The ACCESS (Alabama Connecting Classrooms, Educators, and Students Statewide) program is a program now available in Alabama which was created to help connect teachers and students through the use of technology. According to the ACCESS website, the mission of this program is "to provide an infrastructure that delivers quality learning opportunities for all citizens." The goal of the program is "to provide additional educational offerings for all Alabama public high school students." Although this is the ultimate goal of the program there are many small objectives the ACCESS program hopes to achieve. Some of these objectives include providing equal access to courses required for advanced diplomas, providing equal access to advanced placement and dual enrollment courses, providing teachers with up to date technology which will help enhance their lessons, etc. In order to meet these goals, ACCESS has created many strategies in order to provide the needed technology in all of the Alabama public high schools. A couple of the strategies of this program include providing additional computers to the high schools which will provide the needed technology for Internet based courses and increasing the connectivity between the central offices and the schools.
Some components of the ACCESS program include Internet based courses, interactive video courses, and blended courses which will include both videoconferencing and Internet based instruction. The Internet based courses that ACCESS provides are courses that are delivered completely online and are taken during the regular school day. The interactive video courses are courses that use audio/visual links to link the students and the teacher. Both of these components of access have their benefits and challenges. A couple of the benefits of videoconferencing and Internet based instruction include providing more learning responsibility for the students and providing more opportunity for students to take courses not available to them at their own school. Challenges that come with videoconferencing and Internet based instruction include technology problems and schedule coordination.
Saturday, January 31, 2009
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Plagiarism and Copyright Rules and Regulations
According to the Merriam-Webster online dictionary, plagiarism is the act or instance of the stealing or passing off of the ideas or words of another as one's own or the use of another's production without crediting the source. Common types of plagiarism include copying and pasting text from the Internet, buying papers from online sources, hiring a professional writer to write a paper, and borrowing papers that someone has already written. The best way to avoid being suspected of plagiarism is to always make sure to give credit where credit is due. The only time something in a paper does not need to be cited is if the information the author is writing about is comes from his or her own life or if the information is common knowledge. There are many tips offered on The Owl at Purdue website that can help all students avoid plagiarism. A few of the tips mentioned include marking another author's words with a big Q to indicate that these words need to be in quotations, marking ideas of another author with a big S to indicate that the thoughts came from a source, summarizing text relying only on memory and notes rather than looking at the original text, and going back after completing a paper and checking to be sure that credit is given in all places where credit is due.
Copyrights are also important when discussing the works of other people. According to the Merriam-Webster online dictionary a copyright is the exclusive legal right to reproduce, publish, sell, or distribute the matter and form of something as a literary, musical, or artistic work. A copyright can protect both published and unpublished works. With a copyright comes many rules and regulations. Rights that come along with copyrights include the following: only the owner of the copyright can authorize the reproduction of the work, only the owner of the copyright can authorize the sell, lease, rental, or transfer of ownership of the work, and only the owner of the copyright can allow the work to be publicly displayed or performed. With a copyright in place, not following these rules and regulations is considered by the Copyright Act to be illegal.
Copyrights are also important when discussing the works of other people. According to the Merriam-Webster online dictionary a copyright is the exclusive legal right to reproduce, publish, sell, or distribute the matter and form of something as a literary, musical, or artistic work. A copyright can protect both published and unpublished works. With a copyright comes many rules and regulations. Rights that come along with copyrights include the following: only the owner of the copyright can authorize the reproduction of the work, only the owner of the copyright can authorize the sell, lease, rental, or transfer of ownership of the work, and only the owner of the copyright can allow the work to be publicly displayed or performed. With a copyright in place, not following these rules and regulations is considered by the Copyright Act to be illegal.
Information about the ALEX Website
The Alabama Learning Exchange also known as ALEX is a website that provides great information for teachers. To access this website follow this link: ALEX website. Examples of resources available to teachers on this website include courses of study, lesson plans, web links, and search engines. The courses of studies that can be found on the ALEX website include English Language Arts, Mathematics, Science, Social Studies, Arts Education, Career/Technical Education, Foreign Languages, Physical Education, Technology Education, Driver and Traffic Safety Education, and Health Education. For each topic covered in the course of study list, you can select a grade level, and the ALEX website will provide you with a curriculum and the objectives you will need to cover as a teacher in the grade level you selected. When looking for lesson plans on the ALEX website, you can search using a subject and a grade level. Each lesson plan provides you with a list of the materials you will need to teach the lesson and step-by-step directions for how you will teach the lesson. The web links resource available on the ALEX website includes teacher web links, administrator web links, and student web links, and the web links can be searched for using different subjects.
All of the resources provided on the ALEX website in my opinion are extremely useful. For new teachers, it is not always an easy task to create your own lesson plans for the entire year, so having access to other lesson plans is a great tool. Through the ALEX website teachers can find creative ideas and techniques for teaching lessons on all subjects. The courses of studies are also very important and useful for new teachers. The courses of studies helps new teachers create an outline of the objectives they are required to cover throughout the school year. The teachers can use the course of studies to determine what each lesson they teach needs to cover.
