Tricia Ryan
Assistive Technology
Misunderstood
Minds
D. Pruitt-Mentle, Instructor
Fall 2003 |
| Which area did you find most
interesting? |
| I found the 'Attention' video clips most
interesting. The kids seemed to be most intelligent, and aware of
their inabilities to maintain focus on class activities. The 'Writing
Composition' activity was also interesting. |
| Did these
"interactive" activities help you better understand what some
students might be experiencing? |
| Through viewing the video clips and participating
in the interactive activities, I came to better understand how a child
with a writing disability must feel when completing composing sentences,
or short stories. |
| 'Delayed automatization' is new to me, that is
when student needs to use a significant amount of memory to focus on the
mechanical aspects of writing. Nothing is automatic when it comes to
writing. They can't remember the bits and pieces of writing
automatically. |
| How might the knowledge
gained be applied to writing an IEP? |
| The knowledge gained can be used to write an IEP
by providing some insight into the students perceptions of their
disabilities. The Misunderstood Minds website gives the students a
voice in an educational and scholarly way. |
| Does this type of interactive
communication media help me in the online environment? |
| Absolutely! At 11:00 p.m. I feel like I'm sitting
in the room with these children and the adult interviewer. The high
quality video vignettes are purposeful. PBS does an outstanding job
with their web content. I make extensive use of other PBS
educational products, and now Misunderstood Minds is certainly an addition
to my curriculum materials. |
| Are you more interested in
the media than the content? |
| No, I am not more interested in the media than the
content. I didn't even really think about the type of media. I
focused on the students, their disabilities and the kind of questions
being asked to draw detailed responses from the students.
During the handwriting exercise, however, I did
think, "This is the first time I've seen Flash used well for
educational purposes." Normally I think Flash is an attention
grabber, but that's about it. |
