Initial Draft/Working Outline

I have tweaked my topic a bit from tablets and education to how tablets can help children with disabilities-- specifically those with Autism. I’ve focused my outline mostly around sources and quotes that I want to use to help me organize them. If all goes well, am planning on having a complete draft up by tomorrow night.

This is my working outline:

1. Thesis: New technologies such as tablets can help students with learning disabilities--specifically those with Autism.

2. The OED Defines Autism as "A condition which has its onset in childhood and is marked by severely limited responsiveness to other persons, restricted behaviour patterns, difficulty with abstract concepts, and usually abnormal speech development." 

3. Autism has since been recognized as a broader condition. The term "Autistic Spectrum Disorder" was first used in the late 1980s. This term acknowledges that there is a spectrum of Autism. The term is defined "Any disorder in which the subject displays autistic characteristics (esp. impaired communication and social interaction and restricted activities and interests) (OED).

4. Tablets can be used to help autistic students learn in ways that build on their strengths rather than their weaknesses.

5. Author Temple Grandin, who has experienced Autism herself, lists some benefits of tablets for people with Autism. She writes, "These devices are an improvement over previous computers because the keyboard is right on the screen; autistic viewers don't have to move their eyes to see the result of their typing." She then adds, "First, they're cool. A tablet is not something that labels you as handicapped to the rest of the world. Tablets are things that normal people carry around. Second, they're relatively inexpensive...And the number of apps seems limitless."

      a. One website lists 78 free iPad apps for students with disabilities (http://www.slideshare.net/elearningindustry/78-free-ipad-apps-for-students-with-special-needs). Of the 78 apps, 12 are created specifically for users who have Autism.

6. One useful feature of tablets is that they can play videos. Plavnick explains why this is so useful for children with autism, "Explicit instruction in attending to video can be an important skill to teach children with autism as it can lead to the acquisition of new skills via video modeling." 

       a. Plavnick cites a study of video modeling that was done in 2000 which had hopeful results. Out of 5 participants, four children learned desired behaviors more quickly when the behaviors were modeled via video. The fifth child learned at the same pace regardless of whether behavior was modeled in person or via video (Charlop-Christy, Le, and Freeman, cited by Plavnik).

      b. A similar study by a school librarian found, "In our small sampling, every child with autism improved when using the iPad and interactive e-book over text books, except one. However, that student answered 100% of the comprehension questions correctly on all four assessments. There were no students whose comprehension decreased when using the iPad and interactive e-book. The rate of increase in comprehension when using the iPad and interactive e-books was 21% in students in middle school grades, 25% in students in the high school grades, and 21% in students ages 18-22. All three groups showed statistically significant improvements in information acquisition when using the iPad, interactive e-books" (Price).

7. Howard Shane warns, “Caution must continue to be exercised to ensure that the dazzle of this impressive technology does not replace a methodical, clinical process that matches a person with communication assistance needs with the optimal communication technology available” (1229). However, he later adds, “The widespread uses of innovative technology across every segment of society bodes well for persons with ASD” (1234).

Works Cited:

"Autism, n.". OED Online. September 2013. Oxford University Press. 6 December 2013 <http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/13363?redirectedFrom=Autism>.

Grandin, Temple and Richard Panek. "Excerpt: Author Temple Grandin Reports on The Autistic Brain." Time. Time Magazine, 19 May 2013. Web. 6 December 2013.

Plavnick, Joshua B. 1., plavnick@msu.edu. "A Practical Strategy for Teaching a Child with Autism to Attend to and Imitate a Portable Video Model." Research & Practice for Persons with Severe Disabilities 37.4 (2012): 263-70. Web.

Price, Amy. "Making a Difference with Smart Tablets." Teacher Librarian 39.1 (2011): 31-4. Web.

Shane, Howard1, howard.shane@childrens.harvard.edu, et al. "Applying Technology to Visually Support Language and Communication in Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders." Journal of Autism & Developmental Disorders 42.6 (2012): 1228-35. Web.

