Assistive Technology

Assistive technology is a great resource for teachers.  Teachers that have children in their class that have a disability are able to use the computer.  The magnifier can be used not only for children with disabilities, but also for grandparents that come into the classroom that may have trouble seeing due to old age.  The narration is not only good for children that are vision impaired, one could also use it when helping children learn to read.  The children will hear the words as they see them on the screen which aids in learning to read.  These are only examples of a few of the technologies that are on Microsoft that help the children with disabilities.  I love these technologies and cannot wait until I can use some of them in my classroom.  Like I previously stated, one can make use of these technologies even without having a child with disabilities.  Prior to this chapter, I had no idea my computer had these features.  I knew of the common ones like the toggle keys and the magnifier; however, I had no idea that my computer could flash the screen when it made a sound for the toggle keys, nor did I know that I could make my screen change to contrasting colors to increase visibility.  I am very grateful for the section because I feel as though learning assistive technology will make a difference in the future when I start teaching.

If a teacher were to use the narration on a Power-Point as we did in class, they would be addressing the second and third standards.  The second standard states that one should design and develop new age digital learning experiences and assessments.  Using narration accomplishes this because one, it is new aged, and two the teacher designs it and presents it to the classroom.  This is where the third standard comes in.  When the teacher is presenting the Power-Point to the classroom, she is modeling digital age work and learning.