Coming to a Close ...

Well, this chapter of my life is almost at a closure point.  I have enjoyed the two classes that I took this spring semester, but I'll definitely be glad when i'm able to say that I have completed the finals in both of them! 

This technology course has taught me a lot and I'm excited about being able to use some of the knowledge that I have gained.  In fact, my employer recently purchased iPad's for each of the speech therapists at my school.  I'm looking forward to using that in therapy!! 

I have enjoyed learning and the process of learning new things, but I definitely think I'm too old to pursue another degree!  I will now be able to renew my certificate and continue working in my current job field.  Thanks for all the help and encouragement along the way.  My professor was great and was always so prompt in grading.  I really appreciated that immediate feedback! 

I hope you all have enjoyed this semester and have a great summer!

Social Bookmarks

As part of this class, I was introduced to the world of social bookmarks. I chose to utilize a delicious.com account. For this assignment, I identified 56 different websites/blogs. This form of social bookmarking allows the user to identify subjects that are similarly tagged for referencing.

I have also added the link for my delicious account.  The above word cloud was created using Wordle.

Digital Citizenship

Before I completed my digital citizenship project, I had no concept of what this phrase meant.  I now understand that it encompasses everything that we do online.  We are all citizens of the largest social network -- the internet.  Through social media, we are exposing ourselves and our lives to people all over the world.  While this can be a good thing, we have to be careful!

Part of being a good digital citizen involves being responsible. We need to be sure to tell the truth and not portray ourselves as something we are not.  We have to be proactive in all that we do online.  This means that we need to keep our antivirus and malware software up to date to protect our computers and all of those in our online contacts, we need to shop from secure sites that have high security standards, and we need to engage in legal behaviors.

I have attached my digital citizenship glog.  Hope you enjoy looking at it.  Thanks for reading -- now, go be a good digital citizen! :)

Google Reader

As part of this class, I was introduced to google reader.  I had heard of this before and actually already had one set up, but I didn't even realize it!  On my personal blog, I had followed friends and a few professional speech pathology blogs, but this gave me a chance to learn about different resources and educational blogs on the web.

Over this semester, I followed several different blogs.  For some of the ones that I followed, I have included the link to my favorite post and a brief description of why I liked that specific post. 

• http://www.speechgadget.com/
• http://mediaspecialistsguide.blogspot.com/
• http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AMediaSpecialistsGuideToTheInternet/~3/nnSo77lswEk/41-great-blogs-to-follow-by-subject.html
• I thought this was a great post because it highlights some of the best blogs around for specific subject matters.  I was able to take this information from my google reader and send it to several friends and colleagues to help them gain insight from what other teachers are teaching in their individual subject areas.
• http://www.ikidapps.com/
• http://www.ikidapps.com/2012/04/cool-new-iphone-projector.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+iPhoneAndKids+%28iKid+Apps+-+Best+iPhone%2C+iPad%2C+Android+Apps+for+Kids%29&utm_content=Google+Reader
• Is there anything that your iPhone cannot do?  This blog post told the readers about a new device that can be added onto your iPhone to turn your phone into a projector.  This could be used to show video, pictures or apps that you currently have on your phone on a much larger scale.
• http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/
• http://emergentlearner.com/
• http://emergentlearner.com/?p=633&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+EmergentLearner+%28emergent+learner%29&utm_content=Google+Reader
• This blog post really impressed me.  I really enjoyed reading it and could relate well with it.  As part of my current job, I provide speech therapy services to students at several Head Start centers.  These students are seeing me because of a speech delay/disorder, but many of the teachers view it as more special education due to cognitive delays.  If the parents do not take control and provide input into their child's education process, these bright young children could easily become at-risk middle schoolers.
• http://www.freetech4teachers.com/
• http://ilearntechnology.com/
• http://ilearntechnology.com/?p=4561
• While this post has no relevance to me professionally, I was amazed that someone thought up how to fit a container garden into a truck bed and market it to people.  I guess it is a pretty unique idea and one that is obviously filling a very specific niche for this community.
• http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/
• http://techpsych.blogspot.com/
• http://techpsych.blogspot.com/2012/03/update-link-to-eric-sailers-list-of.html 
• http://testyyettrying.blogspot.com/
• http://testyyettrying.blogspot.com/2012/04/medial-f-homework-booklet-free-speech.html
• This was a great blog post and it was very timely.  I currently am working with a child who exhibits medial f problems.  I was able to take this information and immediately place it into use. 
• http://willrichardson.com/
• http://willrichardson.com/post/20057802999/too-much-to-teach
• This was a blog post in which the author is simply stating a few key facts.  The one that spoke out to me is that the role of the traditional teacher is changing and is almost obsolete.  The role of a teacher in today's society is one that must be a professional who is continually learning and growing.  The modern teacher must be able to incorporate technology and be able to make learning relevant for the students.

