Issues+in+Educational+Technology JD

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=Using Technology to Support Higher Order Thinking=
 * Technology can be used to support higher order thinking in many ways. Because of the opportunities that technology creates, it opens up a broad range of options that are available to be able to not only teach something, but immerse the student in that subject matter so much that they are able to grasp the concept even better than if they were to just read it out of a book. Technology makes it so that the software used to teach a subject in higher-order thinking, focuses on learning and not so much winning at a game or getting through something as quickly as possible. The software needs to be able to entertain the user while still keeping a focus on education

=Using Technology to Affirm Diversity= =Using Technology to Support All Learners=
 * A great example of higher order thinking and technology that supports it is the website [|Zon] . Zon is a website where the user creates an avatar and at the beginning of their "adventure" arrive at the Beijing airport as a tourist with only a few essentials needed for a trip. As the user makes their avatar walk around the city, they are able to partake in lessons in Chinese as well as learn about the culture. This technology supports higher-order thinking, especially in learning a second language, because it immerses the user in the culture of the language they are learning without having to actually go to China. Zon also offers a "setting of difficulty" to adjust to the speech level, or lack of speech level for the user. Another option that presents itself if using this site for educational purposes are not only taking advantage of the language lessons they are offer, but because it immerses the user in this environment, and uses many real life cities and landmarks in China, the educator could create research projects based off of the places in this game, therefore having the student learn more about their culture and making their language learning experience even more complete.
 * There are three ways in which technology can be used to affirm diversity. These three ways are to celebrate it, respect it, and to model it. Celebrating it involves acknowledging the diversity in your classroom and making it an open part of the classroom experience, not setting it aside. Celebrating diversity could be made as simple as finding a weekly website or creating a powerpoint to "showcase" a student's background. Respecting it involves once again acknowledging that there is diversity in your classroom and therefore, adjusting yourself to the customs of that culture to not only respect the student, but the parents as well. One of the most common examples of this would be to use some sort of translator, whether it be a translator such as good translator, or an actual person to communicate with a student's parents. Finally, modeling diversity is usually accomplished by finding important figures in history who themselves celebrate diversity. By communicating these role models to your students, it get across the point that opportunities are there for everyone.
 * A website that affirms technology is [|National Geographic for Kids]. The site is easy to navigate and very much so appeals to the age group that it should. Rather than showcasing an individual student's diversity, it celebrates diversity by showcasing current issues and cultures all around the world. Four or five different countries at a time are showcased and each country has its own slideshow that goes with it to present information about itself.
 * Technology, if you can call every advancement ever made by man technology, has always been made with the idea behind it that it would make something easier for a person. This idea has most definitely been carried into the world of education. Learning disabilities today are various, however, with each learning disability, there is some sort of technology to help a student who needs assistance. Some of the technology could be very expensive, electronic items, while other pieces of technology to support all learners could cost very little to make and perform a very simple task. Being that assistive technology is so versatile in its definition, there are many ways in which learning disabilities can be lessened in the educational environment.
 * An example of a technology to assist a learning disabled child would be a portable speaking device for a student who could not speak. This would be put into the category of the very advanced, expensive, assistive technology, and it enables the student to interact with their classmates regardless of their disability, thereby improving their educational experience as a whole. A not so expensive example of assistive technology would be a pencil grip for a student who found it hard to hold a pencil. The benefit to this is that the student would be able to write and follow along better in class.