Monday, November 16, 2009

Week 8: Artifact 2 Presentations

Week 9: Class Presentations

Today is the dress rehearsal for the big day. Presentation day! Today we get to see how innovative we are with regard to using technology to support marginalized educational populations. I had been working on my assignment for weeks and it turned into a 24hour implementation. I was very satisfied with the results. It allowed the viewers to engage in roll play again and was progressive in its approach to the identity of a child with attention deficit disorder.

Late again, I walked in just having been able to partake in the last 5minutes of Paul’s presentation. He was the first speaker and I was disappointed having missed what appeared to be a really interesting take on literacy.

Up next was Ashley’s project, and she appeared to be promoting the improvement of English skills through the use of sharing stories globally (her current focus students in India). She envisions a website called “TuneItUp!” She foresees continued work with the NGO where she is employed working with high to low resource schools. Comics share stories and encouraging literacy and cultural awareness. She finds her stick designs to be sufficient enough to stay true to the authenticity of the written quality; so much that anyone can partake and feel empowered to share their experiences.

Jacob I noticed has taken a great interest in video games as a teaching aid. When I asked him weeks back, he said that he wasn’t much of a gamer growing up so I find he current interest to be intriguing. He seems to be working off of a perception that video gaming is a motivational aid. He draws correlation with the way that the body works and the possibility in demonstrating the rigor in the curriculum associated within the subject matter demonstratable through games. He discusses how gaming is very common in homes and transferable in use within schools and home. I like that he uses symbolic and metaphoric representation of anatomy tin inanimate objects and how they function. He spoke on the genre of mystery and how it works with science and how media can support a rich learning experience that can draw on sensory and psychomotor skills. He has really done his research on society depicts science in the media and what makes it exciting. He brings up good things to consider in the area of teaching science such as bringing in integrating the scientific methodological practices in meaningful ways. This is something he will continue to explore. He is definitely a filmmaker.

Yaa was next up and is someone I know spent a great deal of time and effort working on her presentation. Her topic addresses the issue of loss of language and the need to archive this information for future generations. The program will train the people of the country on how to use technology in ways that are relevant to their lives, so as to educate outside populations. She draws on her wealth of experience working with the nationals (of which she is one), inferring that the nationals will gravitate towards this project out of a desire to keep their history alive. She maneuvers around common methods of supporting, financing and sustaining by gravitating towards partnering with NGO’s, selling packaged lectures and seminars to educational institutions. There is great interest in seeing this archive draw public interest so as to keep dying languages alive.

Man I am tired of writing…

Mike is up next. Mike has put together a You Tube video that promotes the use of flashcards as a means of promoting letter recognition, which is pivotal in the diagnosis of dyslexia. Parents or practioners are encouraged to use and score their child’s progress in the usage of the flashcards. He has found literature that discusses an algorithm by which to score a child’s response, which is translated in the use of a five-point rubric. Mike wants parents to feel empowered to invest in the skill sets that promote cognitive shaping and literacy over time. His system keeps the usage simple enough for any parent to use. He is going to great efforts to make sure the parent and user is comfortable and will maintain continuous use of the program. This project employs the usage of sensory and cognitive learning modalities. As it repetitive and offers minimal variation or I see it possibly loosing steam overtime. However I do foresee the mass usage of this program for initial diagnosis’ I like Amrita’s suggestion of building upon mastered skill levels (moving towards phonetics- which is the learner’s goal). It was awesome to have a person with dyslexia in the room to offer other interface suggestions dealing with audio and color scale (with regard to distractibility).

Okay I am going to stop now…

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