FINAL ASSIGNMENT - ACTION PLAN
A Brief Overview of What I Learned in the Course
During this course, I have learned that there is so much more to assistive technology than what I assumed. I was at the tip of the iceberg with the tech I was trying to implement into my own practice. I feel more informed and aware of all the different tools I have at my disposal to aid my learners in becoming independent, happy, and confident. I need to make sure that all learners I work with are aware of the different options they have to support their learning so they can decide for themselves what they want to keep in their tool box. I know now more than ever that the goal for assistive technology is to help learners find what works for them so that they have the tools to be independently successful lifelong learners.
Things I Learned About Myself While Doing the Course (Strengths, Interests, Preferences, Needs):
I learned that I am very willing to try new technology but sometimes I have a hard time envisioning how I can create activities that will introduce my learners to the tools. I found out I actually prefer using text to speech for reading. I was able to get through the research and readings for this course much quicker because of it. I am very interested in learning about new apps and programs that make learning accessible for everyone. This will be something I do in my daily practice to ensure I am adding to my tool belt; these are tools that I want to be able to share with learners for the rest of my career.
How I Hope to Use What I've Learned to Continue Personal/Professional Growth
I hope to share the things I have learned with my colleagues to help them in their practice and to learn from others about what tools work for them and what do not. I hope that through collaboration and discussion I can see how others use these tools. It is my goal to get these tools in the hands of as many learners as possible. With this collaboration I hope that it encourages me to research more tools and to also learn from others about what tools they might use and why. I look forward to hands-on experiences, professional development through reading, and collaborating with colleagues to continue my professional and personal growth.
What I Hope to Share With Colleagues, Families, and Learners
I hope to share the tools I have learned about with families to help them support their learner at home. I want families to see the benefits of these tools. These tools are inclusive and can support people that struggle with more traditional methods without supports. The modern world of technology makes learning accessible to everyone, and it helps every learner be successful.
What I am Likely to Incorporate Into My Work to Make it More Engaging and Accessible
I want to ensure that I always provide options for learners. No matter the given task, I understand now that some tools work well for some learners but not all. As a teacher, I need to provide options and different tools to support all my learners with given tasks. I need to model and demonstrate multiple ways of performing said task. I can support all my learners by providing multiple speech to text and text to speech tools; in conclusion, there needs to be something for everyone. Confining all learners to one program or tool is similar to making everyone write with a pencil and read a book without assistive technology; it works for some but not for all.
Which Digital Learning Tools Have Potential to Make a Difference in my World and Why / An "aha" Moment I Experienced During the Course
The first digital tool that really blew me away was read&write for chrome and the read&write app for iPad. The amount of different options that were supported and achieved in one app was amazing. Speech to text, text to speech, word prediction, a picture dictionary, highlighting, etc. I have had so many learners that have struggled with their literacy in some way. Some struggled with their reading or writing or spelling. I always wanted to support them as best as I could, but I felt like I failed them because I was not aware of the tools that were out there. I did not know that there were programs out there that combined all the basic tools I had been trying to use on multiple programs. It makes everything simpler, but I really did not understand that there were options like this for teachers to support their learners with. Putting all of these into one program makes it much easier and quicker to teach and support learners with various needs all within the same program. I also like having programs like Abilipad and Typ-o at my disposal for learners that would prefer a different tool. Knowing I have more than one program to teach and offer to my learners is really amazing when a short while ago I had no programs to offer them or just the internal speech to text or text to speech program on iPad (which is still a tool I plan on teaching and using).
A Goal I Have for Using Technology for Myself and for the Learners I Support
I want to focus on teaching one tool at a time to fill up their toolboxes. I do not want to overwhelm myself or my learners as we try to make our learning more accessible. The more tools they are given the better they will become at deciding what works for them. The last thing I want to do is discourage or frustrate my learners by not giving them enough time to learn or having failed in my teaching. I need to set a goal for myself to really learn and deeply explore these apps before I introduce them to my learners.