Journal Post #10

Here we are post number ten! It's hard to believe that we are coming to the end of the class almost. What a journey it's been. So in chapter ten there are many interesting bits of information. All four of the focus questions were great. One in particular which I have spoken about not only in this class but in other classes is assistive technology. But to be honest, I really want to discuss something outside of the areas that I know about and go with something that I really don't know much about, so I chose focus question #2.

How can teachers use technology to create universally designed classrooms?

As a teacher or course we design our classroom, from where the desks go to decorations in classroom. We place things specifically and buy things that go into our classrooms that will serve a specific purpose. So how do we create a universally designed classroom? 
In designing a universally designed classroom no detail is too small in the classroom, because even the smallest detail can make the difference between a student paying attention or drifting away from the focus of the class. There are two main routes when designing a classroom using technology. 

• Changing the classroom learning environment.
• Changing how the curriculum is delivered.

As you begin thinking about designing your classroom, imagine ways to differentiate your teaching. There are three ranges 

• Low-tech- refers to changes that are made easily, inexpensively, and without applying digital or electronic materials.
• Mid-tech- involves substantive shifts in organization and delivery of curriculum that may include the use of electronic materials.
• High-tech- introduced changes associated with the intergration of computers and other specialized information technologies in the classroom. 

Examples: A couple of examples are below.
Chairs and Desks: 

1. Low-tech: Provide desk and chair with adjustable3 heights for different sized students. 
2. Mid-tech: Provide specially designed seat cushion or "positioning aids" for students who need them.
3. High-tech: alternative seating, such as ball chairs.

Whiteboards, chalkboards, chart paper

1. Low-tech: Write in colors that are visible to individuals who may be colorblind. 
2. Mid-tech: Use audio recordings made by classmates of the notes from the board or chart paper. Students can access these audio recordings and listen to the notes or directions via headphones.
3. High-tech: Use an interactive whiteboard that offers a printout of notes and directions from the board and allows the font to be enlarged. 

So since there is one tech tool for chapter ten, I will discuss Tech Tool 10.1 extra large and online calculators. While many of us have used calculators at some point in our lives and I am sure many times in our lifetimes, how many of us thought about what the purpose of those extra large calculators were. I always assumed, so we can see the numbers better, maybe someone with poor eye sight would need a larger sized button calculator. But no. It's  an attention-engaging tool for exploring the four mathmatical operations-adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing.  Don't get me wrong, I am sure that it can be used for someone who has poor eye sight, but for education view points it's an attention getter. Now of course there are online calculators. If you have a phone, ipod, ipad or a computer those have some really cool calculators as well. Itunes has applications for any kind of calculator you can think of. With that said, in the tech tool it does discuss online calculators and a website to go to and use.  
Jim Martindale's Calculators On-Line Center

Well, another week done, and we are almost nearing the end of our journey. I hope that the information in this blog, as in all my previous ones, take the information in them, use it and gather more information and share it with others. Until next time! 

Chau



Textbook - Maloy, Robert, Verock-O’Loughlin,Ruth-Ellen, Edwards, Sharon A., and Woolf, Beverly Park (2011). Transforming Learning with New Technologies. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc. ISBN:10 0-13-159611-X, ISBN:13 978-0-13-159611-5