More New Learning

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Another night, another challenge. Barb was excited about her iPad mini and I have to say that I want one. My Home and School are considering purchasing 25 iPads or iPad minis. Just so happy that it is an Apple product. Amazing things can be found in the iTunes store. Tonight we saw iTunes University. I had noticed it before but hadn’t taken the time to check it out. You can learn more about here:  iTunes University

Great opportunity to receive professional development on a variety of subjects. It is very easy to access and of course, free to users. We continued to discuss Universal Design for Learning and noted that iTunes University has a lot of information on this subject. As we learn more about UDL we are challenged to consider the learning needs of all students. Do the assignments we give our students meet their needs? Not always. Do they deserve the best opportunity to learn in the most appropriate manner, and be able to share their learning with us? Of course, but it calls for a reconsideration and change in the way we help children learn. We are more knowledgeable about how students learn, the multiple ways for learning and sharing of that learning within the classroom. Combining UDL with assistive technology offered by iPads and iPods provides opportunity for all students.

“CAST is an educational research & development organization that works to expand learning opportunities for all individuals through Universal Design for Learning” and you can learn more about it at www.cast.org  Lots of information on UDL is available at this site, including learning modules, research and professional development which can be shared with staff simply by downloading the info.. This site is well worth a visit.

Another site worth checking out is the Maine Learning Technologies Initiative at http://maine121.org More information is available here in areas such as Digital Citizenship, UDL and Making Meaning for students.

Moving along to tonight’s assignment, we are challenged to consider how we create appropriate learning opportunities within our classroom. Barb shared several apps with us:

-Scan to PDF which allows you to create PDFs using the camera function in the Apple product. The document created can them be emailed to a student who is able to write on the image and return it by email.

-Prizmo, an app which allows you take a picture of a text which puts it into a text document. Using a text to speech app the students can hear the information captured by Prizmo.

-Pic Collage provides another opportunity for students to share their learning. Simply snap a photo and add text to the picture. The images can be emailed to a teacher, parent or friend.
Now off to work on the assignment.