Reflections of Assistive Technologies

List and explain the disabilities demonstrated in the videos and tell how the technologies supported the students.

Suzanna Martini has cerebral palsy and without her motorized chair, computer, speech recognition and voice activated software, laptop, height adjusting desk, or headphones she would not be the same productive part of society as she is today. Each of these devices lend a helping hand to help her with everyday tasks. The same is true for Vishal Saraiya and Carlos who also have cerebral palsy in their attempts to navigate this world from their small chair adapted environments. Each of these children have different varying forms of this debilitating disease. The first task for any assistive technology device adaptation is to determine how to best improve their lives by matching up abilities with capabilities. What specific capabilities does a special child have that will match up with the accommodating technology? Using just the movement of an eyebrow to function in daily life is close to a miracle for some children. The use of touch pads to speak to classmates opens up a world of communication to a young mind. Even the joy of playing an instrument as exhibited by Lukas Bratcher with a limb disease can be enhanced to improve his life and future.

The second video shows Josh, a child of an estimated 1 in 88 autism related disorders in the United States (http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/autism/data.html) alone. Josh exhibited isolated and nonverbal behaviors coupled with toe-walking and hand-flapping, therefore, when frustrated he would pitch tantrums. He is mentally and emotionally handicapped not physically handicapped. But his detailed observant kindergarten teacher saw that he liked cause and effect toys. She made use of the able net super talker that made it possible for Josh to eliminate the social interaction barriers and communicate with a voice backup system. Then she combined the able net book worm device with Josh's desires to read and interact with books. Josh defied the norm and developed eye contact and confidence to communicate with teacher and classmates. Adaptability is the key in any assistive device instance. Now he can read without the help of the able net reader device.

In my experiences in the classroom I too was able to see the great accomplishments that assistive technologies can provide children. My two students were Daryl and Susie. Daryl was afflicted with cerebral palsy and was in an wheelchair adapted to his needs and body shape. He could only make sounds and facial expressions. He had a touch pad device to help him communicate. He had some limited control movement in his right hand. My class was an art class so we were able to include him in all the activities, even when his aide did most of the artwork, you could see joy in his face. Susie on the other hand was severely learning disabled and functioned only with a point and click computer we had put into the classroom for her. At this time of my teaching career, these two students were isolated in the special education room and only came out for art and physical education. The support gained with the use of assistive technologies is unlimited in the advances that a child can receive with the monitoring of caring education professionals.

Science Fiction?? Really??

A thought provoking video by Michio Kaku explaining how, just like in the movies, we will soon be able to shift change in reality by a process he calls Reprogrammable Matter being developed now by the Intel Corporation. By using tiny positive and negatively charged chips in place of atoms, we will be able to change the color, shape, and conductivity of these tiny chips and rearrange them into whatever we choose at the pressing of a button.

Big Thinker Video "Genomics"

This video gives a view by Michio Kaku of how we could possibly eradicate the aging process by mapping all of our young and old genes (specifically the oxidation of mitochondria) in our bodies. Then with the use of computer science in ten years repair those genes that cause us to become old. Botox look out!

My Experiences in Second Life

Children are so much better at game play than adults, but Second Life is not for children. The uncontrollable environment is certainly a place to get lost or see things that children should not see. But, we all know some children are certainly advanced at their age and will find a way to create an avatar and join in the play in Second Life without supervision. I would not want to be responsible for introducing Second Life to my middle school children.

For some reason the movement in Second Life has been a severe handicap for me. I have practiced with the controls and continue to press the opposite buttons than what I want to happen. The movement of the avatar seems to be backwards to the controls. I also can see why there is a need for up-to-date hardware and broadband width for the software to not drag, I have had several failed teleport occurrences. My computer setup is as good as it gets, it is a 2013 all-in-one high end desktop. As I began to become comfortable with the controls and the camera I would get where I wanted to be, but I could not get my avatar to arrive at that location, I am certainly doing something wrong. Finally I realized that at places there are videos to help move around in Second Life. I viewed one of them and it helped a lot. I have searched to get more help in videos at YouTube.com.

Just for my information, I wanted to check out Teen Second Life. I wanted to see if I could move around in the virtual world better as a beginner but they have closed Teen Second Life back in 2010. I really felt that the virtual environment of Second Life was not for the K – 12 classroom child and apparently so did Linden Labs.

I did some flying around the island but that was difficult since my movements are erratic at best. So I used the camera to view the entire island and tried to teleport to places and it failed to complete, I don’t know why. I made it to the amphitheater and the “Poultry Pride” section but again teleport my avatar there did not happen. I ended up in the Egg Processing Facility first and did not know that was where I was so I am going back and check out each of the microscopes to view the specimens. I could not find the hammock? I did choose the lighting in the World section and it was fun the see the daylight change. I really need to browse this virtual world much, much more, and I want to but again it is difficult and time consuming.

Articles of Interest About Virtual Worlds

Duncan, I., Jiang, S., & Miller, A. (2012). A taxonomy of virtual worlds usage in education. British Journal of Educational Technology, 43(6), 949-964. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-8535.2011.01263.x

This article considers the research of over 100 published works covering the use of virtual worlds in education; in specifically the advantages and disadvantages of Second Life. Of all the VW’s, VLE’s, and MUVE’s being used today Second Life ranked the top in educational use. Even in 2012 any virtual world is considered new and unexplored for its potential as an educational tool, but simulating real-life scenarios has piqued the interest of professional educators.

There were six categories of research common in all the works reviewed for this article: varied populations in virtual worlds, educational activities possible, learning theories capitalized on, the rich learning environment, use or potential of supporting technologies, and finally the research areas still needing to be explored. Of all the positive attributes of the use of virtual worlds for education, the collaborative resources were the highest in potential learning. Higher order thinking skills was a dominate feature also.

There were several disadvantages of using virtual worlds. Just a few are the need for current high end technology hardware to run the graphics non-stop for a real-life experience and the broadband connection has to be high speed. Disadvantages in the learning process is the difficulty for some learners to concentrate on learning with all the overwhelming, unguided movements along with other distractions in the virtual world which include moving around and visual distractors. It is hard for educators to monitor the educational process in a simulation.

Future research is needed to harness the full potential of using virtual worlds for education. There are many new technologies that would enhance the real-life experience such as immersion technology, video helmets or gloves, motion detection or interactive hardware such as the Xbox Kinect.  But these technologies also present a drawback in the need for speed in RAM and broadband connections. Evaluation of the learning process also needs an upgrade for educators to feel comfortable in grading and monitoring for cognitive success.

Martin, S., & Vallance, M. (2012). Assessment and evaluate virtual worlds learning experiences and second, creating better techniques of creation of these virtual world environment experiences. Learning in the virtual world: Tasks, taxonomies and teaching for real. Journal of Virtual Worlds Research, 5(2), 1-13. Retrieved from http://jvwresearch.org

According to this article, the possibilities for successful learning in virtual worlds is rich but like other trends in education it is a slow process getting started with the appropriate tools and at the same time becoming proficient as educators in its uses and applications. Two requirements were proposed to accelerate this new avenue to teaching and learning. First, develop a better process of evaluating virtual world experiences and second, maximize better techniques of creating these evaluative virtual world learning experiences.

A widely accepted standard of categorizing educational objectives, Bloom’s Taxonomy, was used as the basis of researching and developing a better way to evaluate the educational experience in virtual worlds. During the research process, the emphasis on remembering and understanding was not as apparent by learners as applying and evaluating, since virtual worlds primarily use an interactive environment. Researchers discussed the difficulty in reviewing both procedural and conceptual knowledge using a modified Bloom’s Taxonomy for their evaluating purposes. They are in the process of developing a “BloomsPad” software to record specific moves and decisions made as a learner moves and participates in a virtual world. These data points taken during the virtual experience should prove to enhance the educational evaluation of learner’s experiences through precise documentation.