Critically thinking about placing technology into a person's hands is incredibly difficult. It requires a lot of thinking - out of the box, as it were. We spent part of our morning looking at some APPs and considering them for our students in our case studies. I'm glad that we had time to consider these APPs as I discovered that some of the downloads that I had initially had great hope for turned out to be not so great once I started exploring them. This reminded me to really think about what the purpose of the technology needs to be - that it has to match the needs of a given student. Again, it's not technology for technology's sake.
The remainder of the class was spent shopping for items that can be used as low-tech assistive technology devices. It's good to see that creating or adapting objects does not have to be expensive. However, I found myself a bit limited and daunted by the task as I have not had a lot of exposure to students who have a lot of physical requirements. So, I really didn't know where to begin to chose appropriate materials. But this did challenge me to move out of my own limitations and spend a lot of time doing some research on the internet. Overall, it was a very positive experience. And yes, Barbara, I'll never go see the Dollar Store in the same way again! There's so much potential there.
My my own sake, I've put my case study on a separate posting - it's easier for me to keep track of my large postings if they are separated.
I'll post my work on the low-tech devices on a separate posting at a later date. Keep tuned!
I like your box.
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