Extra Credit
Week 14:
Students with Cognitive Difficulties
Flashcard Machine is the app I use for digital flashcards. I used it to help me study for the MTLE tests, Praxis tests, and to keep track of terms when I took EDTECH 531. My paper flash cards have partially been replaced with this app. One nice thing about the app is that many people make their cards available to anybody, so you don’t have to make the flashcard set yourself. If you trust others to make cards correctly, depending on the subject, you can easily access hundreds of flashcards that are ready to be used. I chose to pay for access to this app and its accompanying website.
Any app that is content based and therefore lets me review content information would work here. This could be an app that lets me review numbers in Chinese, visit molecules at the protein data bank (the RCSB app) and read about them, or the Science, Nature, National Geographic, or NewYorker magazine apps that let me read issues at my leisure. I actually subscribe to those magazines, and I think for at least one of them, it will read the articles to me. Let's not forget Khan Academy that will happily repeat a lesson any time I push the play button.
Students with Physical Difficulties
Oddly enough, one app I choose for this is one that tells me when the next bus is coming. For me, it would be something like myTransit. Since I rely on public transit to get places, knowing how much time I have to get to the bust stop is actually really helpful.
I am also going to go with what may seem like an odd app for someone with a physical difficulty at first, but hopefully my explanation will make sense. My second choice is Amazon, including Amazon Fresh. This app is useful for me, with my many difficulties for several reasons.
QVC and HSN are getting their own line because I have pretty much stopped going to malls or regular clothing stores. Buying clothes online, and trying them on in the living room, at my leisure, is wonderful. They have a 30 day return policy- they will take back anything, no questions asked. I have to mentally accept that shipping charges are a part of the purchase process, but once I've accepted that I am paying for the convenience of not having to find a store, get to it, and maneuver through it, shipping fees are the least of my worries.
Students with Sensory Difficulties
SpeakText is an app I used when I first started taking classes online. It is one of the few apps that I found 4 years ago that worked with me copying text and pasting it into the app. Text files, if they are not restricted, can open in the app. I chose to buy the paid version of the app.
A voice memo app lets me record lectures I'm attending in person, or make notes to myself. Apple now sells bundles that put together recorder apps with those that would enhance them. I am not sure why you would need four apps that seem to do the same thing, but it may just be my lack of experience that is being shown here.
At-Risk Students
I have to say, calendar and organization apps would work well for this group, as well as for me. A couple calendar apps that have served me well include Sunrise, CalenMob, and CalenGoo. Each app lets you have multiple calendars so you can have one for homework assignments, another for events, and a third to remind you what to pick up on your way home from school.
Complementary to calendar apps are todo apps. I know I have tried many of these, paid for quite a few of them, and even then I find it hard to keep track of everything I have to do. Lately I’m using MobiliseNotes, but I think they just stopped supporting the app. It used to have Internet access, in addition to apps for iPhone and iPad, that could sync with each other.
How could I almost forget Evernote! Evernote has become my savior for online classes because it will clip the webpages for me. Now I can read what my assignments are, and think about them, when I am not at my computer. Evernote has an app for Windows 8, iPhone / iPad/ apple devices, and Android devices, including Kindle. I can store just about anything text based that I want to refer to again, in Evernote. I will be recommending all of my students to use it. Another really cool thing about Evernote is that since it clips web pages, it means I can access them after the courses end. It drives me nuts how I can’t access classes when they end because there are so many rich resources in them that I would love to visit again. Having the page in Evernote means I can visit the class notes whenever I want to use them.
Gifted and Talented Students
I just took a class on digital imaging, and from what we did in that class, I have to say that any of these apps would help the curious photographer see what is possible with digital photography. The pictures can be taken on an iPhone or iPad- we’re not talking fancy DSLR pictures.
Some of these are free, some are not. I don’t remember which ones I paid for:
Gifted and Talented Students should be urged to pursue their own interests, in addition to what they do at school. If they like sports, then they should play sports. If they like music, play an instrument. If they want to take courses on their own, there are many places where they can take low cost or free classes:
Students with Cognitive Difficulties
Flashcard Machine is the app I use for digital flashcards. I used it to help me study for the MTLE tests, Praxis tests, and to keep track of terms when I took EDTECH 531. My paper flash cards have partially been replaced with this app. One nice thing about the app is that many people make their cards available to anybody, so you don’t have to make the flashcard set yourself. If you trust others to make cards correctly, depending on the subject, you can easily access hundreds of flashcards that are ready to be used. I chose to pay for access to this app and its accompanying website.
