I reall enjoyed my final project assignment: Explore California Wildlife
The link is being updated and moved – so it will not work at this time.
Come back soon to see the updated version
I loved creating these assignments and blog. I’d like to acknowledge the following:
Huge thanks to Jennifer Montgomery for all your support as my teaching fellow. Thank you Karen for the candy and guidance, Chris for the advanced tech skills, Jake for the powerpoints and answering all my questions. And, big thanks to Professor David Rose for the most effective course of the year. I can take and use everything you’ve taught me. As you can see, I had fun with these assignments.
Photos and text about the Wildlife is courtesy of the California Fish and Game Department.
Flash Drawing, Flash Writing, Created by LMcGuire. PHP Scripting created by LMcGuire, modeled after CAST, but improved for multiple language accent supports.
LMcGuire
VoiceThread is a tool, not a lesson or curriculum.
To use the tool efectively for UDL requires at least four things:
• Goals
• Materials….>Voicethread
• Methods
• Assessments
Another person: ” I did two exercises and that was interesting.”
Choosing one representation/expression – because of affect or ?
Are we afraid to look bad? Is that the reason why we don’t choose certain options like :
• Audio
• Video
• Text
• Drawing?
• Reinventing the full frontal teaching
• Lettie thought: not commenting in general, I want to respond to what Layla said
• Kitty brought up: that “spaces determine the conversations and interactions you have.”
• Students in this class were pushed to comment on each other’s blogs
The blogs were a way of exercising skills that students may not exercise that much.
INTERESTING!
• 4 year olds already know that they should talk/communicate differently to 2 year olds than they do to 30 year olds (an age/different ages)
_________
Think about your next asignment:
• What is the goal?
•
ONE POSSIBLE GOAL:
Understanding the difference between orality and literacy
• Rose says:
• He was right: we are not as good speakers or listeners today.
• and rose says: Plato is right – we did lose
Rousseau: writing represents the words but not the voice
Olsen: “whereas spoken utterances tend to indicate both what is said and how it is to be taken, written ones tend to specify only the former.”
• Rose says: “oral is a rich delivery – filled with affect and inflection – a richer instrument & it’s multimedia.”
“PROSITY”, said David, “SHOWING THE SHAPE AND MOOD YOU ARE, IN A SENTENCE.”
For example:
“The Zebra,.. is a declaritive, powerful clue to the listener, you start the sentence to let the listener know how to respond.
a. (SIDETRACK)
Invention: A blind person’s way to read or type on the keyboard: using air coming out of the keyboard.
Olsen: IN CULTURES WHERE WRITING IS AVAILABLE, writing becomes a medium of choice in a number of domains because of its permanence. But what writing gains in permanence, it loses in comprehensiveness.
1. In Writing, the words are kept, meaning may be lost
1. In oral speech, the meaning is kept, words may be lost.
Olsen: Young children are more sensitive to the tone and the context of an utterance than to its percise verbal form.
A lecture is a tool, not a lesson or curriculum.
To use the tool effectively, for UDL requires at least four things:
Muliple means of representaton
Sensory persception
sounds
visual
Linguistic
Oral Language
Body Language, Gesture
Facial Esxpression
Written expresion
Images, graphics
Cognitive comprehension
Backgrond knoweledge
Critical Features
Problems with Lectures:
• Lectures may be difficult for ADHD people to focus
• Problematic for blind people who can’t read face expressions
• No reflectin time built into lectures
• One time only linear presentation
How to help keep the reflection time?
• -take breaks
• -build prosity into the lecture
• -recover when he goes into point number 2
• -hand out paper versions of the slides
notes to myself:…………………(lettie, the stuff below is from a “grid”)
Lectures: Potential Representational Barriers
Perceptual: Visual, Auditory, Haptic Construct: Relevant/Irrevelant
Linguistic: Decoding/vocabulary, syntax, language, illustration
Relevant? Irrevelent?
Cognitive background knowledge
Construct : relevant? Irrevelent?
—————–
Lectures: the meaning can be grasped only temporarily
Notetaking: People have different purposes – each is here to learn something different.
you don’t have any choice – you have to listen to whatever the professor talks about.
