Special Needs Guide to Tech Products

Go to the Technology & Learning website to read about the latest software and hardware that can aid educators in both classroom instruction and assessment for any sort of learning challenge http://www.techlearning.com/showArticle.php?articleID=196605474 . This article will be helpful when integrating adaptive and assistive technology tools into planning for instruction in inclusive classrooms. What tools do you think you would use and how would you integrate them into your lesson plans and unit plans?

Web 2.0 . . . The Machine is Us/ing Us

Michael Wesch is a cultural anthropologist and media ecologist exploring the impacts of new media on human interaction. Wesch is launching the Digital Ethnography Working Group, a team exploring human uses of digital technology. Coinciding with the launch of this group, Wesch created a short video, "Web 2.0 ... The Machine is Us/ing Us." Released on YouTube on January 31st 2007, it quickly became the most popular video in the blogosphere and has now been viewed over 3 million times. Wesch's videos are part of his broader efforts to pursue the possibilities of digital media to extend and transform the way ethnographies are presented. Wesch is also a multiple award-winning teacher active in the development of innovative teaching techniques. Most notably, Wesch has developed a highly-acclaimed "World Simulation" for large introductory classes in cultural anthropology. Currently he is the coordinator for the Peer Review of Teaching Project at Kansas State University, part of a broader nation-wide consortium of universities pursuing new ways to improve and evaluate student learning. He is also working with the Educause Center for Applied Research on "The Tower and the Cloud" project, examining "the question of how higher education institutions (The Tower) may interoperate with the emerging network-based business and social paradigm (The Cloud)."

Watch the video on You Tube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gmP4nk0EOE and decide if the machine is using us?

Microsoft Surface - A Tabletop Computer

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates unveiled the Microsoft Surface, a tabletop computer that reacts to touch.The 30-inch display screen is mounted under a plastic tabletop and will initially cost $5,000 to $10,000. It will, at first, only be available in select hotels, casinos, and T-Mobile stores in November. View the video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFhxV3rvW0k to learn about this exciting concept. Then go to the company's website to see a simulation of the Surface experience http://www.microsoft.com/surface/index.html In what ways do you think you could adapt a concept like this in your classroom? What are some other ways this technology could be re-purposed for the educational community?