blog post 7

-Assistive technologies (AT) are any device, piece of equipment or system that helps a person with a disability work around their challenges so they can better learn, communicate, or function better. There are many types of assistive technologies that help kids with learning and attention issues. The variety of tools available to them, some of which are free of charge, can help students with these issues to work around their challenges while playing into their strengths. Not only do these technologies help students to become more successful, productive students, but at the same time their confidence and independence can immensely grow. The pros of AT’s are endless, some examples include that students are able to work at their own pace, they are able to accomplish things more individually, and talented and gifted students (TAG students) are included into the regular classroom. This inclusion not only benefits the student with the disability, but also other students and even the teacher. Some noted assistive technologies that have proven to be successful in the classroom from our textbook include word prediction software, talking word processors and talking spell checkers. In my own personal experience, my cousin, Charlie-Anne, has Cerebral Palsy thus marking her as a TAG student. Charlie-Anne used text-to-speech and other talking word processing programs to allowed her to better write and communicate with others as well as adjust the speed  of the reading and the quality of the voice reading  it to them.

--       The Web Page Design Assignment helped me to develop computer competency skills and further challenge my tech-savvyness. I enjoyed this assignment because it required us to work in groups rather than individually which made us all put in an extra amount of work in order to complete our web page, the group webpage analysis, and our own personal web page analysis. I enjoyed that this activity required us to use team-work and challenged our technology capabilities. I think now that I have acquired the skills to create a Web Page I can successfully build my own in the future and use it for multiple purposes.
*Link to our Web Page: katiexanders.wixsite.com/mysite 

-In our last few class meetings, we’ve use the Google Chrome Extension Diigo. Diggo has allowed us to annotate Web Pages in order to further analyze an article, web page, blog, PDF, etc. By doing this we as students are able to gather a deeper meaning and sense of a certain web page and thus form better conclusions and thoughts about the article. I feel as if the Diggo application could prove useful in my future career as an educator because it not only improves workflow and productivity, but is easy and intuitive, yet versatile and powerful. I’ve enjoyed being able to save and share my annotated work with my classmates and group members very much. This tool makes it easy for us to access our annotated work and share our thoguhts/feelings about a specific web page/article.