Blog Post #7

Adaptive technologies are technologies that help people with disabilities or special needs more effectively use computing equipment, whether it be helping students to write, read, do math, or organize abstract ideas. Through the technologies, students are given the ability to use voice recognition software such as text-to-speech or talking word processing programs to type their ideas or assignments or read displayed text to them, as well as use word prediction software to predict what the student wants to say based on the first letters the student types, so they don't have to exhaust their energy if they have problems dealing with a keyboard. There's even talking spell-checkers that students can read aloud the misspelled word and it gives a list of suggestions of what they meant/how it is spelled just like how it does for us who can type. Students can also use a track ball or joy stick to navigate a computer if they are unable to use a standard mouse, or various types of keyboards such as expanded, mini, one-handed, and on-screen depending on their specific needs. Reading technologies can help students with disabilities or special needs easily access and keep up with reading materials though recorded books if they are unable to read due to mental or physical disabilities, as well as use high-interest low-vocabulary books that help lower-level reading students through narrations with different characters spoken in different tones and reading sounds more dramatically, which captures those students' attention more easily. Scan/read systems also provide students with the option of providing a visually enhanced display that is also read aloud to them, while also using optical character recognition to track the students' eye movements in order to type what they want to say. There are also more easily accessible forms of adaptive technologies for students through Apple devices, which can place traditional text on screen in different text sizes and with different contrast levels to make it easier for the student to read, while also providing additional features that help support struggling readers such as the Speak Selection feature, Multitouch textbooks, and iBooks. Specific applications that provide these services include StickyKeys and Mousekeys. My sister has some type of visual impairment that makes it hard for her to focus on small text in books or on computers, so she has used a lot of text-magnifying tools to help her read assignments for class. My next door neighbor, whose daughter has Down Syndrome, uses a lot of the technologies I mentioned above such as modified keyboards and recorded books to help her with assignments and communication in school. Some challenges I could see using adaptive technologies in the classroom is getting both the student and the teacher to fully understand how to use the tools and effectively use them in the classroom, as well as determining which adaptive technology would best suit the student based on their needs.

One of the technologies I saw in the Sorts Psychology Lab that I believe could be greatly beneficial in schools was the eye-tracking software. This could be used to see where students' attention lies in the classroom most of the time, as well as what items they focus on the most to help process new ideas and information, and what distractions may be around them that are impairing their learning. It could also be used on new teachers to help train them to scan the classroom and notice specific things going on so that they don't miss potential trouble or critical advancements in student thinking during activities.

After using Diigo in class, I learned how to highlight website information I believe to be important, add notes to specific passages or lines of text, and save it to a group so that others can access my annotated information! I think this could be greatly beneficial to students who need to read and annotate long text by highlighting key information and reflecting on ideas presented in the reading. This could also be a great tool for fellow teachers and me to share materials and lesson tools with each other that they believe to be beneficial to the classroom. As far as group work, the activity in class showed me that students could easily access the same information and annotate while also making comments on other students' ideas, forming a more valuable and broad understanding of the material.