nclusive design is "design that considers the full range of human diversity with respect to ability, language, culture, gender, age, and other forms of human difference.
Inclusive design should be the ONLY way of teaching. Every student comes from a different background, and the only way to best teach ALL students is to account for such differences.
All three schools had plenty of technology available for students to use. The students told me they used social media and played video games at home.
The distinction between the tech students use at home vs in school is very important. Just because a student may use tech at home, does not mean they understand why it is used in the classroom. Teachers must recognize this in order to best teach their students.
Have you ever paused to think about why technology is essential in education?
Honestly, no. Technology has been a part of my education since the beginning, and I have always been interested in it. That being said, I never considered that it was essential. It makes sense that it is, I just never took the time to stop and think about why it's always been there.
Listen to the interview with Katie Novak and Mirko Chardin:
The option to listen to this is very inclusive and accessible. Personally, I do better when I can read what is being presented rather than listening to it. However, I know people who do not have any disabilities that this would directly help (ex: blind, dyslexic) who prefer to listen and would LOVE that this is being offered.
The TPACK framework emphasizes the importance of using your pedagogical expertise and content knowledge to evaluate and select digital tools and apps that will be the most appropriate for student learning.
these concentric circles are very helpful to help understand this framework. I think every teacher needs to be familiar with this, as every student learns differently and comes from different backgrounds, also different concepts should be taught differently
Digital Tool in Practice: Kahoot! is a game-based student response tool. Educators can design or use predesigned Kahoot! games to help students memorize Constitutional terms.
i love kahoot! i have learned about behaviorism before, but never noticed the connection between the two. I think another similar tool would be the games within Quizlet
As we continue to use them, the programs within these devices are always learning and always monitoring our choices.
I have always found this to be so scary. When apple came out with the option to allow apps to share and track data, I remember being so excited because I always hit "do not allow" which gives me a slightly more sense of control.
Apps and digital tools targeted to teachers as “free” often come with underlying costs. Many tools used in the classroom, such as Canva, a graphic illustrator tool, or Wakelet, a digital curation app, require you to register for an account to use the tool. When you register for an account, you are usually asked to share personally identifiable information, like your name, email address, age, and/or gender. You will also be asked to review and accept the end-user license agreement or terms of service, which may involve giving away even more data, such as your IP address, device information, browser information, geolocation, and Internet browsing data.
I wish this was something of more common knowledge, because I see it all the time. This reminds me of a well known idea that "if you're not paying for the product, you are the product". This is not just a problem with edtech, this is a problem with social medias, free games, and so much more.
Learning experiences and environments that are flexible, multimodal, and student centered are more equitable, accessible, and inclusive.
this reminds me of a class I took last semester, which was a special education class in the college of education. in that course, we talked A LOT about UDL, what it is, what it looks like in a classroom, tips and tricks for making education more universal, and more
For many years, the Google Apps for Education Suite (e.g., Google Docs, Slides, Sheets) has offered an innovative learning experience where users can collaborate and work together in real time even if they are not in the same location.
I have always been extremely partial to Google Apps for Education Suite over Microsoft Office for many reasons. One huge reason is what is stated here: real time collaboration. Being able to share documents with group members so we can work on it in separate locations, and sharing class notes with classmates to help each other are my two favorite ways to use Google's collaboration features.
Similarly, when referring students to other locations on the web via hyperlinks or URLs, use a descriptive title that will allow learners to clearly understand the link’s destination. As a best practice, avoid inserting the link by itself as a web address.
this is a really great tip that I don't think I would have thought of on my own. I believe this will help all students, not just those with disabilities, because seeing a link without knowing what it is about is deterring, but when the link tells you exactly what it is, i think more students will want to click it in the first place!
ducators often use rubrics to articulate "the expectations for an assignment by listing the criteria or what counts, and describing levels of quality."2 We have adapted these broad aims to articulate the appropriate assessment criteria for e-learning tools using the standard design components of other analytical rubrics: categories, criteria, standards, and descriptors.
I think that educators using a sort of rubric to evaluate if a digital tool/app are proficient is a great idea. Using rubrics, which teachers already are familiar with, allows teachers to evaluate the tool piece by piece, rather than as a whole, which helps them become experts in using and explaining the tool, as well as deciding if the tool is worth using in the first place.
Twitter is a popular social media space among educators. You can connect and engage in conversations with others located across spatial and temporal boundaries (e.g., around the world!). Twitter can provide more timely access to experts, some of whom will even answer questions you post to your network.
this sounds similar to being a part of an educator discord server
It might help to use an organizational tool to create curated lists or folders of things you learn from your PLN that you can reference when needed.
i plan on creating a list of links with a description of the tool/app on google docs
SIFT stands for Stop, Investigate, Find, and Trace:
we learned this in high school when doing a research paper. this checklist has been really helpful to me throughout the years when finding reputable sources
Use quotation marks to group words that should be searched together (e.g., “augmented reality math app”).
i never knew using quotations makes the words stay together in a search, i run into problems with this all the time when googling things, so im really glad i now know how to fix it!!