EME 2040
Chapter 10 Promoting Success for All Students through Technology
How can assistive technologies be incorporated into instructions to support teaching all learners? 1. Apple Technology 2. Reading and games on the SmartBoard 3. Students with visually being able to see the words or objects can use the screen magnification.
More and more students are coming into the public schools that have disabilities. We as teachers need to be prepared for the needs of each student in our classrooms. I found article called, "Using Apple Technology to Support Learning for Students with Sensory and Learning Disabilities". If you get a chance, read it. It has a lot of different technology and strategies that you can use to help students. It is very informative and they use "Apple Technology". This article includes twelve different examples and how what they used to help each student. It is a great article and I hope you read it.
http://www.apple.com/education/docs/L419373A-US_L419373A_AppleTechDisabilities.pdf
Students nowadays are digital learners. They go into classrooms with their parents or even their own technology in hand. They use cell phones to play video games, hear songs, watch videos, watch movies, and the list goes on and on. So, in today's classrooms we need to teach the students that are diverse learners and make sure that all their students are learning. One of the ways that could be accomplished is by having a story book on the SmartBoard. How can that be? Well, if you find a story that you are reading or relates to your lesson, you can put it on the SmartBoard. The students that have a hearing disability would be able to read the words in the book. The students that are visual can see it and the ones that are auditory learners can hear it. This will help the entire class. In this video has a game with sight words that the students play in large group. They are interested and they seem to want to learn and they aren't bored.
The are students that sometimes need the screen magnified and it would help them see better. Now, every student could be on their computers and be on the same page even those that need to magnify their page to see better. This video tells you how to magnify your page.
In conclusion, "Though commonly used to support students with disabilities, assistive technologies create extraordinary learning opportunities for all students" (Maloy 259). So, basically anything that you use for the students that have disabilities can get their computer modified and it doesn't make them feel different since they can be on the same page as everyone else.
I plan to get more involved in knowing more about the assistive learning whenever I have students that have different learning styles or difficulties using the computers as they are and need modifications. This help everyone learn at the same time.
Resources:
Globe West People: Disability information for parents. (2011, February 20). The Boston Globe, p. All.
Maloy, R. W. (2011). Promoting Success for All Students through Technology.Transforming learning with new technologies (pp. 243-273). Boston: Pearson/Allyn and Bacon.
There are some great tools for students with special needs, but even some of the more generic tools, as you point out, can be used to benefit all students. It is interesting to see how far technology has come and how much they allow for more equalization among the various differences in a typical classroom.
ReplyDeleteInstead of putting the link within your written blog post, it is better to hyperlink it - So, you could highlight "Using Apple Technology to Support Learning for Students with Sensory and Learning Disabilities" and then click on the hyperlink tool to add the link - that way the reader can still get to the article, but the writing looks nicer with a website URL interrupting the flow.