Technology, like just about everything on planet earth, is comparable to a two way street. In one lane, technology can be frustrating and potentially dangerous for a person and a society, but in the other lane it is useful, makes the lives of people easier, and offers educators a chance to dispense knowledge beyond the confines of a classroom. I walked on both sides of the technology street over the past few weeks when I was tasked with creating a lesson plan that was both technological and student-centered. Along the way, not only did I encounter my frustrations and appreciations for technology, but I also discovered the difficulties in resisting my teacher-centered approach to education. On my lesson plan creating journey, down the two way street, I learned to stretch myself beyond my comfort zone and discovered yet again, the large role that standards play in creating lessons.
For reasons of accountability, the educational system that western schools have employed relies heavily upon standards to determine, not only what students should learn, but also, what teachers need to do to ensure student learning. With that said, according to the National Educational Technology Standards for Teachers or NETS*T, one standard explains that teachers should “demonstrate a continual growth in technology knowledge and skills to stay abreast of current and emerging technologies” (North Central Regional Educational Laboratory, 2000). For this particular lesson plan assignment, technology was needed to accomplish the lesson and one thing I needed to do was step outside of my comfort zone of typical teacher driven lectures, in terms of knowledge dispensing and outside my technological comfort zone of Power Point presentations. I’m not fond of change and new things, but in the 21st century, it was something I would have to get use to, especially as an educator, because educating can be just as hectic and frustrating as technology. I could not completely let go of what was familiar to me, so I held dearly to Power Point as a sort of safety blanket of technology. However, I did use some other tools that I was not so familiar with. One tool that was completely foreign to me was a website creator called Weebly. As one who has never created a website or even a My Space template or background, Weebly turned out to be an easy tool for me to show my lesson plan to the world on. It was easy to navigate and figure out, but it was not the only tool I used.
The lesson plan that I had created was geared toward a tenth grade language arts class and students were tasked with creating a digital demonstrative speech using some sort of digital recording device, such as a digital camera, and digital editing software, such as Movie Maker. Because this lesson would take place completely online [which is the great thing about the internet and technology: education goes beyond the classroom] I needed to utilize more than just Power Point and Word to inform my potential students of their task. In addition to my use of Weebly and Power Point, other tools that I used included Slide Share, All Capture, Movie Maker, the Google blog, Video Jug, and a digital voice recorder.
I posted PowerPoint presentations online using Slide Share and created audio and video posts using a digital voice recorder, All Capture (a tool that allows users to record their activities on the computer) and Movie Maker to edit examples for my potential students. I also expanded my visual resources beyond You Tube to a site called Video Jug, which perfectly fit my purpose of demonstrative speeches because Video Jug is all about showing viewers how to do things. In order to not only teach a lesson over the internet in which students would be responsible for viewing, thus making it student-centered, but also to expand and grow into a future teacher that would be more willing to use technology, I used both tools that I was very familiar with such as Power Point and some tools that I was not so familiar with, like All Capture. Despite my hesitance towards technology, I had to take into consideration that within the past decade, the use of the internet and computers has expanded and students maintain an interest in social networking and internet browsing. Because of this interest, I also utilized Google’s blog site as not only as the main way in which I would dispense demonstrative speech knowledge and lessons to my students, but a way for students to post their speeches, interact with other students, as well as myself. What better way to keep up with them and keep students interested than to utilize the World Wide Web! In relation to NETS*S standards, I achieved this “stepping-outside-my-comfort-zone” task by sticking to some familiar technological tools, but also gently tip toeing into unfamiliar grounds. However, as I stepped outside of my comfort zone for the sake of education, I discovered some things that I liked and did not like concerning this lesson planning assignment.