The Parts of a Whale in Moby Dick

I have been thinking lately about the chapters in Moby Dick devoted to each individual part of the whale. For instance, there is an entire chapter devoted to a whale's blubber. There are others focused on various other parts of its body, including its head and tale. Those chapters were particularly frustrating to me as I struggled to get through them. I would wonder, "How does learning about the skull of a whale help me to understand this story better?" Interestingly enough, as I have thought about why Melville would choose to put these chapters in his story, I have come to understand that it is important to learn about the pieces, or components, that make up a particular thing in order to understand the thing as a whole.

For example, we have been studying digital culture this semester. However, it is impossible to understand digital culture as a whole without looking at each of the little pieces that digital culture is made up of. How could I possibly begin to understand digital culture without looking at the social media aspect of it? Or if I ignored the phenomenon of the long tail? Conversely, how am I supposed to understand digital culture as a whole if I assume that it is only made up of one of these categories? That would be similar to Ishmael focusing only on the whale's tail and ignoring the rest of the massive creature.

Ishmael, as he describes the right-whale's head, explains, "As you come nearer to this great head it begins to assume different aspects, according to your point of view" (Chapter 75, Project Gutenberg electronic text). This reminds me of the process I go through every time I write a paper for class. As I look at a text through different lenses, I am able to understand it differently. Ishmael's in-depth descriptions about the parts that make up a whale show the importance of each detail of a text, no matter how trivial or difficult to distinguish from the whole it may appear at first glance.

The chapters in Moby Dick that are focused on describing different parts of a whale have reminded me of the importance at looking at the details--whether I am writing a paper for a class, learning about digital culture or other topics, or just thinking about life. Though I admit that I struggled with these chapters at first, as I followed Melville's model and looked at how that particular part fit into the story as a whole, I realized that it was teaching me to do just what I was doing-- to seek the meaning in each individual piece in order to better understand the whole.

Youtube Curation Follow Up Post

I have written a post previously about how I feel about Youtube as a curation tool (for those of you who didn't get a chance to read my work, I found Youtube to be distracting and not terribly helpful. I would not recommend it.) This post will be taking a look at some of the content that I have found on Youtube regarding education and technology.

As I mentioned, the videos that I have found the most helpful have been TED talks. My favorite TED talk was by Paul Anderson. Paul Anderson talked about how technology in the classroom can be very useful. However, he pointed out the dangers of relying too much on technology by comparing that type of technology-reliant classroom to how young Spock learns in the Star Trek reboot movie. He reminds us that most students would be bored out of their minds by just watching videos all day and reciting memorized facts. In his experimenting with using more technology in his own classroom, Anderson also found that there is a great danger of neglecting of reading. It is easy to forget how important reading is, but videos and technology cannot replace the benefits that come from reading. I feel that Anderson's views on technology and education address some concerns that I had after reading Disrupting Class. He does not advocate separating students by learning style, but rather gamifying the classroom so that each student can learn at his or her own pace while still being able to work with one another. There was a link in the video description to Paul Anderson's website with more information on the topic.

Raj Dhingra also gave a TED talk about education and technology. He recommends what he calls blended learning, in which teachers function as coaches/tutors rather than the traditional teacher who is in charge of deciding what students learn. This is also called student-centric learning. This philosophy about teaching reminds me of the recommendations made in Disrupting Class. For my thoughts on the problems inherent in this type of system, feel free to take a look at my previous blog post on the topic.

In summary, while I did not find YouTube to be a helpful curation tool overall, I am glad that I used it because I likely would not have found Paul Anderson's philosophy on gamifying his classroom without using Youtube specifically.

The Story of the Old Man with the Xbox: "What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy" James Paul Gee

While browsing through our class's Goodreads bookshelf, I was looking for things that particularly deal with gaming. I'm trying to focus my topic on the value of gaming and the real world applications for things like the workplace. There's a lot of different stuff I'm passionate about, but divided focus leads to no work done. James Paul Gee it is. His book seems to be about how video games can give us learning skills. I agree. I wouldn't be so good at handling my money if I hadn't spent hours with RPGs.

