Illustration by Andrew Greenstone

Many materials used for classroom and online instruction present barriers to learning for students with disabilities and English learners. This is typically inadvertent and can be corrected with basic awareness and skills. This webinar will introduce participants to strategies and resources for selecting and creating media that are accessible, resulting in improved learning opportunities for all students. Topics include accessible instructional materials (AIM), closed captioning and audio description of video, and accessible web sites.

Please join us this Thursday at 3:15 pm or 7:15 pm. For more information about accessing our MLTI webinars and to register, please click on the Webcasts tab at the top of this page.

CC BY 2.0 Vox Efx

UDL is an educational framework for developing curriculum, selecting instructional strategies, and designing assessments that work for all learners. Serving as a guide for reducing barriers to learning, UDL supports diverse students’ needs for understanding information, expressing knowledge, and activating engagement. Referenced throughout the National Education Technology Plan 2010, which guides the use of information and communication technologies in transforming American education, UDL is essential to successful technology use in the content areas. This webinar will introduce and provide demonstrations of UDL.

Please join us this Thursday at 3:15 pm or 7:15 pm. For more information about accessing our MLTI webinars or to register, please click on the Webcasts tab at the top of this page.

Students are increasingly turning to a wealth of online resources to answer their information needs and according to Amazon, ebooks are outselling print books.    Join me as we look at how this change necessitates the way we need to teach literacy.   What does it mean to be a digitally literate person and how can you guide your students to find excellent information?  We will also learn how to evaluate these sources and explore some of the unique features of digital information that enable students to be successful in school.

This webinar will be offered twice, once at 3:15pm, and once at 7:15pm. Please visit the Webcasts Page for pre-registration and additional information about participating in our webinars.

Follow up to Digital Literacy Webinar

According to the Pew Statistics, 85% of teens ages 12-17 engage in some form of electronic personal communication including text messaging, e-mail or posting comments on social networking sites.  MLTI survey results from last year found that students communicate on their homework most often through texting and the second communication vehicle was Facebook!

Much of the research I discovered while researching Digital Literacy pointed to a lack of advancement of Digital Literacy instruction in education.

Scale of information:
Students can download books from Project Gutenberg, they can create videos and share them around the world and join blog conversations to bring real world excitement to their learning.
Advantages of Digital Information:
Digital resources have many advantages to the printed text.   The ability to enlarge the print, use text to speech and add visuals enable digital literacy development and supports diverse student learning.

A lot of discussion on the chat during this webinar focused on the need to teach better searching skills.   If students use Google to search they might do better using Google Advanced to limit their searches.

Many of the traditional literacy skills are transferable to Digital Literacy.   Teachers need to help students find and evaluate information from digital print sources and to become producers in this digital world we are living.    Online encyclopedias are perfect way to begin a search for information often with several reading levels, visuals and timelines.   Magazine and Newspaper databases such as Marvel have information that is preselected and reputable and searchable.    Web pages provide a wealth of information but need to be evaluated as to authority and reliability and point of view.

There were a few participants who did not know of the State Marvel databases.    You can get directly in from any school or public library.  From home you have to register (once) and you can just log in with your user name and password or a library bar code.  I have my bar code on a sticky and cut and paste.  If you have an MLTI MacBook there is a spring icon on the dock.

MLTI has partnered with Common Sense Media and has easy lesson plans for K-12 on Digital Literacy that can be adapted as needed for your school.  Visit Common Sense Media and register as an educator.    Look for the lessons under Research and Evaluation.   They come with a creative commons license so you may adapt them as needed.
Digital Literacy Lessons from Common Sense Media:

www.commonsense.org/educator

Ted Talk video:
The Filter Bubble by Ed Pariser

Online Citation Sources:
Easy Bid
Son of Citation Machine

Online Web Evaluation Sources:
Five W’s of Website Evaluation

Kathy Schrock’s Guide for Educators

Evaluating Webpages: How and Why

“Education Needs a Digital Age Upgrade” Virginia Heffernan NY Times

Learning to Read and Write on the Web Teachervision website

Take a Giant Step: a Blueprint for Teaching Young Children in a Digital Age

Writing, Technology and Teens Pew Research

The Uses of Digital Literacy by John Hartley Google Book

“Books and Literacy in the Digital Age” by Ralph Raab    American Libraries, Aug2010, Vol 41 Issue 8, p34-37

“From Print to Pixel” by Kevin Kelly    Smithsonian Jul/Aug2010, Vol 41, P122-128, 6p

“Teaching Two Literacies” by Joanne Rooney    Educational Leadership, Mar2009, Vol. 66 Issue 6

Deconstructed TPCK Diagram

Now that folks have been introduced to SAMR and TPACK, its time to talk about how practitioners can apply what we know. The question might be, “How can I look at my curriculum and put SAMR and TPCK into practice in my classroom?” And, of course, we will ponder how technology can aid in the improvement of teaching and learning by giving a closer look at the tools that MLTI and the web have to offer. Finally, we will check out one more example of “building a ladder” of classroom practice and discuss how it might be applied to revamping lessons or units you already use.

This webinar will be offered twice, once at 3:15pm, and once at 7:15pm. You may find it useful to read some additional information about participating in our webinars; you can click here right before the start of the webinar for quick access.