While all of these blogs were helpful and enlightening, the blog posts that I have enjoyed reading the most are those from speech gadget and testy yet trying.  From both of these blogs, I am able to take the information presented to me and either use it immediately or identify a student that will be able to use the information in the very near future.  I am always looking for blogs to follow that are from speech pathologists.  I enjoy learning new ideas and finding new therapy tools. 

Using Multimedia Simulations in the Classroom

I was asked to review various computer/multimedia simulations found at Thinkport.org.  I saw several there that looked very good and would be valuable for classroom teachers.  Many of the links listed under Student Materials would be very good for classroom teachers to use.  Many of these were specifically related to literacy.  However, the ones under "Organizing and Summarizing" and "Inquiry and Analysis" would be good for teachers in many different subject areas.  The Organizing and Summarizing section had many different tools for creating various webs, compare/contrast venn diagrams, etc.  The Inquiry and Analysis section had tools for helping student to analyze the materials found during research.

I would be able to use the Schoolhouse Technologies site for making various materials for students in speech therapy.  For older children, I would be able to type a list of their target words into the word search tool and enable them to work to find their individual target words.  The Bingo tool would also be helpful for me to use when targeting key vocabulary related to individual theme units.

Online Software Reviews

The textbook for our class is called Integrating Educational Technology into Teaching.  On page 105, four different software review websites were provided.  My assignment was to compare the information that they present.

The websites that were reviewed were the following:  SREB Evalutech, California Learning Resource Network, SuperKids, and Education World.

In my opinion, Education World appeared to evaluate the largest number of various software titles.  Super Kids appeared to be updated most frequently and also included reviews from visitors to the site.  I would likely consider using Super Kids if I was looking up various software for my students.  I liked how the site was organized and it appeared to have the most software titles that interested me.  I also liked that it included various apps because my students really benefit from using their iPad, iTouch, and iPods in therapy sessions.  The California Learning Network's site was also well organized and easy to access and navigate.

I was not very impressed with SREB Evalutech.  SREB Evalutech's website was difficult to access and I had trouble locating software reviews and resource materials.  It appeared to be much more for professional development instead of software reviews for a classroom.

Web 2.0

For my Web 2.0 assignment, I have chosen Figurative Language as my topic.  This is a topic that I occasionally am able to teach as a speech-language pathologist.  I have worked with classroom teachers using the inclusion model to co-teach units like this in the past.  This topic has always been one of my favorite higher-level speech therapy lessons!  My concept map was created using https://bubble.us/.

Concept Map

For this assignment, I also had to complete a Figurative Language Glog using glogster.com, an Animoto Video demonstrating figurative language, and then a web 2.0 free choice assignment.  For my free choice assignment, I chose Big Huge Labs.  By using this website, I created three different images.

Motivational Poster

Movie Poster

Roadside Billboard

I had fun creating these images.  I can definitely see that students would enjoy making projects like these, especially if the teacher printed some out and placed them around the room.  I did think it was great that as a teacher, you could pre-register your students and they would have full access to the site for free.  

My opinion on the use of these various Web 2.0 tools changed some throughout this assignment.  In the beginning, I decided that I hated glogster!  Well, that opinion hasn't changed very much! :)  I can definitely use this tool now, but I still think the functionality is difficult for an average learner to grasp.  I also don't know how it would be very beneficial in a classroom setting.  However, that may be because I have always taught younger grades.  It may be more suited for older students.  

I wasn't really sure about how to use the Animoto video in a classroom environment.  I think that for this to be most useful, the teacher would need to purchase a membership so that the videos could be longer than thirty seconds.  It would be really great to use to show parents an end-of-year video or to share pictures from a class field trip.

I think that the students would benefit most from using Big Huge Labs.  I think it would motivate the children to be able to actually play with the puzzles that they created, view the posters on the classroom wall, etc.  It was easy to use and quick to create.

I hope you enjoy!

The Use of Technology in Speech Therapy Sessions

This is a video of a little girl with autism who is using the iPad in speech therapy.  She is using the Grace App.  This is an app that allows the user to form simple sentences using the iPad.  In this video, Elsie goes from simply using the iPad to say "I want this" to saying "I want cereal".

This is the future of speech therapy.  My field is changing very fast due to technology like this.  Did you, or your child, ever benefit from speech therapy?  What do you think about the use of technology like this in therapy sessions?  Do you feel that it is more of a help or more of a distraction to the child?  Also, what are your thoughts for using technology like this with families who cannot afford to have these same devices at home for carryover practice?

New Beginnings

 My name is Jennifer Crawley.  As of Sunday (March 18), I will have been married six years.  My husband, Michael, works at Vestavia Hills High School.  We have a three year old daughter named Sarah.  I started a new job today at the Burkett Preschool in the Jefferson County School System.  I am a speech-language pathologist.  I have previously worked in the Bessemer School System (4 years) and also with the Alabama Early Intervention System (6 years).  I am enrolled in two online classes this semester to regain my certification after having been out of the school system for a few years.  


Here are a few pictures of my family ...

Jennifer and Sarah

Michael and Sarah