Endless Possibilities

As a future educator, I believe that every student deserves an equal chance at achieving success; my role is to make the necessary accommodations to see it through. In a world that continues to advance in the technology field, children and teenagers alike have unlimited access to vast amounts of resources, many of which I’m unfamiliar with. Yet, as I thought more about the ways that the UDL approach and Gardner’s theory of Multiple Intelligences go hand in hand, I also realized that technology can help visual, auditory, and kinesthetic learners in a way like never before. While I still believe in the power of drawing, arts and crafts, and manipulating items (especially in science and math) these articles showed me how my students can play an active role in their learning. As Nancy Firchow pointed out, this style of learning allows the curriculum to adjust to the student’s needs, something which I hadn’t really thought of before but which makes perfect sense.

In terms of how technology could play a role in my classroom, here are some of my ideas: I’d create a website where assignments, educational game links, and monthly newsletters would be posted so that families could stay connected to classroom life; I'd place CD’s at designated learning centers so that the children could use songs for activities; I would use voice threads with my students and allow them to use it for certain final projects and reports; with the computer, I’d create differentiated organizers and provide sites where struggling readers could click on and hear the pronunciation of difficult words; if I had a SMART Board, I would show videos and pictures to help them create text-to-world connections and would upload assignments and lessons for review.

Even though I think that these resources are great, I still believe that balancing time between technology and other resources is crucial. While many people may love to use technology all day long, I am not one of them and I believe that some of my students may fall along the same line. In addition, I want to learn more about digital media so that I can incorporate it in a meaningful way. For me, these ideas are just the beginning; I look forward to discovering more uses for technology during this course and in the years to come!