The thing I liked least about this assignment was the fact that I had to “cut to the cord.” That is, with this lesson plan project, it had to be a student-centered learning experience. I could not keep students trapped in a mold of follow-the-leader and although I am not an educator in the classroom just yet, I have become so familiar with teacher-centered learning and instruction, that the thought of giving students complete control over their learning made me fearful and skeptical. When I thought of the idea of giving students complete control over their own learning, I thought of some of my old classmates and their abilities to guide their own learning. Some of them would not have been able to guide themselves through a doorway, not because of a lack of intelligence, but more so the lack of desire. However, at the same time, while I was skeptical and hesitant to give students control, in that they would be responsible for learning, checking, and doing all the things on the blogs themselves, I also liked this idea. I was a high school student not too long ago (less than four years ago in fact) and I often wished that teachers would allow me to be creative on my own. While at the same time I wanted a bit more freedom to learn on my own, I was also scared to be on my own. What if I messed up? Something I have to keep in mind is that this student-centered approach focuses the responsibility on the students themselves and this reflects a real world application. In the real world, students will not have the guidance of educators or anyone, for that matter, and will need to learn to take responsibility for just how far they can take themselves when they are only given the tools. My new motto: Give the students the paint and paint brushes to paint their own pictures.
I learned in doing this second lesson plan that teacher-centered learning can only take learning so far and cannot induce responsibility and personal connections to learning the way that a student-centered approach can. While I liked the fact that student-centered learning would make students (hopefully) more responsible for their own learning, I was skeptical about student abilities to do so. In terms of being an educator and educating, this lesson plan taught me that working with technology can produce a million new resources for future teachers that are often free of charge. I also learned that with technology, teacher’s knowledge and growth, in terms of providing a learning experience for students, can grow and expand beyond PowerPoint presentations, Word documents, and the often drab text book.
References
North Central Regional Educational Laboratory. (2000). National Educational Technology Standards for Teachers: Achievement Rubrics. Retrieved November 18, 2008, from http://www.ncrel.org/tech/nets/nets-t-rubric.pdf
Weebly:
http://www.weebly.com
Slide Share
http://www.slideshare.net
Movie Maker
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/updates/moviemaker2.mspx
All Capture
http://www.allcapture.com/eng/index.php
Video Jug
http://www.videojug.com
Google Blog
http://www.blogger.com
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Saturday, November 22, 2008
Technology Tool Assessment
Over the course of this fall semester, I have been introduced to a number of technological tools in my audio visual class. There were some that I absolutely loved and others that I did care for too much. In this blog I will go through the pros and cons of eight technological tools that I have been introduced to and used over the course of the semester. I will also assign ratings to each tool that rank from "two thumbs way up," (which is the highest and best rating) "one thumb way up," "okay, not so bad," and "boo, you stink!" (which is the lowest and worst rating).
The Mozilla Firefox Web Browser:
http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/
Up until this semester, I was always an Internet Explorer kind of woman. This was mainly because that was the internet browser that came standard with whatever computer I bought or used and also, I’m somewhat hesitant of new things and the idea of change. So when I learned that there were other internet browsers out there, which I actually did not know, I decided to try one out on my lab top. I happen to choose Mozilla Firefox and I am glad that I made that decision. Firefox was not difficult to learn how to use and it did not take long before I ditched Internet Explorer completely. One feature that I liked about Firefox is that when you are typing a blog or an e-mail, for instance, it spell-checks for you, much like a word processing document would. That feature saved me the trouble of having to open up a separate word processing document for quick e-mails or blog postings. Another feature that I liked about FireFox was that unlike Internet Explorer, I did not have to do additional downloads in order to play online games. I also like that when you save something off the internet, a separate dialogue box opens, scans your document, and then saves a list of all the things you download off the internet. It also did not hurt that Mozilla was a lot faster than Internet Explorer! As a result of all these positive features, I give Mozilla Firefox “two thumbs way up!”.
Moodle’s Thinking Distance Classrooms:
http://www.gaughin.thinkingdistance.org/
I’ve never had a class that based online. In fact, I have never had a class that required me to do more than research online. So when I was introduced to the audio visual classes’ Moodle site, I hesitated because I frustrate easily when technology does not work with me, which is too bad because I own a PC, but that is another story for another time. However, I was pleased to find that Moodle was not difficult at all. Moodle was easy to navigate, which is a plus because I’m not fond of exploring when under the pressure to get something done. I liked Moodle because it allowed me to keep track of the class events without having to hull around a binder full of class assignment deadlines and requirements. I liked how everything I needed to know about my audio visual class was right there at my finger tips and I even had resources to communicate with group mates about up and coming presentations and projects. I even got to view my grades and any comments about assignment submissions. Overall, Moodle was an effective way for me to keep track of my classes’ progress and to communicate with my classmates and instructor. As a result, I give Moodle “two thumbs way up!”.
