A9.4: Research Question on Literacy
How do Cochlear Implants effect the literacy of children?
A9.1: Adaptive Technology Project Self Evaluation
When looking at my presentation and the requirments I think that my presentation appropriately answers who, what, when, where, how, and why in relation to the technology I selected. It describes that the software is for the deaf and hard of hearing population, it tells how you use it, what it can do with it, where you can use it (in the classroom, work, and everyday life), and the reason why is that it helps improve communication and literacy.
My presentation also describes the technology I selected including the cost (explaining the different packages), features (speech files, ect.), and it describes the capablilities of the technology such as translating the information in 3 different ways. My presentation includes information from my articles because it says that seeing and reading information in sign and written language helps them comprehend the information. The presentation also could be used to help promote and tell others what the technology is for and how it is used. The presentation was also to my ability presented in a professional manner and includes appropriate citations at the end of the presentation. As far as I know it is also produced without errors. Overall I think that I covered all of the requirements for the presentation.
The presentation is professionally produced, error free, and includes appropriate citations.
A9.3: Better Dog Food Web Evaluation
10/22/08
Name of site: Better Dog Food.competchick@betterdogfood.com). It also said that she had experience in her past life of creating a dog breeder magazine. When looking at the CEO and Founder, Carl Malamud worked for the telephone company when he got started and he worked under “the legendary” Arlington Hewes, who I have never heard of. He is an international speaker, and he has a dog named Bob.
URL: http://www.betterdogfood.com/
Accuracy:
- When looking at the accuracy of this site you can see that this cite does not cite any other sources. It also tells you a little bit about the management team that included a creator, CEO, and the pet of the site. It says that woman, the creator, has a little experience in her “past life” with digitizing and designing a dog breeder magazine, the CEO/ Founder worked for a telephone company before, and the other is a made up dog named spot.
- It is defiantly not possible to determine the legitimacy of the woman’s past life, and when you click on the link for the guys telephone company he worked at it takes you to the telephone companies remote printing service. This is defiantly not legitimate either.
- The background of this author, or creator that I can find does not lead him to having any knowledge of the subject whatsoever.
- This site is not research based.
Authority:
- I did not recognize any names on the management team.
- The only information that was given about he management team was that Rebecca Hargrave was the President and Chief Creative Officer of Best Dog Food.com. It also gave and email to reach her that was not very professional (
- I have never seen this site referenced anywhere.
Objectivity:
- When looking at the title and reading the cite it looks like they are trying to sell you dog food for virtual pets, but the only things that I found on sale were items for real dogs that were from different companies that I have heard of before. I never saw anything about the virtual dog food.
- The purpose of the this site was to allow you to make a virtual pet, and sell you dog food to go along with it. It also had link to blogs for your dogs, but you could not make a dog, use the blog, or buy the dog food because either the link didn’t work or their was no place to do it. The blog actually said at the top that it was inactive.
- I do not trust and would not trust the author of this site because they have no background experience and their website doesn’t even work.
Currency:
- The date was clearly displayed at the bottom of the page and it said 2000.
- The date referred to the copyright of the page.
- Their were no resources to determine if they were current.
- This page defiantly needs updates, and fixed but I do not think that it requires these regularly.
- The links on this page were not good at all. The ones on the side of the page of ads for other dog related sites were good, but as far as the actual website they were not. Most of the ones I clicked on didn’t even send you to a page you just got a message that said an error had occurred, the site was unavailable, or the account was no longer active when looking at the blog.
Coverage:
- I didn’t see any topics discussed in depth they were all very shallow.
- The links on the page were suppose to be comprehensive to help you understand more about what you clicked on. When it had the links listed it only gave you a short blurb about the topic, but when you actually clicked on most of the links they didn’t work.
- When looking at the relevance of the links they seemed to go along with the site, but they could have had a few more like the virtual dog food they talked about for you.
- The information in this site I do not think is valuable at all. There is really nothing to do on this site, because almost every link is dead.
A8.3: Response to Eshet-Alkali and Amichai-Hamburger (2004)
10/14/08
Eshet-Alkali, Y., & Amichai-Hamburger, . (2004, August). Experiments in digital literacy. Cyberpsychology and Behavior,7 (4), 421-429.
Purpose:
This article discussed the different aspects of digital literacy, and the article discussed a study that they performed to see if digital literacy is spread through out different age groups.
Question:
Is digital literacy spread equally through out the different age groups, or is it focused mainly on the younger population?
