Annika Park: Technology in the Classroom

     The reading this week provided twelve different examples of assistive technologies that can be used in the classroom. For this blog posting, I have chosen to summarize and expand upon Speechify as well as Clicker . However, all of the programs listed in the article are great to familiarize myself with, in case I am ever put into a scenario where I need to assist a student who needs a specific type of support.        Speechify is a program that uses text-to-speech. It takes text that is selected and turns it into audio. Speechify  can take any bodies of text that can be found in the classroom, which can include: textbooks, online worksheets, books, webpages, and more. This program, amongst the other ones, stood out to me immediately, as I was able to quickly realize how helpful it could be in the classroom. Whether a student struggles with dyslexia, has Specific Word Reading Difficulties (SWRD), or any other reading disability, this program w...

      There are three main UDL principles: engagement, representation, and action and expression. These three different principles are critical to be utilized in a classroom, as they allow many different types of learners to feel as though they belong and are comfortable getting involved. In this blog posting, I will be going over my understanding of what each UDL principle means and how I can model each one in my professional practice as an EA. The first principle is engagement. This principle is focused on providing the students in your classroom with different ways to engage with the content they are learning. If students are allowed to choose from multiple ways to engage with their content, they will choose the way they believe will best support them, and therefore, feel more motivated to engage in the subject. Some examples are: relating the content to an interest of the students, collaborating with their peers, or having interactive games. In my practice as an ...

     As we become more and more technologically advanced as a society, the rise of technology being used in classrooms becomes more and more common. One of my goals as I navigate through this class is to find and understand the sweet spot with technology. How can it benefit students, while also posing as a negative, and potentially becoming a distraction? I would also love to learn the best tools for assisting students with learning disabilities. I feel as though there are so many tools out there that provide many different supports for different subjects or learning disabilities. I would love to be able to, by the end of this class, have a select few that I retain in my memory, and can pull out if I am faced with a student who needs it. Finally, a more general and personal goal is to just stay on top of assignments. As I am now balancing three classes, it's filled with more important dates I have to remember. I've found that using a planner has truly helped me succeed wi...