Blog Post Assignment # 3

Technology in Special Education
This was a video done by Lace Cook. She teaches many special needs children, and in this video she demonstrated how technology can assist them. There were three different children with disabilities that showed us how technology helps them personally. Two of the kids couldn't seem to speak at all, and using a computer they could communicate much more easily. Another kid could speak more, but the computer doubled the time he usually finishes his work. This video could make anyone a believer in technology in the classroom. I know it showed me what it was capable of, and that was just one class, I can only imagine the affect technology would have if it was used all over. I would recommend this video to anyone interested in education.
Apple.EducationApps.com
After watching the video of the little boy using the iPad to help with his autism, I found an app I think would be great for a special needs student. The app is called Alpha Writer, by Montessorium, and it can be found at the above link. This app incorporates words and picture's together to help kids learn. A student could click on a picture of an animal and the word and picture will pop up. I think this would be a good app, because as the student sees the picture they can also place the word with it. Also, I believe by doing this on an iPad the student feels they are having fun rather than doing work.
Gary Hayes Social Media Count
The above link will bring you to a website that shows you just how fast technology is spreading and growing. This is a count done by Gary Hayes, and is also extremely astounding. There are million's of SMS messages sent every few seconds, that's insane! So, what does this mean for me as an aspiring teacher? I think it means I better be computer savvy and extremely technologically literate. If we as teacher's want to keep up with our student's and the world around us we have to be those things. Teacher's are supposed try and keep themselves well rounded in my opinion. They need to keep learning in order to teach. This website is a great example of how we can't slack off in our own education even for a minute.
A Vision of Today's Student's
 This video was done by Michael Wesch, and it was of student's letting people know what there lives as student's are really like. All of the sign's they held up gave me a little information about student's today; what they do in class and what they get out of class. What I got out of this was that student's are bored by by the way they are being taught today. Instead of listening to there teacher they are on Facebook or Twitter. Only a small amount of teachers actually know their student's name. I think if we really want to teach our student's we need to actively involve them. Catch their attention. By lecturing them we aren't accomplishing anything. So, maybe if we use technology and active learning our student's will become better learners.