Assistive Technology makes dreams come true

Assistive Technology can make dreams come true

At the start of the 21^st century, the educational community which includes; State education agencies, regional resource centers, and technical assistance centers along with the U.S. Department of Education, is making leaps and bounds to help students with disabilities. Before technology can be utilized as a tool in both the classroom and at the students home, it must be evaluated on the capacity in which it could help scholastic advancement. Once technology is introduced to the student with a disability, minus a learning curb on how to work that particular device, it should enhance the students performance, facilitate participation, aid in completing school work and activities, and enhance achievement.

 
But the thing that changed everything was the 1997 amendments to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA '97). This act requires every state to ensures  that all children with disabilities are entitled to a free appropriate public education to meet their unique needs and prepare them for further education, employment, and independent living. To read more about IDEA please go to http://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/oii/nonpublic/idea1.html

Its important to introduce and include technology to students with disabilities when they are in pre school. This will help them get up to speed using the various types of electronics and once they are enter the classroom, they will strictly be allowed to focus on their curriculum.

As a teacher it is important to make accommodations and modifications to help students with their special needs. Some of the ways I could help accommodate students would be to on the way I would present a lesson, make instructional strategies, change the students response procedures, scheduling, visual schedule, classroom environment and the way it is laid out, using special equipment that might be needed, assignments structured differently, use braille, audio version of book assigned in class, use a sign a language interpreter, sensory items to help the students focus on a lesson and to allow more time to teach, take a test, finish assignment and to complete an activity.  

In addition ways to modify a classroom with students with special needs would be set alternative goals, use the curriculum but change the outcome expectation, modify the test, Think about the student friendly material and handouts that are given inside the class. Modify the Instruction level, content, performance criteria and have students replace posters and pictures with an written essay paper. 

In the 2005 video, How Assistive Technology Enables Dreams, (Youtube link http://www.edutopia.org/assistive-technology-enabling-dreams-video)  features two students that use assistive technology, the first is a young woman named Susan Sweeney Martini who is in her sophomore year at the University of Washington and the second is a Lukas Bratcher from Mead High School. 

Photo: Susan uses the computer to do her homework.

Susan has cerebral palsy, is bound to a wheel chair, but didn’t let her disability get in her way. She is a referee for local soccer games. She mentioned she needed a computer and laptop to help her progress in the classroom. She claims her mother, who is also named Susan, is a teacher and lawyer fought for her daughter rights to get a laptop and computer. (read more about Susan Sweeny - http://m.spokesman.com/stories/1995/dec/03/discovering-new-hope-mother-and-daughter-want/. ) A special device enables her to operate the computer along with a voice-activated system to eliminate typing and to answer prompts. Susan would like to be a TV news anchor when she completes college.
 

Photo: Lukas practices playing the Euphonium.

 Lukas Bratcher loved to play a euphonium but was only able to play one note. He would patiently wait while the rest of the orchestra would play until his note would come. After moving to Spokane, Washington, before 6th grade, Bratcher’s new middle school band director introduced him to Robin Amend, a local music store owner.





Amend was inspired by his grandfather named Bert Amend
who was a musician who had lost his right
arm during a logging accident.

Photo: Bert Mead (right) helps a student missing his left hand.

 

Determined to help Lukas, Amend invented the assistive technology device that Bratcher uses today. Through technology, a group of people designed and came up with a solution, a joystick that is very similar to the ones used in video games. The joystick controlled the amount of air that went into each valve thus causing Lukas to hit many notes which helped him play the euphonium. He hopes to earn a college scholarship by performing the euphonium. Through an interview in the video, Robin Amend the owner of Amend Music Center was impressed on how far we have come through efforts of helping people with disabilities. 

To read more about Bert Amend please visit: http://www.harpguitars.net/knutsen/amend.htm

10 Accommodations for students with special needs would be

* The way a teacher would present a lesson

* Instructional strategies to help the students learn

* Changing the student response procedures

* Allow more time to teach, take a test, finish an assignment, learn a concept or compete an activity

* Allow more time to get to and from class.

* Scheduling

* Visual schedules

* Classroom environment and the way the classroom is laid out

* Special equipment that might be needed.

