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Those of you who work with students who struggle with math or whose own children have difficulty with math should pay heed to the recommendations in the newly issued federal What Works Clearinghouse guide!
The following quote was taken from the Council for Exceptional Children’s July 17, 2009 SmartBrief.
“Response to Intervention may be more difficult in math, special educators say, but a newly issued federal What Works Clearinghouse guide offers recommendations for success. Remediation for elementary-school students should focus on whole numbers, while older students can move on to more-advanced arithmetic concepts. But all students should also review basics.”
I have discovered another great resource for teachers – CITED! http://www.cited.org/index.aspx
It is “a technical assistance center funded by the U.S. Department of Education Office of Special Education Programs, is a cooperative effort of the American Institutes for Research (AIR), the Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST), and the Education Development Center (EDC).”
The website offers an online course, “Differentiating Instruction Through Technology”. Along with the course you get a toolkit of tools, strategies, and resources that will help you differentiate planning, instruction, management and student assessment.
What I find really exciting is that the website contains a link to a ”powerful” tool called, the TechMatrix (www.techmatrix.org). This tool is designed to help educators and families find the best learning and assistive technology tools for students with special needs.
The website also contains a Learn Center, an Action Center, and a Research Center whose focus is on technology in education. It truly has a lot to offer.
In my attempts to stay on top of the current issues facing our public school systems I have found myself reading many articles that are focused on a similar theme, if we don’t reform our teaching instruction, the U.S. will fail. The reports, articles and firsthand accounts all speak to the need to help students garner the skills that they will need to enable them to remain competitive in a 21st-century workplace.
Michael King, vice president of IBM’s global education industry, states that in order to accomplish true individualized learning, schools have to move beyond textbooks… “and the PC as it stands today is the wrong model for that”. “King points to the complexity of having thousands of computers throughout a school district. Between administering patches and software upgrades, implementing security updates, manually installing new applications, and simply managing the upkeep of those computers, the IT staff hours can mount sky high.” One possible solution is software virtualization and virtual desktops.
Having recently received an Intuos 3 Tablet for my birthday, installing it and Corel Painter Essentials 4 on my laptop, and then having to spend upwards to 16 hours; installing service packs, upgrading drivers, uninstalling and reinstalling software, upgrading software, doubling the amount of RAM on my laptop, only to continue to have difficulties opening and using some of my software programs (Grrrrrr Vista!); I completely understand where King is coming from!
To read more about software virtualization and virtual desktops the article mentioned above can be found at: http://www.eschoolnews.com/media/files/May08SprRpt.pdf
And if anyone has some insight as to why I may be having problems running Corel Painter Essentials 4, on a 2 gig laptop, running Vista Home Premium, please drop me a line!
Updated 09/17/08 – Someone from Corel – PR – contacted me to say that someone else would contact me with the contact information of a technical person who could help me with this problem. While I never did hear from that someone else with the contact information for the technical person I did, however, manage to fix the problem.
Given that I: updated all my drivers and software, added additional RAM, cleaned my disks and registry, defragged my computer, and followed the advice of a poster in a forum discussing similar issues, I can’t say for sure how I solved the problem. It only took 24 hours or so but my computer is running better than ever and Corel opens in 10 seconds versus the 5 minutes it took to start up previously. Now imagine being the only technology support person in a school with hundreds of computers to manage. YIKES!
One of biggest roadblocks teachers face when attempting to incorporate new and emerging technologies into their curriculum is the amount of time it takes to learn how to use and incorporate them. The following website created by University at Buffalo, School of Public Health and Health Professions as part of their Assistive Technology Training Online Project, contains a lot of information on assistive technology basics, how to choose assistive technology, resources on assistive technology and numerous tutorials that teach you how to use specific hardware devices and software programs. http://atto.buffalo.edu/
The tutorials cover technologies such as reading and writing tools, tools for the visually impaired, creating talking books, as well as many others.
Each tutorial includes:
Step-by-Step instructions to print out and/or display as a slide show for group instruction.
Practice exercises let you practice and master new skills using actual classroom examples.
Check them out at: http://atto.buffalo.edu/registered/Tutorials.php
When budgets are stretched thin and fund raising isn’t raising enough funds to increase the technologies in your school system another option to consider is grant writing. There are many schools and universities that offer grant writing courses both on campus and online.
Salem State College is one such school that offers grant writing and non-profit management courses online for about $90 (as of 08/28/08) a class. Information on those courses can be found at: http://www.ed2go.com/cgi-bin/oic/render.cgi?webname=ssc&handler=courseListDepartment&departmentCode=GW
Northshore Community College offers grant writing courses online for about $91 (as of 08/28/08), information can be found at: http://www.northshore.edu/schedule/search?subjectCode=On-Line+Courses&scheduleType=noncredit
Northern Essex Community College offers online courses for about $99 (as of 08/28/08), information on those courses can be found at: http://www.ed2go.com/cgi-bin/oic/render.cgi?webname=necc&handler=courseListDepartment&departmentCode=GW
The MA Department of Education can be a great resource for finding Ed Tech grants, check out their Educational Technology – Technology Grants and Resources page at: http://www.doe.mass.edu/edtech/grants.html
Another source of information on Ed Tech grants is the eSchool News website. The link to their grant information page is: http://www.eschoolnews.com/funding/
The Corporation for Public Broadcasting offers both information on how to write grants as well as information on available grants, and can be found at: http://www.cpb.org/grants/grantwriting.html
With the cost of food and fuel growing and the size of school budgets shrinking, the idea of investing a lot of money into technologies for our schools is almost laughable. Schools are forced to make do with what they have and as a result need to re-think how monies are spent. However, putting technology into the classroom doesn’t have to break the bank. Open-source software and operating systems like Linux are enabling schools to do a lot more with a lot less. David Thornburg, guest speaker on the International Society for Technology in Education, ISTE Cast episode 1, discusses a school system in Indiana as well as San Diego who are installing over 100,000 Linux based laptops and desktops. The savings garnered by the use of Linux enabled both school systems to purchase more hardware for their schools.
A recent article on the e School News website highlights numerous ways in which schools can integrate technology in cost effective ways. Check them out at: http://www.eschoolnews.com/resources/technology-without-breaking-the-bank/
Governor Deval Patrick has recently released his new Readiness Project Action Agenda. As stated on his website, “Governor Patrick’s Education Action Agenda is designed to raise achievement of all students as measured against global benchmarks and to help prepare all students by 2020 to compete successfully in the global economy.” The overall goal is to reinvent and re-engineer an entire system and all of its components in an effort to prepare all students to compete successfully in today’s world.
An integral part of this project has been the creation of many grassroots Readiness Project Groups. To find out more information about the Governor’s Education Action Agenda and how you can play a role in affecting change in our schools, go to: http://devalpatrick.com/readiness.php.
