"February 1, 2014
Whether you're the parent of a child with a reading disability or an educator that works with learning disabled students on a daily basis, you're undoubtedly always looking for new tools to help these bright young kids meet their potential and work through their disability. While there are numerous technologies out there that can help, perhaps one of the richest is the iPad, which offers dozens of applications designed to meet the needs of learning disabled kids and beginning readers alike. Here, we highlight just a few of the amazing apps out there that can help students with a reading disability improve their skills not only in reading, writing, and spelling, but also get a boost in confidence and learn to see school as a fun, engaging activity, not a struggle.
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Great apps Amanda!! I'm in the process of teaching my six year old to read and write as she attends an all Chinese kindergarten and is not learning any English. After an eight hour school day she really resists any more work that I try to do with her, which is very frustrating for both of us. She does however LOVE the iPad and I'll be trying some of the kindergarten specific apps mentioned in the article. Hopefully she won't even realise she is learning while playing. When we return to Australia she will be behind in reading (as our main focus for her right now is Mandarin) and will require targeted help.
Very helpful site!! The world is changing and we (as future teachers) should all be exposed to all the various ways that we can engage students in constructing and actively engaging in their own learning. If I was a child with dufficulties in reading I would rather engage with an Ipad rather than any other traditional way of teaching. Again this site is a proof of what a useful tool ICT can be and the positive results it gives when used in the right way.
A website that will take a provided section of text and perform a range of analysis on that text. The aim to help with the editing and improvement of writing.
Age bracket - Prep- Year 2
Science - English learning area
I think this is great, especially as it has the Hungry caterpillar story incorporated as well as using the video story you could use the hard copy of the book as well great theme for the lessons. The only problem I see having is if there are any technology issues with the whiteboard to prevent from using. Otherwise I think this is an excellent resource.
I just completed my assignment 2 on year 4 science.. I thought this was rather fitting. I like how it has numerous games that containers audio aswell. Only problem I can see is that it clearly wouldn't work if the IWB or the stick wasn't working.
The students in Scott Jackson's eleventh grade American History class have almost no common knowledge about the country's early beginnings and important moments. His students at Brooklyn International High School are recent immigrants to this country who are learning English and how to be American school students at the same time.
I thought I'd post this short movie. It's an example of ICT activities being done in a class I had my last practicum in. It is a simple activity that the teacher did, using ICTs that were readily availble.. The teacher takes a traditional printed text being used in guided reading (PM readers) and helps the students produce a digital text based on the language used in the original text. Students select images from google images and then use a digital camera to take photos or video, and manipulate the images using IWB software, to place themselves in the digital text. The images are uploaeded into Movie Maker where additonal text, ddialogue and sound are added. The finished artefact is then uploaded toYouTube so that it can be placed on the school website for sharing. The students and their families can view the new digital text at home. The movie is also presented at the school assembly. The teacher does ICT activities like this on a regular basis in English. If you google Tyalgum Public School and click on More News you can view other ICT activities the Kindergarten, Year , Year 2 class did. I think this type of ICT activity gives the students a sense of ownership of their learning.
This is a great activity. Just emphasises how important it is that we know how to use all of these ICTs in the classroom because if we don't know them this activity could take a long time or ICTs wouldn't be used in such a great way. Out of interest how long did it take?
I found this site to be full of ideas and links to other sites for using technology in the classroom to promote Literacy and language there are also some ideas for teaching ESL learners with technology.
Theories and Models of Learning for Educational Research and Practice. This knowledge base features learning theories and models that address how people learn. A resource useful for scholars of various fields, including educational psychology, instructional design, and human-computer interaction.
For me personally I have seen many of these technologies being used in learning and teaching. Eg - The use of Ipads and computer labs, using the smart board to do internet searches as a whole class by encouraging the students to think about key words relating to what they are researching, and using a software application called Tux Paint to re-create a story scene as an extension from an English project.
ICT tends to mean computers and their peripheral devices
I thought that was the old definition of ICT and that its new definition embraced anything that was available for communication purposes, storing data, gathering it, sharing it, etc. as seen in the Hello Kitty video. I fully support the idea that ICT is not regarded as a piece of equipment but it should be a way of life where it is a/any tool used for whatever is required so rather than thinking how we can incorporate ICT into the school curriculum, it should simply be one of the avenues used by students to achieve what they want to achieve.
what, in fact, is critical is “how” the technologies are used (Reimann & Goodyear, 2004).
While the computer is itself not a catalyst, its valency as a conduit for communication, collaboration and knowledge building has the potential to transform learning.
Yes, the classroom that I work in has a little down syndrome girl who uses an iPad for communication. I know of another class who has a student diagnosed with dyslexia and he uses a computer for typing up all his work.
What a great example of differentiation and inclusion.
a similarly disparate and motley collection of machines of different capacities and configurations may be being used by students and be constituting the learning environment
It is 8+ years since Lloyd wrote this piece. In very recent times we've seen the Digital Education Revolution - where many students were given laptops - but that is now slowly moving onto the BYOD (bring your own device) era. An era where students are allowed (of if they are not, they still do anyway) their own devices (phones, tablets, computers). It's likely that BYOD is likely to end up with "a similarly disparate and motley collection of machines of different capacities and configurations", what are the implications for teaching?
Surely this would encourage discrimination between the students with everyone knowing who had expensive/cheap computers with out of date/the latest versions of software packages. That being the case then it will increase the difficulty of the teacher to both teach ICT and allow the students to use their own forms of ICT. Firstly, because more recent software packages allow greater flexibility (usually) so some students will be physically capable of more complex software usage and also it would be a lot harder to guage what all students are doing on their ICT equipment as a quick glance will not necessarily let the teacher know where each student is at with their work.
The configuration of computers in schools may range from individual machines, to distributed models, and to sophisticated networks
I work in a school that has recently rolled out Samsung slates to all students in grades 4-6. Next year they are going to roll them out from grade 7-12, and then, the year after in grades P-3. They have also commenced using a program called D2L (Desire to learn), to deliver the content to students. It has been very interesting to see how different teachers have coped with the changes. Some embrace it and have done an amazing job of incorporating it into their teaching, while others have resisted the changes and really struggled with incorporating it into their classrooms. No matter what ICTs the school has available it seems, to me anyway, that the teacher will be the crucial factor as to whether these ICTs are used successfully and appropriately.
I agree with you, Kate. When people resist what has to be done, then there is no creativity or extensions or allowing the students to be risk takers themselves. This is borne out by Toomey (2001) when part of his definition of ICT actually includes "manipulating" and "communicating".
There is no standard school configuration of machines
How true is this... I have been to a few schools for prac and each school has a different focus on ICT. One school I attended had a computer lab, put the screens were the good old huge dinosaur ones. Then another school I attend had two computer labs full of up-to-date computers with flat screens etc. It's a same that schools aren't all the same.
I agree Donna, unfortunatley that's where funding and grants come into it as well as the hard work of the fundraising activities, sometimes the budget focus is on other areas as well. Access and equity in relation to current technology is a major issue in educational equality and very topical too.
Talks about the origin of an idea of a "reading" club that uses Twitter, rather than physical proximity as the connection. i.e. get a group of people to read the same article at the same time and use twitter to share their insights. And the idea of including the author.
Wonder how this might apply to reading/literacy in a school setting?