I blinked and December was here!

I did it, I really did it!  Those are my initial thoughts as this graduate technology course comes to an end.  Looking back at my first few blogs posts, I have to smile.  I was nervous, not sure what to expect, and also unsure about how much I was ready to step out of my comfort zone.  I have learned about so much technology (simple and more involved) over the course of this semester.  Some of them (i.e. smore, word clouds, weebly, Twitter, iMovie) were easier to grasp then others, but overall what a great course.  It has pushed me to think outside of the box about engaging ways to include technology during my therapy sessions. Given the challenges with each assignment (including writing a blog!), I made myself look at all of the options and choose as many as I could, that I felt would carryover into my everyday world (i.e. my job).

In today's world and in the field of education, the use of technology continues to grow. Taking this course exposed me to many of the resources that are out there.  It has been eye opening, to say the least.  I will continue to explore the different "tech tools" and use them when appropriate.  Like Smore, the online tool to create flyers and share them, when needed (i.e. with parents and staff).  It would be great to have a "go to" site of created flyers that I can refer to and share, instead of handwriting them out when asked.  I also like Blabberize, although I wish it would record for more then 30 seconds (maybe a minute?).  The students really enjoyed that tool as well as the parents.  It was a fun way to show a snapshot of what we work on in therapy.  I definitely feel that my knowledge of technology has grown and that I am more familiar with so many more tools that are out there.  

That all goes without saying, having great colleagues and friends take this course with me helped too!  It was nice to be able to bounce ideas off of each other and to talk about the different parts of the tech world.  The teacher is VERY knowledgeable and willing to answer any questions you have.  (Thanks Nicole!)  

Image Source

Talking Images

Making an image talk, now this was interesting!  I was intrigued at how students would react to watching an image and hearing their own voices.  I have to say, the students were definitely engaged!  I used Blabberize, an online website where you can upload an image and then make it "talk".  I let the students choose what image they wanted to make "talk", searched for the image (through creative commons Google images), and then uploaded it.  The students then practiced saying their words, while the site recorded it.  (Make sure you have the volume turned up on your computer!).  Once the students were done, or the 30 second time limit was up, I saved the creation and let the students listen to it.  It was helpful for the students to hear how they sound, saying their target words, and they also enjoyed watching the image "talk".  (You do need to create an account beforehand, but once you have that set up, you can save your talking images to replay at any time.)  I liked that you have the option to share the completed "talking image", which I did, with the parents of the students I worked with for this project.  The parents enjoyed listening to their child, and they were also able to reinforce the correct sound production at home.  

(For some reason the Blabberize images are not embedding correctly, so I also included the links to two of the images I created).  

http://blabberize.com/view/id/1511264

http://blabberize.com/view/id/1510722

A cloud of words

Tech Tac Toe #1
I have to say that it took me awhile to decide what 3 technology tools to choose for this project.  I viewed many of the options and started with Word Clouds.  First, I went to Tagul, a website to create word clouds.  I clicked on the "create now" link and it sent me to the page where I was able to make my own word cloud.  (I did not have to create an account to have access to the site).  While working with one of my articulation students, I typed in the target words, as they practiced saying each of them out loud.  (The two samples I chose were the initial "R" and "K" sounds in words.)  It took a bit of multitasking on my part, as I had to input/type the words as the student was saying them and listen to the correct production of the targeted sound.  (If the student said the sound incorrectly, I then worked with the student before moving on to the next word.) Once we got through the list of words, the student was then able to pick out the shape of their cloud.  (I encouraged the students to pick a shape that represented their sound as well, hence the "rain drop" and "car".)  Once that was complete, the student picked the color they wanted and we created their word cloud.  I printed out the clouds and let the students take them home.  The students liked this because it was not just a list of words for them to practice, but rather an eye catching "cloud" of words for them to talk to their parents about (and practice of course).  I was able to save the word clouds to my computer, so I also have a hard copy of what was sent home.  

These clouds were fun to make with the students, and I think they would be a great tool to use with them.  I am not sure that I would be able to create these clouds when working with a group of 2-3 students, but when working with a student or two, I may be able to handle the task (or maybe have the student type the words in themselves).  It is a simple, easy tool, and could be used in a variety of ways, i.e. when targeting vocabulary, wh- questions, describing characters in a story.  It would just depend on the make up of the groups and what their objectives are.