My initial experience with “Educational Technology”
prior to pursuing a MS in Educational Technology was a grade book program, attendance data, and e-mail. And to be honest,
I thought I was fairly current! My experiences with educational technology since the start of this program have been incredibly
enlightening, and have certainly expanded my personal horizons. Concurrent with the start of my courses was an immersion in
aspects of full-inclusion, as I trained to become a full-inclusion facilitator at my school. In fact, it was this professional
involvement that first impressed me with the benefits that could be gained from educational technology.
I
am an eighth grade Language Arts teacher, and have an obligation to reach students whose backgrounds, personal interests,
prior knowledge, and even basic language abilities differ tremendously individual to individual. This particular age group
presents characteristic challenges of its own. As Wormelli (2003) points out in reference to new research that indicates that
the greatest rate of growth in the human brain continues through age fifteen, “Young adolescents’ brains are at
a critical point of development…They are at their last point of successful intervention (if things aren’t wired
in a healthy way), and they are at their most receptive point for intellectual and moral reasoning” (p. 9). He continues,
“With this in mind, we middle school teachers need to provide even more experiences involving moral and abstract reasoning,
planning, awareness of consequences, and the effects of one’s word and actions on others” (p.10). To make connections,
common ground between teacher and student must be found. More and more that common ground is being identified with the introduction
and successful management of technology in the classroom.
In the full-inclusion certification course, I was introduced to a foremost expert in Universal Design, the Center for
Applied Special Technology CAST http://www.cast.org/ which spoke not only
to the needs that Special Education would be creating under the NCLB policy, but of the latest medical research on the physical
processes in the brain relative to learning. A sub-site specifically addressed full-inclusion and Universal Design, with illustrative
lesson plans and specific examples by disciplines: http://www.cast.org/teachingeverystudent/
At the same time I was introduced to Universal Design, I began my MS courses. Quickly, I realized there was a vast
warehouse of resources that were available on the simplest of technology in my classroom, the Internet. I learned that websites
were being designed with “multiple accessibility” in mind. I realized quickly, as Holmes and Gardner (2006) offer,
that the Internet presents options for people unable or unwilling to leave home, as well as students who may be confronted
with language barriers, or possess sight or hearing handicaps. All of this dovetailed nicely with my determination to create
a fully-inclusive classroom, to the best of my ability.
At a former school
posting I had attended a Tech seminar in Sturbridge, Massachusetts. As a result I found Kathy Schrock’s site early in construction, and began incorporating aspects of this site
into my daily lesson plans. Today, it is a site that is constantly expanding with invaluable lesson plans, advice, and practically
anything else that you would need to operate a classroom. Her site can be accessed at: http://kathyschrock.net/ A second, similar type of educational site is http://www.middleschool.net/
In my classroom, I was made fully aware of the importance of the No Child Left Behind Act and its effects on the eighth
grade curriculum. I recognized that remaining current with any aspect of this law was crucial, and as such, I began accessing
the State of Connecticut Department of Education site for this, and other information relevant to my profession. To date,
this has remained an invaluable source of information about a myriad of items affecting educators, and can be accessed at:
http://www.sde.ct.gov/sde/site/default.asp
As my professional education continued, I began to search for more information in the area that had become a passion
of mine: full-inclusion. Though I had been in classrooms for fifteen years, it was as if I had never taught before. The level
of preparation, compassion, and expertise required to bring this aspect of the educational environment to a successful resolution
was staggering. Tomlinson & Eidson (2003) sum up the nature of this aspect of classroom management this way: “Students,
because they are human beings, come to school with common affective needs. They need to feel safe and secure, both physically
and emotionally. They need to feel that they belong to the group and are important to it. They need to feel a sense of kinship
with the group, a sense that they share common ground with their peers. They need to feel affirmed – to be assured that
they are valuable just the way they are…Nonetheless, our particular circumstances cause us to experience these needs
in different ways” (p. 8).
I knew that without
help, I would be ill-equipped to deal with it as an educator, but fortunately, I discovered a source for information that
helped enormously: http://www.wrightslaw.com/ , a site that deals with almost every aspect of inclusion, including legal
issues. Technology had provided resources; it was now time to take it into my own hands and use it to benefit myself and my
classes. As a result of assignment to create a website of my own I found Tripod, https://www.tripod.lycos.com/ a site run by Lycos that allowed me to take my first baby-steps in web design. As a consequence, https://gadamsct.tripod.com/index.html was created, and the experience changed my
view of the direction in which I wanted to take my students.
