This morning, I attended a session on Technology for Today and Tomorrow. Oh, my, how my head is swimming with ideas! There are SO many great ideas and applications for technology in the classroom (and at home, too). I just wish we could educate all teachers and send them all to this conference. With a teacher to take that extra half-step and take the time to set up a plan, their classrooms can be easily accessible to all students of all abilities.
Are you aware that many schools now provide tablets to every student in the classroom? Here's a great idea that one teacher had, and used, to include all of her students. They were studying Charlotte's Web in 4th grade. If a student cannot read/process that level of writing and vocabulary, or cannot produce a written report, what can be done? This teacher provided QR codes (the squares with the black & white pixels on them that can be scanned with your phone) posted on 8 1/2" x 11" papers around her room. Groups of 3 students then went to each station, scanning the QR codes. Each code took their tablet to a video, picture, or animation from the story that explained or demonstrated the vocabulary words, plot, character information, etc. Just think what a great time all of the kids had, and every child could learn about the story without having to read and write pages of straight text. I want that kind of teacher for my kids! :)
This presentation was given by Sean Smith, Dad of son Nolan with Down syndrome, Associate Professor in the Dept for Special Education at the University of Kansas. Sean is passionate about this topic, and also showed off some fun tools that seem to come straight out of a sci-fi movie. You can scan a photo, and have it come to life in 3D and interact with background photos. This is one of those things that you may say "that sounds neat" until you see it in person. Then you go "wow! That's so cool!"
You can find out more about this presentation, and see a list of the resources that were discussed, and the types of tools and applications are available for both PC's and iPads at http://delivr.com/2t8n4
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