How professors recruit Interest during lectures: How to make the lecture connect to your students? How do they make it connect to the students’ experience. How to make it authentic?
• Stories
Speechmaking: What the professionals say – Executive Speechmaking.
• To build resonance.
• Learn the “language” of your audience. Vary your language to accomodate.
• The art of oratory is not truth, but pursuasion
• How good are they at making sense of the things you’re going to say?
Go up to the Podium, and just wait and look slowly around the room.
Begin with Punch – you got about one minute – to recruit interest.
One Theme – stick to one point – show varying supports.
Windows – give a story – way to connect to what you’re saying
Ear – be conversational, converse with them. – don’t read it – – use your own voice
Retention – Loop back – (The first point,… the second point.
• Say something and then give silence – so they can think about something.
• Have a blank slide in between every slide.
Click here to listen to an (( (( Audio )) )) podcast of this post.
My First Impressions on Using ‘voicethread’ to Discuss:
The History of Deaf Culture on Martha’s Vineyard
Using Voicethread to talk about the deaf culture at Martha’s Vineyard was surprisingly easy. I was really impressed with the smooth and simple interface. It seemed effortless to use. I learned quickly that my first instinct was to just click and talk, but my later text and drawing entries made more sense and were ‘better’ choices for me as a new voicethread student. You can read my defining text contribution at the end of this post below my eye avatar.
My initial impression of the main educational benefits are:
Weaknesses
One weakness I noticed right away was that I couldn’t get any information about the contributors to the voicethread – including myself!. I couldn’t find my voice thread contribution on my user page. I couldn’t click on my fellow contributors to see where they were from or when their contribution was posted. It didn’t even tell me when my post went up. That was a little frustrating. I ended up putting my post up twice just to make sure. I tried to add a drawing to my post, but it wasn’t possible, or it wasn’t easily explained on how to make that happen. After adding a text and drawing post, I was dissapointed to see that you can’t click multiple times on your avator/user-image to see all of your various posts. The only way I could view my text contribution and artistic drawing was to click on the grey ‘bars’ at the bottom of the interface. This was a little ‘non-intuitive’ and could confuse people who don’t know you may have made several postings with different mediums and at different times.
Framing my viewpoint of using voicethread through the lens of UDL Guidelines for Action and Expression:
The instant I began using this tool to have a conversation with my classmates about deaf culture at MV, I noticed that it gave me the option of using text or audio. This is a great plus for various kinds of learners that prefer various kinds of ways to express themselves. I noticed that some of my classmates used text and others preferred audio. Some art students are not very verbal, wheras some verbal students are not inclined to write or type. This tool provides almost effortless expression in both mediums. Some students just don’t want to type their answers, or they may not be able due to physical impairments. On first thought, voicethread does a great job of providing UDL “means” for many kinds of students.
It provides some UDL options for physical response:
It provides some UDL options for varied navigation features:
Voicethread does not provide very many UDL options for accessing tools and assistive technologies that I was aware of. There is little mention of any support for:
I suppose that already installed keyboard commands for mouse actions could be used.
There is no touch screen capabilty because of the limits of my computer, however, this option could be easily implemented by creating an iPhone Voicethread Application which automatically supports touch screen capability.
I think that Voicethread would be a great tool to use in the classroom, except for the following weaknesses:
Regarding UDL Guidelines for Action and Expression, my suggestions for how to improve the tool for classroom use by all students:
Where is my voicethread submission?
My voicethread submission for this assignment is under the same name I use for this blog: mcguiret560. My avatar/photo is also the same one I use for this blog, a modified art image of my own eye. You can see my avatar (tiny, bottom right) in the screenshot of my voicethread contribution I placed at the beginning of this post. My avatar is also at the bottom of this post. The URL for my post is here: http://voicethread.com/share/398616/
As computers change and improve, I can see voicethread technology changing with improved browser capabilities. The future educational possibilities for voicethread’s UDL benefits is enormous. Thank you for introducing me to another wonderful use of UDL type technology!
lmcguire
(Below is my actual text post to voicethread – you have to go there to see my ear drawings, and pay NO attention to my audio contribution!)
