Friday, November 13, 2009
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Amanda Lange: Technological Tools for Assisting Students who are English Language Learners and for each Tool, Noting Strategies for Teaching ELLs
"Supporting English Language Learners with Technology"
By Juliette Heinze | November/December 2004
This article addresses how many teachers with English language learners may speak the language of the English language learners, but has never had the proper training to support these students and give them the vocabulary that they need. It explains how to compensate for this there are many technologies available that can help increase and English language learner’s vocabulary. This article divides the technologies into three general categories, which are image galleries, multilingual books, and multimedia projects. After each category it gives a description of how these categories help assist students along with some examples which fit into the categories.
The image gallery category explains how images provide “contextual clues” to help English language learners determine meaning. An example of an available tool accessible for almost all teachers is a “google image search.” Teachers can pull up images for English language learners to see and use to help determine meanings, and these images can be easily printed in minimal time. The category of multilingual books includes audio books created by children who speak the different language and can be accessed online by English language learners through programs such as “duel language showcase.” In he multimedia project category, the article explains how in upper level grades there is a higher demand of more advanced vocabulary and English language learners may have huge difficulty as a result. Multimedia projects however allow students to see, hear, and experience information through different types of media such as videos, pictures, and sounds that can help English language learners depict meanings of certain vocabulary terms or concepts that they may not have been able to grasp if just reading text.
http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=10516
By Juliette Heinze | November/December 2004
This article addresses how many teachers with English language learners may speak the language of the English language learners, but has never had the proper training to support these students and give them the vocabulary that they need. It explains how to compensate for this there are many technologies available that can help increase and English language learner’s vocabulary. This article divides the technologies into three general categories, which are image galleries, multilingual books, and multimedia projects. After each category it gives a description of how these categories help assist students along with some examples which fit into the categories.
The image gallery category explains how images provide “contextual clues” to help English language learners determine meaning. An example of an available tool accessible for almost all teachers is a “google image search.” Teachers can pull up images for English language learners to see and use to help determine meanings, and these images can be easily printed in minimal time. The category of multilingual books includes audio books created by children who speak the different language and can be accessed online by English language learners through programs such as “duel language showcase.” In he multimedia project category, the article explains how in upper level grades there is a higher demand of more advanced vocabulary and English language learners may have huge difficulty as a result. Multimedia projects however allow students to see, hear, and experience information through different types of media such as videos, pictures, and sounds that can help English language learners depict meanings of certain vocabulary terms or concepts that they may not have been able to grasp if just reading text.
http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=10516
Saturday, November 7, 2009
Amanda Lange's Podcast
Gabcast! EME 2040 #1 - Amanda Lange's Podcast
Websites addressing technology tools for assisting students with special and/or diverse needs and noting the specific learning outcomes for each technology.
Websites addressing technology tools for assisting students with special and/or diverse needs and noting the specific learning outcomes for each technology.
Amanda Lange:TechnologicalTools for Assisting Students with Special and/or diverse needs
Technological Tools for Assisting Students with Special and/or Diverse Needs and Noting the Specific Learning Outcomes for each Technology:
The article “Special Technological possibilities for Students with Special Needs” is a very informative and helpful article. It discusses multiple different technologies available for students with various special needs. It discusses how assistive technology devices can take many different forms depending on the special needs. Some of these needs include technologies required to assist in different language and vision-related problems, and can assist with speech output, word predictions, and speech recognition. “Talking software” in which there are verbal directions or verbal reinforcement like “good job” and “correct” as well as verbal outputs that can guide students verbally through software and learning are great successes for students with visual problems. There are also many online books in which the books are read out loud and in crisp and clean voices at a slow pace that also act as verbal aids to those with visual problems. There are also programs that read sentences back to students after they create them as well as whole paragraphs so people who are blind can type their work and hear and understand their writing as a whole.
