Lift Off

Hi all ~ A few of the doctoral students at the University of Nothern Colorado (UNC) had the opportunity to attend the first Colorado Consortium of Special Education Teacher Educators (CCSETE) Fall Institute 2005. The event provided a series of concurrent sessions in which several Institutions of Higher Education (IHEs) shared their latest initiatives, programs, and research. I attended the following sessions: Meeting the Challenges of the Accountibility System Teacher Preparation in Linguistically Diverse Special Education by John Hoover of the University of Colorado at Boulder. If this is an area of interest, I highly recommend you contact Dr. Hoover for more information. His email is John.Hoover@Colorado.edu or you can visit http://www.colorado.edu/education/BUENO UCCS Program Initiatives and Future Directions by Randall DePry, Julie Armentrout, and Laura Marshall of the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs. UCCS has a very exciting initiative called Breaktime Respite for parents of children of disabilities. Replication of this program would be wonderful throughout the state of Colorado. Let me know if you are interested in more information. and finally, drumroll please Teaching Outside the Box: Creating Learning Experiences that Transcend the Classroom by Kay Alicyn Ferrell, PhD, Nathan O. Lowell, PhD, Ann Sebald, EdD. from the National Center on Low-Incidence Disabilities. Audio from this presentation is available. My notes from Nates session might not make any sense without visiting the following link: http://nclid.unco.edu/Presentations/ferrell/ccsete/ A classroom serves an institution rather than intended to serve the student. All education involves some distance. Spoken language is technology. With spokent language, it becomes a question of degree “how far away are you?” We should not only concern ourselves with the technology, but also with the choices we use to select the technology. Distance occurs as soon as you involve “an other”. Blackboard is really fast mail. New tools requires new techniques. A classroom is a box. We must start thinking outside of the box. How to use online strategies: 1) Immersion = intense involvement. Phaedrus is an example of immersion. 2) Case studies starts by giving students a basic core of information. There is a high degree of content-based information absorbed by the students. A case is then developed and the learners begin to apply thier knew knowlege and utilize their gathered resources to address the case. 3) Simulation is based on a case in which the students help influence the outcome. The instructor follows the students lead. An example is a course being offered by Paula Conroy (UNC) on Assessment. The learners develop questions about the case and then locate tools to assist them to answer the questions and possibly generate new questions to be addressed. 4) Soap Opera involves a story. An example of this is available in the Deaf Specialist coursework (UNC) called Joey’s journey. The instructor provides links to questions that the characters generate 5) Seminar - example in the BVI methods course (UNC) The instructor provides information to the students, the student responds according to readings, assignments, questions. Things to consider: 1) Graphics are problematic. It is an issues of access. Graphics need to be described. Incidental graphics provide distraction. Graphics are important, but they must be laid out in a way that can be described by a screen reader in an orderly fashion that makes sense to the recipient. It is challenging to design pages that both look & sound good. 2) Audio and Video. We must accomodate the learner by using small downloads. When you encode audio you exclude participants. Audio is really slow. 3) Time management…teaching online classes takes additional time. The length of time will decrease as your skills increase. 4) Assessment of the learners abilities in the course can be soooo authentic and soooo valid that the student cannot even fake it. 5) Basic toolbox. It is about building and structuring the learning. Change creates anxiety. It is not the way people are accustomed to being taught.

Am I caught up yet??!! SMILE

About the students:

* Who are they?

Parents, Parent Information Specialists and service providers of children with disabilities

* What do they know coming in?

Skill level and experience will vary, however, they will have knowledge and experience in the special education system

* What should they know when they’re done?

Participants will have an increased knowledge of effective advocacy teaching models and strategies for the empowerement of parents to fulfill their role as their childrens lifelong advocates

How will they talk to each other? To you?

Via listserve, email, and blogs

* How will they talk to you?

I will be available via email, instant messaging and by phone

Course description

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (2004) states, “Policies and procedures will be implemented to ensure the right of all parents to full participation and equal partnership in the educational process” (Corn & Huebner, 1998, p. 12). Although the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEA) provides a legal foundation supporting equal parent participation and partnership, the consistency of this practice has not been fully realized. Therefore strategies to address barriers that hinder parents from full participation and partnership must continue to be explored.

In order to determine the effectiveness of systematic advocacy approaches, more attention needs to be given to the definition of appropriate advocacy so we can individualize strategies to enable parents to acquire effective advocacy skills regardless of their life circumstances.

This course will explore: 1) what definitions are currently available regarding appropriate assertiveness? 2) what parent advocacy skills are currently recognized and taught by parent training and support models? 3) is there agreement or mutual respect among professionals and parents regarding the nature of appropriate assertiveness and what skills the current parent support and training models offer? 3) Do the skills identified by current parent support and training models address cultural diversity, education level, and socioeconomic status? 4) what life circumstances hinder or promote parents’ success in advocating for their children, and 5) what holistic strategies can be employed to ensure that parents become successful participants and partners in their children’s education?

* How did you approach the task of site evaluation?

I approached the task of the site evaluation by identifying websites that have been valuable resources in my work. I revisited these websites and considered what I would want other people to know about their utility, organization, if they are updated frequently, etc.

* How did your approach differ from others in the class?

I think my approach was similar to the others in the class. Some individuals selected new websites or unfamiliar websites.

* Where did you find the sites you looked at?

The sites I reviewed were sites that I was introduced to in graduate school and have continued to use for work. I have never previously “evaluated” the sites however. I found it useful to go back and review the websites beyond their content.

* What makes a site “educational”?

I think a site is educational when it provides updated and useful information. I love to find a site and think…”this is exactly what I need!”

* How do you think this applies to creating your own class?

Offering web resources that lead to ideas for searches and locate valuable resources is useful. It is like leaping into a sea of information. However, if you know the originating site and you trust the information it provides, there is more security regarding the accuracy of the information. This is more valuable than random keyword searches.

Honestly, I feel tormented between my growing interest towards this class and trying to stay afloat with all of my other courses which I am equally engaged. I am still struggling with devoting the time to connect with my peers in this course by reading and responding to their comments. It has been so much easier to connect with peers in my other classes because they are in person and we can chat before class, after class or during break. Though one positive feature of this course is that it provides more access to everyone at all times of the day. Yet accessibility doesn’t help with my availability. Therefore, I feel the biggest connection with my peers has been commiserating over being overwhelmed by this class.

To my excitement, this weekend I created a new blog with more options, I created a blogroll, edited the Wiki class list and added both an RSS feed for my site and one for comments and I downloaded Sage in order to have a live bookmark for all of your sites. The best part is that I think I knew what I was doing. Now I am ready to set up a blog for my husband so he has one on music. There is no question I have learned in this course.

According to the article we read by Daithí Ó Murchú and Brent Muirhead, critical thinking requires learners to be proactive, tenacious towards problem-solving and flexible to new ideas and solutions. Nathan, are these the unspoken objectives of the course?

Difficulties I see with this course so far are high amounts of stress and discomfort with novel technology.

I wonder about possible conflict with an auditory learning style? I am not an auditory learner, but I have more than once wondered about how an auditory learner experiences such a visual course.