Learning+Log+3

Learning Log 4: 3/3/09

The greatest challenge I have found up to this point is managing the volume of resources available. I understand there is a wiki out there (or something like that) that allows you to file, manage and later retrieve those likes. Kind of like an on-line filing cabinet. What a cool idea. I will need to look into something like that, because my notebook of "really important" articles, forms, checklists, etc will soon not be large enough to hold everything that I have seemed most important.

I am excited to take an existing series of lessons in a unit and make the necessary accommodations (based on SETT and UDL) to it. I think the most interesting idea would be to adapt lessons in order to reach students with Body/Kinesthetic strengths.

Having read through chapters 3-5 of TES, here are some notes or observations:

p. 42 - "Students are assessed according to standards and standardized tests with little regard for how the chosen medium affects their learning or their ability to demonstrate that learning". It links to the conversation we had last week about the format of MSA and HSA tests, which made me think about the kids who don't pass the standardized version and how I used to feel badly for those kids because they weren't smart enough to pass. Actually, maybe they just aren't visual learners or responders. Maybe this whole projects based alternative to the HSA is a blessing in disguise. It may just give non-traditional learners the opportunity (finally) to show what they know in a more personal and user friendly format. I need to think about that for a bit. Hmmm....

p. 59 - For a long time, I have given students the opportunity to use images to enhance their written work. I think I felt like it might "dress up" the paragraph or essay, but maybe, it is combining the benefits of text and images to create a more complete image; an image more like the one in the student's head. An image that they could not manage to create entirely by writing alone. Whoa!

p. 67 - "..it is clear that text-only instruction will give way to a more deliberate application of multimedia.... Students with various kids of disabilities are likely to be the earliest and most obvious beneficiaries. Using digital tools actually changes these students' capacities and makes them far more capable." What a fun and exciting world we live in. To think we, as special educators, have the opportunity to be in the forefront, in the first wave of educators who can use flexivle digital media to make their students (who up to this point we not successful learners) the most successful they can be.

Chapter 5:

__recognition network__: what information/facts __strategic network:__ how skills and processes __affective network:__ why value and importance of idea/ connection to student's life

p. 98 - video game and their "just right" degree of challenge as a player moves from one level to the next; 100 levels each just __slightly__ harder than the previous level. Who'd a thunk I would find features of a video game valuable?

p. 104 - 'For teachers, clear goals are the foundation of individualized teaching. Goals specifying which aspects of instruction and assessment are central (and therefore, must be held constant) and which aspects are not central (and therefore, can be varied). " separating the goal from the method, i.e., gather information from various sources rather than from books.