* Assignments may need to be structured differently if the student has issues with paper and pencil.

* Sensory items to help the students focus on the lesson.

* Have material with enlarged text

* If possible have a sign language interpreter

* Use Braille

* Audio version of book assigned in class.

10 Modifications for students

* Output – the way students respond  to instruction.

* Alternate goals

* Quantity

* Use the curriculum, but change the outcome expectation

* Modify the test

* Think about the material and handouts that are given inside the class. It needs to be student friendly

* Instructional level

* Content

* Performance criteria

* Have students find or make posters , replacing it with an essay paper. 

References: 

  

U.S. Department of Education. (2001, October). Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) 1997/ Services to Parentally Placed Private School Students with Disabilities. Retrieved  June 26, 2015, from http://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/oii/nonpublic/idea1.html

   

Curtis, D. (2005, February 2). Disabled Bodies, Able Minds: Giving Voice, Movement, and               Independence to the Physically Challenged. Retrieved June 26, 2015, from http://www.edutopia.org/assistive-technology-class-school-participation

Edutopia.Org. (2005, Febuary  2). Assisstive Technology: Enabling Dreams. [Youtube Video]. 

Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXxdxck8Gic   

Hall, J. (2008, May 9). Communication Options Chart for Deaf Children - Sound Advice.Retrieved June 26, 2015, from http://sound-advice.ie/communication-options-chart-for-deaf-children/

Third World Farmer in the Modern World.

              When I began my search for online educational games, at first I ran into a little difficulty, most of the games were geared towards children. I decided to refocus my search and look for games that would appeal to high school and college students. Then after experimenting and playing a number of game, I found 3rd World Farmer, which was created at IT-University in Copenhagen, in the Spring 2005. It was a serious game that blended school topics such as business, economics, culture, history and geography. 

            3rd World Farmer centers around you managing a farm in a dried up desert area of Sub-Saharan Africa. This realistic survival online game gives you insight on how tough it is to operate a farm, while dealing with family issues, raising children, struggling with poverty, and dealing with the extreme hardships. 

            This game is an eye opener because after each game comes to an end, it reminds the player that millions of people in Africa are starving each day. And it makes us realize that there are farmers and families in struggling in developing nations. In addition the game has the player will make uncomfortable decisions in order to help the common good of the family. It not only challenges you to keep yourself and family alive while dealing with disease, but other issues like medical bills, bad crops, government corruption, Guerilla forces invaded your land, war, accepting money to store chemical waste on your farm, allow Guerrilla terrorist to set up a base on your property, and allowing people to growth opium on your land. 

            While keeping your family alive, you budget your money by buying and planting the best crops for its value (corn, wheat, cotton and peanuts), hoping it will yield enough money so you can grow more crops, which will later help you expand your farm. If you are lucky and begin to have cash flow, you will be able to purchase items like plows, and tractors to improve your crop yields. The farmer can expand their farm by adding sheds, wells and barns. But just like real life, investments can be a risky. Hardships can occur which could lead to wells drying up, barns can be destroyed by fire rebel fighters, and livestock may be stolen or die from disease. Family members can also die from disease so its important to make sure they visit the doctor to keep their health up. 

How to Play:

            The game starts off with the player getting $50 and a family of four; a father, mother, son and daughter. Before each season, the player will need to pick a crop to grow from corn, wheat, cotton and peanuts. The selection for all crops, livestock and tools are on the left side of the screen. Other decisions also need to be made and that includes having a baby. Starting the game at a humble beginning may not be a good time to bring a child into the world, but in the long run, later on down the road, the kids will grow older and will be able to contribute around the farm. As the seasons fly by, you try to build on your success by buying more expensive crops, better equipment to help along with the farming, building sheds, water wells and barns for chickens, pigs, cattle and elephants. 

            To plant the crops, the player will need to click on the crops, calculate how many they can buy with the amount that is listed on their bank. Once the icon pertaining to the appropriate crop is selected, the player needs to drag the crops in the field.  If you desire to have the mother get pregnant, then you need to click on the mother icon and select that they will have a baby. On the right side of the screen there is an arrow and that will make the seasons move, within 5 seconds 9 months goes by and the crop is harvested and a new child will be added to the family. As time goes by, its important to monitor the families strength and health. If their health declines that is the time to administer their medicine. This can be done by clicking on the character. 

