The Tenth Post - Assistive & Adaptive Technologies

Assistive and adaptive technologies are used in a classroom to help learners have better ease or independence when performing tasks or assignments. They are supposed to improve the learning experience for students that may have trouble using your typical classroom resources.

One of my friends in elementary school growing up was unable to write with a pen or pencil because she was unable to hold it properly, so instead she had her own computer set up for her to type on. She was able to do all the assignments with the class, she just needed that assistive technology to make it easier for her to participate and complete assignments.

I think as the world progresses and technology improves, there will be a better abundance and variety of tools that can be used in the classroom. However, every person learns differently and has different needs so I just hope that there will be tools available for every kind of situation. Maybe not yet, but hopefully soon as more things are invented. And hopefully access to these technologies is made more easily available.

In my future as a teacher, I want to make sure that me and my students have access to technology in the classroom. I want to make sure my students have adequate technological to help as they learn. I also think that using technology will help me keep myself and my students organized because I think technology helps a lot in communication and organization. I also want to use technology in my teaching to make learning fun and interesting, but also make it easy for all kinds of students to understand my lessons.

My experience using Pear Deck:

I really enjoyed learning about Pear Deck. I think it is a great extension when using Google slides in your classes. I love how it provides an opportunity for all the students to participate (instead of just one or two) and that teachers are able to see the responses of all their students. I think the interactive slides are great to engage participation from your students. They have built in activities for you to add to your lessons for your students to interact with. I also love the feature that you can present over Zoom and lead your students through the slides, or you can put it on self-paced mode and allow your students to work on it when they want.