Final Post- Reflection on Course

 Similar to the sentiments that I shared within the "Photo Story 3" highlight slide show that I created, this course has truly opened my eyes to the benefits of effective utilization of technology within the classroom. All of us, as special education majors, regardless of the student population that we plan to work with, understand that all students within a given classroom are unique, and require alternative instructional perspectives and techniques to be able to achieve success within the classroom. This class has come to expose us to an amazingly vast amount of resources to refer to when attempting to locate technologies that meet our perspective students' needs. I loved both the autonomy and independence that this course afforded to us; we were never harnessed down to work within a specific scope of technologies, and were forced to independently apply and consider the potential uses of the technologies that we selected to investigate. Our learning within this course was dependent upon our desire to advance and develop pedagogically, and, in consideration of the work that I completed and the technological, instructional knowledge that I acquired, I believe that this course was effective in exposing me to ways in which different types of technologies (both simple and complex, independent and collective) can be used to meet the needs of a diverse group of students. My experience within this course was nothing but positive, and, although I was unsure of my ability to successfully work within an online medium, I came to recognizer the collaboration that ensued between myself and my colleagues through both our personal blogs and the class's wiki page as being one of the most beneficial components of the course. I came to learn about myself as an aspiring educator, and have gained confidence in regards to my ability to locate various, effective technologies on my own.

Alternative to "Waiting for Superman"

Hi, all! Just came across a really important post located on "The Innovative Educator's" blog. A new film, "We Are The People We Are Waiting For", sheds light upon the different facets of the current educational system in the United States, and questions whether, based upon the construct, our nation's students will be able to keep pace with the ever-changing 21st century. Look into the film, and check it out. I'm really looking forward to it!

Final Post: Review of "Highlights"

After viewing both Jessie's and Molly's videos, I was very much impressed by both of their abilities to recognize their respective class portfolios as being viable communication outlets; by designing their pages in ways in which various communicative options (email, twitter, blog, skype) are readily made avaliable to viewers, their ability to proactively network and become connected within the profession has greatly enhanced. Viewing their clips has inspired me to design a "Contact/Link" page within my own web portfolio. Additionally, it was great to hear within all three of my "housemates'" "Highlight" pieces that they all now have come to recognize the innumerable benefits that the various Google-based technologies can provide us with as professionals--I was fortunate enough to have been exposed to the use and application of Google Sites, Power Points, etc. during my time in CEP 452 last semester (Fall 2010), so, for me, this was not a novice technology. However, through this course, it was amazing to see my colleagues' utilization of these techs; by being forced to independently delve into the actual application of these tools through an online educational medium, we were forced to sift through various issues on our own, just as we will be forced to do in the future within our own classroom. It is clearly apparent (through my "housemates'" impressive "highlight" clips) that this class has been beneficial for all us--we now possess a plethora of impressive technological skills that we are able to employ as we begin our careers, all of which will assist us in being able to successfully excel within our profession and provide our students with effective modifications and accommodations that work to meet their specific, unique behavioral, academic, or social needs.  

KIPP: Can Charter and Public Schools Actually be Compared?

KIPP, the charter school program that the Obama administration has established and advocated for, should, in my opinion, be intriguing to us as soon-to-be educators; who do these schools serve? What types of resources do these schools have at their exposure? What do these schools' student populations "look like"? Keeping these questions in mind, can we say that these charter schools are better equipped to serve our nation's students than our public education system? Schools Matter, an extremely relevant blog, further analyzes these types of questions in its most recent post, "Inner Oklahoma City Teacher Considers Neighboring KIIP". The author suggests that, in many respects (especially in regards to analytical data that is annually collected), KIPP and "traditional" public schools should not (and cannot) be compared.First, when attempting to compare charter and public schools, one must take the dichotomy that exists in regards to student density into account, especially when comparing the percentage of students placed within special education and/or other alternative settings. The author, when discussing KIPP charter schools within the immediate Oklahoma City area, states, "Our KIPP does a great job, but you simply can not compare a charter which had a decade to build up to serving 285 students, with 8.5 percent being on special education IEPs, with its neighboring school". The author continues, referring to a large, public middle school located in OC, "[This] school serves 792 students, with 26% of these students in special education, a 3% retention rate, and an 11.5% "middle-of-the-year" drop out rate". In comparison, the compared KIPP school placed 26% of students into special education classes, and retained close to 21% of their students the following school year. These numbers are alarming--obviously, with over 1/4 of students being provided with explicit and personalized scaffolding, academic achievement within KIPP environments are likely bolstered. However, who are these KIPP schools serving? Certainly, as an educational society, we cannot fool ourselves into thinking that our nation's charters are serving our most "at-risk" students; who's eligible for KIPPs? As the author alludes to, it would be absolutely absurd to suggest or believe that charter and public schools serve the same "types of students within the same type of building"--KIPP students are plucked out of an often hectic and standardized public school environment, and are provided with resources that are rarely found within our nation's "traditional", publicly-funded classrooms. Before we buy in to the KIPP system, as college graduates on the brink of embarking on our educational careers, as I've stated all semester, we need to do our research.

