The Osmo Pizza Company App

The Osmo Pizza Company App

The Osmo Pizza Company app is a fun and engaging app that teaches children ages 6-12 real world math, money and social skills. It also introduces students to the idea of running and growing a business and becoming an entrepreneur. What I love about this app is that it is hands on and requires more than just tapping a screen. With this app, students get a cardboard pizza, toppings and money. When a customer walks in, their order pops up on the screen and the student has to assemble the cardboard pizza with the correct toppings as quickly and efficiently as possible. If they make the pizza correctly, the customer is happy and gives a good review, if they make it incorrectly or not fast enough, the customer gets grumpy and can give a bad review! This helps students learn nonverbal communication based on the customer's facial expressions which improves their social skills. Once the pizza has been made, you slide it in front of the iPad's camera to capture it and the customer then gets in a separate line to pay. The student then has to swipe the iPad to the left to go to the register, where customers will give them money for their pizza. Here students engage in math while they make change for each customer. They slide the correct change in the iPads view and again the customer will either be happy from receiving the correct change and give a good review, or be upset from receiving the wrong change and give a bad review. This also improves their mental math skills as they will have more customers lining up for pizza during this time and they will need to quickly make change and move on to making the next pizza. As they continue on and gain positive reviews, students have the opportunity to use their profits to improve the business and work their way up to being the boss! This is a great introduction to business management and entrepreneurship. I have observed student's using this app and they had SO much fun with it that they didn't even realize they were learning. I think apps like that are important with young children. Being interested and engaged in an activity is the first step to understanding new concepts, and with this app student's are instantly engaged. The only negative thing I can say about the app is that sometimes the camera does not capture the pizza, or it can lag and throw your whole game off. When it works properly (which it does most of the time), it really is a great learning tool for students! I even tried my hand at it, and I was surprisingly having just as much fun as the students were, maybe even more! 

Click here to get the app! 

Speech to Text in Education

In today's society, technology is becoming evermore present not only in our daily lives, but also in education. Students come into the classroom anticipating that their teachers will be on the same page with them regarding technology that they use in their everyday lives, but sometimes teachers need to make the call on whether or not the technology is helping or hindering students' learning. Today, a large debate is forming on whether or not speech to text is appropriate for students to use in the classroom. Speech to text is a technology that allows people to talk into the phone, computer, or other device, and the technology translates what they say into text.

Blogger Susan Fitzell argues in this article that speech to text is a great tool for students who have trouble articulating their thoughts into writing. However, she also acknowledges that many standardized tests require students to demonstrate this skill. The general consensus seems to agree with Fitzell's thoughts that speech to text is a great tool for students who may have difficulty with language whether that is english language learners, students with learning disabilities, or for students with visual disabilities.  Not only does speech to text increase accessibility, but it can also improve efficiency in outputting quality work that accurately represents students' thoughts. many students become frustrated with writing and give up before they even begin, this technology encourages them to push forward while developing their critical thinking skills.

 However, it is also important to consider the ramifications of utilizing this technology in your classroom. As noted above, current standardized test formatting does not accommodate speech to text usage during the test. Furthermore, it can be very difficult to rationalize to students why some students get to utilize a technology, but not everybody (if you choose to only allow struggling students to use it). Also, in consideration of the your own sanity, keep in mind that your classroom will be significantly louder when all students are talking rather than writing or typing. You also need to know whether or not your school has the funding to support this technology in your classroom. If you plan on self-funding the project, it is critical that all of your students have equal access to the technology, and bills can add up fast if you do not find free resources that can be utilized. It is also important to acknowledge that speech to text technology is not a perfect science; students will not be able to rely on the spelling, grammar, and overall accuracy of the translation. This leads us to the larger question: if students solely rely on speech to text technology, will they even be capable of proofreading the output of the technology?

Think about it, let it simmer, and consider all of the pros and cons before rolling out this technology in your classroom. Some of the free apps available today are: Google Gboard, Transcribe,  Dragon Dictation, and Evernote.

Assistive Technology Ultimately Benefits Entire Learning Community

Since living with a disability does not preclude a student from furthering his or her education, these deficits must be acknowledged and addressed.  Luckily, there are a number of technologies designed to help students with disabilities adjust to school life with the greatest measure of independence possible and also allow them to integrate as valuable members of the classroom community.  For students that suffer from dyslexia or other learning disabilities, electronic worksheets can be implemented.  These worksheets help students orientate themselves to the words, equations, and other items that encompass their assignments.  Moreover, some of these worksheets have a text-to-speech option, which allows for greater ease of obtaining information.  In addition to these worksheets, there is also phonetic spelling software, which converts the student’s typing into words that they can listen to after the class or lecture.

