Technology+Issues+J.R.L

__**Higher Order Thinking**__

1. How can technology be used to support higher order thinking? -Technology can help students to use higher order thinking by allowing students elaborate on ideas, efficiently solve problems, create projects and new ideas, and apply what they learned to different ideas. Technology can use different websites and tools that students can use to further portray these skills. Games, virtual tours, second life activities, and interactive sites are all tools that help portray higher order thinking.

2.An example of a technology that supports higher-order thinking. -There are many technologies that support higher order thinking, one in particular is Google Earth. Google earth gives visual information that students can use to draw knowledge and create research assignments. In Google earth the student can visit a location and draw visual as well as textual information that can help them to create a history project. This supports higher order thinking because it allows students to elaborate on ideas from the specific area in Google earth, apply that information to create ideas for a power point presentation, take those ideas and create a presentation about the area that is presentable, and later apply what they learned and created in a classroom setting. With this technology Google Earth the student can portray higher order thinking and create a project on the great wall of China all by getting the information in a place other than a book and applying it to a creative project.

__**Diversity**__

1. How can technology be used to affirm diversity? - Technology can be used to affirm diversity by creating positive programs, activities, games, informational sites, and presentations. When using these areas of technology diversity can be celebrated and made more evident to people through sites that show positive aspects of women, Native Americans, African Americans, and other culture areas. Technology can take awareness of culture groups to a new level while portraying more positive views about them. Sites like National Geographic focus on positive aspects of cultures that may not be touched upon in societies everyday newscasts. technology can really open new windows to teach others about the importance of different culture groups as well as social groups in our everyday lives.

2. An example of a technology that affirms diversity. - An aspect of technology that affirms diversity are websites with interactive games. With these games students can interact with the site while learning about diversity and in some cases not even realizing it. A specific example is the site "The Adventures of Josie True". This site provides an interactive adventure where Josie explores areas of science and along the way meets many well known female scientists. With the under representation and appreciation in today's society of women in the science field this interactive game encourages girls to go into science despite societies bias views. In the game Josie is portrayed as a strong intelligent young girl which really gives girls a sense that they too can be like Josie and go into science. With the uprising popularity of gaming in society this is a great way to celebrate diversity while keeping students engaged. While some sites may have paragraphs of information about women scientists this game gives interactive examples that females can relate to and also information about female scientists incorporated into a fun and interesting activity. With sites like this one teachers can use them in the classroom to make everyone aware of females in science by going through the game in one of their class periods. Not only an this encourage females it makes makes males aware that women are an important factor in the field of science. Along with the technology of gaming, websites like //National Geographic// help give positive views of many cultures that may not be getting the most positive press. For example Afghanistan receives a lot of negative press on terrorism and the Taliban while the people of this nation are pushed aside. National Geographic gives pictures and articles that tell about the culture of the people portraying positive features that may not be seen elsewhere. With this teachers can go over the site and make it a point that other cultures other than their own have positive areas too. A main problem with diversity is the lack of education in different culture areas and sites like National Geographic provide positive information that celebrate them instead of focus on the negative.

__**Assistive Technology**__

1.How can technology be used to address the needs of learners with special needs? There are many different technologies today that can help students who have special needs. Technology helps students to speak, write, listen, and do many things that students without disabilities do everyday. Hearing aids come to my mind as a huge technology that helps students in the classroom. Many people look past this technology and do not think of it as a educational tool. But with this tool students who have difficulty hearing can now properly hear material that the teacher is presenting. Larger technologies such as computers that help students talk are a rising thing seen all over. These computers make it possible for students who cannot properly communicate to speak out using buttons and pictures. Technology is a huge part of the classroom already and is a tool that helps all types of students.

2. Give an example and explain how it would support students with special/diverse needs in your future classroom? With the rising enforcements of mainstreaming students with special needs into general education classrooms the use of assistive technology is rising in popularity. As a future history teacher reading is a huge part in learning the concepts of the subject. A technology I thought would be good for students who have trouble reading and comprehending the material is audio books. Not only would these books on tape read the material for the student they will go over the main concepts of the chapter and break it down into smaller parts. This would make it easier for me as a teacher to assign readings to everyone in the class and not have to worry about some students not getting the material as often. With these audio tapes the studying for these kids would also increase because they now have a tool that helps them overview the material on the test. This is overall a very successful technology and helps students of all types to further enjoy history and learn the concepts more effectively. 