Technology and Organization

1
Technology and Organization

• Organizational skills plague many students.
• It is important to know how a student learns,
  remembers, thinks, and organizes most easily and
  naturally.

2
Primary Learning Style

• Determining learning preferences through eye
  movement and how this relates to learning.

3
Eye Movement Activity

• Look at the person and watch his or her eyes as
  you ask 3-4 questions which require that they
  RECALL information.
• As you look at their eyes, you will see their
  eyes move in one directions first. (up, middle,
  down) (left and right)
• Mark the eye as you see the movement. You do this
  from the observers point of view.
• The first direction is considered the
  hard-wired learning and information storage
  preference.

4
Eye Movement Answers

• Visual Learners are people who tend to look up
  first.
• Auditory Learners are people who tend to look
  sideways.
• Kinesthetic or Tactile Learners are people who
  tend to look down.

5
Visual Learners

• Looking up and to left indicates a visual learner
  who prefers symbols, pictures, maps.
• Looking up and to the right indicates a visual
  learner who prefers to learn with words.
• About 50 of learners

6
Auditory Learners

• Looking straight right indicates an auditory
  learner who learns best by listening to words.
• Looking straight left indicates an auditory
  symbolic learner who learns best when sound
  (often music) is tied to what he is learning.
  Many auditory symbolic learners prefer to listen
  to music while studying and do best on their
  tests with the same music.
• About 20 of learners

7
Kinesthetic or Tactile Learners

• Looking down and to the right indicates that
  person needs to work in 2 dimensions
• writing, painting, or drawing to learn.
• Looking down and to the left indicates the
  student needs to actually move their bodies in
  order to learn.
• About 30 of learners

8
Thinking Styles

• After you have determined the inborn or primary
  learning style of the student, look for his or
  her preference for thought organization.

9
Are You a Global or Linear Sequential Thinker?

• The left hand column contains a number of
  statements that may or may not describe you. As
  you read each statement, decide if the statement
  Almost Never, Sometimes, or Almost Always
  describes you.

10
Global Thinkers

• Global thinkers tend to miss details and do not
  put as much emphasis on doing all the steps in
  sequence.
• Visual, global thinks often have a lot of stuff
  in view so that they can keep track of it.

11
Linear Thinkers

• These people are great for details and often need
  uncluttered spaces.
• Have trouble working in the midst of visual
  clutter.
• Likes things put away in an organized system.
• Do things precisely and in order.

12
Scoring and Interpretations

• Most peoples total score falls somewhere between
  -5 and 5 on the continuum.
• In terms of organization, knowing these
  tendencies helps understand how the student sees
  the world and therefore what may or may not be
  important in organizing.

13
Organization Problem Inventory

• For each of the following statements, consider
  whether this is a problem your student may
  exhibit.
• If it is, place a check mark in the white box to
  the right of the statement.

14
Scoring and Interpretation

• Generally speaking, we have found the following
  is true of the total checks per category boxes
  scores.
• 0-3 checks indicates a low to non-existent degree
  of organization problem in this category.
• 4 checks in a category can be symptomatic of
  problems for some people, but could still be
  found in a person who is functioning with some
  degree of organization success in this category.
• 5-8 checks almost always indicated functional
  problems in this category of organizational
  problems.

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Additional Information

• Most students with organizational problems have
  one category this is relatively high. (7-8) and 2
  others areas that are less problematic (4-7)
• Start with the category that has the highest
  score.
• If attention is the major area, regardless of it
  number score, start trying to deal with it first.
  It always affects the other categories of
  organization problems

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Categories of Organizational Problems

• Organizing is a vital task that too many students
  just assume will happen no matter what they do.
  The truth is that real organization requires a
  great deal of planning and discipline. First you
  have to recognize the areas in which your student
  might have organizational problems.
• Temporal
• Spatial
• Categorical
• Attentional
• Prioritization
• Sequential

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Temporal

• Students have problems
• Keeping track of time
• Estimating correctly the amount of time it will
  take to complete a task
• Keeping track of assignment
• Following long-term, multi-step assignments
• Transition poorly between activities
• Estimating how much time is needed or left
• Poor clock reading or elapsed time figuring
  skills.

