Reflection on Reaching and Engaging All Learners through Technology

The use of technology is all around us every day. Technology is something that I use daily and that most students use daily. Technology is not something that my students or I use daily in the classroom. The universal design for learning and differential instruction is a useful tool in the classroom that can be integrated with technology. Technology allows the teacher to create an option for students to help them learn and understand concepts being taught. The immediate impact that these two ideas are going to have on my instruction practice is to be flexible with the students and to think about how many options that I have for each lesson.

What I mean by being flexible is, create an opportunity for students to have an alternative method to work on the information that we are learning which would be done with technology. In the past I have been stuck instructing one way and working hard to get the students to understand that one method no matter what. This course and others that I have taken have helped me grow as a teacher and start to incorporate other methods of instruction with the students. Not all students are the same and they do not all learn the same way, so using the same method with all students does not allow me to reach all students or allow the students to reach their potential.

To be flexible with the students I need to have options. Throughout this course I have learned about technology tools that I can use with the students. Now as I am creating a lesson plan I will make sure that I have created a lesson plan that will allow all students to grow, the lesson can be easily adapted to fit all students learning style. The lesson plan will have option for the students, this way if they have a better understanding using technology, that option is available to them.

Technology can allow the teacher to do many things in the classroom. Technology is a tool that will allow a student to grow and also allow a teacher to grow. The hardest step is overcoming the traditional ways of instruction and thinking and be open to new ideas and thinking. This is how the course has helped me and how it will impact my instruction practice.

Rick Orr