TED-Ed Lessons Worth Sharing Video

http://ed.ted.com/lessons/marcus-du-sautoy-symmetry-reality-s-riddle

This is a video about symmetry in Mathematics I watched. It was a rather long video but I found it very interesting. These TED-Ed talks on this website are very cool and can help you with ways to teach, or even showing your students about a subject. I would show this video to my students to introduce them to the new topic of symmetry, where it originates from, how it works, symmetry in real life, and use the example of the Rubik's cube and integrate that in to my class. I might even use the short quiz afterwards to see if they were even paying attention to the video.

My report on Assistant Technology for Austism

Adam Tinker

EDU 220

Professor Frick

Assignment #5

April 23, 2012

Assistant Technology for Autism

        For this assignment I chose the disability Autism. I chose Autism because I was intrigued by the YouTube video we watched in class that showed Autistic children learning with the iPad. One of the students in particular expressed his enhanced vocabulary and love for symphonies and conductors. I thought it was amazing to see them engage and learn as quickly as they did comparing to the traditional paper learning method. According to the website www.specialed.us, autism limits learning in several ways such as the need to express themselves, social skills, ability to concentrate, and most important learning their native language. Autistic people can learn more easily through visual information than through auditory. Assistant Technology is aiming to help children and people with disabilities learn, live and communicate better.

        There are several types of Assistant Technology, which are all different to fit the needs for different disabilities. For Autism, these include photos, drawings, or written words or numbers. Some technology, according to www.livestrong.com, explains “One type of low-tech assisting technology is a communication boards, which contains pictures or photographs of people or objects”. The site explains these boards look like books and the person can touch the pictures or objects with their finger, or a pointer stick. On this website, it also talks about a simple speech output system, “which allows a child to make a choice, usually by pushing a button or picture on a special keyboard and the device speaks the choice. For example, the child can touch a picture of an apple, and the computer says, ‘food please’, or ‘I’d like something to eat, please” (www.livestrong.com). I thought this was really interesting and similar to a smart board and iPad. When the child picks what it wants, like it was talking about earlier with the apple, it can also choose what response they want as well. This can help them in a school setting or living at home. For Autism, it is common to show images, or pictures for the student to see visually and comprehend what that image is or have written words or spoken words and have them point out what image or picture the instructor is asking them about. One website called www.specialed.us claims that after using visual representations the next step would be to show them concrete objects. The website also suggests a program called “Picture This”, which contains over 2,700 photos that can be used to visual images to help Autistic children in their learning.

        In more recent studies, computers and iPad seem to be the popular choice of Assistant Technology. On www.theglobeandmail.com, they claim that Autistic students do not want to learn from their instructor but will gladly play with a computer or iPad and learn that way. It’s proven to be very effective. The website has a few student examples that shows students who did not speak at all at school or home a few years ago can now communicate through short and simple sentences. The article calls it “life changing”, because autistic children become more engaged through new technology. They do say that not all of the children learned how to use it quickly, but others did. Since autistic children can pick up on patterns very well they say to stay persistent on teaching them to use the iPad and soon they will know maybe more than you! This website was really great. It includes an article on a certain 14 year old autistic child, and several videos of other autistic children using them in a classroom setting. Prior to the 14 year old boy using the iPad, he was pinching his parents when he wanted something, but the parents say it was difficult to know what he wanted from a pinch. This has opened up a new world in their family and now that he can speak simple sentences to ask, and receive what he wants specifically. Before the boy was introduced to the iPad he used a certain technology called a “white board” where he would watch projections of a slide show that showed images and similar images and spoke sentences how they were different. The white board allows students to touch the screen instead of using a mouse or pointer tool. The ability for him engage was there and he was interested. After being introduced to the iPad and getting used to how to use it, he began making his own presentation slide shows with his instructor and learning from them. He made his own presentation about the show “Happy Days” and the instructor was blown away about he recollection of the show and how he liked “The Fonz”. Reading this website and watching the videos was shocking. I’ve went to school with autistic kids but I never really engaged with them in a classroom setting. I know they didn’t speak much, but after seeing how much of an impact computers, and iPads are making on these students is amazing. On the same website, some of the parents say that, “it saved their child's education”.  It makes me feel good that these technologies are helping the kids in everyday life as well. They can now communicate easier with their teachers, and parents making their lives easier as well.