Photo Story 3- Digital Story

Hey, guys! So, here's my digital story.. just sort of a synopsis of my experience thus far in this course, as well as a bit of rationale behind the lesson plans that I've designed and the information that I've acquired thus far. I used Photo Story 3 to create this, which is really easy to download and use (there are a few tutorials found within my second "integrated lesson plan", and I definitely suggest that you check those out!). If you're having difficulty viewing the video, let me know; it's been off and on, as in sometimes it plays, while other times it says that "an error has occurred". I'm going to email Sara and see what I can do to make sure that everyone can view it.

The use of wikis when compared to blogs, tweets, and other social media trends

What I love about working with wikis (and creating my own this week) is that, when compared to blogging, Twitter, Facebook, and the like, wikis allow for effective, efficient, and immediate communication between peers, colleagues, and students--blogging is extremely beneficial, yes, but, in my opinion, at times, the use of a blogs to disperse and consider alternative views and perspectives on issues can become overwhelming, cluttered, and disorganized. Wikis provide users with a single, central location to communicate their ideas, share products, and work through issues together as a united front. Take, for example, this class--we are all required to create and sustain an individualized, online identity through the generation of a blog; our blogs contain each of our unique thoughts and perspectives, and, in order to consider the views of peers, we are forced to sift through hundreds of posts, all of which were created using different systems and devices (i.e., we need passwords, identification codes, etc. to share ideas). Wikis eliminate this need to "sift"; the "math as a social activity" wiki page that I created for this week (the link is above) provides my house members with the opportunity to respond back to, comment on, and deeply consider the questions, thoughts, and ideas that I posed on a central page focused on a specific topic. In my opinion, when considering the capabilities of blogging, the use of wikis would be a far more viable option to use in the classroom--organizational capabilities are greatly enhanced, allowing the students' comments, thoughts, and ideas to be emphasized (rather than the technical components of "how" the technology should be used). Weekly, monthly, and/or annual wiki pages (as well as wikis focusing upon specific content units) will definitely be at the core of my classroom instruction, as I believe that this technology provides students with a useful communicative medium through which their ideas can be shared.

Google Docs, Other Google Technology in the Classroom

Created Google Slide Show

Almost all of the avaliable Google technologies, in my opinion, would be amazing tools to implement into one's classroom instruction--based upon my experience, the most beneficial component of these technologies (docs, slide-show, etc.) is the ease at which individuals are able to collaborate with one another through the use of an online forum. These types of tools, which allow for students to contribute to a group-created product easily, efficiently, and simultaneously either inside or outside of the classroom, would be extremely effective when attempting to constantly hold students accountable for their work; as instructors, through the use of Google docs in the literacy classroom, we will be able to consistently monitor the progress of each of our students, and actively partake in the editing and revising process with them even when outside of the classroom. We stress in college of education the concept of being ongoing, prolonged learners--Google docs, and the ease at which students are able to disperse their ideas, critique the thoughts of others, and edit/contribute to a collaborative group effort, provide literacy learners with the ability to hone their writing skills while acquiring the abilities needed to collaborate constructively with others, a skill that they must begin to develop as young adults in a growing society.

"Todays Meet"--Benefits of Back Channeling in the Classroom

Last semester, during my time in a special education course, I was introduced to “TodaysMeet”, an extremely effective online tool that extended the class's ability to communicate, collaborate, and share ideas during the various class sessions. This back-channeling site provides users with a communicative atmosphere similar to that of a “chat room”; our instructors encouraged us to actively use this tool all throughout our class lectures, and I found it extremely useful in regards to our abilities to clarify, question, and explain the class's complex ideas and concepts."TodaysMeet", and the site's easily manipulated back-channeling capabilities, if used appropriately, can be an amazing resource for implanting  social literacy skills within our classroom. Social literacy can be thought of as the acquirement of the critical social skills needed to properly behave and actively participate within everyday society.

