Blog Post #12

My Assignment: Watch these two videos about introducing ipods into special education. We have watched videos and read posts about how technology has helped the regular education classroom setting. Now we see how the same technology (the ipod) also helps the special education classroom setting. Write your reaction to the videos in a post on your blog.

Introducing iPods into Special Education

Priceless

Technology for Special Education Video 
We have watched many videos and read many posts about technology and why it should be incorporated into the classroom setting. We haven't really talked about how technology works wonders in the special education classroom setting. In the first video about introducing iPods into special education, Vicki Nelson tells us about how she started using the iPod in her special education class. Most of Ms. Nelson's students suffer from a hearing loss, or they are non-verbal. She used the iPods as a communication device training for the students to use at home. She said that many of the students came back to school knowing things that she hadn't taught them yet. This just shows that the students really want to learn. They just need it given to them in a way that interests them. She then started video taping the interpreter signing the vocabulary words from each subject. This way the students can take the videos home, so their parents can learn how to sign and understand what their kids are bringing home and signing. Then, the interpreter started signing the stories in the books they were reading. The video of this helps the students with comprehension. Another great way Ms. Nelson used the iPod in this video was as a video portfolio. These are used as communication logs between staff and the student's parents and as a record of communication between staff and the student's parents. The parents could listen to the voice memo left by Ms. Nelson. Then, they could record a response and send it to school with their children. I loved the story she told about a voice memo she got from one of her student's sister after watching a video of her brother. The memo said, "Wow! He's really smart!" I think it's cool that the special education students are able to show their families how hard they are working and how much they are improving. I think that it is amazing how we can use technology that was initially only thought of as a device to listen to music and turn it into a tool used to help special education students. It's all about the different ways we look at things.

In the second video, priceless, it is a remake of the MasterCard commercials. Out of all of those commercials and remakes of those commercials, this is my favorite one. It shows different costs of technological devices used in special education and the cost of a great teacher. Then it shows a special education student on one of the devices and says, "Seeing a child do what no one thought they would: priceless." I think this is so true. Even though you can technically put a price on the devices this child is using, it doesn't matter what the price is, because this student is accomplishing something that no one thought he would be able to do. It's great to see technology helping in regular education, but to see a special education child accomplish something that others said one wouldn't be able to do is so heart warming. I thoroughly enjoyed watching these two videos, and I hope more people get a chance to see them.