by Kathy Allen
How have you engaged students to learn about effective practices in an online environment? Kathy Allen from Blue Ridge 
Community College shares her experience on using CONNECT Module 5 with her students. Read about what she did and share your examples.
Community College shares her experience on using CONNECT Module 5 with her students. Read about what she did and share your examples.I used Module 5- Using Assistive Technology Interventions in my EDU 271 Educational Technology course. This is an online course and students completed the assignments over a 2 week time period. Here’s how I’ve set it up: First, students completed activities 5.1a, 5.4a, 5.6a, 5.7a as individual assignments. Then they made a squishy book (or another assistive technology device), took a picture of it, and shared it with the class in an online discussion forum. After this discussion, students completed activities 5.8a, 5.9a, 5.10a and 5.11a as individual assignments. We then completed activity 5.12a together as a class in an online discussion forum. Overall, students found the module was very useful in helping them learn about assistive technology. They enjoyed the video demonstrations and the real life dilemmas. Several students commented specifically that it helped them bring a sense of reality to the uses of assistive technology. One student mentioned, “I found it helpful to follow the same case throughout the entire module and see the process of evaluating assistive technology needs, getting all adults involved in the creation of the plan, implementation of the plan, and evaluating the effectiveness of the AT interventions.”
Community Questions
- How have you engaged students to learn about effective practices in an online environment?
- How have you used Module 5: Assistive Technology Interventions?
About the Author: Kathy Allen is a full time instructor of Early Childhood Education at Blue Ridge Community College and is an online adjunct instructor at Surry Community College. She is VP of Collaborations for The Associate Degree Early Childhood Teacher Educators (ACCESS) and serves as a Peer Reviewer for the NAEYC ECADA system. Kathy has been teaching at the community college since 2004 and has incorporated the CONNECT modules mostly in the online courses that she teaches.