Blog Post #8

As chapter 4 explains, adaptive technologies can support and assist the needs of students with these diverse disabilities needs. I have seen a variety of these technologies in elementary schools I have shadowed in but also when I was involved in the Best Buddies club at my high school, in which students were paired with students with disabilities. I have personally seen the technology used to create a voice for students who cannot speak. I have also seen different technology apps used through tablets, computers, and mobile phones to help children who cannot hear well, are not fluent in the English language, and much more software to help. Some challenges I can think will occur when using adaptive technologies in a future classroom, are they being a distraction for other students, whether they are just simply not doing the same things and other classmates might get curious on what that student is doing. Or if audio is played aloud, it could distract others. A problem that may be a more school-wide problem, instead of just in the classroom, but the cost of the technology.

As the first level of Bloom’s Taxonomy is “remember”, a PowerPoint can be created as a review guide that the children can asset at home to study with or a test can be created on PowerPoint to quiz the students. The next level is “understand”, in which PowerPoint can simply be used as a media to teach the information to the students. For “apply,” a PowerPoint can be created to not only list the information but also show pictures or graphs on how that subject applies. Next, for “analyze,” a PowerPoint can assist students when using the compare and contrast slide layout for the students to organize the difference between two subjects.  For “evaluate,” a PowerPoint can be used again as an outlet for a teacher to create a test on, where each slide asks a question. And lastly for “create,” the students can create PowerPoints to show or summary the information they learned.

https://florida.pbslearningmedia.org/    PBS is a teacher’s blog for K-12 educators, in which the blog has not only education technology but also includes research, different subject lessons, professional development opportunities, and information on new technologies. PBS builds its reputation for thorough research and reliable information to its teacher’s blog with its partnerships, providing teachers with free digital content making it a helpful resource for catching up on technology and to improve teacher effectiveness.