Blog Post #3

Peer Editing

Peer editing is a phrase that tends to send shivers throughout a classroom. However, if done properly it can be an extremely useful learning experience for students. Peer editing is defined in the video What is Peer editing as working with someone your own age-usually a class member- to help improve, revise, and edit his or her writing. The Peer Edit With Perfection Tutorial breaks down the process into three steps; first compliment the students writing, then make specific suggestions for improvement, and lastly make corrections on the peer’s paper.

The most important thing to remember, while peer editing, is that both students should stay positive. It’s in the interest of both students to take the process seriously in order for it to work effectively. Both parties need to give fair and honest while suggesting improvements and be open to critiques on their work. Peer editing may seem unnecessary to some students but it’s a helpful writing device available to students.

Mountbatten

The Mountbatten is a braille keyboard being used in schools as a tool to provide an engaging leaning environment for visually impaired students. It provides the user with both audio and tactile feedback, such as audio readouts as the student types and by producing braille as the student types. Because the Mountbatten is able to interact with a computer by saving, transferring, and receiving files, I feel, it can easily be used in a classroom. Since I personally don’t know how to read braille I would love to use this tool if/when I have a student with a visual impairment. I could send the Mountbatten a file containing lecture notes to print out in braille for the student. The student would also be able to take extra notes on their own during class time. Also, because the Mountbatten can send files to a computer, I can have a file that is viewable on my computer which would be useful when giving a quiz, test, or doing group discussion activities. The Mountbatten allows the student to interact and stay engaged in class like never before.

Assistive Technologies

In this week’s assigned videos, technology for the visually impaired was discussed. In Teaching Math to the Blind, Professor Art Karshmer addresses the problems blind students have when learning math: being unable to read the problem in column form. Prof. Karshmer and his team at the University of San Francisco have developed the technology to help braille-reading students work math problems more simply with the help of an electronic grid system and tiles with numbers in braille. In iPad Usage For the Blind and Teaching Mom What Her Deaf/Blind Child Is learning On the iPad the technology available for blind users was demonstrated. Both videos demonstrated how Voice Over is used by a visually impaired person to navigate an iPad, open apps and iBooks, and type using finger shortcuts that accompany the program.

All four videos, including The Mountbatten video, showed new advancements in technology being created to help improve the lives of the visually impaired. Each video is demonstrating how someone saw a need and filled it. It’s teachers like Prof. Karshmer and innovators at Apple who are trying to make a difference in the lives of visually or hearing impaired students. With the help of technology like the iPad, Voice Over, and iBooks blind students now have easier access to a class’s required reading material in a format they can use. Non-braille reading teachers can easily send notes and communicate with a blind student with the help of the Mountbatten. And a student learning math with Professor Karshmer’s system now has a better chance at breaking the barriers against pursuing a career in mathematics or science. Every one of these inventions is helping open new doors to ensuring blind students have many of the same learning experiences and opportunities in life as a seeing student has. As I mentioned in the section above on the Mountbatten, I would definitely be open to using any technology that helps improve a visually impaired student’s time in my class. As a science fanatic and future science teacher, I want to know that every child has the same chance to discover and explore the subject. If technology like professor Karshmer’s grid system and the iPad help a student to learn, then I will, without hesitation, be open to using it in my classroom.

Harness Your Students' Digital Smarts

Vicki Davis is a teacher in rural Georgia using digital media to help her students “learn how to learn.” In the video Harness Your Student’s Digital Smarts, she describes how she uses different media tools to help connect her students to curriculum as well as the world. Ms. Davis understands that very few students will grasp a subject when the teacher uses a pencil and paper only style of teaching. Instead, she provides the platform (a new software program, wikis, or other media) for class lessons and then lets the student take the reins. In doing this, she’s teaching them how to start thinking and learning on their own. In my opinion she’s teaching one of the best lessons ever and they don’t even realize it. She’s teaching them how to be an individual and inquisitive thinker while teaching them about technology.

As a student I used to despise when a teacher assigned a project and didn’t show an example or was very vague on how he or she wanted the project set up. After several years it finally clicked that I clearly lacked my own imagination. I needed an example so I could basically copy it. I now see that these teachers simply had similar methods and intentions to those of Vicki Davis. They were trying to spark student’s creativity and individuality. Thanks to today’s technology, there are now more ways of immersing students into a subject than ever before. All you need to do is spark their interest.