Discussions
The thought process can be very difficult to organize for anyone. I have noticed that students' minds jump from place to place and students become distracted fairly easily by internal and external stimulants. Most students are distracted by external simulants such as music through iPods, cell phones ringing or buzzing, chatter of friends on the quad, chiming of instant messaging and the voice of our teachers lecturing. All of this takes place on a college campus and more.
When students come into the Adaptive Technology Center through their HCD 382 (Study Skills Strategies) class, they often don't know how to organize anything. Being in school may be a new experience to them and many of them do not have proficient study skills to be successful in their academic career. Also many of them have some kind of physical or learning disability that hinders them from being able to develop good study skills.
I already use Inspiration with those classes. Often I train students how to use Inspiration from scratch and stay away from the templates. I want them to think how they can organize their thought process. The teachers and I work together to develop a workshop to integrate what they are teaching in class into the training of graphic organizers. Recently I decided to change things up and develop an example of what can a student do with Inspiration. I kept it basic as possible and did not limit it to one subject matter. I plugged Inspiration Uses example into the intro of the training session I have with HCD 382 students. I use the example of Inspiration Uses in the beginning as an intro as well as in closing as a reminder to students to think outside their box.
After teaching Inspiration training sessions to various HCD 382 classes, it is always rewarding to see students come back during open lab time and use Inspiration for their other classes to help them develop study guides, outlines and continue to learn new technology.
I am a big supporter of anything that enables the students to develop coping skills to learn better. Graphic organizers are the way to go for students that don’t think linear or need extra help in organizing their thought process
Please take the time to review Workshop Outline / Advanced Organizers to see how it ties into my discussion of graphic organizers. Thank you.