Information on the Technology Survival Wiki

The speaker discusses their technology wiki for high school students with language-based learning disabilities, specifically dyslexic students. They cover various computer hardware and peripheral devices, as well as cloud-based learning management systems like Canvas, Google Classroom, and Moodle. They also mention web-based applications and freeware programs for dyslexic students. The speaker highlights the importance of parent and family communication tools like Class Dojo, and the use of assistive technology like C pens and C readers. They also discuss safe and ethical technology use, strategies for digital citizenship, and the importance of proper citation and copyright guidelines. Finally, they touch on the credibility of online information. Hi, the purpose of my technology wiki for this class was as if I was developing it for a high school and the main focus of it was for parents and students in the language-based learning disability class, so basically for dyslexic students. I started the wiki with the introduction as myself being the technology coordinator for the school and telling them my history not only in the classroom but also outside of the classroom and then my knowledge of the needs of language-based learning dyslexic students, people who have these disabilities. I went to go ahead and cover with some basic computer technology, the different necessary hardware and peripheral and portable devices that they were going to have in the classroom, all of the different requirements for each one of these hardware and peripheral and portable devices and the things that would be provided for by the school. We did a table that I was going to present to the parents, too, describing the technology, what the benefit was, what the challenges were, and also how it was going to support their students' learning, and I really appreciated doing this part of the research because it really helped me to see the necessity of what has to be in a classroom for it to function properly, so basically other than the computer laptop and the smart board and the projectors, other devices that are important post-COVID, you know, webcams and things like that. And then, of course, we talked a little bit further or in more detail about the obligations of teachers and troubleshooting and the care of all of these devices and how to find resources to assist teachers if they're using these in any kind of a classroom. Then I went on to talk about some cloud-based learning management systems and the preferences of the one that we would be using in the school. I developed a rubric to show the parents the strengths and weaknesses of the particular ones that we chose, and this was based on the design and the layout, how it would communicate and collaborate for parents and teachers, and then the gradebook and student tracking capabilities, and then also, lastly, the textbook integration, and so that was for the different cloud-based learning management systems, so it was between, well, among three of them, it was Canvas, Google Classroom, and Moodle with us choosing Google Classroom as the one that we would be using in that particular school. And then, of course, there was a wiki audio to explain this to the parents. Then we went on to the section of web-based applications, and this was really, really wonderful because it helped me learn more about the applications that are available for dyslexic students that I could share with parents. I covered all of the ones from, like, Dragon NaturallySpeaking, all the different benefits and challenges and how to integrate them in the classroom, so I picked three top ones and broke those down to see which ones would be the best for dyslexic students. And, of course, I have my preferences already, and I do have some that I already currently use with dyslexic students in tutoring sessions. Then we moved on to three freeware applications that are out there in the internet that are good for tutoring dyslexia, and there were some that I had personally never heard of, like Omoguru. I had never heard of this free app. It's 45,000 classic e-books in English. I thought that was great, and so that was one that I actually hope to use with some students in the future. I was very familiar, though, with when I covered the three open-source website applications or web-based applications, I was very familiar with the Open Dyslexic font, which, of course, I use in everything, and I can honestly say that some of my students use it and find it beneficial. Others can't even. They say it doesn't help them in any way, so I did speak about the benefits and challenges of that. I also spoke about Blogger as an open-source web-based application that students can use and it can promote or encourage their writing. It's always a good thing. And then, of course, the benefits of using Google Drive with all of its different capabilities, not only for storage of their work and research papers and stuff like that, but all of the different tools that are available. And then from there on, I went to use Simbaloo, which was a great learning for me as well, and I think it will be very beneficial in any school because of the bookmarking part of it that you can now have a location where you can actually break things into folders or sections with different links that if you're learning or studying about something or if you have quick access so that you, as you're teaching, you can keep that folder open and access all of the information needed. So I did select some of these particular specific dyslexia programs that were applications that I would be using and I bookmarked those through Simbaloo and I'm happy to have been introduced to Simbaloo because I will be using it. And then the next section spoke about parent and family communications and how I was going to or which one of the, you know, computer-based or software-based programs I would be using for parents and speaking at home and, you know, having communication with the parents. And I thought definitely if I was back into a brick-and-mortar school teaching a language-based learning disability class or a group of students, I