As we all know as college students, life in no cake walk--because of the daily grind that we are all forced to endure, multitasking is an absolute social necessity. The use of "TodaysMeet" in the classroom has the potential to introduce these valuable social skills to our students. As Silvia Tolisano states in her article, these types of back-channeling technologies force students to engage in a number of social skills simultaneously--in addition to paying close attention to and participating in face-to-face dialogue, students are also encouraged to consistently post individualized ideas of their own and consider/reflect upon the comments that are posted by their peers. As Tolisano suggests, students must understand that back-channeling is no easy task; being able to engage in a focused, multifaceted conversation through the use of various communicative mediums requires a great deal of conversational discipline. Thus, the skills developed through back-channeling sites such as "TodaysMeet" allow students to appropriately and collaboratively interact with colleagues, a skill that they must eventually master in order to contribute to society. 

Wisconsin's Plight, Unionization, and the Impact on Education

As future educators, what can we take away from the Wisconsin union protests? What do they mean, and why are they so significant? This standoff between legislation and state-employees truly works to place the reality of what education in the United States has (unfortunately) become--a system that is far more focused upon minimizing budgets than providing our nation's youth with a high quality education. With that being said, as Patrik Jonsson suggests in his article, "Wisconsin Protests: Why "Week of Rage" Matters for the Rest of America", the line between politics and educational welfare has been undoubtedly crossed--Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker (R), in an attempt to rescue his state from a budget-based nightmare ( however, in many people's opinion, Scott is simply attempting to slight Democratically supported unions), has just recently passed a bill that will require both local and state employees (most notably in our case, public educators) to fund close to half of their own overall pension costs, and to pay for just over 12% of their annual health-care, which is close to twice the amount of their current annual payments.Similarly, Governor Scott is developing plans to significantly reduce the collective-bargaining rights of state employee groups, thus virtually stripping away the purpose behind unionizing (i.e., unions will be required to hold annual elections to remain certified, and will only be able to discuss the wages that they receive). But, news has just broke that a federal judge has suspended this anti-CB bill, and that Walker's reforms are now under heavy scrutiny and investigation.

What we, as aspiring teachers, are able to take away from these ongoing protests is that, regardless of our efforts, we can not avoid the fact that, during this time of nation-wide economic uncertainty, education has become more politically and financially mandated than it ever has before in our lifetimes--our pre-service instruction has, in many ways, provided us with a somewhat unrealistic depiction of what we will face in a real world classroom. Education has become a potent form of business and a crucial component of debt-management-- business is money, and money, especially now, is meant to be saved. It's an unfortunate reality that we face as instructors, knowing that, as we dedicate our blood, sweat, and tears to the well being of our students each and every day, we are simply being used as pawns in a political game--not only are our livelihoods impacted (financially, benefits-wise, etc.), but, more importantly, our students suffer as politicians attempt to slap together the cheapest educational format that they can muster up. Yes, it's unfortunate, but it is still a reality. Today, with our soon-to-be profession in a state of flux, we need to collectively become more educated about the politics surrounding our profession--without educating ourselves about our rights and what we can control, we won't be able to protect and adequately represent ourselves in the future.

A Reaction to "An Urban Teacher's Education"

"An Urban Teacher's Education" is one of my favorite blogs--the author always provides his readers with amazing insights and somewhat alternative perspectives in regards to the more controversial elements of the world of education. His most recent post, "You're a Quitter and You Suck at Teaching" (yea, I know, interesting name) sheds light upon the hypocrisy that often exists within school districts throughout the United States--within quality pre-service educational programs (such as the one that we were all accepted into here at State), we are always taught to "subjectify" the curriculum, and to always place the student at the center of our instructional decisions within the classroom. However, as the author of this blog suggests, once one is actually in the classroom, this "student centered" approach is almost completely abandoned. Unfortunately, as the author states, "good" teachers are those whom don't ask questions of and are obedient to their respective administrators.In essence, the author suggests that, unfortunately, in order to advance within the profession, as educators, we must accept that standardized testing is inevitable, and whether we believe it or not (which we hopefully don't), portray an attitude which suggests that  we believe this type of assessment is the best option for determining the status of our students and our schools. If one chooses to "push the envelope" and stray away from this accepted (and heavily promoted) construct, he/she will be asking for trouble. The author suggests that the core of this problem can be traced to uneducated and inexperienced administrators and legislators who invoke curricular modifications without any true and authentic classroom experience; if administrators have never actually experienced "classroom life", collaboration will be impossible, support will be limited, and the school atmosphere as a whole will suffer. In addition, if administrators have not been in the classroom, they lack the ability to reflect upon and recognize the techniques that best benefit students' learning--as soon-to-be professionals, we deserve and require administration who understand and can empathize with the difficulties that the classroom presents for both ourselves and our students, and who are  willing and able to tweak their school-wide decisions in ways which address the needs of their school's students and staff.