This article also touches base with programs that hare available to students with language deficits, such as “Co:Writer” and “textHELP!” These programs predict the words a user types and brings up a list of words they might use in the context of their sentence, and they can scroll through the different words and choose which they need. However, there are some criticisms of this program that the article addresses. This includes teachers believing it may slow some students down because after each keystroke they now have a new list of words to select from and it takes a considerable amount of time to review each new set of choices. Teachers argue that the time required to look at all the different words may “take away from the creative element of writing,” and that it may in fact be more work for the student. This article is a great resource that exemplifies different technologies available for students with special needs and describes and explains their usefulness as well.
http://people.virginia.edu/~har4y/edlf345/elementary/files/special_needs.pdf
The article “Special Technological possibilities for Students with Special Needs” is a very informative and helpful article. It discusses multiple different technologies available for students with various special needs. It discusses how assistive technology devices can take many different forms depending on the special needs. Some of these needs include technologies required to assist in different language and vision-related problems, and can assist with speech output, word predictions, and speech recognition. “Talking software” in which there are verbal directions or verbal reinforcement like “good job” and “correct” as well as verbal outputs that can guide students verbally through software and learning are great successes for students with visual problems. There are also many online books in which the books are read out loud and in crisp and clean voices at a slow pace that also act as verbal aids to those with visual problems. There are also programs that read sentences back to students after they create them as well as whole paragraphs so people who are blind can type their work and hear and understand their writing as a whole.
This article also touches base with programs that hare available to students with language deficits, such as “Co:Writer” and “textHELP!” These programs predict the words a user types and brings up a list of words they might use in the context of their sentence, and they can scroll through the different words and choose which they need. However, there are some criticisms of this program that the article addresses. This includes teachers believing it may slow some students down because after each keystroke they now have a new list of words to select from and it takes a considerable amount of time to review each new set of choices. Teachers argue that the time required to look at all the different words may “take away from the creative element of writing,” and that it may in fact be more work for the student. This article is a great resource that exemplifies different technologies available for students with special needs and describes and explains their usefulness as well.
http://people.virginia.edu/~har4y/edlf345/elementary/files/special_needs.pdf
Emma Heinlen Podcast
Gabcast! EME 2040 #1 - Emma Heinlen's Podcast
This podcast reviews two articles about Technological Tools for Assisting Students with Special and/or Diverse Needs and Noting the Specific Learning Outcomes for each Technology.
This podcast reviews two articles about Technological Tools for Assisting Students with Special and/or Diverse Needs and Noting the Specific Learning Outcomes for each Technology.
Emma HeinlenTechnological Tools for Assisting Students with Special and/or Diverse Needs and Noting the Specific Learning Outcomes for each Technology
http://www.tltgroup.org/SEVEN/7_Diverse_Learning.htm
This website reviews how to use technology to help teach different students with diverse needs. First it discusses the use of choice for the students. The students can choose something that they may be more interested in for the creation of a webquest. “In short, the assignments encourage students to make sense of the past through the lens of their own life experiences”. Also it is possible to utilize Gardner’s multiple intelligences by offering choices of assignments based off of those intelligences. However, choosing 4 of the 8 assignments allows for a challenge. There are further examples about physical disabilities. Computers or voice-recognition software allow students with physical disabilities to complete assignments efficiently. This also can be used outside of the classroom during tests so as not to embarrass the student who is dealing with the disability.
The article seems to be somewhat useful and has examples of ways to include different objectives with different styles of learning. However, it would be interesting to know more about the diversity of the techniques for more mental disabilities. It covers important topics such as assignments that give students a choice, disabilities, providing a variety of materials, and helping students learn from their differences. It would be important for a teacher to be aware of what the article discusses, however the teacher would probably need supplemental information.
This website reviews how to use technology to help teach different students with diverse needs. First it discusses the use of choice for the students. The students can choose something that they may be more interested in for the creation of a webquest. “In short, the assignments encourage students to make sense of the past through the lens of their own life experiences”. Also it is possible to utilize Gardner’s multiple intelligences by offering choices of assignments based off of those intelligences. However, choosing 4 of the 8 assignments allows for a challenge. There are further examples about physical disabilities. Computers or voice-recognition software allow students with physical disabilities to complete assignments efficiently. This also can be used outside of the classroom during tests so as not to embarrass the student who is dealing with the disability.
The article seems to be somewhat useful and has examples of ways to include different objectives with different styles of learning. However, it would be interesting to know more about the diversity of the techniques for more mental disabilities. It covers important topics such as assignments that give students a choice, disabilities, providing a variety of materials, and helping students learn from their differences. It would be important for a teacher to be aware of what the article discusses, however the teacher would probably need supplemental information.
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