The Adha vacation is over. It was a long and great one indeed for me, especially that I went to London for some ABA (Applied Behavior Analysis) training which went really well. I learned a whole lot from it and came back to Lebanon with a whole range of new methods to try. I feel like I went shopping for new methods and came back with the New Winter 2011 Collection.
In addition to the many new methods that I am eager to apply, I also came back with a list of things that I wish I could find online for free. They may be present there, but probably not for free. The problem with finding those things online is probably due to the vast difference between the curriculum in the Middle East and the rest of the world. Our curricula take a lot of time to be update it as they are subject to a lot of political influences.
Anyway, what I would really like to find online are age appropriate texts and exercises for kids with special needs. You see, children with special needs have almost the same interests as their same age "normal" peers. However, they cannot learn more about these topics because of the lack of availability of texts which are about these topics but are written in a less complex style with less difficult terminologies. For example, teenagers with special needs may like to know more about a certain movie star or sports champion but, they cannot understand what is being written about that person because the language is rather hard for them to decode.
Also, in case these texts are present, another issue that poses itself if finding them. I haven't found any search engine that can get you materials which are appropriate for specific grades. It would be really cool for a search engine to be able to determine the grade level of any text it finds. I know it's more of a dream than a reality but, I believe that it can be done. Just like www.lessonwriter.com can detect certain words and deems them difficult, another search engine or program may be able to find certain words in a text, compare them to a standard list of words which should be recognized by a certain grade level and then send out the verdict based on that.
I hope some of you second my opinion,
Regards,
Charbel
Dear Charbel,
ReplyDeleteWhile reading your blog and what you intend to find on the web I started thinking about all the things I learned from your comments and your experince using technology. I know you have a great background. Your foundamentations for the answers you give reflect a lot of experience and knowledge of the field.
I wonder if you could create a new software, or if you could desing a platform or web pages to be used for special needs kids.
with your experience and knowledge it would be more than appropriate and I know that you will have a lot of support and feedback. You work in the field, you experience it, you search for it and you know what you want.
I know you have the background to create programs, and kids will really benefit from your suggestions!!
Regards,
Carol Ortiz
Dear Carolina,
ReplyDeleteI know I would do it because of all that I've seen in my almost 3 years of experience in the special education field. However, being a program supervisor, I barely have the time to finish my duties, not to mention rewriting a curriculum. I just thought I'd put my thoughts out there so that someone may be inspired with them and actually has the time to work on such a project.
Regards,
Charbel
Hi Charbel
ReplyDeleteIt might be a good proposal for Google? An algorithm that could gauge the reading level of a text, like you said, shouldn't be that hard. And it might be offered as an advanced search feature or filter that could be added only if desired. In any case, it would be a useful idea for educators at many levels.
Robert