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.
