Technology Communication Devices

After exploring several new parent technology communication tools, I found that I love all of them!  My task was to create a parent newsletter including an event sign up through Sign Up Genius that can be reached via a QR Code.  We were then required to share our newsletters online through the website Dropbox.  Sign Up Genius is a great way to get feed back from parents for a number of reasons.  Some possibilities can be field trips, class parties, conferences, donations for projects, volunteer sign up for class events- the possibilities are endless.  It is quite easy to set up as well as sign up.  It was also quite simple to create a QR Code that can then be linked to the event page at Sign Up Genius.  QR Codes can be scanned using smartphones or tablets and bring you directly to the event page.  Dropbox is an easy way to share documents.  This can be a way to communicate documents with parents such as newsletters or homework files.  It can also be a way for students to upload and share assignments.  I did have some trouble typing on the feedback document.  I had to download, type, save and then upload again.  Dropbox works great as a way to be able to share and download but maybe not as well as a "live" communicator.  It can also be set as an App. on a smartphone making documents at hand at all times.

We also explored Educreations.  There are several learning videos that can be used to enhance or review class lessons.  These can be used in the classroom as well as in the home as a homework helper. With Common Core Learning Standards becoming more challenging, this is a great resource tool for parents. It's easy to search by topic too.

As an added benefit all of these tools are free to download!

Social Stories

Social stories are an inexpensive way to help children with autism and other disabilities learn to cope with their social surroundings.  Simply put these can be teacher written stories that are about specific situations occurring in the student's life or general social situation stories that can be purchased or downloaded. As stated in "Digital Stories Targeting Social Skills for Children With Disabilities: Multidimensional Learning" by Cori More, "Social stories are distinguished from other stories by their short length, personalization, and being written from the perspective of the student." (Gray, 2000; Gray & Garand, 1993)  Some children have trouble learning socially simply through observing others.  Social stories can help prepare a student as to how to handle these situations.  Social stories can be hand written and illustrated or created digitally using programs such as PhotoStory or iMovie.  The use of Picture Symbols (see below) is also helpful as these are familiar to the students as reminders for other social behaviors, such as raising ther hand when they have a question.  According to "The Factsheet for Autism Therepy:Social Stories" on the Healing Thresholds Website, "Recent research studies show that social stories  can help reduce problem behaviors, increase social awareness, and/or teach new skills."  When writing a social stories there are a few things to consider for success.  They are written from the child's perspective and should include a description of the situation, an appropriate social response as well as how the child may feel about the situation, a commonly shared idea regarding the situation and how others may help the student out.  Finally, include some type of statement that can remind the student of how they will react when the situation occurs.  Social stories can be used to prepare students for situations such as a change in schedule or daily situations such as riding the bus to school.  Either way they are most successful when the student reviews them regularly and always first with an adult. In today's technology, digital social stories can be a real benefit. Students can review these during a center time or as needed.  The story can be read to the student so the student needs to simply "watch" the story.  It can include music to help create a specific feeling as well as pictures.  Other programs such as iMovie can allow the option of including video clips as well.

Example of picture symbols

I created this social story using PhotoStory 3 to help prepare a student for an upcoming schedule change.  I have worked with students with autism and other disabilities and I know first hand that schedule changes can be tough to handle.  Although I am very pleased with how my digital social story turned out, I was not very fond of PhotoStory 3.  I didn't like that the text had to be added over the pictures, as far as I could tell.  Adding music and voice did seem to be pretty simple.  I would have liked more options such as adding blank title screens or changing photo size.  It did give the option to move text to top or bottom as well as water mark the photo and change font color to make it more visible. Also, when it came time to share the video to Youtube there was not an easy share option. Instead it needed to be saved and then uploaded through Youtube. Now that I have been through the process it will be easier the next time I'm sure. I am very familiar with iMovie for Mac and can see using that to create social stories as well. Using social stories would be a great way to create several different stories on topics such as raising your hand verse calling out, engaging in social conversation in the lunchroom, dealing with others on the bus, and many more.  I would watch and discuss them with the class and then could have them available as a center or as needed basis.  Students could simply pop on headphones and review the topic needed.  Overall this was a very useful activity which introduced me to new software and informed me more on social stories.