Blog Journal 7

I can't honestly say I've learned anything from using Twitter for this class. I already have a private account and have spent more than 5 years on the platform so I'm pretty familiar with its capabilities. I haven't used any new tools or learned any tricks in this new context. All that being said, I can certainly understand the benefits of using Twitter as an educator, such as being able to connect with other educators from around the world. I just don't think I'm at the point in my career yet where keeping a Twitter account is going to teach me much since I don't have any experience of my own.

Assistive and adaptive technologies are so important in our fight to establish equitable access to education across the country. Students with disabilities should not be excluded from technological learning opportunities that their peers have access to, and we have to make sure that every child has every advantage possible. Implementing alternative technologies in the classroom is a very hard task due to a host of factors but we have to start somewhere. The advantages of 21st-century technology mean we can finally start giving disabled students educational experiences that are tailored to their specific needs, such as using a speech-to-text typer for those who are unable to type on their own.

Click on the screenshot to be taken to the real life website.

I enjoyed creating the website because I liked the freedom to design a website in the way I think is most efficient. I also had fun messing around with the aesthetics as I would try out different background images and color schemes. Overall the actual design was easy enough (thanks in no small part to Weebly's very user-friendly structure), and I thought the templates were a great way to start. I had fun tweaking the site and adding in my own touches, like the "quote of the day" page and the "current events" page. Certainly I will be building a website for my own future classes because I can totally see the benefit of compiling course help materials and original content that can be accessed by a student at any time. If I was building a real site, I would spend way more time adjusting everything until it was just right, like adding in a bunch more content-focused pages.