Google Notebook may not be one of the more common Google tools, but it is free and could be very useful to some of our students as well as for our own professional needs. This from the Google Notebook description:
Google Notebook helps you collect notes and information from the web for anything you might be doing—researching a trip, planning a purchase, or putting together a dinner party.
To collect text and images while you browse, you should download the Google Notebook browser extension.
You can access your notebooks from any computer or from your mobile phone. You can even share your notebooks with your friends!
So, this tool could easily be used by students when they are researching online, gathering information for a podcast, blog or paper. Students can collaborate with one another using the Google Notebook and also with you, with parents, etc. Additionally, you can share and collaborate with colleagues as professional development funds disappear and opportunities to network with other professionals decrease. www.google.com/googlenotebook/faq.html
2008 CASE Conference: Wednesday, Thursday and Friday of this week I’ve been attending the Council of Administrators of Special Education Conference in S. Carolina and I just need to say that special educators are the neatest people! I got to meet one very knowledgable gentleman from New York, who is a regular reader of this blog and another great Director of Special Education from our very own Anderson, Indiana!
The focus here is largely on data driven practices and RTI. My session here focused on how RTI, UDL and AT should co-exist and how the professionals working in each of those areas should be well aware of whats happening in the other groups to help reduce the duplication of services and efforts and to improve efficiency. What I’ve found with many of the school systems I’ve talked to is that the UDL folks don’t know the RTI folks and then there are AT folks sprinkled in who may not be familiar with either the RTI or the UDL groups in their buildings or districts.
A highlight from the conference:
As a teacher, I’ve always felt that if my students weren’t learning, it was almost always because I had not been creative, skillful or determined enough with their instruction. It’s encouraging to me now to see that RTI/UDL issues are forcing us all to really consider blaming our curriculum, our instructional methods, assessment methods and our materials rather than blaming our students for a lack of performance/achievment. The notion that the curriculum or that the instruction is disabled, rather than the student is a very interesting one worthy of serious consideration. This was reinforced by one of the keynote speakers who gave a special education law update. One of the letters quoted (OSEP 2008) specifically addressed this issue of underachievement vs. lack of appropriate instruction! Of course, part of appropriate instruction, to me, would also include the intenstive and systematic implementation of various assistive technologies, methods/materials that are 21st Century compatible and obviously a Universally Designed environment and curriculum to begin with.
Immersive Environments/Virtual Worlds Continued: Only 3 more days till the PATINS State Conference! I’m getting really excited to introduce those of you coming to my first session there to Second Life! This morning I came across a website called Virtual Worlds Review that I think could be a great resource for many of you as you begin considering the potential this awesome technology offers to education. This site has been around since April of 2003. The creator of the site is no longer updating it, but it does offer some nice definitions and a good review of many virtual worlds between the years of 2003-2006.
Many of those I’ve suggested the past couple of weeks have been intended for younger childrean. Here are a couple more good ones I’d like to share for our older students:
There! Unfortunately, “There” is only available for PC. I couldn’t find any info on if/when a Mac version of the software might be available. “There” is an online virtual environment for teens 13-18 years of age primarily. Basic membership and participation is free. “There” basic membership doesn’t quite offer everything that the free membership in Second Life offers. However, “There” has some other nice features that include a profanity filter and strict “PG-13″ content enforcement. www.there.com
Pirates of the Carribean Online: Mac/PC compatible. Here, students create an avatar like in most virtual worlds. Then they build a ship, chart a course and interact with other players from around the world in this free online multi-user environment. Suggested for children 10 and older. http://apps.pirates.go.com/pirates/v3/#/game_info/about.html
Have a great weekend everybody and hopefully I’ll be seeing many of you at the PATINS STATE CONFERENCE in just a few more days! Remember if you couldn’t make it this year, start thinking now about coming next year!
