Millennials and Future Podcasts Moodles Blogs Wikis Interactive whiteboards “ User-centric” Online curriculum Web 2.0
GOAL Through the integration of technology, ensure students and staff are effective users of ideas and information.
Digital text or Digital Materials are any electronic versions of the curriculum materials that are used in the classroom. Includes: Word documents, internet, pdfs, email Other Terms: digital books, text transformations, modified texts, electronic text, wav, mp3, audio, daisy, synthetic speech, text-to-speech, text-to-audio
Shari – title and introduce Melissa – planets aligned – feel good about the next couple of years thanks for survey monkey – sorry for problems – thanks for input; results are similar to most of our staff – limited knowledge – most people after this initial overview show significant growth so I ‘m sure you all will too.
We are going to review the first 4 items and then Shari will give you a preview of some of the tech tools available.
WHO are our students – Millenials, Digital Natives, who our students millennial handouts – National Technology Plan (NCLB) 2004 plan includes use and integration of technology for staff and students – student voices – how they want to learn Digital natives vs. digital immigrants Just think for a moment about how much in your own lifetime has changed in this field, technology, everything changes very rapidly. Change is inevitable! FUTURE: Technology is truly closing the gap for students with and without disabilities – exciting times – moving towards more and more open source software – meaning free and useable by all! Moodles online course creation software FREE, MIT (newsjournal) now is making available online all their course lectures, assignments to the world for free Link to Video - animation Change is inevitable
Larry Cuban (Stanford) money spent on education 10% K-12 teachers use technology regularly meaning 1 time per week. 10 – 50% occasionally 50 hardly use at all Teachers are not technophobes Talks about access and use – access is HUGE, but does not guarantee regularity in use “Where does technology really impact education?” I think Diverse needs of individual – gaining information for work, school, leisure activities, fun, research, etc.
Why are we here: For several years now we have been training groups at individual schools, but had a district-wide plan for training awareness through expertise; Last year we had a focus group of (secondary teachers) High School teachers using digital text/text-to-speech programs (Deland HS, AHS, NSBHS) – they used specific programs, collected data and gave input for district wide implementation digital text for ESE students. We came up with a Recommended Path for Integrating Technology Tools – look at path RPITT – path We received funding to provide additional software tools to middle and high schools – we’ll preview those for you in a few minutes. Natural Reader upgraded version, TestTalker, some schools already have high end tools which you will also see.
In IDEIA most recent revisions to align NCLB with IDEA 97 (RTI, accommodations – strategies and AT tools) Assistive Technology definition needs to be linked here “Any item…” Have a couple of low tech tools to hold up/ highlighting tape, page-up…a lot of people think primarily of the high tech tools NCLB and IDEA (1997) mandate increased expectations and accountability for this diverse range of students to access participate, and progress in the general curriculum . It’s often up to teachers to individualize instruction. Universal Design – part of curriculum considerations and meeting needs of variety of students multiple means of representation, expression and engagement – differentiated instruction NIMAS - Standard used to prepare electronic files suitable and used solely for efficient conversion to specialized formats – publishers from august 2006 had to provide in common code which can then be converted to be used with variety of programs (daisy, mp3, braille, etc.)
Most of us think of the augmentative communication or complicated devices when we think of assistive technology, (refer to survey responses) but there are many more no/low and mid tech tools which are fairly simple that can be used and are being used – highlighter tape, page-up, text-to-speech The state gives examples, but cannot ever list in totality because it is always changing.
A lot of people were not sure if they had ever used digital text or not on the survey. I think that it is the terminology that makes it seem more exotic than it actually is… Electronic text – wikipedia – look up definitions of digital text (most often found to be recorded books, but mathematically speaking it refers to numeric coding) Text stored as strings of characters. If you can select and change the font of text on the computer screen, it’s digital text Many books and historical documents have been converted to digital format, for access via computer.
60 – 90% after 4 th grade learning based on text books Elementary learning to read, secondary reading to learn – Dave Edyburn (U of Wisconsin) talks about when do you give students access to accommodations that compensate for learning difficulties – especially for core content courses such as science and social studies Tools that they can use beyond school
Digital text is one of the Top Ten classroom technology strategies – FDLRS Tech document out of Tallahassee (2005) Visit FDLRS tech at FETC Masking – can be done either low tech using reading guides or with digital text using special software tools Text-to-speech – read aloud by computer – words are highlighted then that improves fluency (one of the 5 areas of reading) Embedding learning supports/scaffolding in content Pre-reading background, definitions Summary Key questions
On the survey we asked numbers of students with specific accommodations – like extended time and some of you did not know how many students at your school use – can get this information from Data Warehouse last page of FCAT accommodations Total # students with accommodations at a secondary school. Let’s look at the largest numbers here – 373 and 360 – what do you think these accommodations represent? 373 = Additional time, 360 = small group setting or individual, text-to-speech (2.05) = 0, read aloud (2.02) = 23 Point of this Just to heighten our sensitivity to really finding accommodations that have impact, lifelong, accommodations will be used throughout life, after school/tests/etc.
Only mention because our data shows that only 4 students have text-to-speech technology on IEP – over 4000 have read aloud; we need to make sure we are using these strategic tech tools in the classroom and that they are reflected on the IEP. This March, the math will have an online version with text-to-speech built in – part of beta test for state online testing Data Warehouse – survey you all were fairly accurate…show totals for school with codes…insert slide Link to online FCAT math practice with Text-to-speech reading tool.
Remember this is the big umbrella for strategies and assistive technology Trial use, matching student/curriculum needs and data collection to see which accommodations actually make a noticeable/significant difference.
Demonstrate various programs start with free End up with more expensive currently in use n county also point out ones which we are going to provide to schools…
Focus is not on the technology tool, but on student learning…finally we do have some research so we know where to start, what tech tools to try – what is holding us back?
Refer to brochure in your hands – this is provided so you can have examples of what is possible and how you can assist us and be on our tech team! Take a few minutes to read the quotes from research