Diverse Students and Technology

There are so many ways that technology can meet the needs of diverse students. The media specialist has the opportunity to introduce many different technologies and there uses to both teachers and students. Ebooks and other books on line can be used with students who have learning disabilites and with students who are visually impaired. There are also benefits to using the many software programs that are available to students. These programs can be used with students who are performing both above and below grade level. So many of the programs and technologies that are available can be geared to specific learners and specific needs. Also, the use of video and movie maker make it easier to reach your divers populations because, again, it cna be geared to specific needs, grade levels, etc.
Our school has a growing hispanic population so programs that are geared to the hispanic population is also very useful.

Technology and Diversity

The diversity of learning needs in today’s general education classroom and media center continues to grow, including students with disabilities and those who are English-learners. Students with disabilities can benefit from a number of features that are built into existing technology available in the media center and many classrooms such as PowerPoint, Windows Movie Maker, and Kidspiration/Inspiration. These Software and web-based resources allow teachers and media specialists to gather video clips, pictures, maps, audio clips, and other means of presenting information. They can also provide students with advance organizers, such as outlines, study guides, "while you read" questions, and diagrams which present overviews of new material to be studied.

By the same token, English Learners can benefit from web resources which provide background information, interactivity, and relevant instruction, and multi-media presentations. The non-judgmental nature of the computer allows most students to make errors without embarrassment and can provide immediate feedback and correction. This can be as simple as writing in Microsoft Word with the spell-check turned on, or using an English language tutorial, such as the BBC (http://www.bbc.co.uk/?ok). You can customize their Learning English site with a choice of 26 different native speaker's languages. The Voice of America Special English(http://www.manythings.org/e/voa.html) site is one of many that have word lists and quizzes.

Media, Technology & Diversity

The school I currently work at is a very diverse school. Many races and ethnic groups are represented in a single classroom. Based on the backgrounds of their home life or their culture, they sometimes view learning in different ways. A media specialist can be useful to the classroom teacher by introducing a variety of materials available for the visual learner to the kinesthetic learner. A more recent style of learning includes music which can be developed through technology. Ideas from music as a background noise during student learning or allowing the student to create a musical presentation for an assignment are ideas that the media specialist may assist a classroom teacher to help her meet the diverse needs of the students. As always, the media specialist must be open to lifelong learning as technology and the way schools are run are changing every day.

Ebooks/Digital Storytelling

Wow! It's exciting to see all that is available to us. I'm not sure that this would be considered an "e-books," but at the school where I am employed we have a subscription to "Tumblebooks." This site has bookbooks that are read to students, or students may read it themselves. It also has quizzes with many of hte stories. We also have a subscription to "Sylvan- Dell Books" which works much the same way. All of the classrooms have access to this. E-books are not used in the media center. At this point, no one at our school is using digital storytelling, though it sounds great. It seems to be a innovative way for students to do book reports and such, but Time constraints and the responsibilty of covering the curriculum oten takes precedence over learning new technologies. It is something I would like to dive into a little deeper and see how it could be used in the media center

E-books For All!

An e-book is the digital media equivalent of a conventional printed book. Such documents are usually read on personal computers or even cell phones. Such technology is not only easy to access and convenient to the user, but it may be just the thing to promote reading among our students at all age levels. E-books have many positive attributes for both users and media centers alike. For example, clicking is easier than page-turning. You can customize the viewing experience (enlarge font size and style, change orientation on device, modify screen contrast). There is also technology available that allows the user to change to audible and have text read to them. E-books offer the potential to add multimedia (graphics, audio, and video) and hyperlinks to other information. When using e-books, book marking, highlighting and annotating capabilities are available.

There are advantages for media specialists and libraries as well. E-Texts can be modified for various reading ages, degree of violence, amount of offensive language, etc. They require less library space, shelf reading, inventory time, weeding, repair and replacement. E-books are even environmentally friendly because they save trees and paper and avoid pollution (caused by inks, dyes, coloring).

Technology Training in Schools- Hensley

Our School has an advantage in the use of technology. Each classroom has an ActivBoard to use when teaching. Over the last few years, I've seen the staff's technology awareness and knowledge grow. One reason that I feel that this has occurred is the fact that there are training sessions and people available to assist with technological needs. Our county's technology department offers monthly and often bi-monthly technology instruction. There are always a wide variety of topics and the topics are geared to different levels. These classes are not mandatory, but there is usually a pretty good turn out because the classes address needs that are relevent to our teachers. WE also have trainings on occasion for new programs that are being implemented in the school and/or county. These trainings are usually mandatory, but they are beneficial. These trainings are usually, filled with lots of information and are sometimes overwhelming.
The only problem that I see with the trainings is that they are always at the end of the day, and sometimes people just want to leave as soon as they can. I'm not sure what the alternatives would be to this situation.
If I were in charge of technology training within the school, one thing that I feel I would change would be that I would send out surveys to see what the needs of staff are. I might also make it a requirement that at teachers attend at least one training session throughout the year.

Technology Training

About two years ago our media specialists and area lead teachers had a faculty meeting for this very subject. I still have the handout they gave us during the meeting (in fact I have it in front of me right now). The heading was Promoting Engagment Using Technology. In fact, I actually just typed it into a Word document and put on the school web site at http://stu.westga.edu/~mperkin2/Promoting%20Engagement%20Using%20Technology.doc. This was the one meeting that stands out in my four years at this school that was really worth while. I don't always remember the website (unless I go back to this sheet which I keep handy) but I remember them going through them in our faculty meeting and quickly introducing us to all of them. I also remember that day in the meeting that we (the teachers present) said things like, "We'll never remember this." But it was my first introduction to GPB.org and if you read my last blog, I can't live without it! I have also used the webquest site and now that I am looking at it, I think I will visit the virtual manipulatives site.

The media specialists and the area lead teachers had a productive meeting for many reasons. This was something useful that teachers need for instruction. They also carefully organized them on a sheet of paper so we could quickly grab it when we needed it. And last, they did not stand around with a lot of talk and jabber. They got right to the point in the meeting showing us and getting us to go to the web sites while they showed us. It was very informal and at the time sort of overwhelming, but in hind sight, I hope that one day I will give technology training that is this memorable and useful to my co-workers.