Ease of Access Center: Magnification Tool

Through the Ease of Access Center I explored everything that went along with the Magnification tool. This tool allows you too magnify the images on your screen, while having the normal view also. This tool would be great to use in a special education classroom or an inclusive classroom. This tool would help a student with a learning disability pertaining to sight troubles. If a student has a hard time with sight, this tool will allow the student to be able to see what the teacher is doing on the SmartBoard or will magnify his or her own computer to be able to see and focus more clearly on what is being displayed. I think this is a great tool that I got to learn about and it is something free and accessible for everyone.

First you go to Ease of Access and click on "magnifier,"



Second you choose your options,



And third, you use the magnifier tool!

PROFESSIONAL USES OF TECHNOLOGY

LAB WORKOUT #12
PROFESSIONAL USES OF TECHNOLOGY

I believe that having an email account is an essential tool for a teacher. Email connects you to your students, parents, administrators and other teachers. It is a necessary tool for overall communication in your classroom. Not only does having an email account allow for quick and efficient communication in your classroom, but it helps you to be organized. As a teacher, I plan on having a Twitter and Blogger account – having an email account will allow me to use the same email to sign up for these applications and keep my usernames and passwords organized. This will help me be more efficient as a teacher and be able to use my resources easier.

Content Exploration Tool

Content Exploration Tool: Drill and Practice

Tool: Parent Pals

· What is this tool about?

o It has different levels of educational games designed for students with disabilities.

· Which sub-category does it fit? And why”

o This fits into the educational games sub-category and the open-ended sub-category because the educational game presents them with a review of the content the open ended tool provides interaction with the content.

· How can it be applied in an education setting (explain it with an example)?

o This tool can be used at school, in a computer lab typesetting, or can be used at home for further practice. It can be used to introduce, enforce or enhance learning.

Leap Pad

LEAP PAD

I reviewed the Lead Pad for the use in Special Education classrooms. Teaching students reading is something that needs to be reviewed and constantly practiced. I think Leap Pad would be a good resource for students with special needs to review and practice skills outside of the classroom. The way that the Leap Pad can not only read to the student when they don’t know a word – it can provide definitions for words along with fun interactive games that put reading, vocabulary, facts and pictures together. This would not only help develop good reading skills but it will enrich students in all the aspects of reading – vocabulary, sentence structure, and facts – and make reading comprehension develop easier.

The main reason that I am using Lead Pad in my classroom is to teach children how to read and give them the resources they need to practice individually and outside of the classroom. It helps them learn new words, it reads to them, and helps them understand and comprehend reading at a higher degree.

All the aspects of the Leap Pad are covered in a tutorial that can be found on their website. It shows parents and teachers how Leap Pad can connect students to material, discover new meanings and knowledge, and share what they have learned.

Identifing the Three E's

1. Enhancement

Website: http://earth.google.com/#utm_campaign=en&utm_medium=ha&utm_source=en-ha-na-us-sk-eargen&utm_term=3-d%20world

Description: This website found through google resources allows students to see the world in a virtual 3-D enhancement. It is like the application google Earth, but it is a view of the world and the plants. It shows you what it would look like from outer space while remaining in your seat.

Which E?: This website is an example of Enhancement. The website would be really helpful when teaching about the solar system in class because it will provide my students with more than just a 2-D picture of the world and the planets, but will let them go on a trip to see what it would look like from space. It will allow students to better connect to the descriptions they read of the planets and will let them look at it up close - causing them to remember it more descriptivly and helping the information stay with them longer. This will improve my lesson on the solar system as a teacher and allow my lesson to bne more interactive.

2. Efficiency

Website: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B90BhOpFfcI

Description: This website outlines the life cycle of a butterfly. It is a video and it shows all the steps of how catepiller turns into a butterfly and all the nescessary envirnmental things that need to go on around it, like eating a leaf, in order to turn into a butterfly. It shows it clearly and gives enough time for a person to compeltly comprehend what is going on from slide to slide.

Which E?: Efficiency is the E that this resource on the life of a butterfly applies to. Showing this to my future students will allow them to witness all the stages of life - from a catepiller to a butterfly. It will also show them what is necessary for the catepiller to change - eating food, making and cucoon, and breaking out of it. It is a very clear video and it goes slow enough that they will be able to have time to comprehend and understand each step. It is a good summary and would be a good resource to show at the end of a lesson and/or before a test. This could also be a good way to have students to a project or a skit - outlining every step in the life cycle or drawing pictures and putting them in order from start to finish.

3. Effectiveness

Website: http://www.prongo.com/mathtwo/

Description: This website is an interactive game that allows students to work together in goups of two and play a game that taeches them how to add numbers. It gives the student visual help and voiceover help - even letting them know when they have done a step wrong, or if they need help it helps them figure out the next step. It is a good resource for teaching students math though technology and is a very helpful site.

Which E?: This website provides me with an example of Effectiveness. It is a math game that is done with two students and it teaches them to learn to add. Not only is it a technological tool that prepare students and teaches them how to add - it allows them to work together and get to know their peers and help one another. This communication will help them retain the information even more through talking about it and questioning each other. And the website is there to make adding more fun and to check their progress along the way - also helping them with what step to take next and when they are right or wrong. I think this websit is a good example of effectivness because it prepares students for future math.

W200 Goals

W200 is a class that will prepare me for technology in my classroom. It will be my job, as a teacher to educate students not only through technology, but also about everything that technology has to offer this. Because of this, I have come up with 3 goals that will help me get the most of this class and that will lead me to being able to educate my future students the best I can.

1.     1. Technology is always changing. As a teacher, I will need to keep up with its growth and also be able to know how to use it and teach it to my students. With this being said throughout the class of W200 I want to learn the best ways to know how to stay informed with all technology changes and develop the skills of knowing how to use them.

2.     2. What I can look up through technology, so can my future students. I want to learn how to educate them on what is safe and what is not. And I want to be knowledgeable of resources that I can use to keep them from bad sites.

3.     3. Technology can be used in many ways. However, going through school myself, I have never been presented with a lesson geared through technology in subjects such as math. Throughout this class, I would like to learn how to apply technology to all subjects so I can not only teach them math, but also teach them about technology.

These are my goals for W200 and I am planning on working hard so I can not only accomplish these three goals, but also learn as much as I can about technology and computers in the classroom.