Google Suites:
http://www.Google.com
Much like I was an Internet Explorer kind of woman, I was also a Yahoo! kind of person. However, this semester, I had to stray from my beloved Yahoo! to sign up for a Google e-mail address for audio visual. With this e-mail sign up, I had available to me a wealth of other applications that are extremely useful. The ones I found particularly interesting or useful were iGoogle and Blogger, as well as G-mail. With iGoogle, I was able to choose a great deal of applications such as Chuck Norris jokes of the day, the daily literature quote, the short story of the day, or the interesting though of the day and have all these application appear on one webpage for my viewing pleasure, rather than having to link to different pages. In addition to easy access to fun stuff, G-mail, Google’s e-mail address name, was easy to use. I was particularly found of the chatting abilities within the actual e-mail page. I never had to download another feature or open another program or window to chat with someone like I did with MSN Messenger. Also, the G-mail chat saved all chat discussions within my G-mail inbox. This I liked because I did not have to search my own files for chat sessions. It was all stored neatly away in my e-mail account, which also saved me some place on my computers memory. Blogger, however, was my absolute favorite. As the name implies, it is a blog and this particular blog is very easy to use and allows you to easily embed pieces from Slideshare.net or post videos. I’ve had other blogs, but none that were as easy to work with and interactive as this Google Blogger. For its multiple functions and applications that are easy to use, I give Google Suites “two thumbs way up!”.
Delicious:
http://del.icio.us
One thing I always hated about using th compute somewhere else, like at an internet café or in a computer lab at school, was the fact that whatever I had saved on my internet service provider’s bookmarks, I could not access on another computer. Delicious solved this problem. Delicious is a social bookmarking site that enables users to bookmark sites, give descriptions, and organize them into meaningful categories. Not only was I able to keep tab of my favorite sites on-line, but when I typed in a tag that I gave my specific website of choice, I could see how many other people bookmarked the same site and then link to their lists and discover their bookmarks, which lead me to other interesting sites that I had interest in. For me, Delicious was the place of discovery and linked me to other people with similar interests. Despite Delicious being addicting, the only other problem that I had with Delicious was the fact that when I decided to create bundle or categories, I had to remember or write down what I wanted to include into the bundle because there was no selection list. This annoyed me and as a result, Delicious gets an “one thumb way up”.
All Capture:
http://www.allcapture.com/eng/index.php
Before I learned about All Capture, I usually employed the use of a digital camera to record anything that was occurring on my computer screen. For instance, when I was tasked with demonstrating an online game, I used my digital camera to record me playing the game, which was difficult not only because I only have two hands (one for the camera and one from the game playing), but also, a digital camera was not the best visual and aesthetically pleasing method. Thankfully, a friend told me about the All Capture software. All Capture is a desktop recording software that allows users to record the activity on their desktops. All Capture can capture sound, as well as be used to high light certain portions of a recording. While All Capture saved me from having to record my desktop activities with a digital camera, which was usually blurry or too dark to see, All Capture is some what confusing for the technological novice such as myself. For instance, when I started my desktop recording, I was confused as to how to finish the recording without having to show that I was opening the All Capture window to press stop as I recorded. I was completely unaware of the small icon that appeared on the menu bar. Also, after I saved my recordings and attempted to add them to PowerPoint presentations or to a Movie Maker document, I was unable to figure out why they would not appear or add to these documents. As it turned out, all files, in order to appear on PowerPoint or Movie Maker, needed to be exported as a MPEG file. If it were not for its usefulness in my technological endeavors I would have given All Capture a low rating. However, despite its lack of direction, its usefulness drives me to give capture a “okay, not too bad!”.
