Group 1: What Makes Good Classroom Blog/Web Platforms:

  • Class Dojo (Online platform for teachers/students/parents)- it is password protected
  • Google Sites – Public site so important to not use personal information. The editing was slightly limited but you can make things on Canva to add. You must be careful and know your students in case some people should not have privy to info of where they are located.
  • Classroom Screne: Have to pay if you want to save but not if you just want to use (includes reminders of noise level, check ins, QR codes…).
  • Jotform: Parent-teacher communication. Free for everyone. Relatively easy to set up. Everything is on one page. You can do app or form creation. Example: Vote for the winter dance – this would then automatically go to my email. Permission slips online or parents can print them off. You can make it password protected (makes parents register).
  • Seesaw: Great source for communication. Teach the students about professionalism online by sharing to their family. Very organized (Folders). Messaging you can create an announcement or direct conversation. You can post students work to see through their day. There are also assignments (Can do a beginning and end of the week check in). Seesaw lessons great for inspiration but not modifiable. You can add multiple classes. Awesome if you have a sub teacher as they can see what has been happening in the class.

Highlights of what make a class website good:

  1. Free
  2. Accessibility
  3. Privacy

Group 2: How can we create a more inclusive classroom using technology?

Group 2: How Can We Create a More Inclusive Classroom Using Technology?

  • Virtual Classrooms: Platforms such as Zoom and Teams are synchronous , asynchronous virtual classrooms are platforms such as BrightSpace and Google Classroom) Pros: Access anytime, anywhere. If they have questions they can reach out to the teacher or classmates. If a student misses class the info is online. Students who may not feel comfortable sharing in the class – every student can have a voice in an online classroom. Access anywhere (if there’s a barrier to getting to school they can still participate). Cons: Learning curve when first learning the platforms, troubleshooting issues, requires a device at home which is not the case for every student.

  • Immersive Reader: Extra support with reading (Emphasizes the sounds of words, colour code parts of speech, if you want to pause and press on a word it will pull up a photo of what the word means). Pros: Offers support, the ability to change the colour of the background, translating, you can also change the speed of the reader. Cons: Reliance (overuse), Microsoft office is not free.

  • Nearpod: Fun interactive program to make the presentation interactive and inclusive. You can add activities throughout your presentation. There’s a white board that you can write on throughout the presentation. At the end you can see student participation. Pros: Ability for student-paced instruction, supports immersive reader, allows audio submissions, requires student answers, students can take notes in premium, view and receive a report of students’ responses. Cons: Requires individual technology, devices are out and a temptation to use for other things. It also does not support Canva. Risks: Presentation and assessment is online (privacy concerns), American-based material.

Group 3: Technologies That Support Diverse Learners

  • Seeing Ai: App from the App store (Free). Uploads a page into a digital form and has speak to text. You can also take a photo of a photo or a room or a person and will describe the whole image. Pros: Free! Great to transform notes into digital form. Cons: If writing is not clear may not detect it, very robotic voice.

  • Eye Gaze Technology: Students who may not be able to communicate can scan their eyes and then they are able to make selections with blinking, a switch or dwell. Pros: Physical, communication, Intellectual difficulties and so many more it can help the communicate. Gives a new sense of independence. It also helps with diagnosing medical disorders such as autism as early as 6 months of age. There are a lot of great games! Cons: Very expensive ($6500).

  • Immersive Reader: Can be embedded into Microsoft Word. See above for notes on immersive reader.

  • Breathe- Think-Do with Sesame Street App: The students have a monster friend that they get to work through problems with. Everything is read to you. You can click on a task and the student has to take a break to do some deep breathing with the monster. This was designed to increase self-regulation. This will be great in a classroom to increase independence. Cons: Lack of customization.

I really enjoyed the presentations this week and found there were a lot of great resources that I can use in my future as a teacher!

Chelsea