Information:
It defines digital literacy as a combination of skill that are used in performing tasks in digital environments. It also goes over and states the different types of literacy that are included and gives examples. It includes the photo-visual literacy is the ability to read and understand instructions and messages that are present in visual – graphic form. Reproduction literacy is the ability to create or edit new information in all forms of media, and branching is the ability to learn how to navigate through something like information in a non-linear way. Finding your way through a program or website. Information literacy is being aware of the quality of information and being able to sort out subjective, biased, or even false information. The last catagory is the newest and hardest to truly define and it is socio-emotional literacy. This is learning through social groups, edge sharing groups, chat rooms, and other collaborative learning tools. The study had 60 volunteers that included a a similar demographic background and they randomly volunteered. They also were spread equally when considering male and female and there were 20 in each of the age ranges. The age ranges included high school, 3rd year college students, and 30-40 year-olds. They were then given five tasks that covered the different areas of digital literacy.
Inferences/ Conclusions:
They found that when looking at the photo-visual literacy and the branching literacy that there was no significant difference between the high school and college aged participants, but the adults scored lower than the two other groups. In the reproduction and the Information literacy they found that the high school was the lowest and that the adults were the highest. The college then fell in the middle. And they also found that when looking at the socio-emotional literacy the adults were actually the lowest and the college was the highest. Showing that the different digital lieracies are not spread across the different age groups.
Assumptions:
The authors assuemed when doing this study that you did not know what digital literacy was and the differnet catagories that were within it. And that if you did a study after this the age gourps would perfom the same way indicating that these results are reliable.
Implications:
If they read and see that there is a need for digital literacy to be spread across different age groups and they do something about it then everyone would aquire digital literacy to a higher degree. If they do not, then digital literacy will not expand holding some back.
Point of View:
THis article was done py peple woho wanted to show how digital literacy is not spread through our the different ages. Their really was not a stong pull one way or the other, but you could tell that they thought that digital literacy was important and should be know in its entirety.
A6.5: Software Evaluation (Revised): Aphasia Tutor 1 & 2
Evaluator: Michelle Bumgarner
2. Letter Copying – Similar to #1, but patient must type answer.
3. Word Matching – Pick the matching word from several choices.
4. Word Copying -Higher level version of #2. Practice with basic keyboard operation.
5. Picture-Word Matching, Nouns – User must pick the word for the picture.
6. Picture Naming Nouns, Fill-in. – Patient identifies the picture by typing it’s name.
7. Picture-Word Matching, Verbs: -Follow same format as above when matching
8. Picture Naming, Verbs: Fill-in. -Follow same format as above for Fill-in the blank
2. Phrase Completion: Fill-in
3. Sentence Completion: Multiple Choice
4. Sentence Completion: Fill-in
5. Definition Completion: Multiple Choice
6. Definition Completion: Fill-in
7. Sentence -Picture Matching
A6.5: Software Evaluation: Aphasia Tutor 1 & 2
Evaluator:Michelle Bumgarner
Software Title: Aphasia Tutor 1 & 2
Publisher:Bungalow Solftware, Inc.
Publisher Website: http://www.bungalowsoftware.com/downloads.asp?programlist=/download/aphasia_tutor_1_and_2_install.exe
Type of Software: This software is a software used for therapy in the treatment of Aphasia.
Platform: Windows 95 or higher required, Windows 2000 or above recommended. Sound Card, Screen that can display 256 or more colors, CD-ROM drive, and 20 MB Hard Drive space per program.
Treatment Areas: Receptive Language
Objectives:
Aphasia Tutor 1works to improve recognition and retrieval of letters and words. It has over 700 exercises in 7 different catagories that include:
1. Letter Matching – Shows a letter and patient selects the matching letter from a multiple-choice list.
2. Letter Copying – Similar to #1, but patient must type answer.
3. Word Matching – Pick the matching word from several choices.
4. Word Copying -Higher level version of #2. Practice with basic keyboard operation.
5. Picture-Word Matching, Nouns – User must pick the word for the picture.
6. Picture Naming Nouns, Fill-in. – Patient identifies the picture by typing it’s name.
7. Picture-Word Matching, Verbs: -Follow same format as above when matching
8. Picture Naming, Verbs: Fill-in. -Follow same format as above for Fill-in the blank
Aphasia Tutor 2 works on improving word-retrieval skills at the word and sentence level. It has over 700 questions in 7 different groups that follow the same format as the Aphasia Tutor 1 including:
1. Phrase Completion: Multiple Choice
2. Phrase Completion: Fill-in
3. Sentence Completion: Multiple Choice
4. Sentence Completion: Fill-in
5. Definition Completion: Multiple Choice
6. Definition Completion: Fill-in
7. Sentence -Picture Matching
Documentation and Supplementary Materials:
I do not know if this program comes with a manual but I know that it does come as a cd. The Internet site on this product was very helpful and clearly stated the objectives for the software and the software clearly states the objectives for the lessons. The program also allows you to start the program where ever the client needs it by providing you at the beginning on what category (letters, phrases, ect.) you want to use as well as what answering tool (matching or fill-in the blank) that you want to use. It also provides a feature where you can make the lesson individual to the client which can include the number of multiple choice answers and the amount of hint that you want them to be able to receive. This way you can allow them to get use to the program slowly and at what ever level that you seem fit.
