaching currently) and added Discovery News and Science Daily.

I investigated blogs related to South Jersey and school libraries and I found many sites. A couple of the sites had only a few amount of subscribers (1-5) this makes me a bit suspicious of the authenticity of the site. It is up there with my random thoughts and my fellow classmates that take the time to read them :) I did find a site that I am interested in but I have to be a member to subscribe - New Jersey Association of School Librarians.

I wonder if any of my fellow classmates at Clarion are thinking of attending the conference on November 13, 2009 in East Brunswick, NJ? My school township denied me permission to attend last year and had to use my own time. This year I tried to word my PIP with iron clad wording that would sway my administration to permit me to attend using a professional workshop day instead of a personal day! Wish me luck! Either way, I will be there :)

Week #4 Thing #8

This week the task was to set up our own RSS feed reader, and subscribe to at least five newsfeeds. Since I already use Google blogger, I was connected to many of my classmates! A few of the feeds I have subscribed to include: Discovery News Top Stories, School Library Journal and Science Daily. I officially feel overwhelmed. It did not take me long to find interesting sites to subscribe to, but I find this exercise to be a huge sink of time. Right now I have 303 items waiting for me to read. On my last visit to the google reader, it took me three hours to read all of the information. Everything was very interesting and it is difficult for me to determine what I should read, and what I should skip.

I guess my final though about RSS is that this could be a very useful tool, if I had specific sites I was interested in gathering information about. For instance when I move into a position of media specialist, I could limit the information to professional inquiries. But my general interest in many subjects.... is exhausting... at least at the present moment :)

Week #3 Thing #7

This week I purchased a gift for myself to use in the classroom, a wireless presenter! According to the directions, all I have to do is to insert into the wireless USB receiver into the USB drive and the device should work. When I tested the product at home, it worked fine (of course). When I arrived at school it appears that the dell computer I use has the USB drives at a 45% angle, and so my receiver does not sit properly and therefore it does not work. Now I am on the hunt for a USB extender cable! I'm not giving up! Just a little wrinkle in the road.

Week #3 Thing #6

I was finally able to find enough information to lead me to the "toy" application on flickr's web site. I have discovered that if I read ALL the directions BEFORE I begin, life would be a lot easier. But that did NOT happen tonight :) I read the DOCS/Assignments that hinted at the direction. What I should have done is go directly to the Classroom Learning 2.0 site and click on the links for the week! OK, I'll get better at this. Every week I am really learning something new.

I was able to locate the fun site under "Flickr Services" under the Explorer tab and then used "fd's Flickr Toys" to create the trading card. Once I was able to locate the site, it didn't take me long to navigate and make the trading card.

I think my students would enjoy this feature! They are a creative group of teenagers.

I looked at several examples of mashups, and I even attempted to create one using Google Map. One of my problems is the fear of giving out too much information on the web. I opted not to use any of my photo's but used the ones that were already available. The results were interesting!

Week #3 Thing #5

The objective of this week is to explore Flickr and learn more about image hosting sites. I was able to easily upload a few pictures that I had on my hard drive and it was very easy. The part I REALLY liked about this application is the editing tool called Picnik! This application was very user friendly, and I felt more confident in the results that I posted. I even added tags. My only regret is that these are old photographs of my kids, they have really changed over a two year period, but the newer images are on another computer. If we had our pictures posted on Flickr this wouldn't be an issue! I'm not sure if this link will work to my page, but you are welcome to give it a try: http://www.flickr.com/photos/rcarvin/

I would love to use this at my school, I am sure my students would LOVE it. But alas, all imaging sites are blocked at my high school.

My creation

My creation
Originally uploaded by Regina_C

Here is my trading card. Not fancy, but I did enjoy using the editing photo option to get just a head shot here.

DH & Me

DH & Me
Originally uploaded by Regina_C

Grinning for the camera

Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

First Post and Avatar adventures

Hello again my Clarion friends! Here I am on working on revising my old blog from last semester, to freshen things up a bit with a little more color. I made my avatar earlier in the week, but it took me several attempts to get the picture posted to this site. I can be an impatient learner, if it doesn't happen quickly I want to stop all together. I came back to it the next day and eventually I did figure it out. It was fun deciding on the outfit and the background for my avatar.

23 Things... I am looking forward to learning new technology and I hope that I will be able to carry this on to the library that I will eventually work at. I am looking at week nine and I find it hard to believe that I will be able to make a podcast!