Sunday, June 12, 2011

Technology and kids

This class has exposed me to many types of social networking; blogging, twittering, and building a website.  I would like to know why I hear far more about facebook than these other tools?  What is it about facebook that makes it so popular?  Why are so many young kids on facebook?  Why are parents allowing children to use this at a young age? 

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Assisstive Technology Blog Mod 5

After reading and viewing the video on assistive technology, I have learned that there are many ways to assist students in my classroom with varying degrees of assistance needed.  We currently use many tools to help aid those students with fine motor disabilities.  Items like slant boards, pencil grippers and scoop scissors are used each year with a few students.

 
New ideas:
 Next year I will have a student with limited use of her hands in my kindergarten class.  I found many devices that may help her in my class.  The first is the hands free mouse that would allow her to use the computers in my classroom. She would use her feet to move the mouse and click items. 

Also I found a program called speak-to-me that would allow her to use voice commands when using the computer.  This would help all students who have fine motor or writing disabilities.


New Locations:
I found a site that offers products for students with limited vision.

http://support.perkins.org/site/PageServer?pagename=store_homepage

 This site offers a variety of products for students with special needs.

http://www.rehabtool.com/