Educational & Assistive Technology

Virtual educational tools an educator can use to support the goals of self-directed and independent student learning:

Quizlet is a free online learning tool, and it contains flashcards, study methods, and game methods. As the instructor, you could create a set of flashcards for your students or create a virtual interactive study guide using Quizlet. Students can also create their own flashcards, study guides and play games related to content as well. Quizlet is a handy tool for educators that want to support the goals of self-directed and independent learning because it allows these learners to take initiative and manage their own learning materials.

Flipgrid is also a no cost online learning tool and consists of video tools that give teachers the choice to post different subjects. Once an instructor posts a topic, the video is then shared with students and the students then respond by posting a self-made video below the topic. The students can respond using any smart device that has a camera to record their video. Flipgrid is a great tool for educators that want to support the goals of self-directed and independent learning because it allows these students to share their work along with their thought process, allowing for academic freedom.

You can click on the links below:

Assistive technology that an educator can incorporate in their lessons that meet individual student needs and learning in an educational setting:

Text to speech technology

Alternative keyboards

Text to speech technology actually comes equipped on most devices, including smart phones, smart tablets, computers, and laptops. When using this technology, information can be read aloud from all kinds of text files including websites, online books, word documents, and more. The speed of the reading can also be sped up or slowed down, depending on the needs of the child. Often, students may struggle with reading printed words, therefore the use of this tool eliminates that barrier. Talk to speech can also help with word recognition, helps with focus on the content, and helps students identify errors in there reading. If text to speech software is not automatically on your device, you can also download text to speech apps, use Google Chrome tools, as well as web-based tools.

Alternative keyboards are programmable keyboards that have special overlays in which customize the look and the function of a typical keyboard. This type of alternate keyboard can help students that have a learning disabilities or children that have trouble typing. The way these keyboards are designed is by grouping color and location of keys, and they also include additional images to help visual comprehension. There is another option as well for an alternative keyboard and that would be using on screen computers, which would also help a student who has trouble reading and typing at the same time.

Text to speech as well as alternative keyboards are linked below.