Assistive Technologies
Assistive and adaptive technologies are actually SUPER COOL. The other day we had a professor who teaches computer science here about how they've created certain assistive technologies to help blind people navigate difficult and changing terrains with the assistance of sound, and I was BLOWN away by his research and creativity and how much it has helped. What became the most interesting aspect of it is that this Professor, who has a Ph.D. also is highly dyslexic. So in figuring out how he overcame his challenges, He talked about the most beneficial Assisting technologies which included text-to-speech, speech-to-text, and AI chat boxes that allowed him to put in the jumbled information that he cannot physically process and produce an entire dissertation that revolutionized assistive technology for blind people. It helped me reflect on the times I've had to use adapting and assisting technologies in my work, which I realized, I use it every day! Microsoft Word's spell check and Chat GPT have been some of the most helpful tools for me to gather thoughts together. Heck, I've been using Grammarly just so that this blog post makes sense!
In the future...
I envision myself using these aids more sparingly than expressively. I am one that wants to see the limits of students and how far they can go before they need help. Once they are at their limits, I think that is when I would start to introduce the aids and tools. If any students in my class are struggling more than others, I will help and provide such assistance to the class. Likewise, I plan to personally use these aids that I've used in the past, to continue supporting my lesson planning, and preparation to teach students.
Sometimes assistive technologies are effective. Here is a really fun and short Bluey episode that I think is the perfect example of how assistive technologies can sometimes not work
It is so cool to have all the technologies tools that we have today. I am super grateful for things that have been designed to help all people learn and share without challenges getting in the way. I like that you said you'd like to push your students before giving them the help.
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