IWBs in (My Workplace)

Admittedly, I'm having a heck of time envisioning how SMART boards (and the like) are going to flourish in higher education classrooms. The learning curve associated with IWB use can be a bit daunting to faculty or administrators use to paper, chalkboards, and overhead projectors. And if you are a technophobe, forget about it (maybe).

There are some presentation aspects of the software that I think can catch on in the higher ed classroom. The way one can present original slides, write on them, and then save them for future use is a neat feature. I also think that if students can be included to not only to write on the board, but to manipulate information in a way to spark critical thought, then it will catch on as a powerful way to engage students amongst themselves and the teacher.

I found the following video of a Physics professor who uses a SMART board in her class. It's not the most wholesome use of the board, but it does exemplify some of the usage considerations we were shown in class.

This is my second go-round with this course and the SMART Notebook assignment was challenging for me for two reasons:

• Lesson Planning - I'm completely not adept at this task; it's a very creative and technical process to build a good lesson.
• The learning curve with SMART, coupled with #1, made my brain hurt when trying to lean how to use the technology. 

Having the demonstration in class helped because I was able to make an analogy to how the software works. What worked for me was comparing it to web page building. With web page building, there is a need for logic and process when building your sites. When I applied a web page build process to the process of creating a SMART lesson, it actually finally clicked.

Let's hope the finished product is of some quality.

Related Article: The Rise of the Interactive Whiteboard in Higher Education

Web 2.0 Tools: Prezi

I've used Prezi before for a couple of final presentations, both for in-class and online coursework. Again, since I am not an educator, I have not used it in a teaching situation.

I think that this technology fulfills most of the principles of Universal Design (UD). It fulfills flexibility and use because it accommodates the user's individual preferences. The user can choose from many different presentation layouts, fonts, and font sizes. The user also has the option to put videos and pictures into the presentation. When giving a presentation, it can zoom in on the text that is being presented. It meets the principle of tolerance of error because the user is able to easily delete mistakes and other incorrect information. It is low physical effort because it efficiently guides users as they create their presentations. Finally, it fulfills size and space for approach and use because it is accessible from any computer that has an Internet connection.

The two principles that I think Prezi doesn't fulfill are equitable use and simple and intuitive. I don't think that this technology is useful to people with diverse abilities. For example, someone who has a visual impairment may not be able to use this program easily. Also, I don't think that Prezi is that easy to understand and has a fairly high learning curve for first-time users.

A Mother and Son Talk About Bookshare

A good summary about Bookshare and how it affects this mom and son...

Kurzweil 3000

Kurzweil 3000 is writing and reading software that has many great features. It has optical character recognition (OCR) which allows the program to read back scannable documents. As the words are read aloud, they are highlighted as well.You can turn off the sound if you just need help with tracking and not decoding. There is an option to speed up or slow down the voice, and the pace of highlighting according to your preference. You can also customize the voice to suit your hearing tastes/preference.

Once documents are created or scanned, they can also be annotated with text boxes, highlights and circles. This allows you to do anything you could do similarly with print material. Kurzweil is great for creating worksheets, tests and quizzes.

Kurzweil is also great for composing documents. It has spell check, word prediction, and various web layouts. One of the best parts of writing with Kurzweil is that the text is read back to you, which also makes it a great editing tool. Kurzweil has a built in dictionary for quick reference. Another handy feature is "read the web," which allows the user to read a web page aloud without copying and pasting the text into a Kurzweil file.

A very powerful, but RAM heavy program.

Personal Learning Devices

I know that many K-12 schools struggle with the incorporation of Personal Learning Devices. It's not an easy consideration - lots of work and effort must be afforded for successful incorporation. Higher ed environments also grapple with the challenges.

These devices, whether it be a PDA, smart phone, cell phone, iPad, tablet, aren't going away and are often considered a necessity for families and individual needs. I think it's important to considers some of the positives and negatives of Personal Learning Devices and their incorporation into learning and the classroom.

Some Positives:

• Classroom research opportunities - almost instantaneously can these opportunities be created and operationalized.
• Frees up computer lab space/use of school-owned technology - can provide this equipment for those who cannot afford personal devices themselves.
• Course lectures can be recorded and available for students to review material on the devices at any time.
• Assess student learning and provide peer review feedback by using online tools
• Create/archive student work as it is being created

Some Negatives:

• Bandwidth and wireless access needs to be considered and could be a drain on internal administrative technology that depends on this bandwidth
• Policing what students are looking at can be difficult (games, texting, Facebook, etc)
• Providing additional tech support (what happens if there are tech failures? what would be the back-up plan).

I know there are many other positives and negatives (we could be here forever identifying them). But overall, I think it's something all schools should consider and should considered holistically (and inclusively) if they decide to.