Inclusive Technology

With the advances in technology, almost nothing in education is impossible. Most classrooms are equipped with numerous different kinds of technology designed to assist students in need of extra assistance. Therefore, there is no excuse for any student to be overlooked. Numerous students benefit from inclusive technology, regardless of if they are a student with learning challenges or gifted students.

One way that students can benefit from technology is through very expensive technology, such as Tango. Tango is a product that is able to provide speech to the students that are unable to speak or are just not willing to do so. This allows students to be able to have a voice so that they can get their point across and work in groups alongside all other students.

Another great way to get students more active is to do more activities on the computer. It is quite simple; however, kids enjoy working on computers and really have a great time doing it. There can be some difficulties with this, but technology has even more solutions! For younger students with smaller hands, a mouse may be difficult to manipulate, but they can use a big mouse that is controlled by a large ball and requires a lot less use of the whole hand. For the same challenge, only with keyboards, teachers can get keyboards with large buttons. These keyboards come in either the traditional way to assist with typing, or you can get one that is in alphabetical order to help them learn the alphabet. These technologies can be very useful in the classroom!

There are low levels of technology that are very helpful as well. Some activities that one may not even think are technology are actually quite helpful. Flash cards with sayings on them are a less expensive way for children that can not speak to get their voice heard. Books on tape are another great way for children to learn and get all of the information that they need. Children, who are possibly having a harder time learning to read and are embarrassed about it, are still able to take part in class discussion without feeling inadequate and being ashamed. This is also a great fun activity for the other children who are not having trouble. They are able to take part in the discussion and feel like they’re getting off easy without having to actually read.

Technology is just great. Students can always use a bit of extra help and the way that they can get that help is through technology. Not only are they learning, they are having a great time! If they are able to go online and do some lessons or use a big keyboard that lets them feel like they are successful, they are going to have a great time while learning, and that, as educators, is our ultimate goal.

Being an Educator in the 21st Century

 Being an educator in the twenty-first century is very different from being an educator in previous years. With the recent developments in technology that have increased our abilities, children are becoming far more technologically savvy than most adults. As future educators, we are going to have to be experienced with the technology that our students are using and try in some way to use their knowledge of those things to our advantage. We can do this by incorporating more technology into the classroom in many ways. This can include allowing students to use computers more in class, incorporating different forms of technology into our lessons, and by allowing the students to be more creative with project ideas.

A lot of classrooms have computers in them so that students can work on some homework, however not many classrooms have enough computers so that everyone can use one in class. When you have one of those “teachable moments” like talked about in the article Write the Truth, every once in a while there are just times when you do not know the answer to a question that a student has. You will then need to find the answer to that question and if you incorporate your students and have them all help out and use different forms of research, then you will all easily find a solution to your problem. Different types of technology can be very useful in situations like this. You can use the internet, online databases, and so many other forms of technology.

If we as educators use technology in our lessons, we may be able to make our lessons more understandable to some students. As stated in Dual-Language Bookmaking, sometimes, you may have some students that do not speak the same language as everyone else. Technology helps educators make accommodations for those students so that they, too, are able to earn a great education.

If educators allow students to use technology to be more creative with their assignments, more students may enjoy school and not necessarily mind doing their schoolwork. Like the video, Pay Attention, was showing us, students are attached to their cell phones and their iPods. Maybe if educators were somehow able to make those technologies into some kind of school related assignment, students would like it and find it meaningful.

Technology is a great thing. It has come a long way in many years and we need to take advantage of it. If we are not using technology to our full advantage, we are wasting a value resource that is available to us. Students enjoy using technology in general and would love to use it in the classroom. If we make it more available to them, we will be helping them succeed as students.

My Introduction

Today was the first day of my practicum block and the beginning of my Sophomore year at UMF.  My name is Sam and I am an Elementary Education major with a concentration in Language Arts.  It is obvious that this year is going to be pretty intense and it is quite nerve-racking , but I really think that I will learn a lot and have a great time working in my classroom placement!