Michigan's CEC-- Inspiring Event

This past Thursday, I had the opportunity to attend the Michigan Council for Exceptional Children's (CEC) annual awards event--my invitation came due to my affiliation with one of the award recipients. Terry Bennett, the owner of Specialty Pet Supply (a small store located in Plymouth, Michigan), currently employs my oldest brother at the store.My brother is 27 years old and is autistic, and has been working with Terry since he was hired at her store in 2009--with assistance from his job coach, my brother is able to complete a variety of tasks, including (but not limited to) stocking shelves, filling "food containers", and pricing items. He loves his current job, and leaves home with a positive attitude each and every day that he is scheduled to work. 

Terry was nominated (due to her work with my brother) to receive this year's "Outstanding Business Award", given to the business that serves as a prime example of a  local entity that is helping to transition individuals with disabilities into their respective communities. Terry is unbelievably accommodating, accepting, and understanding, and does a superb job of tailoring my brother's assigned tasks to his strengths and abilities. She was nominated by my parents, and was more than privileged to receive the honor.

The event was wonderful, full of reminders of why I aspire to work with individuals with disabilities--amazing accounts from students, teachers, and administrators were heard all throughout the night. To see my brother's face light up when he heard his name mentioned in Terry's acceptance speech was something that I will never forget, and the night is something that I will always remember.

My brother and Terry after the event! It was an awesome night!

Content, Technology for Integrated Tech. Plan

In my current field placement, a first through third grade integrated Montessori classroom, literacy is a definite focal point--the students produce written work in their journals for close to an hour each day ("Independent Writing"), and, although some students thrive when  composing "traditional" written work, many students truly struggle when attempting to strategically represent their thoughts and ideas in their compositions. I have had the opportunity to work individually with several of the lower achieving writers in the class, and (as I have mentioned in previous posts), many of these students have exceptional ideas; they are simply unable to transfer their "mental" stories onto paper. Therefore, I have selected a specific second grade Grade Level Content Expectation (GLCE) that places extreme emphasis on the actual content found in a student's literary work, and not on the form or production of the composition.  My designed lesson will focus on second grade "English/Language Arts" expectation W.PS.02.01, which states, "[Students will] develop personal style in oral, written, and visual messages in both narrative (e.g., descriptive language, use of imagination, varying sentence beginnings) and informational writing (e.g., facts, effective conclusions"). In order for the students to best be able to meet the criteria mentioned within this GLCE, they will have the opportunity to utilize Dragon Naturally Reading 10.1,  a free, downloadable speech-to-text tool that will allow the students to verbally narrate their constructed story, thus proving them with a medium through which their literary ingenuity, creativity, and uniqueness can shine through.

The "Big Idea" content goals for this lesson will include the following:


- All writing should have a distinct and clear purpose, and should be written with a specific audience in mind (i.e., instructor, peers, family, etc.)

- The development of a literary"style" depends upon the author's ability to engage their audience within a detailed and thoughtful narrative

- Although the mechanics of one's writing (i.e., grammar, punctuation, capitalization, correct syntax, etc.) are extremely important components, a writer's ability to both produce and represent his/her thoughts through written composition is equally as important.

Lesson Objectives:

* Using Dragon Naturally Speaking 10.1, the students will work individually (with explicit instructor scaffolding) to create a one-page piece of fictional literature

* The students will be required (and encouraged) to create personally unique and creative compositions--as previously mentioned, through the integration of the "Dragon" speech-to-text technology, the students will be able to fully focus their attention on the content of their work, and not on its mechanical/grammatical form.

Based upon my observations of my CT's students, I believe that a definite misconception that they collectively possess in regards to the act of writing is that this area of literacy cannot be "writer centered"--all of the students seem to believe that their pieces of writing were constructed strictly for their instructor to critique, evaluate, and return to them. Many of them are seemingly under the impression that the act of writing is purely academic in nature, and that it cannot be an individualized or enjoyable process. I believe that, through the implementation of my selected technology into this designed lesson, the students will be able to truly write for themselves, thus allowing their individual "voice" and literary style to present itself.

click here to view my digital story

So, apparently another downside of this technology is that it's fairly difficult to embed videos using "Slide"--the tech. provides you with a variety of sites into which you can embed your story (blogger, facebook, twitter, and Pecasa, among others), but, as I experienced when attempting to embed my project into this post, the embedding process was more difficulty than it is perceived to be.

