July 17- iMovie Trailer, CoWriter, Clicker

July 17- Final Class

To me, the pace of a class is always indicative of engagement. Since the beginning of 5163 I have found every class practical and engaging. Today served as a perfect example- time spent this morning exploring Clicker and Co-writer apps was very worthwhile. Clicker is a tool for students with emergent literacy skills. Allowing students to construct sentences according to sample sentences and a digitized word bank ordered at random or in sequence is useful for students with very limited literacy skills, or those that are non-verbal. Once content specific sentences are entered, students can then demonstrate understanding of outcomes by touch as they construct sentences connected to curricular topics. The auditory capability of this app is also helpful as it reads the sentence/vocabulary back to the student- the presence of sound allows students to develop an understanding of the phonemic/phonological sound of word parts and phrases. This app is highly useful for LC students as they to communicate understanding and participate in learning. Also, the app’s ability to use images provides another layer of engagement for students. 

The second explored app, CoWriter is another great app for LD students, or students that struggle with writing output. This word prediction app is very fluid and easy to use. Voice to text software requires training and a certain level of competency/commitment by the student, CoWriter however is easy to employee, generates vocabulary dictionaries effortlessly related to various curricular topics. This app is an excellent compensatory and universal design for learning tool for students that promote independence and confidence. Students otherwise requiring a scribe from an educational assistant to complete assigned work can use this app independently to convey understanding. Unlike Clicker App, CoWriter requires students to have a certain level of phonological awareness and prior knowledge of the writing process. This is a great app that I look forward to using with middle level students in the fall. I anticipate students will appreciate this program as it will allow them to share thoughts, ideas, understanding, and more importantly take part in the writing process with reduced frustration. 

Following the review of the two assistive technology apps and discussing their connection to universal design for learning, time spent with iMovie Trailer was a great way to wrap-up the class. iMovie trailer is a very engaging tool and easily used by students regardless of their learning profile. The program is very different than other apps used for reluctant readers and writers and requires a different set of skills. I suspect most students will enjoy using iMovie Trailer simply due to the fun factor.  The canned trailer templates provide creative flexibility for users, has speech to text capability and allow users to import video and still images easily. This app is a terrific tool for harnessing creativity and serves as another medium for conveying understanding.