Blog Post 16

        After looking at my blog post number 1, I can truly say I am still happy with what I wrote. I would definitely add some things to each category. Under "what do you want your students to be able to do?", I never said anything too specific. Now, I can confidently add that I want them to be able to use an iPad effectively and blog independently. Those are things that students will have to work towards, but I want my students able to do it. My second section can be left as is. The third section, "what tools will you use in your classroom?" needs a few changes. I want everything in that section, but more! The tools I will be adding are blogs, podcasts, and book trailers. I loved all of those activities. Each one involves the student and there are a ton of educational benefits.
        Education and technology are constantly changing. I can assure you that if I look back on this blog post (and the first) I would make a million changes. Teachers, and students for that matter, are always looking for a new and improved way of doing something. I think that is the beauty of education, it is always growing.

Blog Post 15

by: Linda Check and Meagan Freeman

        This week we were asked what assistive technologies are available to us as teachers? As a future special education teacher, we have learned about several technologies available to us throughout this semester. This week we learned about a few more by watching a few different videos. The videos we watched were assistive technology for vision and hearing impaired children , iPad usage for the blind and teaching mom what her deaf/blind child is learning on the iPad         Two of these videos covered VoiceOver for the iPad. This technology also people who are blind to navigate around the iPad very easily. The person simply has to slide there finger over the iPad and VoiceOver will tell which app you are on. VoiceOver will then tell you to double tap your finger to open the app. It was fun watching the mom figure out the iPad and learning what her deaf/blind child already knows in the video teaching mom what her deaf/blind child is learning on the iPad
      In iPad usage for the blind, it was also amazing to watch Wesley Majerus, an Access Technology Specialist for the National Federation for the Blind, work the VoiceOver on the iPad. Wesley taught us the iBooks on the iPad has read aloud textbooks, something that Nook and Kindle do not have. Wesley said it was very liberating to be able to search and read books of his choice.
        Assistive technologies are going to be a huge part of our day-to-day routine as a special education teacher. Every person deserves to be included in the lesson and able to interact with the environment around him or her. As educators, we need to remove as many barriers as possible in the classroom. We need to be open to new technologies that help all the students with special needs!