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Temporal - Strategies

• A larger format (size) assignment book
• A digital recorder for assignments
• A palm-type device with alarms
• An audible or visual timer
• A computer program with day/week/month
• A watch with day and date as well as alarms
• Color filters
• Reading helpers
• Highlighting tape

19
Spatial

• Students have problems organizing their physical
  spaces.
• Trouble organizing their notebooks
• Keeping lockers, desks, and backpacks neat
• Organizing their papers.
• They tend to need more space when working
• Have trouble finding tools even when they are in
  sight, they often cant find it.

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Spatial - Strategies

• Binders and Folders
• Use of color coding
• Color filter use for copying, color papers for
  writing.
• Reading Helpers or Reading Guides for lining up
  math columns
• Small zippered cases
• Zippered notebooks
• Math Grids for math computation/raised line paper
• Filing systems (in notebooks, for lockers, at
  home or in classroom)
• Map of desk
• Proper assignment format
• In/out folder

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Categorical

• Students have problems knowing how to sort and
  categorize data with which they have to work.
• They never know which folder work goes
• They cant identify the different folders they
  actually need.
• Overwhelmed when they have to take a group of
  things and find a method to sort and organize
  them.

22
Categorical - Strategies

• Using inspiration to create student designed
  categories
• Teaching sorting techniques
• Using multiple colors of highlighters/highlighting
  tapes while reading to categorize different
  kinds of information
• Color coding of file folders and book covers
• Note-taking with Inspiration templates
• We all have our own way to put things into
  categories. Have student pick the one that makes
  sense to him or her.

23
Attentional

• Students have problems attending to tasks long
  enough to finish and/or organize them.
• Often hear only part of the instructions
• Only get part of the assignment
• Only have some of the tools they need in class
• Frequently require recueing or repetition of
  tasks, or they find themselves in a task with no
  idea of where they are heading.

24
Attentional - Strategies

• Using color/lights to increase attention
• Non-verbal cueing (notes, picture cards, rubrics)
• Background noise aids for auditory students
  Hemi-Sync CDs
• Having the dictionary right at hand
• Talking calculators or Talking dictionary spell
  checkers for multi-modal presentation of
  information
• Need repetition of directions
• May need chapter headings rewritten
• May need information from chapters presented in
  tables
• Highlight new vocabulary
• Create 10 minute summary tapes

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Attentional - Strategies continued

• May need additional cueing
• Pre-reading questions
• Page s for end of the chapter tests
• Explain what check your work means
• May need to move to learn
• Seat cushion, therapy ball, fidget ball
• May need extra sensory input
• Chewing gum, chewing on a straw, hard candy
• smells

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Prioritization

• Students have problems knowing what is most
  important and vital.
• They dont know what they should study
• Which papers should be kept and which ones should
  be thrown away
• Which assignments they should start first
• These students often have categorical
  organizational problems.

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Prioritization - Strategies

• Anxiety categorization (get the worst over
  first)
• Color coding from hot/red to cool/blue
• Using orientation as a cue to importance (page-up
  or portabook)
• Arrow Tabs and Page Markers on pages in the book
  to denote most important information that must be
  learned.
• Using bins or boxes at home and/or school to
  store papers not immediately needed
• Marking what has to be done first or what is most
  important with Post-it Page, Markers, color
  coding, or a certain color highlighter.

28
Sequential

• Students have problems with remembering and
  carrying out the steps in a task or process in
  the correct order.
• They tend to skip steps
• Lose track in the middle of the process and need
  to start at the beginning
• They are often overwhelmed by tasks with too many
  steps
• They often exhibit memory problems

29
Sequential - Strategies

• To do list (paper and PDA)
• Rubrics
• Visual cue reminders
• Use of templates for repeated tasks
• Peg Word Schema cards
• Vocabulary and end of the chapter questions
  completed on note cards
• Study guides spark notes
• Reminder bulletin boards
• Table of contents as an outline
• Step cards
• Reminder cards
• PowerPoint

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Modifying Text

• What is involved in modifying text
• Shorten the length of the sentence
• Shorten the length of the text
• Change compound/complex sentences to simple
  sentences
• Reduce the number of 3 syllable words
• Reduce the figurative language

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Judi Sweeney _at_ www.onionmountaintech.com

• Kansas Infinitec Coalition
• ks.myinfinitec.org
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32
Infinitec

• Infinitec means infinite potential through
  technology.
• Members of KIC have access to
• Universally designed lesson plans
• On-line classroom training
• Educational resources

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Your Presenters

• Leann Todd
• Assistive Technology Coordinator
• ltodd_at_usd266.com