Displayed on the upper left are the icons of the various items you will need to succeed in the game.

            Annual reports are issued after each season to explain how your crops sold and it also notifies you if there were droughts that could have affected your crops. To succeed, you need to have a  good business sense to understand what crops will grow in Africa. You also need to be strategic thinker to make sure you and your family survive and become successful. Being business savvy and investing in communications and to build a road will help with sales because this will make it easier to bring your product to the markets. Its also a good idea to buy crop insurance which will help your family when your crops fail due to a natural fire or to rebels forces entering your property.

            As you become successful you can help improve your community by buying a school and clinic. This will help improved health and education services in your area. If you donate to a local politician, this will help keep peace in your area and prevent the opposing forces from entering your property. Once you purchase the communications, add a road, build a clinic and school, support a politician and purchase the insurance you will win the game.

After every season an annual report is given to display what took place during in the region, your income pertaining to livestock and crops sold and the surviving family members,

Preparing for the presentation.

            Our group brainstormed in class on ways on how we were going to prepare for the presentation and rubric. While in class we decided to use Google drive to share ideas and thoughts on information pertaining to our project. This was an excellent way for our project to discuss the project without actually needing to meet. For our presentation, we originally thought about using Google, but as a group, we felt it was very similar to PowerPoint, so we opted to use Prezi instead because it added an extra dimension with the movement, allowing use to pinpoint what we wanted to discuss during the presentation. We added snapshots and video clips from our game into the Prezi to show what the game looked like.

            Our group continued to use Google drive as we designed a rubric to help us rate the Third World Farmer game. We came up with two designs, but eventually voted on the second idea. The rubric had six categories; layout and design, navigation, Instructions, goals interaction and feedback. The group then added a point system 0 meaning poor, 3 being average and 5 points being the best possible score for each category.

            We decided to start out by rating the layout and design. Although there wasn’t a lot of sophisticated moving graphics, the four members of the group, which includes me,  felt there was a lot of thought and details that went into this game.  We believed that the concept along with the design and elements of the game could help students understand what was going on in this survival game. We all believed this area was worth 5 points. From there we gradually discussed how to make our rubric less sophisticated removing various components out of the rubric.  

            Coming up with the next five categories were a little challenging, but as we played the game more the rubric evolved as we started applying key words to our rubric such as navigation, instruction, goals, interaction and feedback. We decided to use those five words to help explain the game.

Universal game when teaching

            Although this game is very serious because it features real world events, Third World Farmer can easily be blended into a number of school topics such as business, economics, culture, history and geography. As an English teacher, I discussed with my group I could use this to segue into The Grapes of Wrath written by John Steinbeck which discusses hardships farmers had during the Great Depression when the Midwest experience a drought which caused extreme hardships to the agricultural world. This trickled down and led to foreclosures on numerous farms forcing farmers to flee Oklahoma and to find work else where, mainly in California.

Cover of Novel written by John Steinbeck in 1939

            After playing third world farmer, it makes you realize that every decision, good or bad can make or break you when it comes to survival. After playing this game, it allows the player to donate money that will help the starving people in the region of the world. This came is addicting, but it also creates awareness about what is going on in another part of the world.

In addition to English, this game is now available in Brazilian Portuguese, Hungarian, Italian, German, Czech, French and Spanish.

References:
Blancato, J. (2006, July 6) In Third World Farmer - One Bad year. Escapist Magazine. Retrieved June 13, 2015, from http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/video-games/editorials/op-ed/1025-3rd-World-Farmer-One-bad-year

McCall, J. (2009). Gaming the Past, Using Video Games to Teach Secondary History. Routledge, NY.

Ball, L., Thames, H., & Phelps, G. (2008). Content knowledge for teaching: What makes it special?

Journal of Teacher Education, 59(5), 389–407.

     

Jack thinks he's a dull boy.

ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES JACK A DULL BOY....said to warn someone that they will not be an interesting person by working all the time... This was written by Jack the main character from the Stephen King novel titled The Shining.

I just made a new Voki. See it here:

http://technolanguage.blogspot.comI just made a new Voki. See it here: