ILP "Participation" 2

For this independent learning project, I wanted to focus on the trip we made to the FSU Service Center. This trip was particularly important to me because of the content I have been learning from another course I am currently taking. The class has a high focus on persons with disabilities, so it was really cool to take part and see hands on just how inclusive and accessible FSU really is. The accommodations that are made to help students learn, such as creating 3D textbooks for students who are visually impaired, or computers that read the text off screen. It was not my first time being involved and learning about the technologies that were offered from that trip. This semester I made a trip over to the Florida Division of Blind Services and learned all about the organization and what they offer there. I saw many similarities between the DBS, especially among the pieces of assertive technology, and also among the services and lengths they go for for their clients and students. I learned that many accommodations are in reality much cheaper than people think, and the services that are usually needed are simple and inclusive, such as renting a book from their 3D library for reading, or going to the center to use their library filled with assitive technologies to do homework. The relationships that are made between the employees and their clients is essential are strong as trust is vital in these relationships, and its interesting to see how the technology that is used makes their interaction seamless. Understanding persons with disabilities and asking the individual what accommodations or assistance they require helps all party members, and it provides insight on different perspectives that are brought into the classroom and those perspectives can be related to future students to face similar situations.
I included pictures from both site visits I did.

Blog Post #10

From what I have gathered from working in an office job, data collection is absolutely vital for organizations and staying organized. Data is valuable, it tells us about people, trends, habits, the weather, etc. Organizations use that data to promote growth within the company. I know if I was a teacher I would be collecting data about students, so I can know them better and craft the lesson plan based off the information. Completing surveys is also a good way to get information about some opinions your peers or students may hold. After learning how to may them with Qualtics, I really am looking forward to taking more of them for the research pool. (which I have to complete for two classes). Excel is a tool I am familiar with, and it was fun seeing it again in my life, as she is a cruel mistress, coming and going, never on my watch but on chance. At any rate, excel is awesome for creating a schedule, or organizing a seating chart. It is a tool that helps support teaching, but would not directly be taught to my students. I would use it as a teachers aid, and I would use it a lot due to its versatile nature.

I enjoyed reading my classmates blogs this semester. My favorite part about it is that each blog posts gives us a little insight to who that person is and what they like and do not like. Some students enjoyed parts of the class I personally did not like, and they provided an explanation as to why, which helped open up my eyes from time to time. I like when students had to post screenshots of their own work, it was really fun to compare works, and you could see what each student was interested in based off the creative route they chose to take.

If i had to pick a technology I would like to work more with... I would have to say VR. It is extremely cool and its applications are boundless. I would like to look more into what it has to offer and see where my professional career would be using such technology. We only got to have a taste of VR, but after visiting the sandbox several times I really want to go back and learn more about it. As far as skills goes when using it I am not sure. I would want to work with the computer program itself to gain an understanding of the ins and outs on VR.

wow, is this really the last blog post? What a semester you guys. almost done with it, keep up the good work

Blog Post #9

The "flipped classroom" refers to the teaching method of students watching prerecorded lectures done by their teachers while they are at home, so they are prepared on the material before coming to class. This allows students to focus their time on other things such as class work or projects rather than be bogged down with lecture and complete homework later on in the evening. More and more classrooms are adopting this style of teaching because the technology available to us in these days makes this method easier to use. Students get to spend their class time actively engaged in the topic rather than be educated on it, which is being done before class. I like this style of teaching, it is more involved and teachers are more able to help their students when they have questions about their work. Providing class time for students to engage with each other and help teach each other these topics while being aided by their teacher looks to be a solid method of classroom management in my opinion. Here's a link to how it can benefit certain students, as it is a more flexible scheduling than the conventional classroom. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojiebVw8O0g

"Open" software basically means that any user has the power to go in to the lines of programming and make changes how they see fit. They can take that modified code and release it to other users who can enjoy their benefits. This has become more and more common as the community of devs continues to grow. Using something open source means taking away potential profits from the original company that created the program, as new and potentially better ideas are added without the consent or knowledge of the parent company. I believe that open source programs lead to creative uses that benefit the public more than the parent company intended, and overall has more positive results on a social level.

After going through each of these power point assignments, I have concluded that I had more fun the the information dissemination project rather than the interactive game PP. I ended up going over board about a topic I was really interested in and lectured for over 10 minutes. However, I did learn a lot more from the PP game assignment, such as how to make an entire interactive game on PP. I cannot imagine myself using those features too much, but I have the know how to be able to do that now if necessary.

Side note: I would post a screenshot but I cannot for the life of me find Paint or anything like that on this computer. I will see if I can add them later