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=Project Overview=

For my project, I used the new media tools to improve in the area of " Communicate with Home". My intent was to put a twist on the traditional paper newsletter that is sent home to parents. For my first installment, I focused on communication issues for children with disabilities. Following is a list of the new media tools that I used and a summary of why I selected them.

1. Glog: using glogster.com, I created the main page of my newsletter as a glog. I selected this because it would allow me to maintain a traditional newsletter format of having specific areas, but with a twist. After learning how to add graphics and edit, I was able to easily update the newsletter. In the future, I would explore importing images to use on the glogster page to personalize it even more.

2. Wiki: I had my glog images link to wikispace pages that I created. I did this so that I would have enough room to expand on the topics of the newsletter. Within the wikipages, I imported pictures, videos, and links to the internet.

3. Social Bookmarking: in my Resources section, I used the free social bookmarking tool "delicious". It was very easy to copy and paste the websites that I had listed as my favorites onto this site. This will allow me to make updates as new information comes along that all of the parents can have access to.

4. Video: I created 2 video demonstrations and uploaded them onto YouTube, then embedded them onto the wikipage. This allowed me to personalize the newsletter and in the future can be used to continue to show tools in action.

In this exercise, I took into account UDL for the adults that would be reading this newsletter. Text, video, graphics and pictures can engage all readers and touches upon the different learning styles that people have.

Overall, I am very happy with my final project. One area that frustrated me was that in the Communicating with Symbols section, I wanted to create a podcast with the pictures as opposed to just presenting the pictures with written text (to use more UDL in my presentation). Unfortunately, I was not able to get the podcast to work correctly, even after troubleshooting with a classmate and using the Apple Help menu. I will make a reservation to go to the Apple store to work with a member there to figure out what I was doing wrong so that I can use this medium in the future.