Sophomore students at the Warren County Vocational-Technical School have been organized into a computer-fixing army by their instructor John Metroke. Each week the students supply other county schools with free tech work while bolstering their skills.
"I thought it was a great way to utilize their talents and give the opportunity for the tech students to practice," said Michael Rossi Jr.
, the superintendent of the Lopatcong Township School District. "This is now their lab."
On Wednesday, students were given layouts of the elementary schools and assigned to load new math software onto specific computers.
Computer programs are a major part of education today and tech support can be costly, Rossi said. Information technology services go from $75 up to $400 an hour per person, he said.
"This is more than free," Rossi said.
"I've already scheduled them for next Wednesday."
| When it comes to treating autism, timing is everything, or at least a major part, specialists say. Children with the neurodevelopmental disorder must be taught what comes naturally to their peers, and while the brain is still pliable enough to absorb the lesson, experts said.
Because the immature nervous system has a great deal of plasticity, many neuroscientists think early treatment may enrich neural growth.
"If you have a child with autism who's not wired correctly, and we allow that to continue without intervention, those neuropathways will become fixed, and it becomes far more difficult to undo that tangled mess," said Dr. David Holmes, president of the Eden Institute, a non-profit autism center in Princeton, N.
J.
| Students in Michelle Tanner's class will soon be better-equipped than the average third-grader.
Michelle Tanner, a teacher with the Utah Schools for the Deaf and the Blind at Gerald Wright Elementary, works with a student on his sign-language skills.
Her students will soon have a video iPod to add to their backpacks.
The students in Tanner's class at an extension of the Utah Schools for the Deaf and the Blind at Gearld Wright Elementary will soon each have an video iPod to add to their backpack of school supplies. And while most people use the pocket-size devices for entertainment, these students' iPods are for homework only.
Tanner is one of 20 teachers receiving technology grants this month from Qwest for her innovative use of technology in the classroom. Nine of those teachers are from Salt Lake County, and not all the winners have been announced yet.
After Ben Hathaway's father was called to active duty in the Army National Guard, the 15-year-old had to help his family tend the 130 head of cattle on their 345-acre farm in Leoma, Tenn.
Traditional school burned through too many daylight hours, so Hathaway started taking online classes through Lutheran High School of Orange County in Southern California, about 1,750 miles away.
"Mom was having trouble running the farm by herself," Hathaway, who is taking algebra and world history online, said in a phone interview. "You can schedule everything on your own time.
You don't have to sit for six hours a day -- you can do some work, go eat, play a little on the computer, and come back later and do it."
| Along with the name change will come many enhancements and new services, including:
- Video-described media for persons who are blind and visually impaired.
- A new, searchable information portal, including links to information from major educational and consumer groups.
- A new DCMP for Kids section that offers separate student accounts, which allow students direct access to the DCMP under the monitoring of teachers and parents who will determine which subject areas are accessible.
- Enhanced delivery methods, which include downloading media and access to streaming via both Real Player and Windows Media Player.
The regulations are the guiding document that educators use in interpreting the provisions of the IDEA, which governs the education of about 6.7 million children with disabilities nationwide. For more information:
VALHALLA, New York -- Lying in his hospital room, on a mattress designed to protect his fragile skin, 13-year-old Achim Nurse poked his bandaged fingers at an orange button on what looked like a souped-up video game console.
Half a second later, in a social studies class discussing the Erie Canal, a 5-foot-tall steel-blue robot raised its hand.
The techniques Port is studying, if they prove successful, will be used in diagnosing people already showing signs of mental illness. But what about others who are predisposed to problems but have not yet begun to exhibit symptoms?
Can the MRI technology help to find these people so that they can be helped before symptoms appear? At Columbia, Peterson is trying to answer that question. He and collaborators are among the first to scan the brains of premature infants -- sometimes within days of their birth.
The aim is to catalogue the types of brain abnormalities they discover and to devise ways to intervene earlier than ever before to try to correct or compensate for them.
This article -- a feature story in Technology Review’s December 2005/January 2006 print issue -- has been divided into three parts for presentation online. This is part 1; part 2 will appear on Tuesday, January 24, and part 3 on Wednesday, January 25.
When Bradley Peterson, a psychiatrist and researcher at Columbia University, offered to scan my brain with a magnetic resonance imager the size of a small Airstream trailer, I immediately said yes. I spent 10 minutes filling out a page-long checklist (I lied on the question asking whether I was claustrophobic) and another few minutes emptying my pockets and getting rid of keys, wristwatch, and pen, which could become missiles inside the MRI's potent magnetic field.
Staff members at the Silicon Valley Independent Living Center, a San Jose-based non-profit that assists people with disabilities, believe Santos is an excellent candidate for a device called SpeechEasy, which has been shown to improve the speaking ability of people with speech impediments.
