Day 1

Reading – so easy, so basic, so necessary, so……unbelievably complicated!  It’s hard to appreciate how complicated reading is, especially when it’s something you carry out on a daily basis without even thinking about it.  Asking students to read a small paragraph seems like a simple enough task; however, for many students the reading process can be hindered at one or many locations.  For example if you were asked to read the following sentence of Chinese symbols:

You likely wouldn’t know what it means, how it’s structured, or where to begin.  This is how some students with reading disabilities may feel when they encounter a reading assignment in their own language.

It can be difficult to appreciate reading problems, and I found the following exercise an interesting way for unaffected readers to increase their appreciation – please take a minute or two and try it.  It discusses the inability of many people to decode the phonemes of the language.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/misunderstoodminds/experiences/readexp1a.html

The following is a video that outlines some of the difficulties that can affect people affected by dyslexia.  Again, it gives people an appreciation, of those affected with a reading disability.

So, I’ve been sitting around with my i-pod touch (correction – my wife’s i-pod touch) trying to figure out what app I’m going to come across that is going to blow my mind, when I realized something.  On a day to day basis (granted it’s with my blackberry), I check email, send texts, take pictures, email pictures, chat with friends and family, and carry out banking. ( I could obviously be doing this with an I-phone if I had one).  I don’t know if I’ll find that app today, tomorrow, or ever, but I am certainly looking forward to increasing my ability to use this technology in education.  Being a relatively new parent I have found a few cool apps that I am going to try with my son, namely the Starfalls ABC’s app, which helps teach the letters of the alphabet.  See the video below of a 17 month old trying it out.