Blog #9

Assistive & Adaptive Technologies

It is vitally important that teachers know their learners and part of this is knowing the abilities or disabilities of your students. As a teacher, you must be contentious of limitations that specific students might have and you must be prepared and willing to implement solutions that will make learning just as accessible to these students as it is to a "normal" student. The podcast defines adaptive technologies as "technologies that help people with disabilities more effectively use computing equipment". There are many technological features that can be utilized to support students such as using voice input if a student is unable to type or using spell checkers for students with dyslexia. Neither myself or people I know have had a disability for which they need to use adaptive technologies. The exception is programs such as spell checkers which are easily accessible and useful for everyone. One potential challenge I see with using adaptive technologies is school funding.

Universal Design

All websites, powerpoints, and other teaching design elements should be created with accessibility in mind for people of all levels of abilities. Think about a building. When a public building is being designed, they must consider an entrance for those who are in wheelchairs. Of course, not all disabilities are visible and we must consider all disabilities when designing our lessons and teaching tools. We must allow for flexibility especially for those using adaptive technologies. For example, we can write captions for images for blind users. Another element of universal design is to be simple and intuitive by not making our designs more complex than they need to be. The next element is to avoid errors. You want to prevent rather than fix any errors by using warnings and designing certain information to stand out. You should also consider including redundant modalities of the information so that if one modality is unaccessible to a student, another one hopefully will be. You also want to avoid side effects. This can be done by reverting a text back to the original form when a user is done with it.

Academic Software for Students

One academic software I would like to implement in my classroom is certainly a classroom website. I think that a website created on a platform such as Wix or Weebly can easily be done and updated by teachers. I would like to include my syllabus, assignment calendar, and lessons (such as powerpoints from class) on my website along with other elements. I think that type of platform would make important information easily accessible to both students and their parents/guardians. Another academic software I would like to implement in my classroom is something like OneCalendar. I would like to use a software like this so that students are well aware of assignment due dates, field trips, etc. I believe that organization and planning is an important part of education (as well as a good life lesson) and by creating a calendar for my students, I would be able to keep them on track. I also like this feature because it is something that I could easily print out each month for my students in the case that they do not have access to the internet at home.

Blogging

Personally, I love blogging for classes. I am an English major with an education minor and have often either blogged or posted in discussion boards for assignments. I believe that it is a great way to reflect on the material that you are learning in class, explain your understanding and opinions, answer critical thinking questions, and share with classmates. I especially like blogging because your individual blog creates an easily accessible platform to access what you have written which allows you to review and reflect on your own thoughts as you continue in the course!

Comments

I commented on Liz and Morgan's posts!