Rubi Star:
http://www.rubistar.4teacher.org
One thing I learned all about this semester both in my audio visual course, but also in my evaluation course, was the importance of rubrics in assessing student work. I have yet to learn exactly how to construct my own assessment rubric and only understand how it should look and that they were important. So when it came time for me to assess student work in my lesson plans that I have created throughout the semester, I was stumped. I searched the World Wide Web for resources on rubric creation and I was lucky enough to come across Rubi Star. Rubi Star contains an application in which users can choose a basic template from a bank of rubrics. After a template is chosen, then users choose the criteria for grading and may edit the criteria via this website. I liked Rubi Star because not only did it help me in rubric creation when I had absolutely no idea how to create my own, but also because Rubi Star allowed me to edit the rubric over the site, as opposed to copying and pasting the completed rubric to a word processing document. However, there were a few things that I did not like. Although I was able to edit via the web, the site only allowed a 40 minute editing session, after which, if the rubric is not published or saved, then users would loose all their work. Also, while there were different templates to choose from, there was not a good variety, which required users to have to search for the most best-fitting rubric or not be able to use the application. However, the editing function allows for variations from the templates offered, in that users can create their own criteria. With that being said, I give Rubi Star an “okay, not too bad!”.
Movie Maker:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/updates/moviemaker2.mspx
I have used Movie Maker sparingly throughout my college career, but only gave it a lot of attention this semester. Movie Maker is a Windows application that allows users to create movies or picture shows by allowing users to import music, pictures, movie clips and edit them accordingly. Movie Maker comes with some movie effects such as slow motion or the vintage film function in which movies appear black and white and blurred. Movie Maker is really simple to use in that it is not difficult to locate the key elements in editing the films and it is not difficult to navigate. However, one problem that I had with Movie Maker is that it does not allow users to edit their pictures in terms of the image size. Users would have to edit their photos using a separate application. Further, music cannot be edited in terms of its effects. For example, music cannot be slowed down. Although Movie Maker is extremely easy to use and work with, Movie Maker does not offer many editing techniques that can produce extraordinary movies. For these reasons, I give Movie Maker a “okay, not too bad!”.
Slide Share:
http://www.slideshare.net/
PowerPoint, as a college student, has become the main source of presentational methods that I use. In fact, when the word “presentation” is tossed around the classroom, it is automatically assumed by most professors and students that presentation means PowerPoint. Power Point is an especially popular method for group presentations and one thing about group presentations is that everyone wants the group leader to send them the presentation via e-mail, which for me, is a hassle, since PowerPoint files are usually large. However, I was introduced to another tool in which provides a better way to share digital presentation over the web: Slide Share. Slide Share is a site were users can post their presentations, embed presentations into their blogs, and view the presentations of others. The thing I liked about Slide Share was that it allowed for easy uploading and made it easy for me to share presentations with others around the world, but especially within my class or groups. Further, Slide Share gave me a place to save or back up all my presentations in case I should ever loose my flash drive or should my computer crash. However, there were more things that I did not like about Slide Share. One thing that I did not like about Slide Share was the fact that it would not support certain font types and you could not post transitions, movie clips, or sounds within the saved presentation on Slide Share. The font problem was especially frustrating after I published presentations and then discovering that the text was off set or non-existent. I would then have to edit the actual PowerPoint presentation and then re-post the presentation to Slide Share. The fact that Slide Share does not post sounds or movie clips frustrated me as well, because usually I would utilize Slide Share when pressed for time and then I would have to go search for other ways to show the sounds and movies within my presentation. For these reasons, I give Slide Share a “boo, you stink!”.
The Mozilla Firefox Web Browser:
http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/
Up until this semester, I was always an Internet Explorer kind of woman. This was mainly because that was the internet browser that came standard with whatever computer I bought or used and also, I’m somewhat hesitant of new things and the idea of change. So when I learned that there were other internet browsers out there, which I actually did not know, I decided to try one out on my lab top. I happen to choose Mozilla Firefox and I am glad that I made that decision. Firefox was not difficult to learn how to use and it did not take long before I ditched Internet Explorer completely. One feature that I liked about Firefox is that when you are typing a blog or an e-mail, for instance, it spell-checks for you, much like a word processing document would. That feature saved me the trouble of having to open up a separate word processing document for quick e-mails or blog postings. Another feature that I liked about FireFox was that unlike Internet Explorer, I did not have to do additional downloads in order to play online games. I also like that when you save something off the internet, a separate dialogue box opens, scans your document, and then saves a list of all the things you download off the internet. It also did not hurt that Mozilla was a lot faster than Internet Explorer! As a result of all these positive features, I give Mozilla Firefox “two thumbs way up!”.
