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.