What I have Learned about Switches

Throughout the duration of my course on Assistive Technology, I have learned a great deal of information. I learned about the various types of switches, and how they can be used. I then attended a webinar that was an Introduction to Switches. The presenter discussed the following, Personalizing and Observing, Which Switch, Breadth of Experience, Cause and Effect, and Assessing Progress.

When personalizing and observing the student, it's important to make the purpose of the switch meaningful. Also, when first using the switch with each student it is important to first model the behavior, like you would in any task, and don't simply say "press the button". With regards to personalizing, there are multiple types of switches that can be used, some work better for some students. Size, and color is very important. One has to consider if the target area is big enough. It is important to have an appropriate target area so that the student does not have to make large movements. These large movements, could make the student become tired. When teaching a student to use the switch for cause and effect relationships, one must teach the student that they have control. The presenter discussed a variety of methods to begin teaching. There was the press and hold where you hold it down, and when you let go something will happen. Then there is the, press and let go, which is the most common method. Also, press it again, or ‘switch building’, which builds a bigger picture. Finally, there is the turn it on and off, also called latching-switch. Child turns it on, and you turn it off. The same method might not work for every student. When teaching it students to use switches, it is important to give students enough time to respond. 

The final aspect that he addressed that I wanted to share was regarding assessing the students progress. The presenter suggested assessing students in a plethora of environments. He also stated that the students skills need to be generalized, and they have to be assessed using the switch in all environments. Also, while mentioning that students needed to be assessed in multiple environments, he began talking about how long you should give a student to activate the switch. First off, observing the student and making the switch activation meaningful for the student is important. But after observing, and choosing the switch, how long do you give the student to activate it after a prompt? The presenter said that he and fellow colleagues observed teachers who were teaching their students to use switches with regards to cause and effect relationships. He said that before assessing most of the teachers were barely giving their students 15 seconds to activate the switch. I found this to be very interesting. From my experiences with switches, I felt that its solely dependent on each individual students. Some students it might only take five seconds, and others much longer. You would learn this through observing in the very first step of beginning to use switches. Overall, this webinar taught me valuable information about switches, about assessing, and different methods to use when teaching to use switches. 

Math AT

I am taking a class at Illinois University that's focus is on Assistive Technology. Today in class we learned about some of the Assistive Technology devices that are available. We begun our class talking about what are the difficult skills/tasks for students when it comes to Math. I was never amazing at Math and some of the skills I had difficulty with were memorizing, and application problems. 

Some of the Difficulties with Math that our class discussed : memorizing, teachers have difficulty explaining the information because they are extremely knowledgeable in the subject, and information is presented too fast. 

We also brainstormed some Math Skills: Memorizing, computation, spatial organization, visual processing, interpretation of word problems, transcribing, and decoding. I could only imagine how difficult such a complex subject area for an individual with a disability that inhibits any one of these Math Skills. 

From this class, I have also learned that AT for Math is one of the most underdeveloped areas for AT. After listing all of the necessary skills, Math is one complex subject area. Although AT is limited in Math there are devices that can assist in several of the areas previously mentioned. Often, some might feel, that if a in student has difficulty in Math then to give them a calculator. If we focus on just the calculator, yes, this would help a student who primarily has trouble with computation. When considering to incorporate a calculator as an AT device into a students education there are several aspects that need to be reviewed. There are calculators of varying size, and the size of the buttons, does the student have the fine motor skills to isolate one finger to press the correct button. Also there are cognitive demands of using a calculator, does the student know what each of the buttons mean and how to use them. 

We talked about several different types of calculators in our class. We discussed that calculators come in varying sizes, colors, and complexity. Some calculators can read the numbers as the student puts them in the calculator and then they read the answer. There are some that read the answers, number by number, or ones that read the number as if it were an entire word such as 'one thousand' or 'one, zero, zero'. 

 See N Solve. This calculator lined the numbers in columns.

Image from Google 

We also discussed a Coin-U-Lator. This calculator has large buttons with each coin with regards to the coins actual appearance and it had a dollar bill. It also has sound when hitting each of the separate coins  dollars. 

Image from Google 

These are not the only types of calculators that can be used and definitely not the only form of AT for Math. Using calculators only addresses one very small area of AT consideration for Math. Calculators may not be the answer for all students Again, calculators primarily assist in computation and possibly visualization processes. Feel free to share any other Math AT you have used in your classroom! 

Thanks for reading! 

@Amber_Vorderer 

Teaching in the 21st Century Conference

 Illinois State University held a one day conference on teaching in the 21st century. The T21 conference is for teacher education majors who are incorporating technology into their classroom's curriculum. I had attended the conference and I attended a few beneficial presentations.


The first presentation I attended was two teachers who were presenting on using Smartboards in the classroom. I also attended a presentation that was about online books and literature in education. I then attended a third session about the power of iPads in education. 


I am going to blog about a concept from one of the presentations that I really enjoyed, which is http://www.shelfari.com/. This is powered by amazon. This is the first time that I have heard of this, as well. One of the laboratory schools in my area have started their fourth graders using this. It basically allows the student to interactive with their reading experiences, and share them with their classmates. The students can search books that they have read, are interested in, or are currently reading and place them on their 'book shelf'. They then can write what they thought about the book and share that with their peers. They can also see what their friends are reading.Once a book has been added to the book shelf, other books are streamed into the users page that are similar. At this school, they are teaching their students to always have their next read available, and I think that this is a good way to enforce that concept. 


Since I am suppose to be blogging specifically about Assistive Technology, I feel that this can be considered AT for students who needs organizational skills. They would then have all their independent reading in one place. There is a link to amazon.com to purchase the book, but I wouldn't suggest have young children do this, but you can purchase eBooks and other formats through amazon. To relate to my studies as a teacher for the visually impaired, I feel that this would be beneficial, providing magnification, and screen readers, depending on the severity of the visual impairment.  


I feel that eBooks are growing in popularity and at the end of the presentation the presenter read us It's a Book by Lane Smith. Here's a trailer for the book! I thought it was quite funny. 
(Paperback books are still fun to read too! ) 

Thanks for reading, 


@Amber_Vorderer

A Little More..... About Me

I am a student at Illinois State University, studying Special Education specializing in low vision and blindness. I started out with learning and behavior specialist I, but through volunteer experiences working with individuals with visual impairments, I immediately talked to a councilor about my options. I could not choose between the two so I decided to double major, which is where I am at now. A junior at ISU, double majoring, and learning so much, it's incredible.
I don't know much about blogging. The reason why I have joined this site is for a class on assisstive technology.  We are required to start creating a professional learning network, and contribute to the communities that we interact with throughout the semester. For part of this assignment, we have to create a product to share with our PLN. I have decided to create this blog to update about my experiences as a pre-service TVI, and hopefully share tips that I have learned along the way and learn from others experiences!

@Amber_Vorderer