Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Assistive Technology-Module 5

The Discovering Assistive Technology was very informative and I learned many new things about Assistive Technology products.  I especially liked learning about the software called the iCommunicator.  Having a deaf child in my second grade classroom last year was a tremendous experience and I learned so much about people living with a disability.  I know that my students benefited from having that child in my class as well.  We could see first hand how this child lived each day and overcame the challenges she faced.  Here is a link to a CD called Sound Hearing.  This CD and booklet really helped my students to understand what hearing was like for this child.  Examples are provided of a person reading a sentence with hearing, some hearing loss, and severe hearing loss.  I asked my students to imagine if that is what they heard everyday, all day, and how difficult that must be.  This CD truly opened their eyes to what their fellow classmate experienced with her hearing loss.

I absolutely plan to recommend this tutorial to other colleagues because it is important for all educators to understand what is available in the area of Assistive Technology.  I enjoyed reading the list of books on Library Thing and plan to read several books from the list.  I purchased many books with deaf characters and about sign language for my classroom when I had a deaf students because it was important to me to read about this disability and because I knew my students would benefit from them as well.

Thank you for a wonderful tutorial on Assistive Technology!

1 comment:

  1. Laura,

    I was amazed at all of the assistive technology products that are available out there. I never would have thought of some of the devices that were on the lists. It was really eye-opening to learn about products and select appropriate devices for our schools.

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