Applying Themselves With Apps: iPod Touch in the Classroom
My students need 2 iPod Touch devices to access the growing list of educationally and behaviorally appropriate apps available to students and educators in the classroom.
"The Internet is becoming the town square for the global village of tomorrow," Bill Gates once said, and the use of exciting and easily accessible iPod Touches would provide my students with the vehicles to appropriately navigate through a global network of information and opportunities.
My Special Day classroom population consists of seventeen students, thirteen male and four female, who have a wide spectrum of medical, psychological, and behavioral histories.
These students, ages 14 to 22 years of age, have been placed in our program due to a history of exhibiting problem behaviors which prevent them from being placed on a mainstream campus. The instruction found in my room consists of academic, social, vocational, and life-skills training. My students have experience utilizing Assistive Technology and flourish utilizing both low and high tech devices academically and socially.
My Project
I envision using the iPod Touch devices obtained from this grant in a number of ways. I have attended workshops outlining how to access iPod applications with students with special needs and I foresee numerous ways these "apps" can benefit my students. The use of applications designed for students with visual and auditory disabilities, in addition to those created to assist individuals with autism, emotional disabilities, and mental retardation, can provide new academic opportunities for each student participating in my class. I also intend to use the iPod Touches for small group Internet access activities, providing students with an academic device that is both portable and student-friendly.
The addition of a set of iPod Touch devices in my classroom would provide many of my students with means and motivation to become better students and classmates.
The universal design components of iPod Touches would allow students in my class to access applications such as schedule makers, medicine reminders, sign language dictionaries, and other academic software that they currently do not have the technology to use.
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