Issues+in+Educational+Technology+JA7

=toc Using Technology to Support Higher Order Thinking= Technology can be used to support higher level thinking by providing examples of more complex problems for students to solve, such as how would students have handled certain historic situations ifit had been their responsibility to find the solution. The focus of higher level thinking is to make sure the students are analyzing complex problems and interpreting information for themselves.

The Lewis and Clark page on the Scholastic website for teachers is a good example of a higher level thinking problem that technology can provide. Students are asked as a newspaper reporter to get the scoop on the nine companions accompanying Lewis and Clark on their journey. It walks you through the steps for writing the articles and gives you the sources to research the nine men. The students are required to find information and then decide what information is important and what should be included in an article that the readers of that town will be interested in. Instead of simply asking students to regurgitate information, they need to consider specific pieces of the information and also consider and audience.

=Using Technology to Affirm Diversity= For educators, it is important that diversity if affirmed in the classroom. There are three important ways to do this: to celebrate, to respect, and to model diversity. Celebrating diversity is giving students a chance to express their cultures, while the teacher expresses his/her own. Respecting diversity is acknowledging that different cultures create different personalities and opinions of the world and these differing views should be accepted as such. Modeling diversity bringing a variety of cultures directly into the classroom, allowing everyone to experience what the culture is really like.

The website [], contains information from a research project conducted by Chinese-American teenagers about the tradition of ancestor worship. This site respects an celebrates diversity by discussing a topic not often mentioned or practiced in the United States, or even European countries. This models diversity by including photos of people who practice ancestor worship as well as quotes from interviews conducted by the teenagers. American students are learning about this foreign custom through the people who actually practice it, making it more authentic.

=Using Technology to Support All Learners= There are many ways in which technology can be used to assist students with special needs in the classroom, both challenged and gifted students. Teachers can use technology to expand the technological knowledge of their gifted students through practice and self-education. Challenged students can be assisted by bettering the opportunities to communicate and be included in the classroom just like their peers.

An example of assistive technology is closed captioning. I am a sign language minor and might get my interpreting degree someday. My ability to communicate with Deaf children will increase my chances of interacting with them and having them as students in mhy classroom. Closed captioning allows me to show videos to my students wihtout the worry if my Deaf students can understand what's happening, since visuals aren't always enough.