Assistive Technology

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Law 100-407, Related Assistance for Individuals with Disabilities Act of 1988, basically states that there are products available for students with disabilities to help improve their learning. This is so important to remember in your learning environment. You can use representation of objects, photos, realistic drawings, line drawings, and written words. This will allow students to have a positive learning experience and an opportunity to develop a variety of skills. Taking my Educational Technology has really opened my eyes to what different technology for the classroom is available. Having this kind of access can fully allow us, as future and present advisors to give our students with disabilities the advantage of learning. In assistive technology visual representation, I think, is one of the best ways for children to learn. A great example is students with Autism show a better comprehension of visual information rather than auditory. I have always been a visual learner and it has helped me immensely to have the availability of these techniques. Learning diversity changes every day for students and being informed regularly of different assistive technologies can improve our teaching skills. If you would like to learn more about Autism and Assistive Technology click the link below to access more information.


Information citation: Written by Susan Stokes under a contract with CESA 7 and funded by a discretionary grant from the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction

Is Kindle a Good Investment?

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Coming from as big as New York Times and as little as a close friend, Kindle has had nothing but good reviews. With new technology appearing each day Kindle is a new wave for reading technology. A close friend of mine stated, "using Kindle for school has helped me tremendously and has saved my back problems from luggaging books around everywhere!" There are many positive aspects about this device and you can purchase it anywhere from $200-$500 depending on how much higher technology it contains. It is a great resource that enables you to buy literature that transfers it to your system. Teachers, students, travelers, and many others can benefit from the Kindle. In the long run the Kindle is worth your money, considering it will save you much more then purchasing books and textbooks.
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Acti-view/Promethean Boards

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Promethean boards are interactive whiteboards that allow teachers to get students fully involved in a lesson or activity. It is a very hands on program that enables the students to see the relationship through a lesson and what is visually being shown to them. Promethean boards have a simplicity of a whiteboard but the power of a computer, and projection. The height can be adjusted, choice of the size of board, and other technical attributes that allow students to learn more efficiently with certain adjustments. There is also a hand motorized remote which helps with consistency in a classroom lesson/lecture. This is a great hands on program that gives students, especially visual learners, the opportunity to learn in a whole different way. I wish I had this kind of technology as a student in the past.

Skype in the Classroom

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Skype is a great program to use to incorporate technology in the classroom. This program enables you to use voice interaction with other individuals. Skype is a program that basically gives you the opportunity to make high quality "phone calls" over an internet based technology. Skype is downloadable and can be installed to any computer with access to installing new programs. Safety is very important to remember when using skype in a classroom since you do not know who is accessing the internet these days. A good source to find other schools using the same program is www.epals.org which is an internet source for connecting to other schools which is free and most importantly safe. Another great source is www.skype.com/help/guides/staysecure.html which is an user guide to help you become more educated in using Skype. This program is a great way to communicate with other individuals and get your students interactive experience through technology which is changing everyday.