Digital Badge # G – Chapter 10

Photo credit to DryHundredFear on Flickr

Diversity
We are all the same but different

Technology can be just the tool necessary for teaching student from diverse backgrounds and cultures.  Technology can help students connect were otherwise these students would have never really bothered to get to know each other.  In the section Technology for Teaching Diverse Students, gives various ways that technology can be used to cross diversity boarders. The section talk about how technology can help teachers incorporate cultural histories, small group assignments, and language translators.  Anytime a teacher can help the student feel more comfortable in a classroom setting the more prone the student will be to let down his guard and get to know their fellow students.  Sometimes certain cultures can have preconceived notions about other cultures which caused there to be a separation among the class.  Teachers will often use ice breaker activities to help students become comfortable around other students of diverse backgrounds and cultures.  It’s difficult to thing that in today’s society, diversity would still be of concern, but it is, the thing about culture is that whether or not a parent is aware, they always pass down certain belief or qualities of their culture to their children. 

Wordle credit to Kathy Cassidy on Flickr

Child appropriate Wordles can get the interest of the class and help children with visual disabilities see the word due to the larger print and colorfulness without the child feeling singled out.

In the section Adaptations for Classroom Learning with Technology, the section addresses types of accommodation that teacher will need to use when incorporating technology into their lesson.  Low-Tech accommodations can be easily made with little to no expense, Mid-Tech accommodations require shifts in a teacher organization and delivery style, while High-Tech accommodations are more involved and require specialized technologies into the classroom.  Some examples that this section mentions word cloud, Wordle, Tegxedo, are program that are directed toward visual learners and can help students to stay more engaged in the lesson being presented.  Other technologies are electronic spellers, dictionaries, and calculators, which are all essential to students in today’s society due to the overwhelming need to have access to an abundance of information and answers in a timely manner in order to keep up with the demand place on students.  Students must find ways to aid them so that they can keep up in the fast paced world we live in, and these tool can help and are necessary.



Diverse Learners - Created with Haiku Deck, presentation software that inspires


Assistive Technologies to Reach Diverse Learners talks about the various technologies that are available to help accommodate for students with disabilities. Assistive technologies allow students with disabilities to learn and be successful at activities that otherwise the student would not have the opportunity to participate in.  Some technologies that can be used are speech recognition software, text reading software, screen reading software, word prediction software, and interactive electronic storybooks.  While these tools can aid student with disabilities, they can also have a downside.  These tools while helpful can also allow for the delay in a student’s strategizing and problem solving abilities to fully develop.  Imagination is a key element in the cognitive development of children, sometimes technology takes away the opportunity for a child to develop their imagination, reading a book without picture allows children to imagine the colors, sounds, characters facial expressions, clothing, and elements to the story, while technology sometimes has already supplies all those elements for the student which can hinder the child’s creativity.

References:

Maloy, R. W., Verock-O'Loughlin, R., Edwards, S. A., & Woolf, B. P. (2014). Transforming learning with new technologies (2nd ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.