Blog Post # 3

What is Peer Editing?
For this assignment I watched the videos Peer Editing, Peer Editing Slide Show, and Writing Peer Review Top 10 Mistakes. Most of the things the first two links touched on are common sense. Peer editing is taught at such a young age now days that it is important everyone knows how to properly edit a peers work. However, I will admit that when leaving my comment for C4C this week I was not specific with some of my suggestions and fell under the "Jean the Generalizer" category in the last video. I enjoyed these videos, especially the last one, and I think all of these could be tools to use in the classroom.
Peer editing needs to be taught as soon as possible because it's good to get other students to help each other out with papers and other assignments. Also, allowing a student to assess another students work can potentially help them be able to do better on their own work. It may also be easier to get critiqued by a fellow peer rather than by a teacher. Although, sometimes students may feel embarrassed to have another student edit their work, I know I was when i was younger. Either way I think peer editing is beneficial for both the students and the teachers.

Technology in Special Education
I absolutely loved watching the video Technology in Special Education. I encourage all educators to watch this, even if you do not have to teach special education children. This video shows how beneficial technology is in a special education classroom. I never realized how hard it can be for special education children to learn in a classroom without technology. Technology helps them communicate with the teachers better, thus, allowing for a better learning experience. It also helped some students be able to read easier s well.
Overall, this video was extremely eye-opening. At first, I thought it would be more of a chore to try and teach special education children to use technology in a way that would be more beneficial. However, this video shot down every doubt that I had. Yes it may take time for the children to be able to understand how to properly use technology, but it is obviously well worth it in the end. I hope ever educator who teaches special education children see this video and seriously consider incorporating technology into their classroom.

Apple Applications for Special Education Students
After looking through tons of applications in Apple for special education I finally decided on one that would be the most beneficial for everyone. Proloquo2go. This is a text to speech type of application that allows children to talk to others if they have trouble speaking on their own. It is compared to the AAC device that most people are familiar with, just without the ridiculous price. I would use this in my classroom with any child who has trouble speaking because I think being able to communicate effectively with the students we are teaching is vital in learning. I love how Apple has created thousands of app for learning and I will definitely be using these in my future classroom.

Harness Your Students' Digital Smarts
Watching the video Harness Your Students' Digital Smarts makes me wish that technology was incorporated into my classes when I was younger. I thought it was incredible that these students got the chance to do projects and work on assignments with other children from all over the world via the internet. The children in this video seemed so eager to learn and talk to other students from other countries. I would have loved to have gotten the opportunity to do that when I was that age.
Not only does technology make learning a more exciting experience, it also allows for children to connect with other students o get their opinions. Or to just talk and get to know about different cultures. Watching this video gave me the idea to do a project were students have to connect with a student in a different country to learn about their culture and then present their findings and new friend to the class. I can not wait to use these ideas with my future students.