The Left Thumb Blogger

I was surfing through my RSS feeds (do we surf through these, roll through these, drown in these...not sure what is most accurate...lol) and I came across this video of an individual who is an avid blogger and who uses assistive technology as part of the blogging process. Check it out!



My colleagues at the university and I have been discussing the need to focus on 21st century skills within relation to, not only preparing the future teachers with whom we work, but preparing these future teachers to prepare their students to be 21st century learners. However to do so effectively, it is not enough that we prepare our teachers about using technologies that lead to 21st century skills in our future teachers but we prepare these future teachers to differentiate the access and use of these tool to enable success amongst diverse students.

Way to go Glenda! What a great video!

Kelly Fonner Workshop

I am attending Kelly Fonner's workshop entitled "Technology Toolkit for Reading", which is a part A of a two day workshop that will conclude with Scott Marfilius on October 12th. I was really impressed that the presentation began with a differentiation between assistive and instructional technology. This tends to be an overlooked area in many other presentations that I have attended. Quoting from the presentation:

"Assistive assists students to complete tasks. The student requires its use because it [the task] can't be accomplished any other way. Instructional technology assists students in acquiring information. Is used for a period of time to acquire of reinforce a certain skill."

Great presentation that took participants across areas of reading skills and pairing interventions (including technology) that can instruct and assist students.

Resource Links Provided:

• http://www.wfu.edu/education/fourblocks/ - The Four Blocks Website
  
• Teachers Guide to the Four Block - http://www.amazon.com/Teachers-Guide-Four-Blocks-Multimethod/dp/0887244947
  
• Children with Disabilties: Reading and Writing the Four Blocks Way - http://www.carsondellosa.com/cd2/Products/ProductView.aspx?id=104235&gpoid=409&poid=704&oid=745
• Classrooms that Work - http://www.amazon.com/Classrooms-That-Work-They-Write/dp/0321013395
  
• Communicate in Print - http://www.widgit.com/products/communicate/index.htm#print
• WordMaker - http://www.donjohnston.com/products/word_maker/index.html
• An Ode to Spell Checkers - http://funnies.paco.to/pcPoem.html
• Read On - http://www.readonsoftware.com/?gclid=CJTMmu-FwY4CFQsoUAodMiZ71Q
• See It Right - http://www.seeitright.com/
• Really Good Stuff - http://www.reallygoodstuff.com/
• Augmentative Resources - http://www.augresources.com/
  
• Reading A-Z - http://www.readinga-z.com/
  
• Starfall - http://www.starfall.com/
• Tandem Reading - http://www.resourceroom.net/Products/tandem.asp
• Story Line - http://www.storylineonline.net/
  

Added by me (because a colleague told me to do it...lol)

• TATN Reading Supports - http://www.texasat.net/docs/Reading%20Tech%20links10-17-06%20FINAL.pdf
• NCTI - Tech Matrix in Reading - http://www.nationaltechcenter.org/matrix/default.asp

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