Age Appropriateness:
This program is designed for adults who have had a stroke or brain injury that resulted in Aphasia. Most of the pictures, teaching strategies, and content are appropriate for an adult. The time is also appropriate because this program doesn’t have any time constraints so you can go at your own pace.
Program Content:
The instruction matches the objectives and give strategies that are based on current research, because they can repeat the lessons as many times as they need to and it allows them to get lots of practice on a specific skill. It does only mainly test the visual learning style, the graphic learning style, and has some of the auditory learning involved but it really does involve the other learning styles. It also allows the client to start at any level and it is not complicated to use so mostly anyone with any intelligence can use this program. It is free of stereotypes, and it is a little out of date when looking at some of the pictures and words that it uses.
Presentation:
All of the information that these programs use can be presented in a logical and developmentally appropriate way as long as the clinician chooses the lessons in the appropriate order. For example, picking letters before working on phrases or sentences. All of the illustrations are very helpful and relevant because it allows the program to teach what they are suppose to treat. They type and pictures are shown clearly and boldly as you type in and choose the correct answers. This program also has the correct punctuation and grammar, and it also looks at the clients spelling. If you are typing in a verb or noun that is pictured you have to be able to spell the word correctly to get the answer right. This is something that you will have to take into consideration when you are looking at the scores of the test because it could skew the results that are presented to you.
Effectiveness:
The information that I found was easy to find and helped me complete this evaluation of the software. The only thing that could have caused a problem was that my trial could only be looked at 5 times before it became a limited trial which means if looked at too many times before completing a lesson I would not have been able to see how it scored the lessons. This should not be too much of a problem because I found a sufficient amount of information in less than the 5 attempts. In looking at this program it made me wonder what other types of programs are available for other disorders, because I have not seen them used in my observations of therapy.
Practive /Assessment/ Feedback:
Each of these programs provides lots of practice. Each lesson has between 50 and over 100 questions in it, and then you can always go back and take the lessons again anytime they are needed. This can give plenty of time for them to learn and receive practice. The questions also follow what it says it is teaching. It is always providing some kind of feedback. It gives the appropriate feedback when ever the client makes an answer choice whether it is right or wrong. When the client gets the answer right it tells them they did a good job or that they did excellent and provides a ta-da sound. It also shows a picture of a smiley face or a trophy to also give them some visual feedback. When they get the answer wrong it shows a red circle with a “x” in the circle to show that that was the wrong answer and gives them some verbal feedback such as “try again,” “that was a hard one,” or “that’s not the right answer”. It doesn’t however allow the client to respond to open ended questions because it is looking for a certain responce. This can also be a problem because if you do not put the exact word in that they are looking for they count it wrong so if you know and put a sweeper as a sweeper instead of a vacuum the program might count it wrong because it is looking for a specific answer. The program can also be given to the client and then the clinician can leave or they can work together with the program (this seems more appropriate and beneficial).
Ease of Use:
If the client can move a mouse or navigate a keyboard then they can probably use this program. It is easy to follow because the directions are stated clearly, the buttons are big and easy to click, and the text that they type is big and legible. One problem that can occur though is that when you are typing a word if you hold down a letter it continues to duplicate the letter which could be hard for some people that can not move their hand off the keys very fast, but this group could still participate with this program but would not be able to do the fill- in the blank activities. The directions and set up of the program is the same for every lesson and even between Aphasia Tutor 1 & 2. You can access help button very easily and it is clearly marked with a hint button but it does not help you with anything else but the directions are always on the screen. You can also exit the program but it is a small button at the top of the screen. This could be helpful because the clients could not exit every time they just did not want to do the activities. You can not bypass the title of the program but it is only shown on the first screen that asks if you want to start the program so it is only shown for a brief period of time.
User Interface and Media Quality:
The graphics and audio of this program are a little outdated. Some of the pictures showed old camera, a cassette tape, and a tape recorder. These are not really used much but they would still be familiar to the older population. Also some of the pictures you could not exactly tell what the person or object was doing because they were not as clear as some of the pictures today. The sound on the other hand was ok but they defiantly could come up with more interesting sounds for correct and wrong answers. Overall this program is helpful but might need just a few updates to keep it current.
Equality/ Fairness/ Anti-Bias:
This software was gender neutral, free form cultural biases, and was free from violence. None of these were present in this software.
