Assistive Technologies

The first assistive technology that I chose to discuss is the high contrast feature. This feature is perfect for students who might have a visual impairment in which a lot of white color either hurts their eyes or makes them lose focus. It can be turned on by simply pressing alt/left shift/print screen all at once. After that simple press of buttons it automatically turns on. It is not hard to get use to either. In fact, as I type this blog I am currently under the high contrast setting. This is a multifunctional tool because along with helping the visually impaired it can be used for similar reasons under any conditions. If a student is having to spend a great time in front of the computer and just needs a break from all the brightness, they can just turn this feature on and give their eyes a break.
Another multifunctional feature for the visually impaired would be the magnifier option. This option lets you scroll over sections of your page and in a separate window a "blown up" version of that screen will appear. This is great for students who have trouble reading small text or being able to navigate through the page easily. This is a great for any student who might have any sort of difficulty seeing a smaller text.

HELP ME BE THE #1 PIERRE GARCON FAN!

So here's the deal. Anyone who reads this blog needs to log onto their facebook and become a fan of Pierre Garcon. He is a wide receiver for the Colts and is my favorite player. Once you become a fan click the "Just Fans" button and scroll down until you find my wall post. My post is quite a ways down the list but it isn't hard to find. Then you need to "Like" my wall post. If I get the most "Likes" then I get an autographed picture of Pierre. Thanks for your help in supporting my cause.

My Personal Learning Network

This is my igoogle site. This is how I envision my PLN looking. The format of iGoogle is great for setting up everything important to you (and some not so important stuff) all in one place. I can have my email here, my twitter (where I can follow fellow teachers), the weather, etc. Using this iGoogle will save me lots of time because everything I need is right here for me to see. There are also little fun gadgets, like the hamster in the wheel, that you can put on here to maybe relieve a little stress on a bad day. I even found a gadget called Teachers Magazine, which shows the top three stories in this magazine that is all about teaching. So iGoogle has many uses and there is really no limit to how involved and information filled that you could make yours.

My blog about Tim Sokolowski

Hey everybody it's Chat with Matt here and I'm going to tell you about one really great guy. His name is Tim Sokolowski. He is currently sitting next to me in our education lab. He, like myself, is planning on being a social studies teacher one day. He is currently a Bloomington Bachelor and he likes a girl to have a sense of humor. Which would make sense because he sure is one funny guy. Tim hails from Dyer, Indiana and to anyone who knows him knows that he is proud of his Dyer roots. He has a facebook which can be found here Tim's facebook. Tim currently goes to Indiana University and lives in the wonderful Teter dormitory. Oh by the way for all you ladies out there, Tim is a devilishly handsome character and his charm/charisma will be sure to sweep you off your feet. Tim is Polish. Some may ask why I would do this post about Tim. Why is it Matt that you would create this wonderful post? Why is it that you find Tim so fascinating? Why do you seem to have a crush on him? And the answer is simple. Because I can. And as for the crush question well, just look at this picture. So as you can see I am not crazy. Tim is starting to become flattered by the blog he sees me posting so I guess I will end it here. blog blog blog blog

Communication in my classroom

As a secondary education teacher communication will be at a high demand for my classroom. If I had to predict I would say it will probably be 60% student and 40% parent communication. I think it is important for me to make myself accessible to the students outside of the classroom. My plan was to create a classroom website. The main goal of the website would be for me to try and answer any questions the student might have before they contact me. So I will put up assignments, updates, quiz dates, what is expected for any specific project, etc. If the students have a question that has not been answered through the website I will have a contact page. On this page I will include an email account that I have created specifically for my classes, and I want to create some sort of chat forum where the students might be able to help one another. This way if another student is online at the same time and knows the answer to the question they can answer it and that way the student won't have to contact me. A guideline I would create for the email is that the email must be received before 7 p.m. the night before we have class. I think this way it puts the responsibility on the student to make the effort and make sure they get that question in quickly. As far as parent communication goes I would still include my email. However, I would also give the parents access to my home phone number. This number will not be able to be used by a student but I feel that parents should be able to contact the person education their children when they have a question. Of course I will request some courtesy with this privilege and ask that parents don't call that number after 8 p.m. at the latest. For my website I would also look for some sort of software that can allow the parents to make appointments with me. This way if they have a dire need to see me they can go on the website and set up an appointment where we can get together and talk face to face. One of my biggest goals as a teacher is to be able to communicate with parents and students so I think this game plan that I have created is a great step forward in achieving that goal.

InspireData

In lab this week we explored the wonderfully confusing tool Inspiredata. Inspiredata is a program used for creating and analyzing data/charts. We used unemployment rates and presidents as our example. After several painstaking minutes of data analysis and collection it began to look like an actual chart. We started with creating a plot graph of the unemployment rates from 1940 to 2006. After this data was collected we added the presidents into the datagraphical mix. Then we were able to add the two political icons into the chart. This way it was clear to us whether a Democrat or Republican was in office during any year in question. The screenshots above can be a testament to what was accomplished with this monumental task. When it was all said and done it made quite a nice graph and actually made some sense. I was able to understand in what years unemployment was the highest and lowest. And if a Democrat or Republican was president during those years.

That being said....I would not use this tool for a class. It is a very confusing tool to use and would take extensive work with it for an entire class to have an understanding. This, to me, is clearly a tool made for businesses or companies. And I do not envy them. I imagine when you became fluent in Inspiredata (X number of years later) it would be a very useful tool for a business. But a class does not have the amount of time required to effectively use Inspiredata. During my time here at W200 I have come across many different tools that I find exciting, but Inspiredata is not one of them. Nothing against it as a software, but it's just not for me. blog blog blog blog

Content Exploration

I am going into Secondary Education Social Studies and I chose to review the software Google Earth. Google Earth is a tool that virtually lets you travel anywhere in the world. You start with a space to type in the specific location that you are trying to find. The location can range from being as specific as a complete address or as vague as a major U.S. city. Once you type in the area that you want to go you hit search and the software will "fly" to that location. It will then present you with a zoomed up view of this location. Using the cursor you can move around to surrounding areas or you can even zoom in close enough to see the very top of that building. This screenshot for instance, is a zoomed and angled view of IU's very own school of education.
I would use this in my classroom to give my students a better understanding of the area that we are currently studying. I could give the students a different look into the area and the area that is surrounding it. I believe this would help the students to know the area much more in depth and would also help then to understand the material we are covering.
Google Earth could be looked at as a simulation tool. It allows you to go anywhere in the world and do so in a split second. It makes the impossibility of traveling to all these places possible. A way that a teacher could use this as a tutorial is by using the path feature. As a teacher I could ask of my students to recreate a path used during a certain event by mapping the path on Google Earth and then showing me.