K.S.+Technology+Issues

__**Using Technology to Suport Higher Order Thinking Skills**__ I explored the My Wonderful World site that uses Google Earth to explore landmarks in Asia. The My Wonderful World site develops higher order thinking skills by allowing learners to incorporate images to explore a region of the world, thus allowing them to gain a deeper understanding of Asia's geography. Using the My Wonderful World tour of Asia on Google Earth allows learners to analyze the geography of Asia, and understand how the landscape and environment of Asia changes throughout the whole region. The My Wonderful World tour could be used in a lesson where students are learning about Asia's geography, and My Wonderful World could provide an example of a geographical tour using Google Earth. After students had seen the My Wonderful World tour, they could then create their own Google Earth tour for a specific region of Asia that utilizes pictures and text describing the region like the My Wonderful World tour did.

__**Using Technology to Affirm Diversity**__ Technology can be used to affirm diversity by showing and describing different groups that are underrepresented or not well understood. It can provide an outlet for different groups to explain and showcase their cultures or way of life. An example of a technology that can be used to affirm diversity is the Living Voices website created by the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian. It has 40 audio profiles of Native Americans of different backgrounds, from different tribes as well as different ethnicity's. The audio profiles come from Native Americans in Mexico, Panama, Canada, and the US, and include tribal leaders, Native artists, community activists, and many others. The Living Voices site affirms diversity by showing a variety of experiences of Native people with different cultures, nationalities, ethnicity's, and professions.

__**Using Technology to Support all Learners**__ Technology can be used in a variety of ways to meet the requirements of students with special needs. Both high-tech and low-tech solutions can be tailored to meet the needs of students with various disabilities. High-tech devices can most easily be adapted to meet the needs of individual learners, but they are also more expensive. An example of a technology that could be used in my future classroom is text to speech software available in many common software programs, like inspiration, or online text to speech tools that are available for free. Text to speech would help visually impaired students who might not be able to see a computer screen or a presentation on the projector. This would help the visually impaired student keep up with what's happening in the classroom, and allow him or her to feel more included in the learning environment.