Technology Presentations

Inclusive Classrooms:

• This group did their presentation on technology tools to aid an inclusive classroom – and the idea of the online class. They talked about the different ways to have an online classroom – teams or zoom, an online video lesson – or a website that is always accessible to students and teachers to post content.

• One of the tools they talked about was immersive reader! It is a resource that helps students with reading. It has a lot of features, it will read out loud to you, highlight/define/visualize words and colour code different parts of speech. Not free, but still accessible especially for schools – I especially like the idea of being able to help students without singling them out.

• The other tool they talked about was Nearpod – a resource that you can use to make presentations more interactive and inclusive. Has a free option and a paid option. Can link a ton of different methods, kahoot, pdfs, and audio submissions.

Tech to Support Diverse Learners

The second group did their presentation also on ways to create a more inclusive classroom.

• The first tool they talked about was seeing AI – a free app that reads text, describes photos, faces, scans documents and written work. Can use this for students to help them read and understand assignments, as well as to scribe for students.

• The next technology is eye gaze tech, it tracks your eye gaze so students can use screens to communicate and create different assignments. (students look at one spot for period of time, makes the selection. Very cool tech for students with mental and physical challenges. Downside is it’s very very expensive.

• This group also did Immersive reader. Great resource for classrooms.

• And finally an app called breathe, think, do by sesame street. Click a task that a monster is struggling with, and you help him breathe to calm down and then you give him solutions and the children get to pick their favourite solution.

Virtual Reality

• This group went over the different types of VR -VR, augmented reality and extended reality.
• VR sounds like a great way to engage students – the little game characters with the names of the presenters was a great hook and I think even that would have kids so interested.
• The two types of VR they went into detail on were tethered and standalone. Both have great features
  • Tethered: need playstation to play it through
    • Pros: novel, new, engaging, educational options
    • Cons: motion sickness, expensive, gaming bias, long set up and learning curve
  • Standalone: newer tech -libarium, nanobe, star chart, hands on physics lab
    • Pros: opportunity for manipulatives, easy set up, slightly more affordable
    • Cons: motion sick, game bias, distracting, limited for physical disabilities.

Virtual Field Trips

• This group did different ways to have field trips online
  • Websites used: jamboard, canva, boomcards, quizlet, kahoot, youvisit, kaiXR, thinglink
    • pros: tons of resources available, accessible for many student types, more engaging than a textbook, inclusive
    • cons: tech unreliable, cost, long time to sit watching a screen, learning curve
  • Field trip to zoo/bear habitat and mt st Helen.
  • Include internet safety and respectful use