Blog Post #7

PowerPoint can be used to help student learning at each level of Bloom’s Taxonomy. For “remember”, having a few key terms on the PowerPoint will help those important words stick into student’s heads so they memorize them. For “understand”, you can have a picture on the PowerPoint that describes what you are talking about, further helping students understand the topic by mixing a visual with your description. For “apply”, you can pose a question on the PowerPoint, or link to a website that has practice problems or questions regarding the topic, to allow students to use what you’re teaching. For “analyze”, you can have a chart, graph, or concept web or map on your PowerPoint that makes the topic more clear for the students and connects the ideas simply. For “Evaluate”, you can compare and contract two views by splitting the slide in two showing the different sides, to allow students to decide which one they agree with after critiquing their ideas. For “create”, you can use your PowerPoint as an example of how your students should design their own PowerPoints, and give examples of good slides and bad slides through your PowerPoint.

                

Adaptive technologies are those things that support learners who may have some disability or exceptionality. Word prediction software is a program that predicts the next word the student wants to type and shows the choices. This helps students who have physical disabilities that make typing hard. There is also talking word processing programs that allow students with physical disabilities to complete assignments without having to do any physical writing or typing (Lever-Duffy 69). These programs are just two examples of adaptive technologies explained in “Teaching and Learning with Technology” that support learners with exceptionalities. According to the podcast, there are also adaptive technologies that help those students with learning disabilities, such as spell checking software. This greatly helps students who have Dyslexia and other problems with writing and grammar. I have used spell check software through Word when writing papers for class, and I have also used word prediction software when text messaging. They are a great benefit to make writing easier, faster, and to ensure that they are scholarly written with proper grammar and spelling throughout. I believe that there may be challenges when it comes to allowing some students to use adaptive technologies while others do not. Also, it may be difficult to have a student trying to speak into a program to type when students around him or her are speaking as well, or quietly trying to work on their own assignments.   

I learned a lot while working on the web page design assignment. This was my first time making a website, so it was interesting to learn how to design each page. The templates that Weebly provided were helpful, and after a while I got comfortable with changing text size, font, color, backgrounds, and organizing things on the page. I learned how to hyperlink a picture or a word, rather than just inserting a URL link, which I am glad that I now know how to do. I found it difficult to place pictures exactly where I wanted them, which gave me some frustration but after a while I was able to design the pages to my liking. Next time I can improve my website by being more creative in different design layouts for each page, and adding more interactive graphics or videos. I know that I will be using the skills I learned in this assignment as a teacher, because I will create and continually keep going a website for my classes that the students and parents will be able to access. The website will be beneficial because it will have important dates, links that will help with the curriculum, and information on how to contact me.