Moodle’s Thinking Distance Classrooms:
http://www.gaughin.thinkingdistance.org/
I’ve never had a class that based online. In fact, I have never had a class that required me to do more than research online. So when I was introduced to the audio visual classes’ Moodle site, I hesitated because I frustrate easily when technology does not work with me, which is too bad because I own a PC, but that is another story for another time. However, I was pleased to find that Moodle was not difficult at all. Moodle was easy to navigate, which is a plus because I’m not fond of exploring when under the pressure to get something done. I liked Moodle because it allowed me to keep track of the class events without having to hull around a binder full of class assignment deadlines and requirements. I liked how everything I needed to know about my audio visual class was right there at my finger tips and I even had resources to communicate with group mates about up and coming presentations and projects. I even got to view my grades and any comments about assignment submissions. Overall, Moodle was an effective way for me to keep track of my classes’ progress and to communicate with my classmates and instructor. As a result, I give Moodle “two thumbs way up!”.
Google Suites:
http://www.Google.com
Much like I was an Internet Explorer kind of woman, I was also a Yahoo! kind of person. However, this semester, I had to stray from my beloved Yahoo! to sign up for a Google e-mail address for audio visual. With this e-mail sign up, I had available to me a wealth of other applications that are extremely useful. The ones I found particularly interesting or useful were iGoogle and Blogger, as well as G-mail. With iGoogle, I was able to choose a great deal of applications such as Chuck Norris jokes of the day, the daily literature quote, the short story of the day, or the interesting though of the day and have all these application appear on one webpage for my viewing pleasure, rather than having to link to different pages. In addition to easy access to fun stuff, G-mail, Google’s e-mail address name, was easy to use. I was particularly found of the chatting abilities within the actual e-mail page. I never had to download another feature or open another program or window to chat with someone like I did with MSN Messenger. Also, the G-mail chat saved all chat discussions within my G-mail inbox. This I liked because I did not have to search my own files for chat sessions. It was all stored neatly away in my e-mail account, which also saved me some place on my computers memory. Blogger, however, was my absolute favorite. As the name implies, it is a blog and this particular blog is very easy to use and allows you to easily embed pieces from Slideshare.net or post videos. I’ve had other blogs, but none that were as easy to work with and interactive as this Google Blogger. For its multiple functions and applications that are easy to use, I give Google Suites “two thumbs way up!”.
Delicious:
http://del.icio.us
One thing I always hated about using th compute somewhere else, like at an internet café or in a computer lab at school, was the fact that whatever I had saved on my internet service provider’s bookmarks, I could not access on another computer. Delicious solved this problem. Delicious is a social bookmarking site that enables users to bookmark sites, give descriptions, and organize them into meaningful categories. Not only was I able to keep tab of my favorite sites on-line, but when I typed in a tag that I gave my specific website of choice, I could see how many other people bookmarked the same site and then link to their lists and discover their bookmarks, which lead me to other interesting sites that I had interest in. For me, Delicious was the place of discovery and linked me to other people with similar interests. Despite Delicious being addicting, the only other problem that I had with Delicious was the fact that when I decided to create bundle or categories, I had to remember or write down what I wanted to include into the bundle because there was no selection list. This annoyed me and as a result, Delicious gets an “one thumb way up”.
All Capture:
http://www.allcapture.com/eng/index.php
Before I learned about All Capture, I usually employed the use of a digital camera to record anything that was occurring on my computer screen. For instance, when I was tasked with demonstrating an online game, I used my digital camera to record me playing the game, which was difficult not only because I only have two hands (one for the camera and one from the game playing), but also, a digital camera was not the best visual and aesthetically pleasing method. Thankfully, a friend told me about the All Capture software. All Capture is a desktop recording software that allows users to record the activity on their desktops. All Capture can capture sound, as well as be used to high light certain portions of a recording. While All Capture saved me from having to record my desktop activities with a digital camera, which was usually blurry or too dark to see, All Capture is some what confusing for the technological novice such as myself. For instance, when I started my desktop recording, I was confused as to how to finish the recording without having to show that I was opening the All Capture window to press stop as I recorded. I was completely unaware of the small icon that appeared on the menu bar. Also, after I saved my recordings and attempted to add them to PowerPoint presentations or to a Movie Maker document, I was unable to figure out why they would not appear or add to these documents. As it turned out, all files, in order to appear on PowerPoint or Movie Maker, needed to be exported as a MPEG file. If it were not for its usefulness in my technological endeavors I would have given All Capture a low rating. However, despite its lack of direction, its usefulness drives me to give capture a “okay, not too bad!”.
