Blog Post 12

As a group we divided up the work for this blog assignment, two group members Carol and Kristina reviewed the resources given and discussed how they could be used in their own classrooms. Jennifer researched other resources to find what other assistive technologies are available for us as future teachers. Bellow is a collaborative summary of our research to answer the driving question. " What assistive technologies are available to you as a teacher?"

 

One assistive technology I could use in my classroom is The Mountbatten. This device is a Braille typewriter for blind students. This is a very beneficial device to the student because it provides immediate feedback to the student. Immediate feedback is imperative to the struggling student so they can know if they are doing right or wrong. The Mountbatten allows the student to type in Braille and then reads aloud that has been typed. It can save, transfer, and receive files; it also sends the work to another computer the teacher is on to allow for immediate feedback. This can also be used in a classroom where the students and/or teacher do not know Braille. Words can be typed and then printed into Braille. The most important thing about The Mountbatten is that it allows blind students to be a part of the classroom and curriculum. With this device, they can be included in group work and discussion.

Apple also provides assistive technologies through the iPad, iPod, and iPhone. For the visually impaired, VoiceOver is a feature that allows users to know what is going on on their phone by reading the screen to them. FaceTime is a great way for the hearing impaired to communicate with others. They can see each other face to face and communicate by using sign language. People with physical and motor skills can use AssistiveTouch. With this, the user can enter common multi-touch gestures. There are even assistive features for people with attention deficit or other cognitive disabilities. Through Guided Access, the device helps the user stay focused on one app instead of bouncing around to multiple ones. iPads could easily be used in the classroom to help children with all of these disabilities. 

 I found some helpful resources for elementary school teachers to assist with "assistive technology". Top Teacher Tools is a website that can be used at a resource for finding other resources for assistive technology. This website basically gives a list of websites and a summary of what each website has to offer. I found it very help to read the summaries of the resources to find a website that best fits the information a teacher would be looking for.

Assitive Technology Training Online was one of the websites listed on "Top Teacher Tools". This website was very user friendly and allowed a teacher to actually go through a process of finding the best AT for their particular student. You can go through a step by step process of first picking a similar student story and answering questions to find a AT prefect for the students situation.  There are also tutorials on how to use the particular equipment that seem like they would be very helpful for teacher. There is also a section that provides links to vendors, laws and state and national projects regarding assistive technology.

Trace Center is based out of the University of Wisconsin- Madison and is working to help individuals with disabilities have a better access to the internet. This website has a lot of useful links and information about products and tools for assistive technology.