All of the resources provided on the ALEX website in my opinion are extremely useful. For new teachers, it is not always an easy task to create your own lesson plans for the entire year, so having access to other lesson plans is a great tool. Through the ALEX website teachers can find creative ideas and techniques for teaching lessons on all subjects. The courses of studies are also very important and useful for new teachers. The courses of studies helps new teachers create an outline of the objectives they are required to cover throughout the school year. The teachers can use the course of studies to determine what each lesson they teach needs to cover.
Monday, January 19, 2009
Web Accessibility for All People
A law created in 1973, which is called The Rehabilitation Act of 1973, makes it possible for all disabled people to be able to access web pages on the Internet. This law makes it mandatory that all Federal agencies and the federal agency's contractors make all web information accessible for disabled people. The way Internet accessibility is made possible for disabled people is through adaptive hardware and software. Adaptive hardware and software includes any device that can connect to a computer in order to enable someone who has trouble seeing or navigating on the computer. Some other Acts and organizations who make this web accessibility for all possible include The Telecommunications Act of 1996, Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI), and Web Accessibility in Mind also known as WebAIM. The goal of each of these Acts and organizations is to improve accessibility on all parts of the world wide web for disabled people.
There are many tools on the market available for alternative web browsing. Some examples of tools used for alternative web browsing include refreshable braille displays, vischeck color blindness simulators, screen magnification software, screen reader software, and voice recognition software. The refreshable braille displays and screen reader software are typically used by people who are totally blind. The refreshable braille displays connect to computers and electronically convert the text on the screen to braille which enables the blind users to be able to read the text from the website. The screen reader software reads all parts of the text from the screen and provides the disabled user all navigational information through speech. The vischeck color blindness simulator and the screen magnification software are used by people who have visual impairments. The vischeck color blindness simulators can be used by people who have the red/green color deficit or the blue/yellow color deficit. This program defines the colors on the computer screen to make the colors visible for people with color blindness. The functions of the screen magnification software include enlarging all parts of the content on the computer screen, allowing viewers to adjust certain web page attributes such as color and cursor size, and reading the textual content out loud. Last, voice recognition software is typically used by people who have limited hand use. The purpose of this program is to allow users to enter commands by speaking into a computer microphone.
There are many tools on the market available for alternative web browsing. Some examples of tools used for alternative web browsing include refreshable braille displays, vischeck color blindness simulators, screen magnification software, screen reader software, and voice recognition software. The refreshable braille displays and screen reader software are typically used by people who are totally blind. The refreshable braille displays connect to computers and electronically convert the text on the screen to braille which enables the blind users to be able to read the text from the website. The screen reader software reads all parts of the text from the screen and provides the disabled user all navigational information through speech. The vischeck color blindness simulator and the screen magnification software are used by people who have visual impairments. The vischeck color blindness simulators can be used by people who have the red/green color deficit or the blue/yellow color deficit. This program defines the colors on the computer screen to make the colors visible for people with color blindness. The functions of the screen magnification software include enlarging all parts of the content on the computer screen, allowing viewers to adjust certain web page attributes such as color and cursor size, and reading the textual content out loud. Last, voice recognition software is typically used by people who have limited hand use. The purpose of this program is to allow users to enter commands by speaking into a computer microphone.
Introduction
Hi Everybody! My name is Briana Browder, and I am from Robertsdale, Alabama. I am nineteen years old, and I just transferred to the University of South Alabama this semester. My major at South Alabama is Elementary Education. My career goal is to be a Kindergarten teacher in a Baldwin County school. I have always thoroughly enjoyed children, and I feel like being a school teacher will be an extremely rewarding and fun career. As a Kindergarten teacher I will always be reminded that my dedication to the students in my classroom helps each of them be able to read, to write, to say their alphabet, and many more exciting things.
Some of the things that I will be covering about myself in my PowerPoint presentation include who my family members are, where I work, and what my interests are. I have a family of four which includes, my mom, Angie Browder, my dad, Dewitt Browder, a sister, Amber Barnett, and myself. My sister also has two little girls: Delaney which is five and Anna Grace which is three. I have great job at Baldwin EMC in Summerdale Alabama in the Loss Control and Safety Department. I really enjoy my job & I love all of the people who I work with. Baldwin EMC provides a great program for college students in order to allow students to gain job experience while in school. Some of my hobbies outside of work and school include boat riding, knee boarding, shopping, and spending time with my family and friends. I am a very active person, so I pretty much enjoy any outdoor activity there is.
Some of the things that I will be covering about myself in my PowerPoint presentation include who my family members are, where I work, and what my interests are. I have a family of four which includes, my mom, Angie Browder, my dad, Dewitt Browder, a sister, Amber Barnett, and myself. My sister also has two little girls: Delaney which is five and Anna Grace which is three. I have great job at Baldwin EMC in Summerdale Alabama in the Loss Control and Safety Department. I really enjoy my job & I love all of the people who I work with. Baldwin EMC provides a great program for college students in order to allow students to gain job experience while in school. Some of my hobbies outside of work and school include boat riding, knee boarding, shopping, and spending time with my family and friends. I am a very active person, so I pretty much enjoy any outdoor activity there is.
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