When designing teaching projects using technology, it is important to employ frameworks that enable the best selection, planning, and use of the tools available. The SAMR and TPCK models have proven themselves in use in Maine’s classrooms and around the world. In 2010, over two thirds of Maine teachers familiar with the models found that they played a crucial or important role in their work.

In this webinar we will review the basics of the SAMR and TPCK models, using new examples that reflect evolving priorities and projects in Maine schools. We will also see how to use them in practice, introducing the concept of the “SAMR Ladder” — a concept that we will extend and develop further at our October 27 webinar.

This webinar will be offered twice, once at 3:15pm, and once at 7:15pm. You may find it useful to read some additional information about participating in our webinars; you can click here right before the start of the webinar for quick access.

Today’s Agenda
Wednesday July 27

Hannah inspires the audience

Chris wows the audience

More photos from the day…

Del and John discuss the uses of Sketchup Pro

Geogebra helps to stretch your mathematical muscles

Susie discusses digital citizenship

Today’s Agenda

Tuesday July 26
8:30 – 9:45 Check in at Coles Tower
10:00 – 11:30 Meet your cohort
11:30 – 1:00 Lunch at Thorne Hall
1:00 – 4:00 Cohorts meet
2:30 – Soda/Water/Cookie break
4:30 – 5:00 Large Group Gathering – Welcome! at Morrell Lounge in the Smith Union
Student Keynotes

• Hannah Potter – Yarmouth High School – How I Took Advantage of the MLTI to Connect Young People from Around the World
• Chris Jones - Oak Hill High School – How I Took Advantage of the MLTI to Become an Internationally Collaborative Programmer

6:00 – 7:00 Dinner at Thorne Hall

CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

This webinar offered an introduction to Accessible Instructional Materials (AIM), a complex but necessary component of any curriculum. It is the first in a series of Maine AIM webinars that will continue in the fall. The objectives were that participants will understand the:

• Barriers presented by standard print materials to some students
• Definition of AIM
• Relevant legislation
• Steps to successful AIM implementation
• Sources for more information

For the sake of simplicity, the focus of this first webinar was the common inaccessibility of standard print materials to some students. It’s important to recognize, however, that materials in electronic format can also present barriers (e.g., PDFs, podcasts, video, web sites, even word processed documents). Steps to making such media accessible for all learners will be the topic of future webinars in this series.

At the beginning of the webinar, we brainstormed and discussed the abilities needed to learn from standard print materials (this same conversation applies to electronic media). We then transitioned into the reality of copyright restrictions that interfere with our ability to convert many standard print books to other formats, such as digital text or audio. So we delved into the history of copyright exemption to come to the current-day Chafee Amendment, which is the foundation of the right to convert copyrighted material to specialized formats for students with print disabilities, such as specific learning disabilities, blindness or low vision, or physical disabilities. That’s AIM: “Specialized formats of curricular content that can be used by and with learners who are unable to read or use standard print materials.” Specialized formats are defined as:

• Braille
• Audio
• Large print
• Digital text

AIM is a legal mandate. A provision of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEA 2004), it requires schools to provide textbooks and related print materials in specialized formats to students with print disabilities — in a timely manner. In Maine, “timely manner” is defined as “at the same time as their peers.”

This is an ambitious and complex mandate. During the webinar, we outlined four suggested steps for meeting it:

1. Identify a student’s need for AIM by determining if a print disability exists
2. Select the appropriate specialized format or combination of formats
3. Acquire curricular materials in the appropriate formats
4. Support the student, parents, and teachers in the use of the materials through assistive technology (AT)

We had just enough time to introduce the purpose of each step and the associated resources to get started. In the Fall of 2011, we’ll delve into each step more deeply. Members of Maine’s AIM Community of Practice will be your guides. Here is a schedule of the first several webinars, which will be on Wednesdays at 3:15 PM.

• September 28: Identification of a Student’s Need for AIM
• October 5: Selection of Appropriate AIM Formats for Students with Print Disabilities
• October 12: Bookshare for Maine Schools
• October 19: Maine State Library Service Talking Books Program
• October 26: Acquiring Braille and Large Print Books through Catholic Charities Maine

We welcome hearing from you as we plan this series, which will be posted at both Maine AIM and at Maine 121.

In the meantime, here are some resources:

Your go-to resource on the Web: Maine AIM

Free simulations and tools from the National Center on AIM:

• AIM Explorer
• AIM Navigator

A framework for school teams: SETT

Sources for information on acquiring AIM:

• Maine AIM Acquisition Guide
• National Center on AIM Guide to AMPs

Learn about AT products for student use of AIM:

• AIM Product Tutorials at the National Center on AIM

Finally, here are your contacts for AIM technical assistance in Maine:

• MLTI Integration Mentors
• Maine AIM Technical Assistance Service Providers

View the archived recording of this webinar.

Maine DOE Newsroom

• 1,100-plus celebrate MLTI at UMaine
• Sharing a ‘new view’ through MLTI
• From MLTI student to international programmer
• Using MLTI to learn through video

Mark your calendars! The date has been set for next year, the 9th Annual MLTI Student Conference Thursday May 24, 2012

Please join us on June 8th at 3:15. To register for this webinar, select the Webcasts tab at the top of the http://maine121.org page and select the time to be directed to online registration.