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Thursday, April 20, 2017

Final Reflection

Part 1:
Throughout this course I have been blown away by the fact that even though this is nearly the end of my time in this entire program, there are still so many resources available that I was unaware of or didn't know how to use. It was great to be able to see how others are using different types of technology and I loved learning from everyone in the course. I am a believer in constructivist theory and I think I tried to show that in each of my units. I like the idea of allowing students to discover things for themselves, though looking back I would have added more time for self-reflection in my lessons.

I think it is clear to see how my course work demonstrates mastery of AECT standards because the course was laid out to make it so that we were displaying our content pedagogical knowledge, we were to show how we can plan for a variety of learning environments, had to do plenty of research; overall we were forced to master the standards through what we were told to do. This made me realize that as a professional I am constantly aware of these and growing as I plan each and every lesson I create whether it is for a grad class or for a group of students.

I think the main thing I will do differently because of this course is to think about every topic as cross curricular. It was great to see how what seemed to be one subject was so easy to put into other subject areas. I think it will help me to come up with more ways to collaborate with my colleagues.

Part 2:
I honestly think I put a lot of thought into my blog posts and I enjoyed them. I put my heart and mind into talking honestly and openly about education as a whole and how I feel about the use of technology within schools. Because I am at the end of my degree and have been teaching for over a decade, I feel that I know what I am talking about and my opinion is valid. I also posted on time each week and made a point to respond to my peers each week. There were a couple times that I didn't use/cite resources within my post, so I would take a few points off for that and give myself an A-.


Monday, April 17, 2017

Assistive Technology

  1. Rationale for Assistive/Adaptive Technology: 
No matter what, all children deserve a public education that will help them to grow as human being and citizens. We are not all born the same, but that does not mean that we should be denied something so basic as an education. Schools have to be aware of all students within their districts that require assistive or adaptive technologies and consider what they will need when budget planning. Obviously, new technology becomes available often and new students come to schools, but this happens whether students need special technologies or not. Just because something may only be used by a small number or people does not mean that it has no value. 

There are plenty of ways to get around spending a fortune on assistive technology. Sites like Leanring Ally supply audiobooks for students who are visually impaired or suffer from dyslexia. 

Though certain apps can be expensive, as much as $150, that money is small considering what many technologies cost and how high an entire budget may be. There are free apps for needs ranging from autism to learning fine motor skills. McCann (2014) shows that 58% of special needs funding is spent on Speech and Language disabilities or impairments, and most schools have speech and language pathologists on staff or contract out to them. If schools can supply those children with what they need by hiring what is often 1-1 time, then they can certainly figure out how to help any students with other special needs. McCann also states that schools are given weighted funds by their state so that if they have students with more severe disabilities, they will be given more funding so that that students' needs can be met. There is just no excuse not to give students everything they need when it comes to a free and appropriate public education. 

Resources

              McCann, C. (2014). Federal funding for students with disabilities. Retrieved April 16, 2017, from 

https://na-production.s3.amazonaws.com/documents/federal-funding-for-students-with-disabilities.pdf

Friday, April 7, 2017

Technology Use Obstacles

There are always obstacles to using anything new in a classroom. After our assignments these past few weeks, I have found one major obstacle is trying to find tech from other subject area related to my main topic. So the first obstacle is finding the right tech for what you are teaching. Using technology for the sake of doing something new and fun is not enough if it is not appropriate to the class you are teaching and the specific students you are teaching. A solution to this is to test technologies out with a small group of students or with colleagues so that you aren't going in blind. This is of course an extra step that will take some time, but will be useful in the long run.

Another obstacle in my particular area is the fact that the content of history hasn't changed and teachers could easily get caught up in doing the same thing year after year. Not wanting to "reinvent the wheel" is a problem many teachers encounter, especially when there are not a lot of new discoveries about the area they teach.

Because social studies is not a tested subject area, the budget is often low and teachers do not have the funds to purchase technologies that are not useful to the entire building. Not being tested means that "technology materials tend to be directed toward other content areas" (Roblyer, 2013). Open source materials are a good solution to this problem, but also take a lot of time to find and learn before creating lessons with them.

References

Roblyer, M. D. (2016). Integrating educational technology into teaching (7th 
     ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson.