Technology helps diverse learners by breaking the boundary that may "separate" or "alienate" students from their peers in the classroom. Technology makes it easier for students to participate in learning by helping make connections from what is being taught in the classroom to the "real world" or a student's life outside the classroom. Therefore making learning more interesting and relatable. It also allows for events in history to be seen in a new light. Students from other countries may find our history boring or any history for that matter, especially if seen through a standard textbook.But if students were to see actual footage of lets say Pearl Harbor or the Iraq war, history is then seen in a new light which keeps students engaged. Creating class websites and blogs, doing research and projects collaboratively is another way technology helps bridge the racial, gender, and language gap amongst students. A great example of a group project would be having students use Goggle Docs to do a research paper. Google has a program similar to Word that allows you to see what all the people in your group type and add to the paper. What better way to get everyone to work together.
Photo Credit to Dell
A child with Autism using the Accent 1000 to communicate
Chapter 10 talked about the many ways that technology can promote success for any and all types of students. Everyone thinks of technology as just computer where you can type of a research paper or create a PowerPoint presentation but technology has become way more than that. Beginning with students with disabilities, assistive technology has come a long way. From text reading software, speech recognition software, and interactive electronic storybooks are ways that even a child with a disability can learn. Even if students do not posses any type of disability, technology can still do wonders. For example all through school you are taught about "Main Idea", word cloud can help those students who don't fully grasp the concept of main idea or are struggling to find it by showing them the words that appear most often in a given text. The use of word clouds, handheld dictionaries, Google Earth, virtual field trips are all examples of having and implementing a universally designed classroom. Universally designed classroom are great because they change the way the curriculum is delivered. Implementing UDL (universally designed learning) keeps students constantly engaged, especially among students with different learning intelligences.
Like the song, too - too bad it wasn't properly attributed. :( Remember, too, that you don't want to use images on your web-based posts that aren't either public domain or Creative Commons licensed (and clearly marked as such) to avoid copyright violation.
ReplyDeleteI like how you brought in some of the technology examples you have been using in class to demonstrate your understanding of this chapter - the vast majority of technology tools in the classroom can be used to equalize the diverse needs of students - all students, even if the specific technology was designed for a specific learning need - hooray! :)