Rubi Star:
http://www.rubistar.4teacher.org
One thing I learned all about this semester both in my audio visual course, but also in my evaluation course, was the importance of rubrics in assessing student work. I have yet to learn exactly how to construct my own assessment rubric and only understand how it should look and that they were important. So when it came time for me to assess student work in my lesson plans that I have created throughout the semester, I was stumped. I searched the World Wide Web for resources on rubric creation and I was lucky enough to come across Rubi Star. Rubi Star contains an application in which users can choose a basic template from a bank of rubrics. After a template is chosen, then users choose the criteria for grading and may edit the criteria via this website. I liked Rubi Star because not only did it help me in rubric creation when I had absolutely no idea how to create my own, but also because Rubi Star allowed me to edit the rubric over the site, as opposed to copying and pasting the completed rubric to a word processing document. However, there were a few things that I did not like. Although I was able to edit via the web, the site only allowed a 40 minute editing session, after which, if the rubric is not published or saved, then users would loose all their work. Also, while there were different templates to choose from, there was not a good variety, which required users to have to search for the most best-fitting rubric or not be able to use the application. However, the editing function allows for variations from the templates offered, in that users can create their own criteria. With that being said, I give Rubi Star an “okay, not too bad!”.
Movie Maker:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/updates/moviemaker2.mspx
I have used Movie Maker sparingly throughout my college career, but only gave it a lot of attention this semester. Movie Maker is a Windows application that allows users to create movies or picture shows by allowing users to import music, pictures, movie clips and edit them accordingly. Movie Maker comes with some movie effects such as slow motion or the vintage film function in which movies appear black and white and blurred. Movie Maker is really simple to use in that it is not difficult to locate the key elements in editing the films and it is not difficult to navigate. However, one problem that I had with Movie Maker is that it does not allow users to edit their pictures in terms of the image size. Users would have to edit their photos using a separate application. Further, music cannot be edited in terms of its effects. For example, music cannot be slowed down. Although Movie Maker is extremely easy to use and work with, Movie Maker does not offer many editing techniques that can produce extraordinary movies. For these reasons, I give Movie Maker a “okay, not too bad!”.
Slide Share:
http://www.slideshare.net/
PowerPoint, as a college student, has become the main source of presentational methods that I use. In fact, when the word “presentation” is tossed around the classroom, it is automatically assumed by most professors and students that presentation means PowerPoint. Power Point is an especially popular method for group presentations and one thing about group presentations is that everyone wants the group leader to send them the presentation via e-mail, which for me, is a hassle, since PowerPoint files are usually large. However, I was introduced to another tool in which provides a better way to share digital presentation over the web: Slide Share. Slide Share is a site were users can post their presentations, embed presentations into their blogs, and view the presentations of others. The thing I liked about Slide Share was that it allowed for easy uploading and made it easy for me to share presentations with others around the world, but especially within my class or groups. Further, Slide Share gave me a place to save or back up all my presentations in case I should ever loose my flash drive or should my computer crash. However, there were more things that I did not like about Slide Share. One thing that I did not like about Slide Share was the fact that it would not support certain font types and you could not post transitions, movie clips, or sounds within the saved presentation on Slide Share. The font problem was especially frustrating after I published presentations and then discovering that the text was off set or non-existent. I would then have to edit the actual PowerPoint presentation and then re-post the presentation to Slide Share. The fact that Slide Share does not post sounds or movie clips frustrated me as well, because usually I would utilize Slide Share when pressed for time and then I would have to go search for other ways to show the sounds and movies within my presentation. For these reasons, I give Slide Share a “boo, you stink!”.
