During the field trip to the student service lab, I noticed the many technologies that are helpful for students with disabilities. One of the devices I found to be useful for schools was the SmartPen. This device allowed you to record your teachers lectures while you write down notes at the same time. Later, you are able to hit play on the pen and listen to your teachers voice and lectures in case you missed what he/she said. This is important in schools for students who have certain disabilities that can't concentrate, drift off easily during lectures, have a hard time comprehending what the teacher said, etc. I also think students who need extra help in understanding text while reading, can use the text to speech application where the computer reads the text in an easier way to understand. This is helpful for slower readers and learners to grasp information faster.
Powerpoint is a useful tool and greatly beneficial for learning each level of Bloom's Taxonomy. It can help students create and design their own powerpoint to help study, learn, and develop their own work. It can also help students evaluate their information in a organized way, by using text boxes, bulleted lists, or big fonts. Next, a student can analyze their work from powerpoint to draw connections between curriculum, compare and contrast ideas, and test themselves on information they may struggle with by making compare/contrast tables and adding images to remember. Applying information from powerpoint helps student learn easily as they interpret information in ways they will understand best such as using graphics. Students can understand and retain information if they use bullet points with summarized information. It is quicker and easier to learn remember better if students recorded their powerpoint so they could go back and constantly listen to the information. This will be easier to memorize and repeat their powerpoint which will help their brain while they constantly read their studies.
As a teacher, I think it's very important to stay involved in advancing technology. It is important to know and learn about future technology and how to use it for students in a classroom. The website, here updates all the latest technologies with pictures and a full description once you click on it. It helps you with navigate through advanced technologies and how to use them efficiently.
Adaptive technologies helps students with learning disabilities in the classroom. Students with visible disabilities such as not being able to see the screen, hear the computer, or type on the keyboard can use input and output devices. Instead of reading a screen, they might use text to speech software that can speak to them or have a magnified screen. I personally haven't met anyone whose used these kind of technologies. A challenge I may face using these adaptive technologies in the classrooms, is my ability to use it. Since I have not seen or tried adaptive technologies, I would have to learn about the softwares to ensure any students of mine that might need to use them.
Some skills I acquired while working on the web page design assignment was creating a web site in general, since I have not really done that. I also learned how to create a page design set up to make my website more appealing. I loved creating a website since this is something I would like to do when I'm a teacher. It was easy to learn and understand the tools on Wix.com. For next time, I would like to add more pages and more information for my 'classroom' since that would be most helpful for future students and parents. In my future teaching career, creating a class page would be so helpful for students and parents to catch up on any material, learn about what's going on each day, different announcements, and a good reference for the school year. Click here to view my class page!
From working with Diigo, I've learned that multiple people can join a group and post links, information, and other material all at the same time. I found the highlighting tool on Diigo very helpful for students. It's a great way for students to comment or question certain information and share their thoughts for everybody to look at. This social networking software is a great application for future learning and connecting with others.
Check out my website here!
