#7 My Website!

          Americans With Disabilities Act is a law that makes it illegal to discriminate against anyone with a disability, and provides help for these people. Adaptive technology helps people with physical and learning disabilities use computer equipment and technology more effectively.
          People with physical disabilities don't know how to read, see a regular monitor, type, use mouse, etc. There are input and output alternatives to help students with physical disabilities learn how to navigate technology.
          Examples of alternative input devices are voice recognition, customizable keyboards, and joysticks, etc. while examples of alternative output devices are a magnified screen, braille printers, have someone read the text to these students, screen readers, etc.
          Students with learning disabilities such as dyslexia can have spell checkers or speech recognition software to help them better cope with technology. Computer based organizers also help them succeed in the classroom.
          Computer based learning isn't inheritable for all students.  Left to right screen layouts need to be obtained, as well as certain color schemes due to students who are colorblind, or have other types of learning disabilities. Teachers need to make learning materials easier to use for all students by following certain tips that they can find online.
          I do not know anybody personally who has had to use these adaptive technologies, and I have not had to use these technologies as well. I do work with a lot of kids back home who have autism, but they have never needed/used these adaptive technologies. There are definitely some challenges that teachers will come across while working with this adaptive technology.
          One challenge is the training not just the teachers need to master these adaptive technologies, but the students as well. It takes a great deal of time and effort to learn how to master these technologies, and it is not easy by any means. Also the tech staff at your school needs to learn how to use these technologies as well, in case they break or need updates or there is an issue that the teacher cannot solve.
          Another challenge is choosing which adaptive technology best fits your students that need them. There are so many options out there, and the teacher needs to be in contact with parents, doctors, school psychologists, etc. in order to pick the best technology for the disabled student to use. One last challenge is collaboration between students in the classroom who are disabled versus students who are not.
         If a teacher assigns a project, and the  disabled student is put in a group with a bunch of average students, it is going to be hard for them to work together because of the fact t hat they have different technological devices to use. This also could lead to bullying and other social issues in younger grades that could negatively impact the student with a disability.
         To add to that, not every computer in the school will be programmed with the software that disabled students need in order to use a computer effectively. This should be an easy fix for the school, as long as they are willing to download and purchase the software need for the disabled students to effectively use the computers.
          The web page design was something very cool, that I had a lot of fun creating. It definitely had its ups and down, but overall it taught me so much. It taught me how to think like a teacher, along with being organized and putting my data together in a way that is easy to understand, looks nice, and is organized. Most importantly it helped me deliver important information to my potential classroom of students. I liked the calendar feature.
          Tockify is a great calendar app that's easy to read for younger students as well as for parents. Also being able to supply links for resources to review and practice the curriculum on a website for my students gives them access to work 24/7, which is something that I value and think is really important in my classroom. I also learned how to use proper fonts for titles and proper fonts for actual articles. All sans fonts should be titles, while sans serif fonts should be used for the actual description or article you are writing.
          There's nothing that I disliked about the website creation process, however it was just frustrating at first learning how to navigate it and insert everything that I wanted to put in the website. As a future teacher, a classroom website is an important part to my teaching, and this taught me how to organize and create one that is not only easy for my student to understand and navigate, but for the parents as well.
          If there was anything I could imporve with my website for next time, it would be to figure out how to add and use more of the applications Weebly has to offer. Overall, I am really happy with how may website came out! Here is my website link and a screenshot of the "About Me" page!


My Website!