Saturday, November 1, 2008
Communication and Disaster: A Reflection of Dr. Diane Nelson Bryen’s “Emergency Preparedness for People with Disabilities”
It is very typical for our island culture to be prepared in terms of disasters, both natural and man-made. For as long as history reminds us, Guam has been subjected to its fair share of typhoons, earthquakes, wars, and environmental issues, such as the Ordot Dump situation and Taki Island (Taki being the Chamorro word for feces and the island name such is where all the sewage gets pumped into the ocean). According to a presentation made by Dr. Diane Nelson Bryen entitled, “Emergency Preparedness for People with Disabilities,” in 2007, mainly after the event associated with Hurricane Katrina, the Department of Homeland Security created a 64-paged Appropriation Act, which gave the course of action for any disasters situation that address evacuations and other similar concerns. However, only a half page was dedicated to individuals with disabilities, despite the fact that dealing with individuals with disabilities, in terms of disaster situations, is much more complicated and complex that a half page notation. In terms of the United States, it is estimated that 15 to 20 percent of the population has some sort of disability. Guam, on the other hand, is estimated to be higher (some 25%). With such as great population of disabled individuals, the main concern of yesterday’s discussion and presentation by Dr. Bryen, was what steps has Guam taken to ensure the safety of its disabled community members.
The room in which the presentation took place was decently filled with educators, advocates, police officers, students, and officials from Homeland Security, The American Red Cross, GSAT, Guam CEDDERS, and the Center for Independent Living. As discussion began about what Guam has done to serve the disabled community during times of disaster, it was clear that no one really knew what was going on. One police officer asked where a disabled person could go if they had no where else to go. Others asked if shelters had generators and facilities that could support a disabled person’s assistive and augmentative technology in time of disaster. Everyone seems unfamiliar with one another and these were the people who catered to individuals with disabilities and disaster situations. Clearly, there needed to be more conversation. This was a great place to get the dialogue started.
Guam, being a sort of magnet for natural and man-made disaster, has had a lot of practice in terms of knowing what to do in time of disaster. However, I believe that rests on the fact that majority of the population is without a disability and in recent years, disaster has not been as disastrous as it was in the past. However, the day when that disastrous disaster comes is not the day in which to begin planning and figuring out how to assist and help the disabled community. I hope that in the near future, dialogue and conversation between those engaged in the safety of the island and the disabled community will work together to teach the disabled how to prepare themselves and their relatives for a disastrous situation and that facilities and resources will be available for those with disabilities. Communication, regardless if it is augmented or assisted, is the key to providing safety and preparedness for all.
Works Cited
Bryen, Diane N. "Emergency Preparedness fro People with Disabilities." Special Lecture Series. University of Guam, Mangilao. 31 Oct. 2008.
The room in which the presentation took place was decently filled with educators, advocates, police officers, students, and officials from Homeland Security, The American Red Cross, GSAT, Guam CEDDERS, and the Center for Independent Living. As discussion began about what Guam has done to serve the disabled community during times of disaster, it was clear that no one really knew what was going on. One police officer asked where a disabled person could go if they had no where else to go. Others asked if shelters had generators and facilities that could support a disabled person’s assistive and augmentative technology in time of disaster. Everyone seems unfamiliar with one another and these were the people who catered to individuals with disabilities and disaster situations. Clearly, there needed to be more conversation. This was a great place to get the dialogue started.
Guam, being a sort of magnet for natural and man-made disaster, has had a lot of practice in terms of knowing what to do in time of disaster. However, I believe that rests on the fact that majority of the population is without a disability and in recent years, disaster has not been as disastrous as it was in the past. However, the day when that disastrous disaster comes is not the day in which to begin planning and figuring out how to assist and help the disabled community. I hope that in the near future, dialogue and conversation between those engaged in the safety of the island and the disabled community will work together to teach the disabled how to prepare themselves and their relatives for a disastrous situation and that facilities and resources will be available for those with disabilities. Communication, regardless if it is augmented or assisted, is the key to providing safety and preparedness for all.
Works Cited
Bryen, Diane N. "Emergency Preparedness fro People with Disabilities." Special Lecture Series. University of Guam, Mangilao. 31 Oct. 2008.
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