would probably use that Class Dojo, which I was not familiar with. I love all the capabilities of it, the sharing of photos, the activities, virtual field trips, everything that you can post there. The platform is amazing. And you could see the participation of the students as well as the parents. They have access to it to read. It has automatic reminders, events, deadlines. And then there's, like, your own class story feed, which I thought was great for, like, daily feed, especially for parents with students of learning disabilities of any kind. They want to check in on their kids and find out that they're learning, find out what's going on. So I thought it was great. There were others that I covered like Odysseyware and, you know, that particular program that is available for dyslexic students, again, is for learning. And that's more curriculum-based, though. It's audio-visual lessons. I already use those. It's heavy with Orton-Gillingham. It's very supportive of them. And then I focused on a technology tool that we would use, too, would be like the C pens, the C readers, digital scanning pens. Those would be amazing to have an abundance of them, at least, or a whole class full of... enough for each student in the class. It's not something that we really do. It's actually not even required for students. It's a recommendation, and some families choose to purchase it for their students. And I have never yet worked at any location that actually provides assistive technology for free or within a school year. So, but I'm sure they're out there. There are schools like Landmark Academy in Massachusetts and others that will have these types of assistive technologies within the classroom available to all of their students. And then we went on to talk about the safe and ethical technological use. This section was very, very eye-opening as well. I never really considered all of the details of what to share with students for proper and good development of their digital citizenship. So, I found this very enriching for myself. I loved the ability to familiarize myself with the acceptable use policies. And I, of course, geared it towards the high schools because that's the group of students that I mostly work with, the older students. But I thought that was great and very informative too. And then talked about some of the strategies to present that to students and how it's very important to be consistent and reiterate it throughout the year, not let it be just a one-time thing with the students and with the parents. I also loved the idea of how to educate our students with tips on how to be safe online and offline. Even for me as an adult and an educator, I never considered some of these pointers that I found online like regularly checking your data, checking to see who, you know, like just a little bit of data mining and find out where, who, which third-party organization may have all the information that, you know, you don't want to make public, things like that and how to stay on that regularly. And then the digital netiquette strategies were always good. I loved the first one, which was to make real people a priority. That one's very, very good. And, you know, just all of them were a reminder for me. But I can see using these with students and revisiting them and speaking to them and having conversations about how important it is for them to use these etiquette, digital etiquette strategies so that they can be successful not just during their educational career but thereafter as adults. And lastly, the copywriting guidelines and the citing guidelines. That was very, very good for me to go over again because so many students do struggle with this. Even myself, it's not always in the front forefront of my mind as I'm working that, oh, yeah, this quote, even if I rephrase it, this idea, this expression is not my own and I need to give it the proper citation. So I think for students, that's something that they definitely struggle with. It's so easy to copy a video and paste it and put it into part of your project without realizing that you need to give due credit to whomever did that, and especially now with images and music, students need to learn that. And it does have to come through like a very dedicated program or a dedicated lesson rather than or lessons, plural, rather than just assuming that students are going to understand what a copyright guideline might be or how to properly cite anything. And then the area, the last area or the last section of the week, he covered the credibility of online information. This was something that is so apparent right now, especially with social media videos and the manipulation of these videos. I know for them, for students, we have never allowed them to use Wikipedia for resource because anybody can change the information on it and they have to find more credible resources. And then we go through that, teaching them and instructing them, what does it mean to use first, you know, source and second source and move on from there and making sure that they're checking the sources for the credibility of it, checking with Snopes, checking for evidence that this news is something that's legitimate. So this was a great section of the wiki as well. So all in all, that's what the wiki covered. I think it's very, very prepared for using at a regular, a real high school. I know that I made this for a make-believe high school, but I was actually really excited and thinking as I thought about my students and thought about the classroom and whether I am a virtual teacher right now, but if I was at Brick and Mortar School, of course I could use this and present it to the parents. And even as a virtual teacher, I could take from it and use it with my, use different sources and things that I learned here with my students. So that was the whole purpose of my wiki, just really to help develop this technology survival guide. And my main focus, my main audience were my students and the parents, but this could easily be used by other educators as well. And some of the footwork and discovery and investigation has already been done, so it's there for them to use the resource. Thank you.