Melissa Blazejak
ePortfolio: Educational Technology
EDU 612- Assistive/Adaptive Technology
COURSE DESCRIPTION: This course provides an overview of assistive technology. Students learn applications of low, elementary, and high technology assistive devices in the area of communication, mobility, education, recreation, vocation, independence, and rehabilitation. It provides information on methods and organizational approaches to integrating assistive technology in the classroom.
Part of this class required us to create our own professional development goals (Appendix Q). I currently am not a certified teacher, so I created my goals to revolve around becoming certified and getting a job as a teacher.
A major part of teaching students with disabilities is learning the difference between IEP’s and 504’s. We were required to create our own IEP (Appendix S) for a fictional student. I chose to create a fictitious blind student and used my knowledge from the previous report (Appendix R) to help the student learn using certain technologies.
This class looked at how students with disabilities learn using technology. As part of the class, we had to research technology for a specific disability. My report (Appendix R) highlights the technologies available for blind students. I found the quantity of resources available to be vast and interesting. My favorite technology is the company that scans textbooks into digital form and makes them accessible through screen readers.
We were also required to look at the IEP process and how an assistive technology team goes about acquiring the appropriate technology. In my report (Appendix T), I learned that Norwich does not have a lot in the way of assistive technology, but there are not too many students that require these aids. Most of the students in the district require help in mobility because of a physical disability.