Inclusive Technology in the Classroom

Inclusive technologies should provide a classroom where every student feels as though they are at the same learning level as the rest of the class. Even if some students find some subjects/tasks more difficult to understand and/or complete, the use of these technologies will help them perform in the classroom better. Some of the inclusive technologies available include books on tape, flash or face cards, and mouse alternatives.

Books on tape can be a great tool for both gifted children and children who are slower readers and/or have difficulty with comprehension. Books on tape would be a great technology for gifted students who are just starting to read, like kindergarten and first graders. If I was teaching kindergarten and I had a student who was at a higher reading level than the rest of the class, I would have that student reading along with the book on tape while I worked with the other students. This would keep the advanced student from becoming bored with the lower level reading that his or her classmates are working on. I would also use books on tape in my classroom with students who are struggling with the reading level that the rest of the class is working on. If I had a student who was having trouble reading but could understand things that were read to him or her, a book on tape would be used for that student to improve their reading level.

Flash cards and face cards would be great tools for me to use with a student who has autism, Asperger Syndrome, or PDD (pervasive developmental disorder). Students with these disorders/syndromes typically have a difficult time socializing and communicating. By having these cards, those students could tell me what they are thinking, how they are feeling, and what they need by giving me a card with the corresponding picture or words. Face cards are just what they sound like, cards with people’s faces on them. These cards usually show an emotion so the student with Asperger Syndrome, for example, could be able to read people’s emotions by their facial expressions (Face Cards).

Small hands, physical disabilities, and the lacking of fine motor skills can make using a computer mouse very difficult. Using mouse alternatives such as the BIGtrack can help navigating a computer easier. The BIGtrack is a circular device with a large rolling ball in the middle and two buttons on the sides. It is designed for children who haven’t developed their fine motor skills well enough to move and click a standard computer mouse. It is a large device and can be placed on a desk or in the child’s lap. It can be used on both PC and Mac computers and plugs into the USB port. If I teach in the kindergarten through second grade range, I would seriously think about getting something like this for projects on the computer.

By providing inclusive technologies in my classroom, I hope to make all my students feel as though they are not behind the class in any of the lessons. Without some kind of inclusive technology, some students would feel overwhelmed and frustrated because they are a little slower or need extra help on some topics. Inclusive technology also keeps the gifted children challenged and not become bored with class assignments that are too easy for them.



"BIGtrack." Inclusive Technology Ltd. 11 Sep 2008 http://www.inclusive.co.uk/catalogue/acatalog/bigtrack.html.

"Face Cards." Dunedin Multimedia 5, September 2007 11 Sep 2008 http://www.dunedinmultimedia.com/face-cards.html.

Technologies available to teachers in the 21st century

Educators in the 21st century have better access to endless possibilities for the classroom due to the quickly advancing technologies. Teacher’s now have programs that make grading quicker and easier, their able to teach in classrooms that are miles away, and overseas communications with other schools via the internet.
Programs like Grade Quick make the traditional paper and pencil grade book a thing of the past. Before Grade Quick, at the end of the quarter, trimester, or semester, the teacher had to calculate his or her students’ entire grade averages with a calculator. This was an extremely time consuming process, especially if the teacher had a large number of students. It also left a lot of room for careless errors in calculations. By using Grade Quick, student’s averages for the quarter, trimester, or semester are given automatically, saving the teacher hours of grueling manual calculations.
In my high school, we had a room called the “ATM room”. In this case, ATM stands for asynchronous transfer mode, which is a “broad band fiber-optic networking system that transmits voice, video, and data” (Knox). The ATM room has a couple cameras set up on the walls, three T.V. screens in the back of the classroom, and one bigger T.V. screen in the front of the room. Basically how it works is the cameras record the teacher at one school teaching his or her class (we had a Japanese class and an American Sign Language class) and the footage sent to other schools in Maine. The students from the other schools can see and hear the teacher live and were also able to ask questions. I believe handouts were given via fax machine, but I’m not sure how the teacher went about grading assignments from the students at the other schools. This technology has been around for a while now but I still find it very fascinating and amazing that you can take classes from teachers who could be hours away from you or in another state, maybe even across the country.
The article DiaLogos: A Sister Class Exchange between Greece and Canada is about a class project done between elementary school students in Toronto, Canada and elementary school students on the islands of Rhodes and Kassos in Greece. The students in Greece had a three hour per week class where they learned the English language and many of the students in Canada were “of Greek heritage and were learning Greek in supplementary classes outside the regular school day” (Cummins, Brown, & Sayers). I think it’s amazing that students from different countries can interact enough to work on a school project. I especially like the fact that there is a language barrier yet both classes are collaborating and making it possible to understand each other.
Technologies available to teachers today makes things that weren’t possible ten or fifteen years ago possible. You can now take or teach a class that is miles away, you can do class projects, and the once grueling process of averaging grades can be done in seconds.


Cummins, J., Brown, K., & Sayers, D. (2007) Literacy, Technology, and Diversity: Teaching for
Success in Changing Times. Boston: Pearson.

Knox, Karen. "Advanced Telecommunications for Maine." 4 Sep 2008
.

My Introduction

Hello! My name is Bri Humphrey. I'm a sophomore at the University of Maine at Farmington majoring in Elementary Education. Blogging has never been an interest of mine, but I created this blog for a computer class. We'll see how I like it.