Who Am I and Why is Technology Important in Your Classroom?

 

Who am I?

    My name is Chelsie and I just finished up my 14^th year of teaching. I didn’t always want to be a teacher, but teaching chose me. Like many of my family member I struggled to learn to read most of which have a diagnosis of dyslexia.  I had some amazing teachers along the way that helped me accomplish my dreams, but I also had some that lowered the expectation they had for me because they assumed I was unintelligent because of my reading skills. 

My school experiences created a passion to ensure children, like me, had the ability to accomplish all their dreams and reach their potential. So, I began the journey to become a teacher. I thought this was the path to helping students learn to read and accomplish their goals in life. I soon learned however I was fighting against a system that did not support my goals. Most of my students were slowly pulled from the general education classroom for most subjects and placed in special education classes. I realized I needed to take a different approach, these kids deserved to learn to read. I started looking into training to better teaching abilities. I ended up at a conference where a brain surgeon was speaking about the differences in the brain of people with dyslexia and showed images of an FMRI. This conference brought me into a new chapter of my life. 

Today I am a Certified Academic Language Therapist (CALT) trained in Take Flight and JET programs created by Scottish Rite Hospital for students with dyslexia. I have had the pleasure of watching children who were doubted all their lives learn to read and some learn to read before they were ever doubted. It truly changes their lives.

Why is Technology Important? 

                  At this point you are probably wondering how technology has anything to do with who I am. That is simply because technology can change the world for children and adults with disabilities. All students need to know how to use technology and the use of technology can enhance any standard. For students with disabilities, including reading, technology can allow them access to standards. A great example of this is when a third-grade student is needing to accomplish the Oklahoma writing standards for 3.3.W. Students will thoughtfully and intentionally write, addressing a range of modes, purposes, and audiences. This is very difficult for a student who cannot read or has difficulty with spelling.  By teaching students to use the ISTE standards such as 1.1.a.,set learning goals, develop strategies leveraging technology to achieve them and reflect on the learning process to improve learning outcomes, students can learn technology that gives them independence (2016).

 As an example, a third-grade student has been assigned to write a narrative incorporating setting, plot, characters, and characterization as specified in Oklahoma standard 3.3.W.1.(2021). The student has a large oral vocabulary and can tell very detailed narrative, but when it comes to writing their skills are lacking compared to their oral capabilities. With technology such as text-to-speech and Grammarly can be used to help the student reach their potential without being limited by their disability. If we teach these children to develop strategies leveraging technology, they can achieve these goals on their own. Technology has changed my student’s learning outcomes as well as my own as I work through my master course work and write this blog. 

The most important thing to remember when using technology in the classroom is students must be taught. I mean this in both the sense of taught to use the technology correctly but also on the focus topic.  Providing speech-to-text for students to use without instruction in how to use text-to-speech or in how to create a proper grade appropriate paper the student will still not have the skills needed. A great way to ensure you are teaching students how to use technology is to use the Triple E framework (2020). The Triple E Framework consists of three instructional strategies: Engage, Enhance and Extend.  If you were using text to speech to help your 3^rd grade students create a narrative story you could be using the areas of Engage by allowing student to focus on a task of the assignment,  Enhance by allowing the students to demonstrate their understanding of the assignment, and extend because text-to-speech can be used outside of the classroom in their everyday lives.  

Reference

International Society for Technology in Education. (2016). ISTE standards for students https://iste.org/standards/students

Oklahoma State Department of Education. (2021). Oklahoma academic standards. https://oklahoma.gov/education/services/standards-learning/oklahoma-academic-standards.html

Kolb, L. (2020). Triple E framework. https://www.tripleeframework.com