Week 6: Integrating Digital Stories to Build a Classroom Community

In each of the four senior level TE 402 sections (science, social studies, mathematics, and literacy), we have discussed that, even before beginning to focus on the target content, the development of a trusting, supportive, and collaborative classroom community is absolutely essential. While sifting through the various technologies located on Levine's blog, I came across "Slide", an amazingly easy technology that allows users to manipulate images within a "slide show"-esqe digital story. I explored both the "Slide" main page and Levine's sample projects, and viewed "Two Strangers", a story created by a "Slide" user-- I thought to myself, "What an awesome tools for students to use to put their unique personalities on display in the classroom". Through the use of these types of technologies (and the creation of digital stories such as the one embedded above), a truly connected and personalized community could begin to come to fruition; meaningful, unique images expose the identities of people more than words in isolation possibly could; by allowing students to both create and narrate (either digitally or in the classroom) their own "stories" as a beginning of the year project, substantial relationships between individual students could begin to form.

In retrospect, my experience utilizing Slide was positive--I loved the ease at which I was able to navigate through the site, as well as the easily identifiable and applicable "special effects" that were avaliable (cropping, shifting, and reordering the selected images, editing the time at which the images were displayed, lighting/coloring of images, etc.). Regardless of the age of one's students, with appropriate scaffolding from the instructor, this specific site would be an exemplary tool for students to put to use (either inside or outside of the classroom) when creating personalized digital stories. However, I was unable to implement audio into my story, which, depending on the goals, objectives, or intentions of one's lesson, could be considered a tremendous downfall--in my opinion, personally mixed audio assists in bringing these types of stories to life, and serves as additional motivation in completing the assignment (for an exemplary "digital story" site, check out Photo Story 3--this tool is easy to both download and install, and has very unique audio features that I introduced to third grade students; they loved it!). However, when taking this technology's overall potential into consideration, I believe that Slide would be an extremely effective tool to implement into one's classroom. The utilization of the technology (i.e., instructing the students in regards to how Slide can/should be used) would not take away from/damper the designed lesson goals and/or "big ideas", which, I believe, is something that all instructors must deeply consider when attempting to integrate the use of technology into their instruction.

Dragon Naturally Speaking 11- Relation to TPACK, and how it can be used in the classroom

Over the course of this school year, I have had the opportunity to journal with a first grade student who struggles greatly with the physical act of writing. I journal with this particular student at least three time each week (on average), and, on most occasions, he displays rather strong phonemic, phonological, and sound/letter awareness skills, but is consistently unable to connect his strings of "pseudo-words" into coherent thoughts. In addition, this student's handwriting is very much illegible, and, therefore, it is difficult for either my CT or me to interpret this student's journal entries. For this student, even with consistent scaffolding from his instructors, writing is a definite (and constant) challenge.

With this being said, based upon my experiences with this student, I can tell you first hand that, in comparison to other children his age, this student's ability to conjure up ideas and verbally articulate them in the form of a story is second to none. From a super-hero washing machine who miraculously learns to fly in an attempt to save an entire village from a fire, to a clan of penguins who learned to play hockey through their discovery of eggs, this student has an amazingly brilliant imagination that is always evolving.  However, his current inability to legibly document these wonderful ideas truly hiders his success as a student-author--my CT frequently urges him to "push for more writing", but, as I often tell her, this student's ideas are there, we are just unable to see them because he cannot write them down. Over the course of this week, with this student's dilemma in mind, I searched for an assistive technology that would assist students who possess imaginations that are a bit too advanced for their physical, "traditional" writing abilities.

