Chapter 10- Promoting Success for All Students through Technology

Focus Question: What are differentiated instruction (DI) and universal design for learning (UDI)?

 

Differentiated instruction (DI) is an instruction approach that allows students to interpret things in several different ways. This is a way for teachers to create different strategies to help students learn the specific needs in their grade level. Every student has a different learning type and by letting student use differentiated instructions these students will benefit more learning. Although everyone has different learning types, teacher have to try their best to incorporate all learning types. Not necessarily every learning type will be in one lesson but trade off the learning strategies that why everyone gets their turn.  

Universal design for learning is another approach to help teachers change instructional practices and classroom structures to promote learning success for every student. Every student can benefit from a wide and varied range of educational experiences that can advance the potential of student’s ability to learn. By designing different styles of learning it becomes a huge impacting on the students learning goals.

Tech Tool: Extra-Large and Online Calculators

Photo credit to Ian Ruotsala from flickr

 

Calculators in my opinion are very helpful to students in this generation. Although they’re a huge impact nowadays, I believe that students should know how to do basic mathematics without a one. There are several ways that a teacher can teach students how to calculate things without using a calculator. For example, teachers can have students count marbles or can even have their students them just divide quantities of items. Teaching students how to do mental math can be hard but very beneficial. Calculators may provide the answer but cannot shows students how they received the answer.

Summary & Conclusion:

Chapter 10 begins with explaining how computer technologies help expand opportunities for teachers to meet the learning requirements for all students, regular and challenged. Technologies used for special needs students can also be a learning strategy for regular students. This allows them a different techniques to learn material and also helps teacher’s incorporate all there students, whether they’re challenged or regular. In concluding the chapter it speaks about ideas for integrating technology into the teaching of writing. One of the ideas given is that as teachers we are to convince students that they are writers and that they must believe that the words and pictures that are in their heads are interesting. Inspiring and energizing our students to write means individualizing the parts of writing. One way to do so is to read aloud a story and meanwhile explain to the children why they the author used the type of grammar they used.

Teaching children with several technologies can benefit them in many ways. I believe that every teacher should incorporate at least two or more learning styles or technologies when teaching a lesson. Even explaining to the children what grammar is being used while reading aloud is a good strategy. One thing I really liked about this chapter is that the tech tool 10.1 was about calculating things and how they said that you can you use different methods in teaching your students how to calculate and not have them relying on calculators.