One thing that occurred to me this week, was how little I have been taught about assistive technologies, and how much I actually should know, considering the nature of my job. All special needs students come to music class, many with assistive technology, and many who need additional manipulatives or additions to their instruments that allow them to have better fine motor skills. As I thought about this, never have I been trained to use any of these things. I remember my first day of teaching a class that had 7 or 8 students with FM radios and cochlear implants, and interpreters, and I was going to teach them music? It seemed crazy to me. Never was I taught to use the FM radio, which they're not that difficult, but it does take some getting used to. Also, never have I received any professional development regarding how I can best assist these students with their needs.
As an educator, we want to feel successful, much less competent with the materials that we are using to teach our students. As I thought about our assistive technology topic for the week, I realized how little I actually knew about assistive technology, and that everything I know now, I learned in a trial by fire situation. I can't help but think, wouldn't these students be more successful, if their teachers felt successful teaching them? I suppose I feel the same way that some teachers who may have less experience feel about technology integration. It takes a while to realize that you just have to jump in and try, and be okay with failing in front of your students. It's funny how some students have a perception that their teachers are perfect.
I can't help but think that some professional development would be time well spent on this topic, especially since I do teach all of the students in my school with special needs. Certainly, I would feel more comfortable with these students with some kind of training in this area. It is a shame that we don't take time to learn and master things before we implement or before we are expected to use things successfully under pressure.
I totally understand your frustration with assistive technology. Until this week, I have never used any in my classroom. It is a shame that we are given no training on how to use this technology with our students. I agree, that it would be time well spent on PD. I share the same frustration, except that it is with my Smart Board. I had one installed over the summer and have had NO training on how to use it. I am thankful for our new Reading Program because it comes with lessons already integrated into it for the Smart Board. I was told just this morning that I am expected to use it every day and incorporate into my math lessons as well. That is all fine and dandy, but teach me how to use it and I will be happy to use it. I think there is always some aspect of technology that we are given and expected to use without any type of training. It is then our fault (at least what I have seen) when we don’t use it as it is meant to be and our students needs are not being met. If more time was put into useful PD sessions, we would see a lot more success from our students. After all, didn’t Richardson say that teachers should know how to use it before the students are expected to?
ReplyDeleteGirls I agree with both of you. If we don't have the training then how can we successful teach our students how to use it. I have many of my older coworkers coming to me and asking me to help them with this or that. There are times that I have told them "Actually, I don't know how to do that because nobody showed me. I do it this way though...". I have found ways to figure things out that work just as well, but isn't exactly what should be done.
ReplyDeleteI think that because have grown up with a lot of the technology that we are just expected to know how to use it. This isn't the case. We may learn it more quickly than others would but we aren't just born knowing how to use each technology or assistive technology.
I have to say that my comments are basically just going to echo all 3 of you. I love the idea of technology integration, and try to do it as often as possible. However, apart from this class, there is no one showing me new technologies and how to use them in my classroom. It is up to me to seek out the resources and learn how to use them and how they can be implemented. This is very frustrating and one that I think really hurts us as teachers. We are constantly talking about how our students learn better through all of these great web 2.0 tools, and yet there is a VERY limited number of teachers out there who are using them at all, let alone to the capacity that they could be used. Unfortunately, Kristy, I think it is worse for these assistive technologies and our special needs students. These are students who truly need these resources to learn, and we are not trained in them properly which is causing them to not learn as well. But we all know- training requires money and money is something that school systems do not have extra of at the moment.
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