Workout 13

Here is the case that I'll be dealing with: Ben has low vision and as a result has difficulty reading printed text. He needs documents to be magnified greatly in order for him to be able to read them, or he can have the documents read to him.
Here is the activity from my first artifact proposal: Teach 3-year-olds how to identify objects by shapes and colors.

If this child were in my classroom, I would first off make sure that they had a computer readily available to them. Second, I would use the Large Print Service that is available to use on computers such as the ones in our W200 lab room. But it seems that any computer with the updated version of Windows Vista should have the Large Print Service on their computer. I would use the service to magnify any reading or activities that were being done in class so that the disabled student can do the same activities as the other students. When it comes to the specific activity listed above, I would still use the service to write out the names of the shpaes and colors. Then I would magnify the pictures of the objects that they are supposed to be able to identify using these shapes and colors. Another thing I could do is to bring in the objects and let the disabled child feel and touch them so they know exactly what it is that they are supposed to identify using only colors and shapes.

Workout - Productivity

I think every tool we've used in this class will help us as teachers to increase student's productivity. We've learned how to use so many new tools that will help us to teach in a more effective and efficient way. Below I'll summarize how a few of the tools we've used will increase productivity:

• Comment tool in Word: Before this class, I never knew that this tool even existed. This is a great way to give students feedback in an effective way, without taking the time of sitting down with every student and going through their papers, assignments, etc. This will save time, which increase efficiency. This is also a great tool because the teacher can make comments on a class project, worksheet, etc. and it can be avaliable to every student without having to make copies for every student.
• Google documents: This to me is the best tool that we've learned to use since being in this class. It is a great way for students to work together on the same project, and also publish their individual projects and share with their classmates or whomever they choose. I think this tool increases productivity because it helps with effectiveness because the students can do the work themselves, and with each other, so they'll be more interested because it will be "their own" work.
• Delicious.com: This is a great site for people of all ages. It is a way of organizing your favorite sites on the Internet without having to try and remember all of them. I think this could be helpful for students because if their doing a research project, they can save all of their sources (websites) to their Delicious account and it will be organized neatly for them instead of each child having to keep their sources organized on their own, and risk losing valuable information.