Howard's ISCI 761 Blog

Libraries and media centers are seen as the heart and soul of school and therefor need to be the most inclusive. The library should feel like a home to all students so that they are comfortable and have equal access to all the resources the library has to offer. Students of all abilities should be able to attend library classes and use the available resources. According to A Summary of the Evidence on Inclusive Education, “Placing students with disabilities within mainstream classes without accompanying structural changes to, for example, organization, curriculum and teaching and learning strategies, does not constitute inclusion” (2016, pg. 3). This demonstrates that inclusion is ideal for all students, but only when proper accessibility is put in place.  One such tool for including learning in the library setting is Natural Reader – an online program that converts text to spoken audio for students to listen to the information. This tool helps students who have vision disabilit...

With one-on-one technology integration occurring in public schools all across the nation, there are many devices on the market that cater to providing the best, and most cost-effective, devices for students. The Dell Latitude 3190 Windows laptop is marketed as a way to “enrich education and empower students.” It is a portable laptop for student use that runs on the window operating system and is designed to work best with Microsoft programs. Additionally, it has a 180-degree hinge to convert into a tablet, a supposed 14 plus hour battery life to last the average school day, and created to be “kid proof” in terms of durability. These attributes come straight from the Dell website with eleven positive consumer reviews. However, we all know that a device can look amazing on paper in order to get a district to purchase it for hundreds to thousands of students, and then not be so amazing in practical use. The Dell Latitude laptop was described as having a four-year life span before nee...

Hey math teachers! Have you been struggling with teaching your kinesthetic and visual learners using all of our new technology? How about when we suddenly have an eLearning day and students can’t take math manipulatives home? I recently came across an article on Edutopia about How to Select Effective Digital Math Tools. The author, Nell McAnelly, explains how you should select and evaluate digital math resources for use with your students. She evaluates digital resources by five key components: their value, ease of use, how they serve learning goals, equity, and quality. These criteria serve as great guidelines for selecting digital math resources for the right purposes and not just because they are fun or flashy. McAnelly states, “Technology should support educators, not take their place.” While teachers should remain the main tool for delivering instruction, students need additional tools to help facilitate their learning. Didax is one such resource for students to use with thei...