Essential Question: What assistive or adaptive tools could be helpful as I create my online courses?I think this is a tough question. I might be able to answer it now but my answer will probably be quickly changed. Technology is constantly changing and we must continually be searching online for new technologies that may assist in out classroom. Moore & Kearsely (2011) make a good point that we don't need to know everything we just need to know enough "to be able to ask intelligent questions, make suggestions, know when something isn’t working as it should, and above all know the limits and the potential of each of the technologies." Below is a chart from Moore and Kearsley (2011) that I find to be extremely beneficial. I think I would want to reference this to be sure I am using the right technology to get the material to students. "Our challenge as educators is to be creative in deciding what is the best medium or mixture of media for a specific course or program, and what is the most appropriate technology for delivering it." (Moore & Kearsley 2011) In evaluating which technologies will be beneficial I will keep Bates (1990) principles as referenced in Moore & Kearsley (2011) in my mind. He uses the acronym ACTIONS to present these factors. I see so many benefits to the wide range of technologies available. The difficulty is finding what is useful due to the abundance of materials. You also have to figure out which works the best because there are so many of the same technology. You have to find the one that works best for you and the student. 21 Chrome Extensions for Struggling Students and Special Needs provided a great list of extensions to use. I found SpeakIt! (reads any website), Move It (gives you an exercise to do for each interval you set it for), and SentiSum: Smart Summarizer (summarizes the website) to be at the top of my list to try. I will probably use SpeakIt! first because many students I have shut down when they have to read a lot. This may prove to really help them. On 8 Helpful Assistive Technology Tools For Your Classroom I was reminded of closed captioning and subtitles. The article talked about using it with deaf students but I have found it to be equally as important with ELL students. They actually remind me to use it. I find that they are able to comprehend so much more when they can hear it and see it. There are so many things I want to try out. In creating my class I will have to be careful to not go overboard in trying out new things and I will also have to try to not only stick with one thing. It is will be a hard balancing act for sure. Sources
8 Helpful Assistive Technology Tools For Your Classroom. (2013, May 15). Retrieved October 13, 2016, from http://www.teachthought.com/the-future-of-learning/technology/8-helpful-assistive-technology-tools-for-your-classroom/ Curts, E. (2016, October 08). 21 Chrome Extensions for Struggling Students and Special Needs. Retrieved October 14, 2016, from http://www.controlaltachieve.com/2016/10/special-needs-extensions.html Moore, M. G., & Kearsley, G. (2011). Distance education: A systems view of online learning [Kindle Edition]. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.
4 Comments
Dan Marshall
10/16/2016 09:22:12 am
Sara, I never thought of using the closed caption function on my Smartboard, but when you said,"I was reminded of closed captioning and subtitles. The article talked about using it with deaf students but I have found it to be equally as important with ELL students. They actually remind me to use it. I find that they are able to comprehend so much more when they can hear it and see it" I immediately thought of my remedial freshmen class and the benefits of the close captioning for them. Thanks for the insight.
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Sara Lucas
10/16/2016 09:07:27 pm
Glad you found this helpful. It is something I would never have thought to do unless the students advocated for it.
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Teresa
10/16/2016 07:54:28 pm
I agree. There's so much out there and you need to find what works of you and be aware so that you can make adjustments if it's not working the way you had hoped. I also plan to use SpeakIt with my students. This will work for those lower level readers especially when you're focusing on completing a project or research for a paper.
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Sara Lucas
10/16/2016 09:08:19 pm
It is crazy how much more focused students are with headphones on. I think it is just the generation they grew up in. So much audio stimulation.
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