Thursday, January 23, 2014
Wednesday, January 22, 2014
The SETT Framework: Evaluating Special Education Assistive Technology-TIE Conference Holyoke,Ma January 2014
On January 14th, I had
the opportunity to visit The "Technology in Education" Conference put
on by the collaborative.org organization in Holyoke, Ma at the Kittredge Center
at Holyoke Community College. It was my first visit to this conference and was
able to benefit from the small focused presentations made by educators
predominantly from the western part of the state.
I was accepted as a
presenter for this conference and made a presentation to approximately 30
educators/administrators on the tools and resources for beginning a Mobile
Application Development course. I presented using a Google Presentation but
also included links to a website I am currently developing which contains all
of the lessons I have created for the Bunker Hill Community College
Courses Mobile App
Development Certificate. I shared these resources and also a variety of videos
students in my classes have made of apps made in a Project-Based Learning
environment with technology. Here is a link to the resources and presentation.
After my presentation I
had the pleasure of sitting in on a fantastic presentation from Dale Gardner-Fox,
Jeanne Tuthill and Allegra Osborne. Their presentation "Are You SETT to
go?" outlined the barriers to successful Assistive technology
implementation in special education. They described the frustrating problems of
choosing tools which don't fit students’ needs and abilities, lack of proper training,
environmental factors as well as the timeliness and appropriateness of the
assistive technology. 
The presenters described
and outlined the "SETT" model developed by Joy Zabala(http://www.joyzabala.com/) as a
beneficial process to help asset in best implementing assistive technology.
SETT stands for
Students, Environment,
Task and Tools. Each one of these elements are collaboratively evaluated in
teams which take into account consideration of the student needs, selection of
proper technology, a plan for implementation and a process for evaluating the
effectiveness of the process.
The SETT framework
counters several large issues with assistive technology:
1. Poor implementation
and planning of Assistive technology.
2. Consistent and
Appropriate Use of Assistive Technology
3. Due to cognitive
weaknesses "Tech & Content" cannot be expected learning goals due
to
Cognitive failure.
4. Helps avoid
"learned helplessness"(when students perceive frustration to the
adaptation to the use of technology).
The SETT framework is a
four part model using a collaborative approach to using the technology we want
to use in the special education classroom. The stakeholder team makes things
happen and students in some instances can be part of this decision.
1. Student: When
addressing the students’ needs with assistive technology it is important to
carefully consider the selection of digital tools which take into consideration
the needs of the student and how they will be implemented into the classroom.
·
The consideration and
selection process should be continual and use the IEP as a guide.
·
Selection should be
based on what the stakeholders see the student as being able to do.
·
What barriers and
potential successes are available with the tools?
·
Developing student
motivation to use the technology is beneficial for success.
·
The most important
factor with tools is that there is a plan for the evaluation of the
effectiveness which is done with a team approach including all stakeholders
relative to the student (paraprofessional, teacher, administrators, aides, parents).
2. Environment: Determining
the environment in which the technology will be used is also a critical
component to the SETT framework.
Data from the
environment should be collected from a variety of sources:
·
Strengths and Concerns
·
Physical Barriers
·
Expectations of others.
·
Outside of school
environment.
·
Possible low-tech
adaptations
3. Tasks: What
is the point of the Tech?
It is important to
directly address the purpose of the technology and how it will be used.
·
Is it going home?
·
Is it connected to real
goals?
·
Do the tasks learned
align with active participation in all environments (communication, instruction,
productivity, environmental control)?
An assistive technology
plan helps keep accountability with the student.
4. Tools: The
tools are the choice of devices, applications, computer/web based technology
used in the classroom/home.
·
Devices should support
learning, communication and social goals (Intellitools, IPad, Apps).
·
Services and training
should support the staff and student needs.
·
Specific strategies
should be in place to create motivation with the tools (music, writing, normative
activities).
This framework enables a
real evaluation of how assistive tools can be used and supported in the
classroom. The critical components are that the major stakeholders are involved
in the decision making process and an alignment of the learning goals and
technology used is made as tools are chosen. This framework can also be used as
a district strategy for educating staff on the evaluation of assistive
technology by adjusting the model as a district vision.
S-Student=District Personnel
E-Environment=District Level Knowledge
T-Tasks=Staff Implementing Technology
T-Technology=Technology Both High & Low Tech
By replacing the
variables of the traditional model with district staff a plan for educating
your district with the beneficial strategies of assistive technology alignment
can be gained. A critical role in this process is the district level knowledge
of the importance of a plan with assistive technology and also the training
provided staff for the implementing of the technology into the classroom.
The training this
presentation provided was well conceived and beneficial to my workplace
environment as a high school digital learning specialist who works with devices
in the classroom and student strategies.
Wednesday, January 15, 2014
Instructional Technology & Digital Learning Andover High School Week of January 13-17
During a week in which
most teachers are preparing for the end of semester exams many teachers are
still working at integrating a variety of tools into the classroom. I had a
chance at the last faculty meeting to present some of the components of using
Google Docs with files and some of the benefits of collaboration with these
tools. Being able to share these tools has opened up a variety of conversations
with teacher’s which has extended from just creating Gmail accounts and
exploring the collaboration features to developing Google Forms for Assessment
in the classroom.
Teacher Highlights:
Teachers in Foreign
Language are integrating variety of podcast tools in the foreign language
department to help students learn language. Students can participate in lessons
driven with native speakers and deep embedded vocabulary.
For the purpose of
improving her connection to her students with web based content a teacher is
developing a blog using the Blogger format from Google. She has developed a
variety of lessons and media to support her existing curriculum. She will be
rolling out the website in the new semester. I have had the benefit of working
with her to develop the technology which supports her teaching methodology.
Teachers in the Social
Studies department are in the process of reviewing web based tools in which to
store and share links of curriculum content to share and collaborate with.
Teachers were introduced to tools such a Wikispaces (http://www.wikispaces.com/), Portaportal (http://www.portaportal.com/), Urlist (http://urli.st/) and https://delicious.com . These tools can add layers of productivity
and collaboration between teachers. For the document outlining these tools
click here.
Teachers are beginning
to integrate Apple TV into their classroom environments either by projecting
their desktops to their class or using the built in applications. Apple TV is
an additional piece of hardware which enables “sharing“of Apple devices (IPad, MacBook’s,
and Phone’s) to the projector. This technology is particularly beneficial to
classrooms in which has access to the IPad or MacBook carts so that students can
project their device as well. To learn more about this technology check out
this page from Apple.
Co-Teaching Experiences
I had the opportunity to
go back into Karen Stevens-Mazmans' class and teach a web design lesson using HTML
(Hyper Text Markup Language) and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) for a marketing
webpage assignment she is giving to students. Students are creating promotional
websites based on a product. Click here to see her lesson write up. Going into
her classroom is a great opportunity to share my skills and deepen the skills
learned in the Marketing curriculum. It’s great to see the student’s interest
grows as they learn how to code and change the appearance of websites.
Andover Innovation
Lab/Help Desk
Students are in the
final phases of their independent technology driven projects at the Innovation
Lab. We currently have a student creating a mobile application (Eli Gukovsky), researching
Minecraft in Education (Viabhav Patel) and learning the programming language
Lua (John Makiej). These students will be presenting their final projects
during the finals week in an online platform. For more information visit:
Teachers are well into
the swing of adapting to all the new technology provided to enhance their
teaching and learning. Wireless projection and understanding the intricacies of
their new MacBook’s is beneficial to student engagement but we also want
to continue a deeper level of integration of a variety of web tools such as
Google tools, Workspaces and a variety of Ipad applications which enhances
student understanding of core concepts. In the Science Department a recent
influx of new applications for their Ipad carts has enabled them to demonstrate
Physics, Engineering and core Physical Science content online.
These updates are just
some of the continual evolvement that is going on with technology driven
initiatives at the high school across curriculums.
Wednesday, January 8, 2014
News From The Andover Innovation Lab/Help Desk: IPad Cart Updates & Preparing Our Final Projects-Getting Back In the Flow
After a great Christmas
break we are back at the Andover Innovation Lab and Help Desk ready to conclude
the projects we have been working on in the first semester and also updating
the IPad cart for the Science department.
The Science Department
at Andover High School has the amazing resource of a shared IPad cart which
includes 24 IPad for classroom integration of technology and 1:1 learning
opportunities. At a recent department meeting they collaborated and chose 18
new IPad applications to use in their courses. Amongst these was the app for
Gizmo's which enables students engage in a variety of interactive science activities
and the app for Prezi Presentations which will enable presentation creation
from the IPad. The department did a great job selecting apps which fit their
needs and classroom strategies. Apps like "Evolutionary Biology",
"Ecosystem HD","Bridge Constructor”, and “Genetics Lab
Mobile" will engage students with content rich learning on the IPad.
Organizing and adding
these new applications to their shared IPad cart is the where the role of the
help desk students come in. Viabhav Patel and I (Dan Downs) spent about an hour
and a half with the cart adding the applications to the Science Departments ITunes
account and then synching all the applications to the IPad. This is also an
opportunity to check the status of the charging of the IPad and the
MacBook laptop which is used to streamline this process.
It is great to have
students as part of this process and enables them to not only see the
connection of their learning at the help desk to the needs of the teachers in
the classroom.
After completing the
update Viabhav also had time to do a blog entry for the Innovation Labs blog on
the video series related to better helping teachers understand Minecraft for
use in educational environments. Viabhav has done a great job balancing his
time between working on his own independent project and assisting the needs of
teachers who have the benefits of a variety of new technologies in the
classroom.
Monday, January 6, 2014
An Overview Of Google Drive With Sample Projects & Directions For Sharing Preferences
The following document provides an overview of the use of Google Drive for the creation of Documents,Spreadsheets,Forms and Presentations. I have embedded the document for easy viewing from my Google Drive. The direct link for this document is here.
This document includes links to link shorteners and also information on how to use and integrate the scripts for Flubaroo and Doctopus. These scripts enable the grading of Goggle documents and also how to create a classroom learning management by organizing the delivery of documents to students. At the bottom of the document is a link to a written tutorial which walks you through creating your Google Document and setting the sharing preferences.
Sunday, January 5, 2014
Using A Great New Website IFTTT.COM (If This Then That)To Push Out Social Media Posts And Manage Your Internet Exerience
IFTTT does require sharing your information but it also provides tremendous value with the amount of sharing of content you have chosen to receive and also the high level of integration between the variety of social media networks. Some of the most powerful recipes allow you to send automated updates to your Evernote account from starring emails in your Gmail or even Tweeting automatically by entering data into your Google Calendar.Once you become familiar with the site you will see there of thousand of recipes that can be designed be creating a variety of triggers. This site has helped me organize the sharing of posts from my blog and also enabled me to be sent direct emails from Craigslist based on a search url. There are also phone based recipes which can call me in the morning as a wake up call. I highly suggest checking out all the available recipes and reap the benefit of the tools and sharing of web content.
Check out http://www.ifttt.com and see how you can begin to orgainze the many tools you are currently using into a more organized approach with your social media.
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