        After researching future tools, and assistant technology for children with autism I didn’t find anything that was “the next up and coming thing”. For now it seems they are building with the iPad, which I think is doing a spectacular job. After the video we saw in class about autistic children using them in class, and then doing some research of my own, it really is a break through for them and their educational advancement. I believe more hands on approaches with visual aids like the iPad will be used for not just autistic children but all children with disabilities, since the iPad is endless in its abilities to help hearing and seeing impaired. I’m sure it will only get better to suit everyone specific and special needs. Similar to what www.theglobeandmail.com  said in their article, instructors and parents need to stay persistent in teaching their autistic children how to use computers or iPads because it will not only benefit the child, but them as well, making life less stressful and more fun for the both of them.

References

www.livestrong.com

www.specialed.us

www.theglobeandmail.com

Google Forms Assessment

Here's a multiple choice test I created on Google forms. It's directed towards seventh grade Algebra, test your skills to see what you still remember! Good luck!!


TAKE THE TEST HERE

An issue relating to Educational Technology

iPad's improving Mathematic Skills?

Above I found this link and it was pretty interesting. They tested two Math classrooms to see how much better they did doing homework and practicing Math work on a iPad and saw a 20% increase in their test scores. I thought this was interesting but I agree with the author that more testing needs to be done, but why not? This is an interesting, new, and fun way to learn. I love new technology, and kids do too, so why not use a gadget that is state of the art that students feel comfortable using and is fun for them to learn on. OF course, the teacher is going to need to learn to use this effectively but this is a good thing. The more they learn how to use it, the more they can use it in the classroom making it a fun learning environment for the kids!

Sample ODE Lesson Plan

Various Uses of Variables

This is a lesson plan based on seventh grade level algebra with various uses of variables. I plan on teaching middle childhood mathematics and using this in my future classroom. The benchmarks in this lesson plan start with using symbolic algebra to represent mathematical relationships, introducing rules and variables to describe patterns, functions, and other mathematical relationships. Using real-life representations to organize and communicate mathematical thinking and problem situations is the third benchmark in teaching the students. The last benchmark is to have them recognize and use mathematical language and symbols when reading, writing, and conversing with others. This plan fits my teaching style because reading through the lesson plan In was picturing how I learned and this was strikingly similar, so that will also help me teach it as well.

Blog Feedback

Feel free to scan through my blog to critique it. I'm open to any suggestions, tips, flaws, or comments!

Picnik Photo Editor

This is a photo of me a few years ago at my sister's wedding. Using Picnik Photo Editor, I sharpened the image, then "retroed" it, with the 1960's theme in the effects. After that, I added a text with my name, and added some glasses and a hamburger for fun in the sticker section. Hope you like it!

My Prezi Presentation introducing myself to my first class!

Your New Teacher, Mr. Tinker on Prezi

My presentation is directed towards my future early/middle childhood students. I plan to show this to my class on the first day of school to tell them about myself and to get know me a little bit better than just simply telling them about me and where I come from. I feel Prezi.com was a great way to show the students about me and helps them to definitely get to know me better by showing them pictures of my past, my family, and my pet! Prezi was a great choice instead of PowerPoint. I have always used PowerPoint for every other High School, and College presentation but when I was introduced to this program, I loved how different it was and how cool you could make the transitions and templates. I feel like PowerPoint definitely needs to step up its game after I saw Prezi! I'm glad I took the time to figure this program out, I think you will be too if you take the time to figure it out as well. Just like anything else you learn that is new, it takes time so don't get frustrated too quickly.