Making an Inclusive Classroom with Technology

An inclusive classroom is necessary for all students to succeed. Teachers should build a classroom that can foster, develop and use the abilities, gifts and strengths of all its students. Creating a classroom like this, stresses learners’ rights and their needs, and emphasizes the importance of an education rid from favoritism and isolation. An inclusive classroom rejects seperation and exclusion of learners for any reason, whether it is race, ability, sexuality, and so forth. To increase participation of students, and make learning meaningful and applicable for all students, is a very important factor in building an inclusive classroom. Diverse learning needs need to be met in order for all students to achieve greatness and this can be done in an inclusive classroom. This is the type of classroom that teachers should strive to achieve and with the use of technology, building this type of classroom is simpler. Technology is the key to building a classroom that is inclusive and one where everyone has the same opportunity to succeed. I will make my classroom inclusive by building strong family-school partnerships, collaborating with special educators, and emphasize the value of friendships.

Strong family-school partnerships are essential when it comes to having and maintaining an inclusive classroom. Strong family-school communication can help all children in the classroom make the most of their educational experience. When parent know what is going on in his or her child’s classroom it can create for discussions at home which can be very valuable for those children who need the communication with their parents. When parents know what children are learning in class they can offer the extra help that children might need at home and encourage them. Technology can really make this family-school communication possible and simpler. It is much easier for a teacher to put information up on a blog or website that a parent can access at home rather than find the time to call each and every parent letting them know what there child has been working on or needs extra time with. As a future educator, I find that blogs and websites will be very helpful in keeping me connected with my students out of class and their parents. By having that easy communication with parents, parents can give struggling children that extra push they need and encourage children who may not be struggling to keep up the good work. When parents know what their child is learning and how they are doing they can assist teachers in creating the best learning experience possible.

The collaboration between teachers and special educators can be very helpful in upholding an inclusive classroom. The purpose of this collaboration is to combine expertise and meet the needs of all students. In order to uphold my inclusive classroom I will learn to use the many assistive technologies that my students use with their special educators. I will give all my students the opportunity to work with the technology to better understand why some students may use these. By collaborating with special educators I will be able to better understand there progress out of my classroom and be able to keep the students on the track to improvement.

As a future teacher, I find friendships to be very important in a successive, inclusive classroom. The building of friendships is the building of classroom communities. All students should feel a part of the classroom and feel as though they are an important part of it. To help build my classroom into a community I will design games to help build communities using groups that will need to work together in order to succeed in their task. Many of these games can be online games. Having my students take online personality tests would be quite unique but will also bring students to understand how much they have in common. Assigning classroom jobs will create a big community of the classroom. Each job will have a purpose to the others success. Classroom jobs could include turning off the lights when exiting the room, turning on computers, and writing notes on the over-head projector for other students. Any type of assistive technology that will maintain disabled students’ feeling of acceptance and community is essential. An example of this could be a standing aid, for students who typically use a wheelchair, for when other classmates are standing for activities like the pledge of allegiance.

Technology is very important in the creation and maintaining of an inclusive classroom. Family-school communication, teacher and special education teacher collaboration, and the building of a community are three important parts of an inclusive classroom. In order to make my classroom inclusive I plan to be sure the three of these things happen. Using technology to achieve these aspects will make it easier for me to build this type of classroom and to bring about students who will use technology to their fullest, live life to there fullest, and learn to there fullest. An inclusive classroom using technology is the classroom I want to be a part of.

Sources:
Assistive Technology & Universal Design
http://maine.gov/oit/accessibility/resources.htm
http://section508.gov/index.cfm?FuseAction=Content&ID=3
http://www.cast.org/publications/UDLguidelines/version1.html#intro