My voicethread text response to Jenna Wasson’s questions:
After my first post, I kept thinking about the history of deaf culture at Martha’s Vineyard, and the kinds of ‘UDL’ educational ideas this story brought to my mind.
A Model for Inclusivity?
I think that this story is a model for all schools to consider teaching all students sign language, regardless of whether they are deaf or not deaf.
How Practical? How Inclusive? Other Benefits?
This UDL education would be easier to implement in today’s schools because many parents are already teaching their non-deaf babies sign language in hopes that they will become ‘genius.’ I think this model would create far more inclusive classrooms as well as a ‘culture of inclusivity’ within classrooms. Teaching all students sign language would allow them to be more considerate of students that are diffferent from them. This teaches social and moral skills as well as offering students an alternative form of communication.
Challenges:
There would be the challenges of parents and schools who think this might be ‘unnecessary’ for students who aren’t deaf. It would also raise financial budget considerations with school districts and administrators.
My question is:
Can voicethread be one of the solutions for how to teach sign language to students? It sure has all the media support to do so. Also, when can we see voicethread as an iPhone application with touch screen capabilities?
Click here to listen to an (( (( Audio )) )) podcast of this post: mindcontrolledrobot
“In a development that realizes a scenario out of a science fiction movie, scientists have developed technology enabling a robot to be controlled by thought power.”
In one of my favorite, uncensored publications, the Associated Press, Yomiuri Shimbun introduces us to the idea that Mind power alone can now operate a robot designed by Honda called Asimo.
Talk about educational advantages, is this what some cognitive scientists would truly call ‘a bridge too far?’ But think of the brilliant assistance this would give intelligent, creative students who could not move any part of their body. Robots may sound scary, but consider the freedom this may offer students who need extra scaffolding within universally designed learning environments. This may hold the key to freedom, expression, mobility (of a synthetic, but effective sort) and possibilities beyond our wildest imaginations.
Here, Yomiuri waxes on what he could call the story of a lifetime:
“A user wears a helmet that detects changes in blood flow and brain waves in different parts of his or her brain and converts them into radio signals that are transmitted to the bipedal humanoid robot, operating its limbs and making it speak.
The technology was developed by a team of scientists from Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute International, Honda Motor Co. and others.
In experiments using Honda’s Asimo robot, test participants were able to move the robot’s limbs and make it speak just by imagining those actions, with a success rate of 90 percent.
Similar research is being done in the United States and European countries, but the success rate there reportedly is between 60 percent and 70 percent.
So far, the Japanese team has only been able to have the robot raise its arms and legs and utter a few words in response to controllers’ thoughts. There is a delay of about seven seconds between the detection of changes in a test participant’s brain and corresponding reactions by the robot. The brain wave reader weighs about 300 kilograms and is as large as a chest.
The team will continue carrying out experiments with the aim of enabling Asimo robots to perform more complicated actions. The team also hopes to develop a portable brain-wave reader.”
After showing this to my Dad, and talking about what Isaac Asimov or Ray Bradbury would think of this, he got me thinking, “Are we controlling the robots, or are the robots controlling us?”
Well, that is a thought,…
Ponder that.
to Listen to an (( (( Audio )) )) Podcast of This Post, Click This Link: audio_post-udlbraingym to listen.
When our ‘Harvard Recreation Team Challenge‘ members were voting on what our team name would be, two people insisted on the name ‘brain gym.’ I had no idea why, but now I get it. ; )
I had one of those moments just now where,.. you know… you just have to look some random term/idea up on youtube and see what all the hoopla is about. I typed in Brain Gym and got this wonderful little video:
This type of exercise seems great for all kinds of education. I’m also sure, if researched, studies would show that it helps all kinds of learners and could possibly add to the quality of current universally designed educational models. Heck, I think all jobs should have trainers like this and group ‘brain bym’ exercise time for employees. If employees want to opt out, they can take a nap or go to McDonalds. Incorporating this brain gym concept everywhere could relieve quite a bit of stress, improve well-being and quality of life for all ages.
What do you all think?
“To our eyes, the world is arrayed in a seemingly infinite splendor of hues, from the sunny orange of a marigold flower to the gunmetal gray of an automobile chassis, from the buoyant blue of a midwinter sky to the sparkling green of an emerald. It is remarkable, then, that for most human beings any color can be reproduced by mixing together just three fixed wavelengths of light at certain intensities.”
