As I looked over my Twitter account from last
semester, I noticed that I had gained quite a few followers. I began looking at
the people who were following me and found that I had some very great resources
for technology and education. I began to create my Twitter List for my special
needs students and technology. Of those who were following me, I found about
twenty links that were focused on education, technology and special education.
I also search for links about Autism and links about technology tools which
would help to enhance students with Autism and other special needs students.
One Twitter link which I found to have great
resources was Special Education @Education_IEP. This link provides special
education resources for special education teachers and parents of special needs
children. It includes resources for Autism, Dyslexia, learning disabilities,
and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). I looked at one of the
resources for Autism and found a great article detailing how children with
Autism cannot focus because they are seeing so many different colors and
hearing so many different sounds, which are very loud to them. For instance,
when a child with Autism is in a classroom, the many normal sounds students
make, sounds like a train coming down the tracks. Every little movement, such as
writing on paper or the teacher writing on a chalkboard can hurt the ears of
the Autistic student. General conversations sound a lot louder for these
special needs students. When the bell rings at school, it nearly drives these
students crazy. One regular education student may be tapping his pencil on the
desk and not realize he or she is a making noise, but the student with Autism
is hearing a loud banging sound. I have witnessed this happening in my
classroom. The student with Autism is constantly holding his hears to try to
decrease the noise level. When the student with Autism looks at the overhead
projector in the classroom, he sees many colors that are swirling around and they
cannot focus. They will hide their eyes and hold their heads down to try to
block out the colors.
In creating my Twitter list, I found that there were
many different links about technology and special education. I had to narrow
down my focus to include only educational technologist, education and special
education. I did include links for 21st Century Tools and educational
speakers. One of my favorite’s links to follow is Sir Ken Robinson. He has so
many creative ideas about education that I believe anyone would benefit from
following him. Alex Wilshaw is another great educational speaker, who cuts down
the chase and lets people know what he is thinking would help to make our
schools better. Another great link is Alltop Autism @Alltop_Autism, which has
great resources about Autism, such as articles, technology tools to help the
Autistic student and much more learning strategies.
My fellow classmates and professional may benefit
from my Twitter List by following the educational technologist, special
education and education links, which may help them with resources which they
may need in the future. As I continue to learn more about Twitter, I
continually learn more about technology and education from the tweets. There
are so many resources available. I hope that my Twitter List will help everyone
in some small way. I believe it will be a great benefit to me in my research
about technology and special education. Here is the URL for my Twitter List: https://twitter.com/#!/TerryCEllison/ed529/members
Terry, I am so glad your blog is on the special needs area. With the majority of us teaching inclusion classrooms, I think any teacher would benefit from the resources you have found. I am definitely going to check into those Autism resources. They would really help my class as well.
ReplyDeleteThanks Amanda,
ReplyDeleteI hope I can learn how to get funding for technology through some of the websites.
Terry, I think you have picked an excellent topic. I am so excited about the collaboration that is going to take place between us through blogging. I can completely relate to the sensory issues so many of our students experience. It's amazing how sensitive their ears and eyes are to lights and sounds. Today I went on a field trip to the McWane center and while many of my kids were excited, it was to much. The IMAX theater caused one child to have a melt down. The loud booming sounds and the flashing lights were a sensory overload. Although I handled it, with the help of his dad, I feel the more strategies I have the better prepared I'll be. I feel your Twitter list would be a great resource to find topics on unfamiliar issues. I'm excited to explore!
ReplyDelete