http://www.techlearning.com/article/8902
Basic Technology Tools for Diverse Learning Needs discusses how schools are being held accountable to show that all students are learning, every student must have access to the curriculum in ways that suit their learning. In Universal Design for Learning, the author talks about using an open approach when we design educational environments to meet the entire range of learners. Kathy Weise emphasizes how important basic desktop tools are. She states, "It is important for teachers, aides and staff to have professional development training in learning to use these tools and enable students' exposure to their capabilities and use." Curriculum and lesson plans are critical because when changes are put into the lesson up front less time is spent than in making changes later for each individual need.
Technology increasingly offers a growing range of digital resources that can provide content to a classroom of diverse learners in many ways. One way that technology offers a growing range of digital resource is, students have the choice of changing the text size, color and contrast. Multimedia content allows students to listen to the story while following along in the book.
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I completely agree with the statement from Kathy Weise in your article. I do believe that if teachers, aids, and staff have professional training than they will be able to help students with special and/or diverse needs. I think that if my teachers had the background knowledge on different technology tools that it would have helped students even those without special or diverse needs. I like the example you put in your article about how the text size, color and contrast can be changed to help students. Another example is using speakers in the classroom for students who may have a hearing disability. It can also grab student’s attention like those with attention deficit disorder and more. If there are different training programs available to teachers this is a class I would like to attend. This class has opened my eyes to all the different technologies we as future teachers can use in our classrooms! Great job!
ReplyDeleteThanks Kathryn!
ReplyDeleteI agree with your example of using speakers in the classroom for students with hearing disability, I would have never thought about that. Now that you mentioned it, that would be a great idea!
That is so true, this class has also opened up my eyes to all different technologies we as future teachers can use in our classrooms. This class is really preparing me for being a teacher. Also, even though it is an online class I am learning a whole lot of useful information that I can honestly say, I will use in the future!