Yes, I had a hunch that this might true.
Today’s article in Scientific American covers this luminating observation:
“Color Vision: How Our Eyes Reflect Primate Evolution:
Analyses of primate visual pigments show that our color vision evolved in an unusual way and that the brain is more adaptable than generally thought.
So, the human artist sees and paints like no animal on earth, but why? It must be a combination, I think, between this elevated, color-rich eye sight and the current of creativity spouting from a most energetic type of mind. If we could talk to monkeys about this, what would they say about a Kandinsky,… or a Picasso,….
check it out here: http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=evolution-of-primate-color-vision
I was wandering around neuroland online and stumbled upon the Dana Foundation’s announcement saying that today is the beginning of Brain Awareness week. So, I tell all of you, be aware of your brain this week, all week long, from March 16th until March 22nd. This is very important. You will need to focus intently on this for seven days.
To do my part, I will be writing several essays on neuroscience for my wonderful professors, reading hundreds of pages of neuroscience articles and chapters on emotion, dyslexia, memory, and watching videos on intelligence and emotion. When I finish all that, I’ll learn a little flex from Chris and throw in a flash website featuring the interactive creative brain. I may not finish the interactive brain, but let me know if you want to help me with this. What the heck. Why not. Do your part! What are you straining your brain about this week?
The Dana Foundation has great resources and all, I recemmend checking out all the exciting activities and focus they put on the brain, immunology and, to my delight, arts education! I knew that one day, all the top neuroscientists would finally figure out that arts education is the most important education of all. Now who is going to tell the education departments, politicians and school districts in America?
They have links to the nerve videos at Columbia University showing Kendel talking about the brain. I’ve been watching these videos and I’ve noticed that the classrooms at Columbia University are pretty fancy. Right now, I’m checking out this video here filmed at Columbia University on Thursday, December 4, 2008 LECTURE ONE Mapping Memory in the Brain taught by Eric R. Kandel, M.D. In this video, he discusses:
“What is mind? A central finding is that mind is a series of processes carried out by the brain. Mind is to the brain as walking is to legs—but it is infinitely more complex. The brain produces our every emotional, intellectual, and athletic act. It allows us to acquire new facts and skills and to remember them for as long as a lifetime.”
Kandel also lectures about the Broca’s area in the left part of the brain, saying that we speak with our left hemisphere. But, is that everyone? What about folks that speak but only have half a brain? We must investigate this further ladies and gentlemen. Check out a plethora of videos you will love here: http://www.ndgo.net/sfn/nerve/
So what do you think about the new article in which Ben Hirschler from LONDON (Reuters) writes: “Scientists have shown for the first time that it may be possible to “read” a person’s mind simply by looking at brain activity.
Using a modern scanner to measure blood flow, British researchers said on Thursday they were able to tell where volunteers were located within a computer-generated virtual reality environment.
“Surprisingly, just by looking at the brain data we could predict exactly where they were,” Eleanor Maguire of the Wellcome Trust Center for Neuroimaging at University College London told reporters.
“In other words, we could ‘read’ their spatial memories.”
The discovery opens up the possibility of developing machines to read a range of memories, although Maguire said the risk of “intrusive” mind reading was still a long way off.”
…read the remainder of the article here: http://www.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUSTRE52B4VZ20090312
—
Ah, those Maguires,… at it again!
I am curious more than ever now about how this brings neuroscience so much closer to education. It establishes the question on why so few education departments today don’t research neuroscience. This venture and this exploration is on the tip of an iceberg and the edge of a large new area of science and schooling. To be able to contain this in a way that teachers can learn from and inform their teaching would be helpful. But remember, without the links of psychology and cognitive science, this information could be dangerous stuff. Everyone’s brain is so much like everyone else’s,… and yet so different.
mmmmmh.
Yes, life is so amazing and incredible, sad and memorable. It is because we are so startled at it, that there is no time for anything else. I can draw and draw and draw again, yet still never capture it. It eludes me like the slow fluttering butterfly, caught within a ray of sunshine, in between my eye and the next fragrant flower.
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