Technology | Education homework help

Designing the collaborative project so every student must contribute will scaffold
participation. For instance, if a team of four students is responsible for teaching a section
(chapter, act, stanza) of a literary piece, students need equal responsibility for contributions.
The teacher can decide how to chunk the tasks to be equal. Students may have responsibility
for the four tasks of researching outside analysis of the piece, identifying symbolism in the
text, developing four higher-level thinking questions (and potential answers), and
summarizing theme/character/plot development. Each participant can take primary
responsibility for one task and secondary responsibility for a second task. Notice that no one
has administrative roles of being timekeeper or taking notes—those roles do not involve
students in the active work of thinking. Students can use a free whiteboard app such as
Whiteboard.fi (whiteboard.fi) or Web Whiteboard (webwhiteboard.com) to share ideas,
resources, and questions as they then collaboratively decide how to present their information
to their peers.

Assistive Apps
When I taught, I didn’t always know which students were identified as having special needs,
so my approach was to assume every child had individual needs I should assess and address.
Some of the following apps were designed to address specific challenges; others could be
appropriate for all students. Some work across multiple devices; some are single platform.
The list is a sampling of what may be available for little or no cost. Online searches for tools
that meet specific challenges often provide rich collections of apps.

Character Story Planner (Android) provides planner charts so students can create or profile
characters. Could be used by students to track characters in a book being read (with a tag of
the book’s title for sorting) or to develop a character for a writing project.

Adobe Spark (iOS and online at spark.adobe.com/edu) has three focused apps: Spark Page
(word processing and photos), Spark Post (social media with links), and Spark Video (digital
storytelling). The Education version includes access to all the advanced tools for free.

LitCharts (Android, iOS, and online at litcharts.com) is a library of literature guides from
the creators of SparkNotes. Students can read summaries, notable quotes, and analyses of
themes, symbols, and characters. A good supplemental resource for struggling readers.

Aipoly Vision (iOS) recognizes items and colors for the visually impaired. Point the phone
camera at an object and press a recognition button to hear what is being pointed at.

Breathe2Relax (Android and iOS) teaches deep breathing to turn on the body’s relaxation
reflexes. Originally designed for the military, it could be useful for students with anxiety.

Miracle Modus (Android and iOS) has 14 visually interesting scenes that react to touch and
are calming to some individuals on the autism spectrum.

Hamilton, B. (2018). Integrating technology in the classroom : Tools to meet the needs of every student. International Society for Technology in Education.
Created from empire-ebooks on 2023-10-11 02:56:17.

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iBrainstorm (iOS) supports note-taking, diagrams, and drawing. Students whose work
seems disorganized because they have trouble tracking snippets of knowledge and
information benefit from a multi-method information-gathering tool like this.

Marti (iOS) supports individuals who need tasks broken down into progressive steps.
Combines visual cues (pictures or video) with sound.

DD’s Dictionary: A Dyslexic’s Dictionary (iOS) assists in finding a word and focuses on
word spelling. Audio pronounces the word as confirmation.

ClassDojo (Android and iOS) assists teachers in providing positive feedback to students,
sharing with parents, and creating groups. Students can customize their Dojo avatars and
share their work by adding pictures and videos to their portfolios.