Education and Digital Culture in Clayton Christensen's Disrupting Class

Apparently this was one of the most influential books of 2008. I am hopeful that means that this book will be an interesting read.

Preview:
From previewing the text, I can see that Randall Circle High School is important-- most likely as a type of case study. Also, the text seems to focus on how to meet each student's individual needs rather than just helping the "average" student. The conclusion Christensen seems to be working towards is how to give schools the tools they need in order to help students succeed.

Social Proof:
Everybody on Google Plus seemed more interested in the fact that I got my book for free through the library than that I am researching innovation in education. However, I wandered into the kitchen to talk to two of my roommates about technology and education, and they both seemed reasonably interested. One of my roommates is a Computer Science major, so she thinks technology is great. My other roommate is an English major. She and I both agree that technology is good when it adds directly to what we're learning about, but we've both seen it overused in our classes. I felt good that my fellow English major roommate agreed with me, and I understand why my other roommate thinks technology in classes is so important. I am interested to see what Clayton Christensen has to say on the matter.

Similar Books:
The Innovative University: Changing the DNA of Higher Education from the Inside Out showed up in both of my searches. This book, as well as several others that showed up in my search were also written by Clayton Christensen, so it appears that he is very invested in this subject. Most of the results were either directly related to improving education in the United States or to Innovation, which was interesting. However, it makes sense given the title of the book I'm looking at.

Social Context:
A quick Youtube search brought up a TED talk by Michael B. Horn. I searched his name and discovered that he co-authored Disrupting Class, which I had somehow missed when I was glancing at my book. When I searched Twitter, I found a lot of entertaining tweets from students who had actually disrupted class. However, I also discovered that Disrupting Class was mentioned in a conference called Excellence in Education. Neat!

Formal Reviews:
I found a formal review by John Sener that was published in elearn Magazine. Sener disagrees with most of the arguments in Disrupting Class. He points out the fact that education is actually quite different from businesses, therefore we need to be cautious when trying to apply ideas from business to education. I found this quote to be a good representation of Sener's argument:  "The problem is the solution that's proposed supports customized inputs, but standardized results." I will definitely keep this in mind as I start reading Disrupting Class itself.

Informal Reviews:
Disrupting Class has an average rating of 3.86 on Goodreads. One criticism that I have seen popping up inn both formal and informal reviews is that the authors propose charter schools as the solution to all of our education woes. Other reviewers complain that the authors ignore several existing models that use technology to help students learn based on their individual needs (such as Montessori schools.) Overall, I'm getting the impression that there are good ideas in this book, but I will need to read it with a grain of salt.

Courses Using This Book:
A search of educational sites using this book showed me that Michael B. Horn visited MIT as a guest lecturer and spoke about some of the ideas from their book. Michael Horn keeps showing up. I think it will be important to pay attention to all of the authors, not just Christensen. I also found that VCU (Virginia Commonweatlth University) has an entire blog devoted to this book, complete with notes and questions asked by the instructors for students to keep in mind as they read the book. I think this website could be very helpful to me as I look at this book more in depth later.

Multimedia:
I searched Youtube earlier and found that Michael B. Horn had given a TED talk based on the ideas from this book. A search of Flickr revealed that the third author, Curtis W. Johnson, spoke at the global education forum in 2010. It appears that all three of the authors of this book are very involved in organizations that have the influence to change the way that education works. That in and of itself is enough to make me want to pay close attention to this book to see what ideas are being spread in these influential places.

First Impressions of the Book:
I enjoyed chapter 9:"Giving Schools the Right Structure to Innovate." The authors talk about how businesses use functional teams that focus on one aspect of the business, and suggest that schools could do something similar with students-- for example, perhaps having one group focus on music or art. I think that is a good idea, but I also think that traditional skills that we learn at school are useful and shouldn't be overlooked. I also think that students could be missing out on many opportunities to learn by focusing too much on one area and neglecting the others. I believe that by following the functional teams model, we would risk pigeon-holing students into focusing on only one of their talents. This would risk not giving them opportunities to grow as balanced individuals. Perhaps a cross-functional team model would be more effective. Students could be put into small groups, which would include students with different skill sets. That way, students would be exposed to other models of thinking and learning. They would also be able to feel that they can make a valuable contribution, whatever their skill set, because everyone's skills would be viewed as equally valid. Additionally, they would be given opportunities to use all of their unique talents, not just the one labelled skill, such as art. I intend to look more in depth at the model proposed in this book and see what points they make that could be used as a springboard to develop alternate methods of education.

