Assistive and Adaptive Technologies, Universal Design, Academic Software for Students, and Blogging

Assistive and Adaptive Technologies

Assistive and adaptive technologies are extremely important when it comes to supporting learners in education. They are used to help students that can't normally use traditional technologies use them in an educational setting. For example, there is voice recognition software for the students that can't type. When I was in school, one of my friends was dyslexic, so he put all of his work through a spell checker and even asked the teacher to proofread before he turned his work in. One of the challenges that I see with adaptive technologies in my classroom is that if I have a student with a physical disability that has to use a voice recognition program might be distracting to other students. I will combat this by informing students of the importance of the program to that student before we start. I can also offer headphones for the other students so they can listen closer to their own material and block outside noise.

Universal Design

Universal design is an important guideline for educators to follow when trying to improve and optimize teaching and learning for all people. The key principles are important to address the larger issues of usability because each of them make it easier for people who struggle with using traditional technologies to use them. 
Allow for flexibility: It is important for the material to be flexible when working with certain populations of learners. 
Be simple and intuitive: Anything that is too complicated for a traditional learner can be much harder for non-traditional learners.
Minimize errors: Errors can trip up software like readers and such and make the material confusing and incoherent.
Include redundant modalities: The more redundant the modalities, the more multifaceted the program is and can be used by more people.
Avoid side effects: There effects can take away from the main purpose and confuse people.

Academic Software for Students

Software, when used properly, can be an extremely effective compliment to education. The programs can enhance learning and further learning for students. The two software tools that I would like to use in my future classroom are Prezi and Quizlet. Prezi is a presentation format that is more interactive and exciting than Microsoft PowerPoint in my opinion. I want to use this because it is more engaging and accessible for my students. The second program is Quizlet. I want to use this program in my future classroom because it is a fun way to learn important information. I can input questions and answers into Quizlet and my students can use it for flashcards, games, and competitions. This can make learning fun and exciting and is why I will use it in my future classroom.

Blogging

I have had fun blogging. It is a good way to engage with my classmates and learn what they think about things in the realm of education. I also enjoy the blogger format. It is easy to use and format and it looks great in execution. 

I commented on Olivia Wilkening's blog and Hayley Singer's blog.


Comments

  1. EvelynMarch 8, 2020 at 4:21 PM

    Hey Jacob! Great job on your blog this week. I liked your idea of formally using Quizlet in the classroom. All of my teachers knew we used Quizlet, but never used it in our curriculum. Digital flashcards are so much more useful than standard paper cards now because of how common smartphones are, so I think classrooms need to make this adjustment. I also liked how you offered a solution to potential distractions that come with voice command software. Everyone deserves to get to engage with the material, and I think it is important that we start teaching that to children at an early age.

    ReplyDelete

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