I came across Dragon Natural Speaking 11, an amazingly applicable speech-to-text technology that can be easily applied in the classroom. After reading the wikipedia excerpt regarding the TPCK model, I realized that, in order to effectively implement this specific technology within each of our respective classrooms, as instructors, we must possess strong "Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge" (TPCK). TPCK can be defined as the knowledge pertaining to how technologies can be integrated into the learning environment in meaningful ways; eventually, this TPCK, and the strategic implementation of technology, serves to directly enhance the target curriculum. For example, upon choosing to allow my students  to utilize "Dragon" in the literacy classroom, I would remain cognizant of the specific stage of the writing process at which they currently reside (i.e., Which curricular standards, benchmarks, skills, and expectations have my students already mastered?--Are they informally drafting? Are they simply generating ideas, or are they beginning to formulate a final draft?). In this respect, my students' always-changing curricular focus would have an enormous impact on the ways in which I would  utilize the technology during my future instruction. Essentially, depending upon which "writing stage" the students were working to develop and become comfortable with, I would implement "Dragon" much differently (i.e., the level of precision that the students would be expected to work at would be altered; low precision when generating ideas, high precision when composing a final draft, etc.). Upon initially beginning to use the technology, the students' individual use of "Dragon" would, obviously, need to be highly scaffolded and closely monitored, but, as the students' collective comfort level would begin to strengthen, this speech-to-text tool would be an extremely effective technology to implement when using an interactive writing pedagogical technique in your classroom.

In regards to the student who I described earlier in this post, I believe that a speech-to-text technology such as "Dragon" would be a highly effective tool for him to utilize for one, specific reason--the focus of his writing would now be placed upon his generation and documentation of meaningful content, and not on the (often frustrating) process of attempting to linearly  hand-write his ideas on a piece of paper. Through the use of "Dragon", this student's confidence and motivation in the literacy classroom would likely sky rocket. More importantly, this student's use of this tool would, hopefully, alter his overall perception of the true purpose of writing--to express one's ideas in a creative, unique, and personalized  manner.

Blogging, Twitter--Thoughts and Ideas

I've been blogging for over a year now, but, as I have mentioned in a few of my previous posts, this is my first time fully engaging in the world of Twitter. Obviously, as with the various blogging sites that are now openly avaliable for use, if used appropriately, Twitter has great potential for increasing the ability of students to actively and precisely communicate/collaborate in the classroom. For students who have difficulty sharing their ideas during school hours (and/or lack the confidence to do so), social media sites can, potentially, provide an amazing communicative alternative for these students to have their voices heard. Especially with blogging, where there is no real restriction in regards to the breadth of the authors' thoughts, some of our more passive students may really excel when provided the opportunity to share their opinions on a safe and secure online platform.

With all of this being said, one potential drawback is the vastness of the "Tweeting" community--even for a 22 year old college student, Twitter is extremely overwhelming, and it's difficult (even with apps. such as Tweetdeck) to stay organized and connected to your followers and those who you follow. On one hand, as instructors, we have the option of censoring/monitoring our students' access to the outside Twitter community (through private accounts and services such as True Twit) in an attempt to ensure that they are not becoming overwhelmed or accessing inappropriate or unethical content. But, if we are constantly restricting/monitoring our students' use of technology, what are they truly getting out of the experience? These web 2.0 technologies are meant to be explored--if students aren't granted autonomy (or are restricted in their use), they may view the use of the tech. as being either useless or ineffective. How do we solve this problem? Will we ever be able to allow our students to truly experience all that Twitter (and other social media tools) has to offer?

Digital Image Lab: Photshop vs. Picasa

Over the weekend, based upon the amount of work that I was forced to put into our digital images lab, I would guess that I struggled much more than the majority of the people in our section. I began experimenting with Photoshop, and, because I liked its format and its easy navigability, I began completing my lab on this site. However, when it came time to embed my slide show into my blog, I was completely unable to do so. At most, Photoshop provided me with a link to the slide show that was undersized and  distorted two of my four altered images. Based on what I can tell, I wasn't able to embed my product to my blog (obviously, a Blogger site) because the "video" presentation was not a Google or Youtube product. After deciding that this site had frustrated me for far too long, I decided to flip through the wiki and view other people's work (especially those who also use Blogger as their class blog site). I found that the majority of Blogger users used Picasa, a digital image tool that was created by those at Google. After toying around with the site's features, I found that Picasa was just as easy to manipulate as Photoshop--more importantly, I found that, once I had reworked/reformatted my slide show through this Google-run site, I was finally able to embed it into my blog. This specific lab has taught me an extremely valuable lesson--before beginning any labs, do some research regarding which sites the various technologies are compatible with (i.e., Picasa is a Google site, so it is compatible/can be embedded into Blogger, which is also a Google site). Your life will become much easier and far less stressful!

Copyright: What we can learn from Radiohead...

