Blog Post #8

Last week at the Assistive Technology Lab we saw quite a few different types of technology that can aid students with disabilities. However, before we entered the lab we were given examples of anatomy textbooks that had images labeled in Braille. I had never seen, or even heard of a Braille textbook prior to this experience and I was amazed at the sight of the resource. When I first navigated some of the diagrams in the textbooks I was confused as to how well they actually worked for a visually impaired student, but the women who was presenting assured that the textbooks greatly helped students. With that in mind, I now realize how much of a help a Braille textbook could be to students with visual impairments. Another technology we saw was what I believe was called the SmartPen. The SmartPen is one of the most fascinating technologies I have been around. The SmartPen allowed students to record a professor while writing and transferred all information to a connected app which then allowed students to go back after class and review notes at their own pace.

Bloom's Taxonomy consists of six levels of cognition: remembering, understanding, applying, analyzing, evaluating, and creating. Bloom's levels of taxonomy are meant to give instructors a pattern on how to teach their students and the order material should be presented. As a teacher, for the remember area I would give information to the students that is necessary to the topic being covered and I would allot them a certain amount of time to remember the material. For understanding, I would have a slide with questions for them to answer out loud to ensure each student has proper knowledge of the material. To apply what they learned, I would give them a problem that had to be solved using what they have learned up to that point. When it comes to analyzing material, I would have slides on the PowerPoint that are meant for the students to differentiate between information they have learned on the topic so far and unseen information. I would then have the students compare one another's results and evaluate all the material understood and collected up until that point. Finally, I would give the students a set of instructions for them to complete and create a new way to learn the information they had gained throughout the PowerPoint. How to integrate Bloom's Taxonomy into a PowerPoint definitely depends on the class and lesson being taught and different methods have to be taken.

In education now it is vital that teachers know the ins and outs of technology. However, staying updated with technology isn't an easy task, even for students. A website I found to help stay connected with technology is a Facebook page called "Technology Updates." "Technology Updates" is constantly posting new technological advances from around the world on their page. It may seem like a lot but just scrolling through the page allows one to see a bunch of advances previously unheard or just simple tech tips and tricks to be more efficient.

https://www.facebook.com/Technology-updates-1900182406931722/?hc_ref=SEARCH&fref=nf