Any app that is content based and therefore lets me review content information would work here. This could be an app that lets me review numbers in Chinese, visit molecules at the protein data bank (the RCSB app) and read about them, or the Science, Nature, National Geographic, or NewYorker magazine apps that let me read issues at my leisure. I actually subscribe to those magazines, and I think for at least one of them, it will read the articles to me. Let's not forget Khan Academy that will happily repeat a lesson any time I push the play button.
Students with Physical Difficulties
Oddly enough, one app I choose for this is one that tells me when the next bus is coming. For me, it would be something like myTransit. Since I rely on public transit to get places, knowing how much time I have to get to the bust stop is actually really helpful.
I am also going to go with what may seem like an odd app for someone with a physical difficulty at first, but hopefully my explanation will make sense. My second choice is Amazon, including Amazon Fresh. This app is useful for me, with my many difficulties for several reasons.
- I don't do much shopping in normal stores any more because getting there, along with my assistive equipment, is annoying, and sometimes difficult. I hate getting in the way of others, and having big, bulky walkers does not make me unseen.
- Amazon is very useful for acquiring just about any object I would need. I buy everything from SD cards to chocolate bars at Amazon. We rent a box at a UPS store to collect our packages, so when it is convenient for us, we'll head over and pick them up. We don't have to deal with a hassle of being home to get the packages, which is ideal. I have even figured out how to stack a box on the scooter so I can pick up some packages without having to wait for Pete to drive there and pick them up. Being able to shop online is a huge accommodation for me.
- Amazon Fresh is very helpful if I can't get to a grocery store. I can also access some gluten-free items there that are not easily gathered at the local supermarket.
QVC and HSN are getting their own line because I have pretty much stopped going to malls or regular clothing stores. Buying clothes online, and trying them on in the living room, at my leisure, is wonderful. They have a 30 day return policy- they will take back anything, no questions asked. I have to mentally accept that shipping charges are a part of the purchase process, but once I've accepted that I am paying for the convenience of not having to find a store, get to it, and maneuver through it, shipping fees are the least of my worries.
Students with Sensory Difficulties
SpeakText is an app I used when I first started taking classes online. It is one of the few apps that I found 4 years ago that worked with me copying text and pasting it into the app. Text files, if they are not restricted, can open in the app. I chose to buy the paid version of the app.
A voice memo app lets me record lectures I'm attending in person, or make notes to myself. Apple now sells bundles that put together recorder apps with those that would enhance them. I am not sure why you would need four apps that seem to do the same thing, but it may just be my lack of experience that is being shown here.
At-Risk Students
I have to say, calendar and organization apps would work well for this group, as well as for me. A couple calendar apps that have served me well include Sunrise, CalenMob, and CalenGoo. Each app lets you have multiple calendars so you can have one for homework assignments, another for events, and a third to remind you what to pick up on your way home from school.
Complementary to calendar apps are todo apps. I know I have tried many of these, paid for quite a few of them, and even then I find it hard to keep track of everything I have to do. Lately I’m using MobiliseNotes, but I think they just stopped supporting the app. It used to have Internet access, in addition to apps for iPhone and iPad, that could sync with each other.
How could I almost forget Evernote! Evernote has become my savior for online classes because it will clip the webpages for me. Now I can read what my assignments are, and think about them, when I am not at my computer. Evernote has an app for Windows 8, iPhone / iPad/ apple devices, and Android devices, including Kindle. I can store just about anything text based that I want to refer to again, in Evernote. I will be recommending all of my students to use it. Another really cool thing about Evernote is that since it clips web pages, it means I can access them after the courses end. It drives me nuts how I can’t access classes when they end because there are so many rich resources in them that I would love to visit again. Having the page in Evernote means I can visit the class notes whenever I want to use them.
Gifted and Talented Students
I just took a class on digital imaging, and from what we did in that class, I have to say that any of these apps would help the curious photographer see what is possible with digital photography. The pictures can be taken on an iPhone or iPad- we’re not talking fancy DSLR pictures.
Some of these are free, some are not. I don’t remember which ones I paid for:
- Collage- lets you organize specific photos in an arrangement. (I actually bought this one). Moldiv looks like it does the same thing with organizing images into a single display. PhotoGrid also makes collages.
- LongExpo- lets you play with longer exposures so you can make images with exaggerated qualities. One of the exercises we did was with doing light images with a long exposure.
- Flipagram is pretty cool- you make up short videos by organizing photos in a sequence
- Photo Editor, Font Candy, Photo Editor, and PicLab seem to be apps that let you mess with the actual photo by altering its colors, frames, adding text, or personalizing the images even more than the images might be by merely being taken.
Gifted and Talented Students should be urged to pursue their own interests, in addition to what they do at school. If they like sports, then they should play sports. If they like music, play an instrument. If they want to take courses on their own, there are many places where they can take low cost or free classes:
- Udacity
- Udemy (has an app)
- Khan Academy (has an app)