Final class until July 5th 2010, presentation day

Today is the final day and we are sharing presentations on case studies - the 'AT match' and how that would look in our particular school sites. It is amazing how we can all be in the same class and yet we are all take something different away from this course. We can relate to most of the in-class discussions and quickly identify students in our rooms that we know would be suitable candidates for assitive technology.

This class moved so quickly it seems like not enough time to reflect on the information and how it works for every one of us differently. The people in the class that are already in the inclusive education field are better able to apply the specific course materials to their students and that makes it all seem real. For those of us in classroom positions with little to no access to technology it seems surreal to recognize the resources we have available to assist our students in becomming indepenent learners, its blows my mind. I guess it is becacuse I want to help all my students and can definately see the beneifts of technology, for most of my students.

Technology is like our best kept secret, only children with identified learning diabailities are entitled to the benefits of technology, not even close to being fair and equitble. In the classroom children are tehnelogical savy and yet they are not educated on the lingo, buzz words or terminology for web-sites and internet exploration. Since we know that children today have a higher exposure to automation it should be something we teach and utilize in school, helping them become provicient at the skills that they are using every single day.

With the new video games, X Boxes, Play Station 3s, cell phones, MP3 players, Ipods, etc. The children today are surrounded by technology that could be avantageous in their learning, ands yet we do not ake advantage of these skills. In most schools technology of the afore mentioned in banned, therefore the students are sneaking it in the schools and using them for negative activitieis instead of the positive learning that could blossom from the proper knowledge of technology.

What if we download read alouds or free verse poetry on the MP3 players, and encourage a new genre for their listening pleasure. We could have comprehension activities and language building skills as well, this would allow students to be cool and share information like they share their video games and other tips on their communication sites.

I guess what I am seeing is that the students today want immeidate gratification becuase of the availability of all the convenience in their lives and yet we are still working 'old school' educatiton, not keeping up with the times, therefore making it more and more difficult to educate our students. It seems apparent that behavior has escalated because students are having more and more trouble attending to task, and uderstanding the complexities in the classroom.

Anyway I guess you can tell that I am a advocator for moving into the 21st century for the sake of our students today and allowing them to understand and capitalize on their global connections, this generation could be so much more united and affect change sin the worl if they were better able to understand the value of the technology that is readily available for their learning needs.