It was quite interesting.. After I had completed the assigned "copyright" readings for this week, I decided to do a bit of research on my own. I came across this really interesting article from October 2007 found in TIME magazine titled, "Radiohead Says: Pay What You Want". For those of you who aren't familiar with the band Radiohead, they are one of the most "out-of-the-box" rock bands of our time, and are always willing and able to push the envelope through both their music and business decisions. Although it may appear as if this article is a bit outdated, its contents directly relate to the ever-evolving idea of copyright--just prior to the release of their album, "In Rainbows", the band announced on its website that the album would be avaliable only as a digital download, and that, in order to purchase the album, fans were required to name the price that they were willing to pay (with $0 being as acceptable as $25). In relation to the idea of copyright that we have been reading about over the past week, what made this type of business strategy possible was Radiohead's decision to stay "label-less" after their contract with EMI/Capitol Records had expired in the summer of 2003. Without a label, the band was able to attempt this online business strategy without potential repercussions from executives or distribution directors (all of whom would be entitled to varying portions of "In Rainbow's " profits). Radiohead's daring antics pose an interesting question to the world of music (that, hopefully, those in my house can weigh in on): With the rise of social media sites and web 2.0 tools, would it be smarter for artists to network on their own and be in control of their own destinies? If so, what would happen to the music business as we know it to be?  In relation to copyright, if music was avaliable through an artist's site, would all music be (technically) within the public domain (i.e, without any real copyright restrictions/regulations monitoring its distribution)? Would that be good for music and other sources of viable entertainment? One must also remember that Radiohead is not just another indie band attempting to break into the big time; in many respects, this group is viewed as being one of the most influential and talented bands in the industry. If they can stay on top without copyright protection from a label (and with fans naming the price of an album), why can't other artists? Technology and multi-media sites are changing the way the world works and operates, and, because of bands like Radiohead, the music business is no exception.

 Video: Radiohead's "15 Step", off of their 2007 album, "In Rainbows"

Digital Images Lab

Digital Images Slide Show



For a larger picture, click here!

Digital Images Lab--Practice Task

Autism Ribbon: Digital Image Practice Slide Show

In the future, I plan to use a blogging service other than Blogger when attempting to embed videos or digital work--although this was a small task intended only to provide us with practice, it was nearly impossible to embed the material that I worked with and/or created (digital images, slide show, etc.). In my opinion, much of the difficulty that I experienced can be attributed to the fact that, with Blogger, one can only embed video from either Youtube or Google; because I used Photoshop to produce my work (which, although easy to navigate, was somewhat uncooperative), in order to connect others with my work, I was limited to only providing a text-based link.

Photo Licensed Through Flickr

It took a bit longer than I expected, but here's the photo that I licensed with Creative Commons

Click here to access Flickr page

Flickr, Creative Commons Photo post, Critique

Photo Attribution:

Original Image: "DSC03379"
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 In almost any content area in the classroom, the use of images can potentially be effective when  attempting to connect students to a cluster of viable information or important resources in a timely and/or non- intimidating manner. Similar to "in-text", linked citations such as this, with a click of the mouse, students are able to access the emphasized, target information directly without having to hassle with the "traditional", MLA citation methods that are, in my opinion, rote and meaningless to the 21st century student. In a more general sense, especially for students with special needs who thrive on visual stimulation, the use of images can be of  enormous assistance in helping them understand content and stay engaged during classroom instruction.

Increasing Students' Time Management Skillls

Time management, as we all know, is crucial for many students in special education, regardless of their diagnosed disability. However, from my experience in the field, these skills are rarely fostered for students that truly need them to be able to excel in the classroom. A student's inability to efficiently manage time can lead to, among other things, behavioral issues and academic struggles. Here's a list of simple, yet effective time management strategies that can help students in the classroom. As a sibling of someone with special needs, I know from experience that, many times, behavior/organization strategies don't necessarily need to be "ground breaking". Sometimes, it turns out that simpler is better.

"The Innovative Educator", Current Reform Pushes Us Back to 20th Century Education

"When politicians, administrators, or even parents believe that succeeding at our current education (i.e., memorizing the multiplication tables, mastering the long division algorithm, being good at paper-book reading, and studying science, history, and civics in traditional ways) is what is important for today‟s and tomorrow‟s students, they put those students at a huge disadvantage relative to the fast-changing future". 

