Examples of Technology in the Classroom

Assistive Technology in the Classroom

The teacher stands at the front of the classroom and begins to teach her lesson. Every student sits quietly, some students sit upright with their eyes on the teacher, some students lay their heads heavily on their desks while the rest fidget in their desk. After the lesson is over, how many students will have processed the information? Year after year, this scenario is seen inside many classrooms and only the select students who sat quietly with their eyes on the teacher really learned something. The rest of the students have been left in the dust because they appear to be rude and disobedient as they lay their heads on the desk. However, these students are not necessarily disrespectful, they may just learn differently. Luckily, with new technology, there is an opportunity for teachers to tap into the interests of these other students. Technology enables teachers to reach out to a larger number of students with different learning styles.

The three principles of Universal Design for Learning or UDL are geared toward these learning differences within every child. For instance, the universal curriculum offers students multiple means of representation, multiple means of expression, and multiple means of engagement (What is Universal Design for Learning?) This program recognizes the fact that students have a lack of interest in learning at school which can be a cause of many different problems. A student may have a physical or social learning disability; a student may suffer from a broken home life causing him or her to act up in school; or there may be a number of barriers that prevents a child from learning. Thus, the universal curriculum allows teachers to take their classroom of students with a variety of difficulties and successfully teach them in a way that best fits their needs. (What is Universal Design for Learning?)

In the same way, Congress amended a Rehabilitation Act in 1998 to achieve the same goals as the UDL. Under section 508, new technology had to be created to assist people with disabilities in order to provide them with the same possibilities as other people. Technology provided information that was not accessible to people with disabilities left them at a disadvantage and prevented them from having the same opportunities. Thus, an act was passed to change this inequality (Section 508). This new technology would also play a huge role in the classroom.

There are many different types of assistive technology that have made the classrooms more inclusive and I hope to use some of them in my own classroom after I graduate. For instance, Start to Finish books would be a great way to assist students who are struggling with their reading. These books would allow the students to hear the words read to them while reading along with it. Many times, struggling readers have been sent to the resource room to practice reading with a teacher. Not only does this take the student out of the classroom but the student may get frustrated and bored when they try practice their reading on their own. Listening to the book on tape or CD allows the book to be brought alive for the student and it may encourage them in their quest on learning how to read. These Start to Finish books would not only benefit the struggling readers, but the whole class would profit from using them. These books would enhance their listening ability and help build their vocabulary.

The Tango device would also be a great way to include students in the classroom. Students who have difficulty writing or creating sentences would benefit from using this device. No longer would they be behind in their work because they struggle with writing, but the device would give them assistance. Thus, all the students would be writing at the same time, the only difference would be the way they are writing. Some students would be writing with paper and pencils while others would be using the Tango device.

The other two examples of technologies that would allow my classroom to be more inclusive would both be used when students go to the computer lab. First, since some smaller students may have difficulty using the small keys on the keyboards, the Big Keys would be very beneficial for them. This keyboard would show the essential keys that the student needs to use to write a paper or complete an assignment.

Lastly, a screen magnifier would also be very useful for students when they use the computer. The screen magnifier is a software program that would enlarge the content on the computer screen (Screen Magnifier). Not only would students who have visual impairments benefit from this technology, but many other students would also benefit from this tool because they would not have to strain their eyes as much.

I have learned that assistive technology is not only made for students who struggle with a specific disability. Many students would grasp concepts much better if they had a variety of options when learning a lesson. Younger children would benefit from larger keys and larger content on a computer screen and, as I mentioned previously, all students would benefit from Start to Finish books as well. I hope to have a variety of technology options for my students when I have a classroom of my very own because I want to do everything in my power to help my students succeed. I could not bare the burden of a student falling behind because the right technology was not available for him or her to use.