Assistive Technology - Module 5

I thought the sample lesson plans were really thoughtful, especially the first one. Having students choose a disability and then describe how a person with that disability would accomplish a task really allows students to put themselves into someone else's shoes. Oftentimes people take for granted the abilities that they have and forget that not everyone has the same physical or mental ability. This lesson will help to make students aware of others. The second lesson plan will also make students aware of the feelings of others with disabilities. I am going to keep these lesson plans on file for future use.

1. I would say that through this course, I have learned the challenges that students with physical or mental disabilities face. I have learned that there are plenty of devices and simple accommodations that can be made to help these students. As a result, I am going to look into purchasing some of the assistive technology devices for my school to help my students.

2. I think this tutorial can be useful for any teacher, librarian, or technology coordinator. I am going to tell the other librarians about the tutorial so that they can adapt some of their lessons and look into some of the devices available. The tutorial helps teachers become aware of the challenges students may face.

3. When I looked at the LibraryThing list, I was surprised that I had already read a good amount of books on the list. I didn't really even realize that many of these books had characters with disabilities until I thought back on it. Stories that have characters with disabilities help students to relate to these characters and sympathize with them. I think it is important to have a wide variety of books available and I am going to look into purchasing some of these.

This course really helped to open my eyes to accommodations that I can make and ways to help students with disabilities.