Wednesday 15 July 2015

Choosing the right apps for the right student!

App selection can be a lengthy process as it pertains to supporting students.  The apps that we explored today included book creator, clicker sentences, tools4students and pages.  Although this scratches the surface of assistive apps, the focus of today was to utilize one of these four apps for the case student that we selected in a previous class.

The functionality of these apps for low incidence disability students is critical to teachers. Some core questions that I have relating to these apps are:

1) IPP's - How would these apps be supported within IPPs?  Teachers reading student IPPs of emergent student learners need to be versed in the use of these apps?  Where do we find time to teach EAs and students?

2) Tech support - Teacher pre-knowledge of these apps is important to the success of these apps in a classroom context.  Lindsey was well versed in these apps and that made it easier to build items within each of these apps.

3) Teacher prompting - this would be needed to assist the student.  Where do we draw the line to allow the student to explore these apps on there own?  

I look forward to building more knowledge of these apps to construct a resume for a low incidence disability students.


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3 comments:

  1. Chelsea15 July 2015 at 13:25

    Hey Ken! You pose a lot of great questions which shows some thoughtful reflection on the class! I by no means even pretend to have answers to your questions and maybe there are no answers since each teacher and student has their own competencies and each school operates differently and has different tools and resources to offer however I would say that the assistive tech apps used by a given student should absolutely be reflected in the IPP goals given that in many cases, the apps contribute to the student being able to achieve those goals. It seems that the apps we have had experience with thus far all required a bit of work and figuring out but were kind of seamless to use afterwards so I guess (in a perfect world) this would be the case for the tech being used with students!
    Anyways I will stop typing and start thinking about your questions some more! Great post :)

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  2. Maggie15 July 2015 at 17:01

    Ken, I love the questions you pose, they are very key in the practical implications of using this new found information- be it apps and technology to assist our students, or recognizing the neurodevelopmental framework as a great tool to assess the needs of a student.

    I really like your quote image of today! It is like a picture- worth a thousand words!

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  3. Unknown15 July 2015 at 19:48

    Oh. Maggie! I was going to mention the quote of the day. I love it! Ken, I agree that teachers do need a thorough knowledge of the apps to teach them to our most dependent students. I believe EPAs need to be given PD. They are so under-appreciated, that it is sickening. I guess it is up to the Learning Center teacher to ensure that they get the help that they need. Great Blog, Ken! See you tomorrow.

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