Blog #7

Adaptive technologies are any form of technology that assist those with disabilities in their daily life. This can be anything from a simple screen magnifier to more complicated pens that record as you write. Any one of these technologies is tailored for specific disabilities, for example a person with  visual impairment could use a Braille Embosser but not a screen magnifier. I am, unfortunately, an eternal klutz. I have accidentally injured myself in a variety of ways that has led to all sorts of adaptive technology use, from mobility assisting devices after a leg injury to laptops in class following a wrist injury to screen magnifiers after losing my glasses. In all, after my experiences, I've found that most challenges using adaptive technology in the classroom come from a teacher's reluctance to adapt themselves.  An example of this is a teacher that won't make the aisles between desks wide enough for a wheel chair or person using crutches to pass, and instead forces them to sit in the back, because that "is how [their] classroom has been arranged for the past 10 years and nobody else has ever complained". As long as a teacher is willing to adapt and help their students, these sorts of challenges shouldn't arise or, at the very least, can be quickly resolved.

I had to learn HTML coding in middle school for a similar website creating project, and you would not believe the relief I felt when I realized Weebly didn't ask you to code a thing. That was the greatest part of this project. I honestly enjoyed completing it, beyond the fact that I didn't have to use HTML, for a variety of reasons - like being forced (note the sarcasm) to look through hours of comics to find the perfect ones... then spending a couple more hours on there to make sure they really were perfect. I also enjoyed doing it because I always imagined myself as the type of teacher that told their class information and if they weren't paying attention and missed it, tough luck. However, I could genuinely see myself having a class page as a teacher. There are some things I would change before then though, such as adding a password to certain pages private - like the homework blog where students are posting comments - to make sure people of dubious backgrounds aren't looking through it.

http://syeme2040.weebly.com/

I can see the uses in Diigo - the easy connectivity between students and teachers, the simplicity of group work, and the ease of its use for most. A teacher can create a class group and post articles that students need to read before the next class. In a group research project, group members can post what they've found, already annotated, for the other members to read over. As a teacher, I could have my own collection of relevant information that can be quickly referenced to double check information or share with the class. However, I don't believe it will be something I use often. As a math teacher, there aren't a lot of articles and the like that I could send a student that would be understandable to them in its raw form, and Diigo does not have a math annotation feature.

Blog #6

The school site I looked at was Palm Bay Magnet High schools. They have sites for every one of their classes, even those that have multiple classes on the same material each have their own site. This site is for one of the AP US government class consisting of 11th and 12th graders. Publically, the site has all of the homeworks, bell works, and powerpoints presented in class. There are also some links that are helpful to students and a calendar of due dates. As I went to this school, I know that when you log in you can see grades and more specific class and calendar information.
http://www.edline.net/pages/Palm_Bay_High_School/Classes/1617_21064205JV27

As a teacher, I definitely plan on having a class website that can be multipurpose. For example, Weebly has the option to add a password to your entire website or certain passwords to certain pages. I plan on having my own page, with its own password, as a part of the site where I can log on from any computer and access my lesson plans, any documents I plan on handing out or referring to in class, or enter my grades. By having this easy accessibility I remove a lot of the hassle of carrying around papers, organizing files on my computer, and carrying around a flash drive. Not only that but if I made a page with personal passwords for each of my students, I could post grades for them and their parents to check at any time with personalized comments on assignment.


All of the technologies in the sandbox can be used in the classroom, some directly and some you have to be more creative with. An example of something that can be used as is would be the SmartBoard. Many textbooks have interactive programs to be used with the board, so a math teacher can flip through the pages of the textbook on the SmartBoard and underline things, add notes in the margins, and solve problems by hand all at the same time. An example of a technology that may need to be thought in the more abstract is the 3D printer. While it may not seem entirely applicable, due to its flexibility it can definitely be useful. To continue the math example, there are a series of mathematical concepts that are provable conceptually but difficult to understand in reality, such as the möbius strip or the umbilic torus. With a 3D printer, a math teacher could prove these concepts on paper then print out and show their students these objects to better grasp the reality of it.