Standards 3.4 Adaptive and Assistive Technology
Candidates facilitate the use of adaptive and assistive technologies to support individual student learning needs.
Artifact:
Reflection:
The artifact that I chose for standard 3.4, adaptive and assistive technology, is English 1 Value Project. The value project was designed by the English department to help students to come full circle on a project by having them go through the process to get the product. The students had to come up with a trait or something they felt they were valuable for. The English department came to me with two issues they needed to tackle for this project. Darlington had a student that was almost legally blind as well as several international students that were struggling with English as their second language. They wanted to bring this project to be compliant to help with students with disabilities as well as their English as a Second Language (ESL) students.
Standard 3.4 states that candidates facilitate the use of adaptive and assistive technologies to support individual student learning needs. This artifact shows mastery of this standard because it allowed me to help the English faculty to make adjustments to the original project supporting students with different learning needs. For instance, in creating their final project the students would normally just create a presentation of some sort such as iMovie or PowerPoint. With the new adjusted project the students were allowed to create an audio presentation such as a radio announcement instead of an iMovie. They also could adjust their MacBook to read a normal presentation or if they were hearing or voice impaired they could write out their voiceover section in PowerPoint. For their written composition, students with visual or other disabilities that may hinder their ability to type could use voice to text in Microsoft Word or Apple Pages.
For this project a section was also written for them called Universal Access Notes. This section stated that students in need of assistance would use universal access to have the documents read to them. Their MacBook will be set up by the IT department so they have certain keystrokes or voice commands to access the programs they will need to complete the project. The project is adapted by allowing the end product to be in different formats such as a visual, for hearing impaired. Also, students may create a radio commercial in GarageBand if movie or presentation software is too difficult. Students may also see the teacher for other project ideas. Students with hearing impairment may use all visuals without sounds to show their presentation. Students must have their intended speech portion typed out or they may have another student or teacher read it for them if desired.
When I started this career many years ago, the idea of assisted technology was just beginning to emerge. Working with this type technology many years ago really tested my patience and most of the students would just give up on using it because of its instability and inability to work correctly. This project and working with students that needed more assistance allowed me to gain more knowledge of what students of different learning styles needed as well as how to support them with technology. Supporting the needs of diverse and different learning styles is a pertinent part of every classroom in today’s culture. This project impacted my career as well as my school in many ways. The English faculty and I became aware of how to use Universal Access on the MacBook successfully and saw how it would really benefit many students of all types of learning styles. This project allowed us to learn how to modify more projects like these to include students that would otherwise not be able to participate in the project at all. The English department and I have looked at many more projects as well as spoke at faculty meetings to show other departments how to modify their projects to meet the needs of all students. I have been working closely with department chairs and there is now inspiration to change all projects that excludes students of different languages and disabilities.
Standard 3.4 states that candidates facilitate the use of adaptive and assistive technologies to support individual student learning needs. This artifact shows mastery of this standard because it allowed me to help the English faculty to make adjustments to the original project supporting students with different learning needs. For instance, in creating their final project the students would normally just create a presentation of some sort such as iMovie or PowerPoint. With the new adjusted project the students were allowed to create an audio presentation such as a radio announcement instead of an iMovie. They also could adjust their MacBook to read a normal presentation or if they were hearing or voice impaired they could write out their voiceover section in PowerPoint. For their written composition, students with visual or other disabilities that may hinder their ability to type could use voice to text in Microsoft Word or Apple Pages.
For this project a section was also written for them called Universal Access Notes. This section stated that students in need of assistance would use universal access to have the documents read to them. Their MacBook will be set up by the IT department so they have certain keystrokes or voice commands to access the programs they will need to complete the project. The project is adapted by allowing the end product to be in different formats such as a visual, for hearing impaired. Also, students may create a radio commercial in GarageBand if movie or presentation software is too difficult. Students may also see the teacher for other project ideas. Students with hearing impairment may use all visuals without sounds to show their presentation. Students must have their intended speech portion typed out or they may have another student or teacher read it for them if desired.
When I started this career many years ago, the idea of assisted technology was just beginning to emerge. Working with this type technology many years ago really tested my patience and most of the students would just give up on using it because of its instability and inability to work correctly. This project and working with students that needed more assistance allowed me to gain more knowledge of what students of different learning styles needed as well as how to support them with technology. Supporting the needs of diverse and different learning styles is a pertinent part of every classroom in today’s culture. This project impacted my career as well as my school in many ways. The English faculty and I became aware of how to use Universal Access on the MacBook successfully and saw how it would really benefit many students of all types of learning styles. This project allowed us to learn how to modify more projects like these to include students that would otherwise not be able to participate in the project at all. The English department and I have looked at many more projects as well as spoke at faculty meetings to show other departments how to modify their projects to meet the needs of all students. I have been working closely with department chairs and there is now inspiration to change all projects that excludes students of different languages and disabilities.