Sunday, April 22, 2012

Blog Post #12

1. Watch this video about a teacher who is using ipods in her classroom for children with disabilities at Special School District of St. Louis County in Town & Country, MO. Introducing iPods into Special Education. Discuss this video and your reactions in two paragraphs. Follow the requirements in Writing A Quality Blog.

2. Watch this video, Priceless, and write your reactions to the video (Do you agree or disagree with the cost of educating students with special needs). This video will take a minute to load so be patient. Follow the requirements in Writing a Quality Blog.

iPod

Introducing iPod into Special Education

This video describes how you can improve the success of learning for students with special needs. A relatively low cost technology such as iPods and a willing teacher to teach her students and parents how to use the technology to help their child. The teacher uses the iPods to record voice memos, and videos for helping her students to understand and use sign language. The videos are also used at home when parents need additional instruction for their child. For example, a video was used to record a teacher using sign language to read a book as well as the material of the book was in the background. The videos were then shared with the parents so that the parents could read along with their child at home.

Another use was that parents were asking how to implement sign language in every day life and the teacher made a video using sign language to also help parents to communicate better with their child. For example, one student was having surgery and needed to know exactly what was going to be done during surgery. The parents of this child did not know the medical terms in sign language and asked for help from the teacher to explain the procedure to her son. This produced great feedback from not only the student but his parents as well.

My reaction to this video is very positive. It shows that a lot is possible when you have a teacher that is willing to take the time and the effort to get familiar with the technology and their advantages and implements it in the classroom.

Priceless

“Seeing a child do what no one thought they would: PRICELESS"

pricetag

This video was about the cost of all the equipment used in a special needs classroom. The cost for communication devices $53, 570, computer workstations $13,491, peripherals and software $3,893 and iPod technology $2,436 is in this special education class. The final cost included the cost of “one really great teacher who makes it all work” at $66,144.

This was a very beautiful video that made me wish this technology were available when my daughter was in school. My daughter suffered a traumatic brain injury when she was five years old and the use of technology would have helped her tremendously if it were available to her. I totally agree that the cost of educating a child with special need is just as important as teaching a “normal” child. The cost seems like it is a lot of money but these tools can be used over the years to teach other children.

2 comments:

  1. How sweet! Your post this week was creative and inspirational! Good job, Linda :)
    Carly

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  2. Hi, Linda.
    I think that technology in the classroom is great, but using it for special needs children is even better. It is really amazing how much more they are learning with the help of technology. Great idea for a blog post. Keep up the good work!
    Natasha

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