Critical, Guarded, and Cautiously Optimistic—Class 1

 

Context is always relevant, so I begin with a confession: I do not like technology.  Clicking and tapping, pop-ups and apps, lights and sounds and advertisements, and dozens of usernames and passwords leave me feeling overwhelmed.  The sensory overload makes it challenging for me to stay focused on any single task.  Publishing personal perspectives for the entire world to see leaves me feeling very uneasy.  I think that valuable time can be frittered away on details like font colour, which may not be significant in terms of the user’s purpose.  This is the final course of my second MEd degree, and as I delve into the work for “Assistive Technology”, I feel nervous with a touch of dread.

So why am I here?  I could have chosen a different course.  Complaining aside, I am a realist.  I know that technology is interwoven with students’ daily lives.  Using pencil and paper is more foreign than clicking and tapping for most.  (Sidebar: I do try.  I’ve worked as lead teacher on a variety of laptop initiatives and used software such as ComicLife, Inspiration, and GarageBand with students in both junior and senior high—the students loved it, and while I thought it was an accomplishment, I didn’t enjoy the process.)  I suppose my AT wordle sums up my goal…to build on student strengths competencies and increase independence.  If I want a student-centred UDL classroom, technology has to be a part of that—proven by the boy in the video who used his tongue to access his iPad.

 

 

Honestly, the most useful part of Class 1 was group discussion about wordles.  I quickly made this wordle by writing a list of words and clicking “create”, without even realizing that the size of words could be changed.  With that knowledge, I think there is great potential to use wordles to support determining importance and learning key vocabulary in content classes like science.  Wordles might also be the basis for discussions about relationships amongst the terms contained within.  While I can see the use of wordles for all students, I would like to discuss with a learning centre teacher to identify particular students for whom this technology might be most “assistive”…perhaps LD or highly visual learners?  I can also understand why teachers might not use this technology unless they have access to classroom iPads—taking a group to a computer lab solely to create a wordle, which can be done very quickly, might be deemed a waste of time.  No wonder the iPad is the way of the future: so transportable! 

If I can learn about one or two programs that are as accessible and easy to use as wordles each class, perhaps my distaste for technology will dissipate.  As an additional item for thought, check out the TEDx talk “Blending technology and classroom learning” by Jessie Woolley-Wilson, which discusses intelligent adaptive technologies.  A bit creepy for me to think of AI this way, but potentially of great use in schools!