The above excerpt was taken from "The Reformers are Leaving our Schools in the 20th Century", an extremely thought-provoking and relevant article written by Marc Prensky (and highlighted/summarized on a blog titled "The Innovative Educator"). In as brief of a summary as possible, in his article, Prensky advocates for our nation's schools to revamp the current curricular format-- in the author's opinion, it is not the U.S. educational system that needs adjustment. Rather, it is the actual, day-to-day education that is provided to students within the system that must change. If thousands of other industries are acknowledging the fast-paced, technological changes that are occurring each and every day  in our world, why is it that many educators refuse to adjust their instruction? There is no reason why the students in today's schools should be forced to sit through the same teacher-dominated lectures and lessons that I experienced a decade ago. Times are changing, and the field of education must begin to take action. Last night, in one of my special education courses, my professor said something that really hit home for me--he said, "Our goal as teachers shouldn't be to make good kids. It should be to make good adults who will be able to function well in society in adulthood". If the use of technology in the classroom (and its appropriate use) isn't promoted and increased, our nation's students are going to be left in the dust.

Another really impressive portion of Prensky's article touches upon our responsibility, as teachers, to truly come to know our students--often times, due to the objective, standards-based assessments that have become the current focus of education, the unique and individual personalities of our students are ignored . Unfortunately, this trend of "teaching to the test" hinders our ability, as educators, to develop (and maintain) meaningful relationships with our students--they become numbers and scores, not people. In my opinion, simply displaying the desire to come to know each of our students' personal interests, strengths, weaknesses, and fears can be the key to developing a comfortable and innovative classroom. Allow students' ingenuity to come to the forefront in education!! The technologies that we are beginning to explore in this course can hopefully be used as tools to help promote student-centered learning!

One more thing--check out TweetDeck (there's also a link to it on the wiki for this week). I've had a twitter account for a while now, but this is the first time that I am actually exploring the site's possibilities. TweetDeck just makes it so much easier to organize and sift through tweets, articles, and other useful information. It eliminates the stress from tweeting!

CEP 416--Introduction!!

Hi, everyone! As you probably know by this point, my name is Brian Leslie, and I'm a senior majoring in Special Education--this blog was originally created during my time in CEP 452 last semester, and I can tell you that this specific technology has been the most practical and helpful tool that I have put to use over the course of the past year. If appropriately utilized, the blogging experience can not only provide you with unfiltered access to some of the most pressing issues facing all of us as future educators, but can also expose you to a plethora of differing opinions, view-points, and perspectives that are present all throughout the social-networking atmosphere. However, like anything else, the advantages of the "blogosphere" only present themselves if you are willing to "push the envelope" and truly explore what the online arena has to offer. I am, by no means, a "blogging" expert, but, through the creation of this particular technology, I have become attached to sifting through the thousands of educational blogs that are avaliable to me,which, I believe, has helped to shape my still-evolving pedagogical beliefs and philosophies.

In addition to blogging, I also have a rather significant amount of prior experience working with various text-to-speech programs. My oldest brother, now 27 years old, is both autistic and mildly cognitively impaired, and began experimenting with the "Write:OutLoud" program in his early teenage years--simply being provided with a consistent and comprehensive linguistic model has helped him to significantly develop as a writer. More specifically, "Write:OutLoud" has increased the breadth of his writing exponentially--he now is able to compose pages upon pages of work, primarily due to the fact that this text-to-speech program has worked to make the compositional process a fun and enjoyable experience! This program is most definitely an example of a specific tool that I plan to utilize within my own classroom someday.

During my CEP 452 coursework, as a portion of our semester-long  project, I constructed an "informational" Google-Site focusing on "Natural Reader 10.0", a more modernized text-to-speech program that provides users with the ability to convert either self-created or "internet retrieved" documents into mp3, WAV, or OGG audio-formats that can be downloaded and synced onto one's smart device (iPod, Blackberry, etc.). Obviously, this technology greatly increases the amount of access that users can potentially have to computer-based material--if utilized during classroom instruction (although multiple smart devices would also be required), "Natural Reader 10.0" could greatly benefit students who do not have access to technology in their homes.

Through this course, I hope to continue to hone both my skills and comfort level in regards to my work with technology. I am very much looking forward to this online experience, because I believe that personal experimentation is the only true way to achieve technological aptitude--being told by someone "how" to use or apply different technologies can only take one so far, and I am looking forward to the challenge of becoming comfortable with exploring the use of this class's various tools on my own. In addition, I hope to come to better understand the ways in which I can effectively and meaningfully implement technology into my classroom--in my experiences in the field, I have often been a witness of ineffective uses of technology. Simply providing students with the opportunity to explore content through the use of technology is not enough; as instructors, we must have a clear vision of the ways in which the implementation of technology into our daily instruction will personally benefit each of our students. This requires us to come to personally understand both the academic and social needs of each our students, and to possess the ability to identify the types of technology that would be most appropriate to apply when addressing each of their individual strengths and weaknesses.