Adaptive Technologies

Some students are considered auditory learners. They can remember most of the information they hear but have real trouble comprehending information that they read. These students learn best through lectures, discussions, talking things out among themselves and listening to their peers in discussion groups. There are visual learners who need to see the teacher's body language and movements to decipher what the teacher is talking about. These students think in pictures and like to sit in the front of the class to take detailed notes. The last group is the tactile-kinesthetic learners who need a hands on approach to learning. They may have a hard time sitting still and become easily distracted by the need to explore and touch things.

The idea of incorporating another teacher into my planning and bouncing ideas off someone else is an invaluable tool to all teachers. There is never a rule that says you have to use the ideas and suggestions that are offered but different people have learned different ways of teaching that usually will incorporate everyone. The amount of years someone teaches gives them expertise that is hard for newer teachers to ignore and should definitely be utilized whenever possible. The more ideas a teacher can come up with for different subjects, will make the lessons interesting and keep them wanting to learn.

The teacher is using graphic organizers in her lesson as a way to investigate the story that they read. The students will be able to see how the story was put together and what steps to take when they create their own story. These organizers help with problem solving, decision making, and organizing ideas. Graphic organizers can help Oscar because he has a visual impairment and the organizers are very large pictures and the text would not be hard to make even larger for Oscar. There is not a lot of reading to do which will help him also.

During my quest in using the web to research ideas or lessons, I encountered a couple of problems. One was that I did not know what information to give the computer so that it could search for what I needed and the other problem I encountered was that I was a little afraid to try new sites and new techniques to research. Because Webquest is a site built and maintained by teachers, I feel that the information can be trusted to be accurate. Students should not encounter any bad information or sites that children should not see.

By being included in Oscars small reading group the children had the opportunity to see technology at work in the school room and learn how speech synthesis works. The entire group had the opportunity to get to know Oscar better and see that he was as literate as they were but had a problem seeing the words and reading without help.
This knowledge helped the students accept Oscar and helped Oscar feel a true part of the group. The speech synthesis used by Oscar created an interest and stimulated the other children into wanting to know more about technology and how it works.

I do not think that Oscar's experience would have been as powerful if he had been isolated in a corner with Juanita because he would feel isolated and kept away from his classmates. This does nothing for building his peer acceptance and for encouraging him to interact with everyone else. By being included with his classmates, he learned self-reliance and built his self-esteem. The interaction of other children has been proven to be beneficial to children with disabilities.

Marilyn used the speech synthesis for Oscar which helped him read and comprehend at the same level as his peers. This gave the students a new understanding of technology and an opportunity to bond with Oscar. Marilyn used videos to peak the students interests and help the children who need auditory learning. By having the websites preselected, the students get to use the web in a safe environment. The third thing that Marilyn used to help the students learn was letting the students create iMovies. Many children will work harder if they can use cameras, videos, and other forms of technology to complete an assignment.