Blog Post #7

            PowerPoint has been a huge part of learning ever since I have been in school. I will most definitely use this in my class work because it is an efficient and fun way to get information and notes to your students. Let’s say I am teaching a sociology class. According to Bloom’s Taxonomy, I need to create the PowerPoint originally and in a way my students will be interested in. I each slide I need to evaluate the stances on the theories proposed on the particular unit I am teaching. Next, we analyze the theory. Say we are talking about the bystander effect. This would be the time that we would look over test results and question why this happens in emergency situations. After that, I would have a slide that would apply it real life and have to students openly discuss how they would handle a situation if they saw someone was in trouble. Would they keep walking or stop and help? Then Bloom says we are to understand the concept so I would use PowerPoint to add examples and then see of the students can point out which example demonstrates the bystander effect and which don’t. Lastly, Bloom says to remember. I would end the slide show with a recap of what we did and the definition of bystander effect to remind the students before they move on to their next class.

            According to the podcast Adaptive Technologies, adaptive technologies are implemented into schools for those who have learning disabilities. They help them to become accustomed to technology quicker. For example, if the student has difficulty reading, they may use voice recognition instead of typing or, if they have motor disabilities, a joystick instead of a mouse. I personally have never seen anyone use, nor have I used adaptive technology in class. Overall, I think adaptive technology is important for students with disabilities because it gives them the chance to continue learning at the same pace as other students. The challenges that I see are that schools may not be able to afford added adaptive technology making it unlikely for students with disabilities to use them and for the students to feel set apart from their peers and knowing that they are different; this is more of a concern in the younger years.

            Overall I really enjoyed working on the webpage. My group was great and we had a lot of fun coming up with a topic for it. I am a very organized person and I like order, so a website was perfect because everything has its own place. One thing I did not like so much, was figuring out how to change the header. Every time we tried to make the header match the page it would change all of the headers to that name. It was kind of frustrating, so that is definitely something I can work on for next time. I learned that it is important to have an easy access page for parents to get to so they know what is going on in your class. You don’t always know if the students are relaying the information to them or not. I will most likely use a web page when I become a teacher for that reason. It’s a great to keep up an open conversation with the parents.