Researchers have known for decades that people stutter less while singing in unison. SpeechEasy, which looks like a small hearing-aid and was patented in 2001, uses computer technology to mimic that ``choral effect.''
This is what happens: Users hear their own voice, at a slightly different pitch, a fraction of a second after they speak.
```What SpeechEasy does is trick their brain into thinking that they're talking along with someone else,'' says Allison Bruder, of the Baxter Fluency Group, which distributes the device. She said it improves speech in about 80 percent of people who use it.
Psychiatric Times November 2005 Vol.
XXIII Issue 13
Home computers, personal organizers, cell phones and microwave ovens are now commonplace. We are increasing the use of technology to make our lives easier. Technology also has the potential to offer the same, or even greater, benefits to people with both physical and cognitive impairments.
People with a diagnosis of dementia experience progressive cognitive impairments that typically start with working memory problems but can encompass speech production, planning, monitoring and visuospatial difficulties as the condition advances. Dementia ..
. makes a person exceptionally dependent on others: not only in the physical sense, but in a psychological sense as well (Kitwood, 1998). Technology offers potential interventions for people with dementia to maintain their independence and maximize their retained abilities for as long as possible.
This includes both practical solutions to managing the activities of everyday life and interventions geared to meeting psychological needs.
Using a video-based story, teachers set high expectations for their students around the following:
- Identification of Words in Print - Students will learn to recognize a large repertoire of vocabulary words in print.
- Word Knowledge - Students will learn about words conceptually, and understand multiple aspects of each word.
- Story Comprehension - Students will increase background knowledge to facilitate comprehension of written materials.
For example, sign language, print, still images, and meaningful discussion can all contribute to the understanding of pride. Reading the word in different contexts, asking and answering questions, and engaging in
The Open Library website was created by the Internet Archive to demonstrate a way that books can be represented online. The vision is to create free web access to important book collections from around the world.
reading online. If they're in the public domain, the books can be downloaded, shared and printed for free. They can also be printed for a nominal fee by a third party, who will bind and mail the book to you.
The books are always FREE to read at the Open Library website.
| Children's Technology Review (CTR) is a survey of interactive media products. The editors attempt to help parents, children's librarians and teachers leverage the power of technology to support the development of children ages birth to 15, by accurately describing products from an educational perspective.
These include educational software, video games, smart toys and web site.
According to a recent survey, office workers are spending more time in front of a computer than ever before. Nearly 20 percent work at a computer 8 hours per day, and 30 percent spend 4-6 hours.
Among current computer users, a significant portion have difficulties and impairments which require them to adjust how they use the computer. A recent Microsoft-sponsored study of computer users showed:
* Approximately one in four (25%) have a visual difficulty or impairment.
* Nearly one in four (24%) have a dexterity difficulty or impairment.
* One in five (20%) have a hearing difficulty or impairment.
While working with a computer can be physically, as well as mentally, taxing—there are many ways you can adjust your computer to make it easier to interact with.
Speaking up: Teacher's sound amplification system catches the ears of students.
By Theresa Freeman / Daily News Staff Monday, October 24, 2005
ASHLAND -- Ten students listened to teacher Sandra Gavin read about fictional character Miggery Sow meeting a fairy-tale princess, hearing every word.
For about a month Gavin has been using a new sound amplification system in her multi-age classroom, technology donated by the nonprofit Hard of Hearing Advocates of Framingham. The sound system helps students focus better on classroom discussions and directions, she said.
Tap. Three equations appear, beamed onto the board from a ceiling-mounted projector. Tap.
The image scrolls down, revealing three graphs. Tap. Gough writes notes on the screen, using a marker-like stylus.
Gough is using the latest in classroom technology. The whiteboard is essentially a giant, touch-sensitive computer screen linked to a laptop on Gough's desk.
of writing.
It is for students with a conceptual like dyslexia. Spark-Space allows students to structure between ideas through its unique 3D view, thus accelerating learning and understanding. Independent their own work.
Spark-Space transforms the learning landscape for the LD Learner!
| Spark Educator has been designed for simple, uncomplicated use by teachers, building in in minutes. Spark-Space is fast becoming a of all learners and accelerating learning.
Kid-size mouse, two-ounce phone and dictionary pen among choices. Oh, for the days when a bottle of Elmer's glue, a six-pack of duotangs and a protractor were enough to equip kids for the classroom. These days such a sparse, low-tech supply kit could very well trigger a phone call from teacher.
It's no secret teenagers now consider high-tech personal accessories school essentials: cellphones, PDAs, iPods and laptops routinely make their must-have lists. But increasingly, companies are marketing the latest learning gizmos to tweens and elementary school kids.
Here's a look at the latest back-to-school gadgets for the K to 7 set.
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