As a supporter of Constructivism, I agree with Bruning, Schraw, Norby, and Ronning, (2004) that my students are contributors to creating their knowledge, and that my role is to provide opportunities for them to do so. Therefore, my use of technology to design effective learning environments and experiences rests heavily upon my efforts to transmit as much information to my students in the method that is most accommodating to their talents and desires. It is also paramount that I respect the diversity that exists in my students’ cultural, racial, gender, and educational backgrounds. It is no surprise to me that my students receive and process information that has been conveyed to them through an electronic medium far more efficiently, and with greater enthusiasm, than in any other manner. And, when adequate resources are provided, this medium is an extremely effective way to create fairness in the classroom, and address diversity, as well as supply the learning opportunities that define my role as a teacher.

            My first, very crude, attempts to implement educational technology in my classes centered on communication strategies. EDU 553 taught me to look for situations where I could use technology as a viable supplement to the non-electronic medium that I normally utilized. The reality was that my participation in web-based distance learning alone involved a great investment of my trust in technology, a level of confidence that I must admit I really did not possess at the start, and a commitment to a new way of learning that was very uncharacteristic of me. So, my first efforts were cautious, and deliberate.

First, I set up my personal school web page (see Appendix A) with an emphasis on e-mail and the Internet as the most effective means of communication. I saw, as Boulware & Tao (2002) point out, referenced by Roblyer (2006): “This versatile medium supports a variety of classroom activities” (p.239).  And as an English teacher, I was delighted to learn from the same source that “Researchers have found that e-mail not only has great potential to improve communications among students, teachers, and parents, but it can also improve student writing” (p.239).

            With this “baby-step” as its core, I began to develop my school website as a resource to convey as much classroom related information as I could. And, to ask that parents and students maintain as high a level of communication as possible through the site. Very quickly, my home page displayed connections to my classroom procedures, homework assignments, and links to all of the other teachers on my team. They, in turn, included my link, and in a very short time an extremely effective network was established. However, I still needed a way to gather information about my students if I was to be effective in dealing with diversity.

            As I had made the commitment to employ educational technology whenever and wherever possible, the computer became my primary medium for writing projects that previously would have been conducted with pencil and paper. Each student created a writing folder for all writing assignments. These would contribute to the creation of an online portfolio of all projects. One of the more successful of these projects was a “Book of Me”, (See Appendix B) an autobiographical endeavor that was written entirely on the computer, and led to the sharing of a great deal of information about my students. As Mastropieri and Scruggs (2007) indicate, “Computers provide ideal opportunities for peers to work collaboratively. Students enjoy the motivating aspects of working with computers, and working collaboratively on computers can be a rewarding experience for all students” (p.187). Students filled out graphic organizers that asked for such information as “Favorite People”, “Hopes and Dreams”, “Heroes”, “Likes/Dislikes”, and a special box that asked for the meaning of their name, or the reason they were named as they were. All of this information was shared with a “co-editor”, and in many cases the “name box” proved to be the most interesting, as it relayed ethnic and cultural information. The final “product” was a book that was displayed in the classroom.  Based on what I learned from reading the “books”, I was able to relate to my students in ways that reflected an increased sensitivity to their personal ethnic and cultural needs. Additionally, I was able to design lesson plans (See Appendix C) that involved my students in learning about the diversity within their own classroom. As a result, students became more open to expressing themselves, and to inquiring about the differences in their cultures that initially separated them, but eventually brought them together.

With teachers regularly using classroom technology to record and analyze student data, it was an easy transition for most to begin looking to the technology to advance curricular efforts. Several websites became common resources for the middle school faculty including Teachnology.com (http://www.teachnology.com/ ). The team I am on shares subscription rights to this site, and one of its major uses is as a resource for exercises to deal with diversity in the classroom. But, as a result of my being selected to become a full-inclusion facilitator at my grade level, and in accordance with my commitment to differentiated instruction, I have found that the website of greatest use to me in my efforts to create a “fair” environment within my classes has been the Center for Applied Special Technology, (http://www.cast.org/), and its emphasis on Universal Design. One of the most influential articles that I have viewed on the site has to do with “Teaching Students to Evaluate Internet Information Critically” (Dalton & Grisham, 2001), that refers to teachers’ propensities for accessing sites that are familiar, and then provides several others that are always safe to access.

This site is extremely relevant, as it addresses current issues rather than repeating “old chestnuts” of concern when dealing with the Internet. Also, its authors recognize that students are far more capable in the area of data retrieval, and teachers do need safe havens to which they can direct their students for research. While not the most visible part of my classroom, the resources provided by this particular site have had a direct impact on the way I conduct my classes; and, as such, the overall environment.

Diversity in the classroom presents itself in many different ways. Because my classes are the model for full-inclusion at my grade level, differentiated instruction and special education concerns have become points of major emphasis. Clearly, these aspects of classroom instruction are dominant concerns on their own, and educational technology has provided many sources of assistance in dealing with them.

In all aspects of interacting with my students, the more information I have at hand, the better enabled I am to deal with specific situations. For EDU 610, I created “Test Administration and Report: The Wechsler Individual Achievement Test (Second Edition)” in which I described my experiences delivering the Wechsler Individual Achievement Test (WIAT-II) to one of my special education students. (See Appendices D and E.) It was a culminating experience for me in special education; ironic, in a way, in that instead of dealing with modifications and accommodations for several students, and balancing their multiple needs with the rest of my students, I was working one-on-one with a student very much in need of personal assistance. It was necessary that I recognize the range of academic diversity exhibited by this single student just in the course of testing, as well as the importance of the evaluation. As Salvia, Ysseldyke, and Bolt (2007) state, “Those who assess students use assessment data to make decisions about the students, and these can significantly affect an individual’s life opportunities” (p.58). The nature of the environment here was very different from my regular teaching endeavors, but ultimately technology would be of assistance in this situation as well.

Despite the very personal nature of giving the exam, and being in a strange environment with a student whose needs were far outside the normal parameters of my experience, technology ultimately provided me with the means to interpret the experience. This method, a computer program designed to convert raw scores to applicable grade-level information, was ultimately beneficial to the student, and gave me an insight into the grade-level designations applied to special education students in my classes. While it would be easy to dismiss the technology contribution as “mere mathematics”, the reality was that the numbers generated offered me a window into lesson planning and accommodations for this particular student; and, by extension, all of my special education students.

From this experience with a single special education student, and the information provided by the computer program relative to grade-level assessment, to my attempts to provide support for cultural, gender-specific, and racial differences in all of my classes, I feel that I have seen a full range of applications that technology can bring to my teaching experience in dealing with the diversity that exists there. It has been a unique educational experience for me, considering that my participation in “on-line learning” started as a strenuous effort that has been rewarded on many levels, and has led me to administer a diagnostic test solo to a special education student, and use technology to evaluate, and apply the results. Ultimately, I agree with Mastropieri & Scruggs (2007) that “Allowing [educational technology in the classroom] demonstrates that students have active roles in their own learning and will help to increase their ownership in their learning and serve to help motivate them to continue to succeed in school” (p.208). I feel this attitude celebrates diversity as well, and assists in creating an inclusive environment. Educational technology is a major contributor to the success of this environment.

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