Assistive Technology, Module 1 - Job Accommodation Network and National Center for Learning Disabilities

It is interesting learning about the different ways to help people with learning disabilities. I will actually be taking my son for an assistive technology evaluation in a couple of weeks. We will be looking at ways to help him with his writing. Therefore I was curious what these websites had to say about writing. Having a student give answers verbally and have the student dictate answers to someone are two accommondations that my son has used. I found out that it is not that easy to write or type someone's answer when they are dictating their answer to you. Many times I would have to ask my son to repeat what he just said. Hopefully we can find a way to help him with his writing that would also give him more independence. Since I am interested in becoming a children's librarian, I took a look at ways to help students with reading. Having a reading pen available would be helpful for students who have difficulty with reading or with vision. The pen says the word as a person scans the word. Another suggestion was to provide books with larger print for students with vision problems. When we think of large print books we think of the large print books for adults. What about large print books for children? The books for younger children are usually larger print but the chapter books are the smaller print. I can see how important it is for librarians to have a good understanding about different disabilities.

Assistive Technology, Module 1 - National Federation of the Blind

If I were going to be teaching a blind student, I would want to introduce Braille to the whole class by labeling things in Braille and by having books written in Braille available for anyone in the class to look at. It might be interesting to have a lesson on both Braille and sign language at the same time in order to point out different ways people have of communicating with each other. In fact I could even include a different language such as Spanish. I could have people visit the class or library who are knowledgeable about the different languages.

Week 9, Thing #23 Reflections

I have enjoyed this adventure of learning about new technology these last 9 weeks. Creating an avatar was a lot of fun. I discovered an interesting blog written by an artist who also shared some of her artwork on the blog. Finding out all the different ways of using YouTube was a great week. It was neat finding out that my father uses YouTube to watch the lectures of other university physics professors. With YouTube I was able to watch videos about therapy dogs coming to the library to listen to children read. I love the video I found with pictures of therapy dogs and children reading to them. Since I graduated from college years before the internet, my knowledge of new technology was very limited before this class. Working on a few things each week was a great way to learn about a lot of technology without being overwhelmed. I would describe this course as a fun and exciting way to learn about new technology. I would definitely consider taking another course in the future.

Week 9, Thing #22 ebooks and Audio ebooks

On Project Gutenburg's website I found an ebook about parenting written in 1871. It was interesting reading about parenting advice from so long ago. On LibriVox it looks like anyone can volunteer to read chapters of books for the ebooks. That might be something fun to do. I did discover that my local library does have audio ebooks. I easily found the books from a link on the library's website. The virtual library has a tutorial that explains about audio ebooks and how to check them out from your library.

Week 9, Thing #21 Podcasts

I found many podcasts of childrens' stories being read. One podcast was of children reading stories. The podcast I added to my Bloglines account was a podcast about the benefits of sleep. I am always looking for information about being healthy and this podcast sounded interesting. I am wondering how much time people spend each week listening to podcasts. We have so many choices now for how to get information. Do we want to listen to a podcast, watch a video, or read a blog? I am curious as to which of these ways is the most popular. My first thought is that I would not be listening to podcasts very often. I may be thinking that way because right now I am very busy with taking care of my family and working on my graduate classes. Maybe I also feel this way because podcasts are new to me. I do like the fact that I can put the podcasts in my Bloglines account.

Week 9, Thing #20 YouTube

This week I have discovered some great uses for YouTube. My son (who is a 7th grader) is studying microscopes. Looking on YouTube I found some videos including two which demonstated the right way (and wrong way!) to use a microscope. These videos were actually created by a 7th grade teacher for use in her science classes. My son thought the video about the wrong way to use a microscope was funny. My father is a physics professor at a university. The other night my parents were visiting and I happened to mention learning about YouTube this week. My father shared with me that he will watch videos on YouTube of lectures by professors from other universities. He explained that he wants to see the different approaches to teaching a particular subject, how the professor introduces the subject, what does the professor emphasize, and what does the professor have on the blackboard or whiteboard. Sometimes the professors will do demonstrations. I did ask my dad if he had ever videotaped any of his lectures and he said no. Later I did take a look at some of the physics lectures on YouTube. Then my discovery of uses of YouTube continued as I took my 11th grade daughter to a college for an open house. During the overview of the music department, the college had a video of one of their choir performances projected on the screen at the front of the room. When they closed out the video I saw that it was a video from YouTube! Tonight my daughter was going to a dance. Her boyfriend asked me if I knew how to tie a tie. I am not sure if I have ever tied a tie before. Anyways I decided to search YouTube for a video. I found a video that showed how to tie a tie step by step. While my daughter's boyfriend ended up not watching the video, it was interesting to discover yet another use for YouTube. While searching the videos on YouTube, I discovered I could watch clips of Broadway musicals. I also looked at some videos on storytimes at the library. Just like how my father watches other professors' lectures to inspire him, I realized I can watch other librarians' storytimes to inspire me since I am interested in being a children's librarian. I also decided to look at videos about therapy dogs that visit libraries to listen to kids read.

Here is a YouTube video I found with some great pictures of children reading to therapy dogs:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apkOXPukHNI

I chose this video because having therapy dogs come to the library sounds like a great idea to me. I was curious to see actual videos and pictures of therapy dogs in the library. This particular video is a cute way to showcase therapy dogs in the library. A video such as this video would be a great addition to a library website. Taking videos of actual activities that happen in your library, putting them on YouTube, and then having the videos on your library website would give patrons an actual feel for what the different activities look like. Other options for YouTube videos on your library website might be for booktalks or for a video tour of the library.

Week 8, Thing #19 LibraryThing

Here are my books on LibraryThing. www.librarything.com/catalog/CyndyK
LibraryThing looks like a great website for someone who loves books (like me!). For the 5 books I chose the number of other people having the same book in their libraries was 18 people, 84 people, 10 people, 5 people, and 2 people. It was very easy to add books to my library once I knew the title of the book. I may decide to create a list of books I want to read. That way when I hear about or read about a book that sounds interesting, I can put the book in my library of books to read.