Blog Journal 8

In today's education atmosphere and with many more technological advances, students with disabilities are now being able to have assistance in classrooms that they never could before. It is becoming easier for teachers to guide students and work with them with these assistive technologies and it helps students stay connected and up to date with work and advancing along with students who do not have disabilities. Adaptive technologies help students with speech impediments, muscular dystrophy (or any issue with controlling muscles), hearing and other situations. One example is word prediction which is used for students that are physically impaired. It allows for them to reduce the amount of keystrokes they use and help them write better and more efficiently. I do not personally know anyone that has needed to use adaptive technology but I do know that in my high school there were programs for students that if they needed this assistance they could get it during school or after school. One challenge that may come with adaptive technology would be giving other students that do not need this assistance the same amount of attention. Also, for students who do not need help they may be moving at a faster pace than those with assistance and this may hinder the learning of either student. 

Using PowerPoint could be helpful for supporting learning at each level of Bloom's Taxonomy for an english lesson in many ways. For those at the "remember" level, there could be games played on the PowerPoint on a slide that that students would have to drag and match corresponding questions and answers covering a book or topic, and they could play it over and over again to remember. For students on the "understand" level, using PowerPoint I could consistently repeat important concepts or ideas so that the repetition helps students understand better. For students on the "apply" level, just asking questions reiterating what was taught already about a book, would make them apply their knowledge. For students on the "analyze" level, I could insert charts and diagrams about statistics of Old English or English Education that distinguishes past and present. For students on the "evaluate" level I could have comparisons of stories, books or article and ask them to do the comparison themselves or add to whatever I have already. Finally, for students on the "create" level, I could as a teacher, have them create their own PowerPoint to present to the class on a novel that they each had to read individually. 

The website below is a site that I owuld use to keep me update each year about the new technology being used in classrooms for educational purposes. There is both a teacher guide and student resource tab. It goes over what technology is being used, what may be used in the future and technology that most likely will not be used at all (so I wouldn't have to waste my time).

Staying up to date in the classroom