            For students who have conditions such as dyscalculia, the use of a talking calculator is of great benefit to them.  These calculators make it easier to read numbers, perform calculations, and review or check answers.  Most of us spend our undergraduate years dodging math, but a device like this can be a game changer for the types of degrees these individuals are willing to pursue.  For children who suffer from autism or other disabilities that cause them to struggle with social situations, assistive teachers can videotape various interactions.  The tapes can be used to highlight where the students engaged in positive exchanges and where they might need to improve in the future.  Any device that can create an environment in which disabled students feel included and productive and removes a sense of isolation should be invested in for the benefit of the entire learning community.

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Teach Your Monster To Read

Teach Your Monster To Read is a fun-filled game for young children learning to understand the sounds and first words with the progression to simple sentences.  They have a pretty thorough demo that allows you to try various games so the student would be more comfortable working the controls and following its directions.  The student is able to first create their very own monster and then the monster does different games based on the spelling of words and how words sound.Within the teacher's area, they have a classroom toolkit that shows phonics and reading resources.  It also has a game by game comparison that gives the teacher info on which games gives what skills to each child involved. They also have a shopping tab where you can have your created monster and put in on a t-shirt to purchase.  I have to put out a disclaimer: This website is ran by Usborne Publishing which makes pretty good children's book but I must say that some of the follow thru of connect this website to the books they sell does not work well enough to me.  Overall though, many kids will be very entertained with their little monster making a stir-fry from things that start with a certain letter.

The Happy Scientist

Founded by Robert Krampf, The Happy Scientist is an online learning platform that provides engaging science experiments. The material available on the website is presented in a non-threatening manner which enables educators, students, and parents, to have a everyone can do attitude. Presentations available on the online learning platform promotes a strong desire to understand the world around us. The videos show just enough about an experiment to give an understanding of the likely outcome incase one prefers to not do the experiment at home. Educators and parents can enjoy the detailed activities and videos that are available for children to enjoy. Many of the videos on the learning platform involves projects and experiments that help broaden and further the learning of students. The videos that guides experiments are short, fun, and packed with engaging ideas to try. Students are able to select their own science lessons and do reports on topics that keep them engaged. Funny yet informative, The Happy Scientist guides the learning of students by learning and building concepts and using prior knowledge to connect related topics. The only unfavorable thing about this website is that educators and parents that homeschool their children will need a paid subscription to add this learning platform to their curriculum or to simply just use.

Education City

Education City is a website with a phelora of amazing tools to help teachers achieve their goals in bettering the learning of their students. Many of their resources are free and they have a 21 day trial to try out all they have to offer.  You can plan, teach, learn and monitor all of the student's activities with this program.  The edmentum blog which connect with education city is another resource for teachers to participate in writings and gather information.  This application is easily accessible on computer, cell phone, whiteboard, or even at the student's home to do a possible flipped classroom.  For a paid subscription, you would have to fill out some information and will give you a personalized quote.  This is primarily for elementary educators to use and it does teach all of the basic subject but  there isn't anything that stands out from the rest that our class has done this semester.  Overall it is still a decent product but without having a long-term subscription, I cannot say if it would be worth the money or not.

How To Use Robots in Education

     While some people might imagine a time in which our children are taught by intimidating, lifeless robots, the view over the horizon is decidedly rosier.  One Finnish tech expert has developed an interactive robot that he hopes will assume the mundane tasks of teaching, freeing educators to serve as mentors to students, while providing fun and consistent instruction to students.  While Lasse Rouhiainen did express some concern that children might grow attached to the robot, the benefits definitely seem to outweigh the potential drawbacks.  For example, the robot would provide "judgment-free" assistance; even the most patient adult can grow weary of explaining the same concept over and over.  School districts would need to absorb the initial costs for the robot (and the obvious maintenance), but those same school districts would be hard pressed to find teaching assistants who can speak twenty-three different languages.  Moreover, the costs associated with human beings, like health care and time off, are not factors to consider when using robots in the classroom.  As a student who needed support in a mainstream classroom, I think that a robot would have been a good fit for my needs.  I did not need assistance with self-care, I just needed certain instructions repeated and certain concepts reviewed.  After the initial allure of the robot wore off, it would have been more "organic" and less intrusive to receive assistance from a robot than to constantly have an adult at my elbow.
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