Life as a Digital Native and How the Internet Will Affect Our Children

1. Social Media: I announced my intentions to read Born Digital: Understanding the First Generation of Digital Natives by John Palfrey and Urs Gasser (shortened to Born Digital in this post) on Google Plus and Twitter! No responses as of yet, but I'll update as they come.

2. Why I Am Reading This: I originally perused our list of book options with the mindset to find a work centered around digital identity or "slacktivism". However, when I saw this title, Born Digital: Understanding the First Generation of Digital Natives, I thought that this would be extremely useful to me in the future. It is a topic relevant to my life and something I would prefer to have a general knowledge of before I embark on the path to parenthood in the far future. My primary goal is to educate myself on how to prepare to raise a family in our digital culture, but I will need to find an academic focus-perhaps digital nativity.

3. Book Preview: My initial thoughts when looking at the book (love that it's in BYU's ebrary) is that many chapters are titled after an identity: "activists," "aggressors," and "pirates," for instance and the others are rather blunt and technical. I perused the book and have come to the conclusion that this not so much a parenting book, but more of a way to express the many capacities of the internet and the digital world. The authors are extremely credible and even include a link to their website in the last chapter of the book (how often does that happen?).

4. Early Social Proof: Sadly, from the time I started this post to now, I still do not have anyone interested into my reading adventure. However, I asked my husband Cory and our friend Sean, whether they had rules about video games and internet growing up. Their families both had computers located in open, visible areas and their moms had to know their passwords. Cory was only allowed to play video games at first on weekends, and later, after they played outside and it was dark. My parents never gave me rules regarding technology or internet safety. They also had the computer in our study, facing away from the door-something I would probably not do as a parent now.

5. My Book's Friends: First, the book most frequently bought with Born Digital is The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains Nicholas Carr. Intriguing title and is essentially a neurological study on how surfing the web affects our brains, in comparison to reading a book. Don Tapscott's Grown Up Digital is also recommended and it too, is a study of how growing up with the internet affects brain functioning, amongst other things. He was involved in a 4.5 million dollar study of people born from 1978-1994 and how digital culture impacts their lives. It seems as though many people are interested in the biological and physical consequences of the internet.

6. Who Cares?: Both authors are director/fellow at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School, and have a large following of academics. Palfrey is also a frequent commentator on various news networks. When I did a #BornDigital search of Google and Twitter, I was surprised to see its existence and popularity because of a Yahoo! series devoted to the college class of 2017 and their adventures. The series includes guest posters like professors, videos of students' lives and all types of digital media submissions.

 7. Formal Reviews: I like this review (http://techliberation.com/2008/10/10/book-review-palfrey-gassers-born-digital/). Sorry, it won't let me hyperlink it! It is From the Technology Liberation Front  and I believe its author Adam Thierer did an excellent job of summarizing the book, while pointing out flaws (like lack of opinion-too much unbias). I appreciate that they include a PODCAST discussion with John Palfrey! Listen here (http://techliberation.com/2009/02/09/tpw-41-book-corner-featuring-john-palfrey-author-of-born-digital/) It's still not allowing me to hyperlink these...

8. Informal Reviews: I was looking through Amazon reviews and found a familiar name, Adam Thierer-our author of the review at Technology Liberation Front. He gave the book 4 out of 5 stara and wrote a different, more concise review on Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/Born-Digital-Understanding-Generation-Natives/product-reviews/0465018564/ref=cm_cr_pr_top_link_2?ie=UTF8&pageNumber=2&showViewpoints=0&sortBy=byRankDescending). Overall, the book received 3 out of 5 stars but most of the reviews are positive.

9. Courses:

10. Digital Media: