Three Main Takeaways Class #2

The First takeaway from today's class that was very engaging and eye-opening was using the understand.org website.  I chose a grade 2 student struggling with reading. I chose this area and grade level because I have a little boy the same age who is also struggling with reading. Just hearing the little child speak about her feelings and frustrations was very heartwrenching. This activity enlightened my understandings of what it's like to struggle with reading through the eyes of a young child. The little girl explained how frustrating it is to sit in her seat watching other children finish their work quickly while she just sat there continuing to struggle. The little girl Maya said she felt like she couldn't do it and that she wasn't learning but everyone else was. As a teacher, we often don't take the time to think or feel through the eyes of a child and are ignoring the signs of frustration. This is so unfair and damaging to the struggling reader and many other children who require scaffolding supports and assistive measures to achieve their goals. It's time to take the plunge to provide the appropriate assistance through technology, resources, materials and other sources to ensure that every child has an equal opportunity to succeed. We need to ensure that through their eyes they also feel like they are learning, achieving, and succeeding just like everyone else. In this course, I have already gained so much knowledge about the many ways we can provide adequate resources through various forms of technology, devices, applications, and other useful interventions that can be incorporated easily into our classrooms. 

The second takeaway was being informed about all the accessibility supports available on apple products including iPhones, iPods, Ipads laptops, etc. After class, I decided to hop onto the Apple website to do some exploring myself. I wanted to know about all the accessible features available and where to find them on the devices I currently own. I decided to go through all the features available on Apple devices and make a list. To find out more, you can visit the Apple website to better direct you on how to find all features on your devices. https://www.apple.com/ca/accessibility/

Here is a list of Accessibility Features:
(The apple website has the features divided into 4 categories)

Visual

• Voice Over- tells you what's happening on your screen and will talk you through tasks.
• Display Accommodations- making it easy on the eyes. You can adjust the views to make it better for your situation. For example: Changing contrast and colors. 
• Magnifier- works like a digital magnifying glass to increase the size to be able to see items/text more clearly.
• Zoom- A powerful built-in magnifier that can enlarge a section of the screen so you can see content more clearly.

Hearing

• Live Listen- lets you fine-tune your iPhone hearing aids/pods to help you hear more clearly.
• Facial Expression with Facetime- Allows people to use sign language to communicate.
• Closed Captioning- More than just reading dialogue. It allows you to display the sound effects and music while engaged in a movie or T.V. show. 
• Noise App- it allows you to track the decibel levels and ambient sounds to let you know if the sounds are negatively affecting your hearing. 
• Siri- You can change the mode to "Speak mode" or "Type Mode" to better suit your needs.

Mobility:

• Voice Control- You can use simple vocalized commands to access and interact with apps. 
• Switch Control- it allows you to use built-in features such as switches, joysticks, or other adaptive devices that can control what's happening on your screen.
• Siri- will allow you to manage your house and music with your voice. For Example Hey Siri, turn on the lights. 
• Assistive Touch- For people who have trouble with standard gestures such as pinch or squeeze. You can customize gestures to fit your needs.
• Apple and Activity Apps- Allows people in wheelchairs to track their pushes instead of steps to keep them motivated and moving.
• Accessibility Keyboard- this keyboard can be customized to give users advanced typing and navigation capabilities.

Learning (Supports Learning Differences)

• Speak Screen- will be able to read the words from books, newspapers, emails, and other print materials. This will allow people to turn a reading experience into a listening experience. 
• Typing Feedback- with this feature turned on it will give you spoken feedback including text corrections, word suggestions as you type.
• Guided Access- allows parents, teachers, and other caregivers the power to monitor the time spent on an app. 
• Safari Reader- This app reduces the visual clutter such as advertisements, buttons, navigation bars, and so on. 

Lastly, I absolutely love the collaboration activities!! The activity where each person was asked to share a website or app in google slides connected to Remedial Reading. It was absolutely amazing the number of resources, apps, and websites that are available to assist with Remedial Reading. There were a number of websites and apps that I wasn't quite familiar with that I have since explored with my children. Collaboration activities like this are very engaging as it allows us to learn about new tools and resources available and to share our experiences with others. In this way, we can help each other better assist our students/children in developing effective learning strategies, skills, and techniques so that each and every child can be successful.


https://www.callscotland.org.uk/common-assets/cm-files/posters/ipad-apps-for-learners-with-dyslexia.pdf