A10.2:Web Evaluation II

Web Evaluation: www.earlyliteracylearning.org

Author/Publishing Body/ Point of View:

The author of www.earlyliteracylearning.orgis not specified within the web page. However; there is information in the ‘contacts’ section of the website that gives the e-mail address, address, and telephone number for Tracy L. Masiello, Ph.D. who is affiliated with the website/organization. The website is funded by the U.S. Department of Education specifically, the Office of Special Education Programs of the Research to Practice Division. CELL or Center for Early Literacy Learning is endorsed by the Orelena Hawks Puckett Institute that is linked on the homepage. When this link is followed it takes you to the homepage of the Puckett Institute, a non-profit organization that claims to encourage family intervention and improvement in areas related to health.  The CELL site is also linked on the Puckett Institution site under the tag ‘project sites’.  There is a list of advisory board members that I assume helped to create this website or at least helped to guide the content of this website.  The list of people found on the advisory board seems to be associated with government education agencies and specialists regarding literacy and teachers.Again this website seems to be affiliated with government organizations as well as Universities like University of Connecticut, as well as the U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Family Literacy, and the American Institute for Research. Upon searching ASHA website, I did not find any links or articles written about CELL. The point of view found within the web page is that of advocates for the early or assisted development of literacy within the family environment. CELL provides reviews, research and a list of literacy development techniques that can be of use to those working with families and children to increase literacy development. Because the site is endorsed by government agencies and a large field of professionals that are knowledgeable about literacy in some form takes on the agenda to provide good intervention strategies involving literacy and the family dynamic.  All documents within the website include reference lists containing several sources that are located at the bottom of each written article. References include areas found within speech-pathology, education, developmental psychology and more. All references are documented in APA format and seem to be correct.

 Accuracy of the information:

Information on the site seems to be accurate. The articles including those with research give appropriate background information and methods or practices that the articles content is based on. The background information used has several citations that can be further verified upon searching through a database. Most articles were published with in the last two years and the references used are current within the last 10 years. All articles give the date of publication including year, month, and day that the article was published. The copyright date of the website is dated to be 2006 which indicates an aspect of currency. There is no place where the viewer can note when all information was updated.

Overview: This webpage seems to have a high quality of information that is backed by strong resources. It is appropriate fro educators, specialists, and families that are interested in information involving techniques and research with early literacy learning. The site indicates the goals, frameworks, research, and references that are endorsed by the organization. A helpful tool found within the website is the site map that gives an outline of the contents of the website.

A10.4: EFN 2 (Progress Memo)

• Content Summary

This progress memo serves to document the unit entitled Technology as a Clinical Tool. The section has spanned about four weeks that have included a great amount of content. There were two defining assignments in this section that although they may seem dissimilar they strike in the same vein.  The first assignment included an evaluation of software that is specific to someone with a communication disorder that can either help maintain, teach, or re-teach a communication skill. Evaluating software requires the evaluator to look at several aspects that consider the quality, appropriateness, and the effectiveness of the software. Key questions that I learned when assessing software are: how many viewpoints are taken into consideration if this software is going to be used? This means that if I want to implement software I need to look at the client, parent/guardian, and implementer to gauge how the specific software will serve its supposed purpose. I think that there are several facets to consider but I think by far the most important is; Does this fulfill the needs of the individual? I did learn about my specific software but, I learned more about the process of choosing tools for therapy or assessment, not just tools specific to technology. Secondary to completing the software evaluation we were required to assess the work of our peers. The assignment was to look at other software evaluations and note the strengths and weaknesses of our reviewees. From this experience I was exposed to different writing styles and processes of evaluating. This helped me to learn about my performance. I learned that being concise is a good way to express meaning and maintain the attention of my reader. I also learned that is hard to evaluate peers because they often have a different perspective and I do not want to limit their creativity because of my own thoughts. I think that peer reviewing is a good tool to modify work but I also think that it would be nice to review and talk about it with the person face-to-face. The second major assignment was the adaptive technology assignment. This assignment required the student to discover the definition and purpose of adaptive technology. From what I have learned about adaptive technology, I will describe it as this; an adaptive technology is any technology that aids someone in accomplishing a task; specifically, a task that requires the user to focus on rehabilitation, habilitation, or the maintenance of a skill.  Adaptive technologies are technologies that serve to improve someone’s functional abilities whether in communicational, vocational, or everyday living type of setting. Although an adaptive technology can serve many people, this unit focused on how these technologies can aid populations that SLP’s commonly serve. We had to find information on who, what, why, where, when, and how the technologies were used. This helped to create a general outline of the project. The hardest thing for me about this project was condensing information down to fit the length requirements. Although cutting information is hard, I think it really hopes to focus in on the important parts of the material. Synthesizing information is a hard task to accomplish but I think that it is most useful to really gain an understand of a specific subject area.

 

• Process Summary

I have notice a change in my habits of completing work. I break the work to be done down in a step-by-step process. For example, I have the habit of being implusive and trying to finish things in one go-around. I am now trying to make everything a process that spans a few days. I feel like this helps keep my thoughts together in that I have time to process information and make changes as I go through a process of complying, re-organizing, and creating new information. I found that I am more successful when I take a few days to break something apart and then put it back together. I also do this with the discussion question of the week, I take a day or so to really think about the question and read what others are saying to try and find a new perspective.

 

I also had the opportunity to refine my skills with PowerPoint. I have not used this program since high school but because I have been using much more technology since then, I am using this program more efficiently. I also like PowerPoint because it helps me to organize my thoughts. I am a very visual learner so the information that I have put together will stay with me longer because I have the strong visual connection to the information. I have also become more efficient in using the wiki program setup for the class. I can maneuver more quickly and I know how to accomplish posting and revising the information that I put on the wiki.

 

• Assessment/Reflection

I thought that the process of putting a presentation together was very valuable to me. I have learned a lot from making sure that I have proper permission for images and other content that is included in my work. As a student I think it is vital to know how to pull resources in the appropriate manner because much of my professional career will include the same tasks. I think that as students get farther in school and gain more knowledge about a field they often forget that although we have this knowledge, the people that we serve do not, that is why we have a job. From this observation I think that it is important to make information concise and simple to understand. As professionals that really rely on interpersonal communication, I think that it is imperative to have this skill. I also really like reading the discussion. I enjoy being able to get other perspectives and thoughts from other people in class because it allows me to see the different standpoints that an SLP can take. It is interesting to see the underlying cultural currents and personal values of my classmates. Again, I think this concept relates back to interpersonal communication and that the more exposure we have to different viewpoints we will be able to look at information or ideas in several different ways.