This document discusses the benefits of educational technology for both students and teachers. It provides examples of how technology can make lessons more engaging and interactive for students while also allowing teachers to track student data and collaborate. Web conferencing and communication tools are highlighted as ways to share content and teach outside the classroom. The document emphasizes the importance of being culturally responsive when using technology to collaborate with others from diverse backgrounds. It also explores how assistive technology can help accommodate students with special needs and disabilities.

1. Educational Technology
By: Micaela Thornhill

2. Technology in the Classroom
Student Benefits: Teacher Benefits:
• Assistive technologies
• Engaging
• Interactive practice
• Can be hands-on (tablet features)
• Collaboration with others
• Visual and auditory learning
• Generate reports of student data
• Engaging lessons for students
• Share lesson plans
• Ways to communicate with others
• Assistive technologies for students
with needs

3. Technology Collaboration Tools
 Web Conferencing Tools
o Skype, WebEx, Adobe Connect, Zoom, Google Hangout
• These programs can be used to share lessons and content with students through an online platform
• Web conferencing tools are the closest thing to face-to-face teaching if in-person teaching is not available
 Communication Tools
o Email, listservs, newsgroups, forums
• These programs provide additional ways for students and/or teachers to communicate without being face-to-face
These tools can not only be used to connect students within classrooms or local communities, but they provide
opportunities for learning and collaboration to reach outside the walls of the classroom and expand around the
world.

4. Collaborating with Diverse Cultures
• Technology provides a way to collaborate with others outside of our
community
• When we begin exploring different places and people outside of our usual,
we begin crossing into different cultures
• It is important to teach students, and be aware ourselves, of the different
cultures and how to communicate responsibly within those cultures

5. How to be a Culturally Responsive Teacher
• Socially conscious
• Views students’ diverse backgrounds as assets
• Feels responsible for helping school become more responsive to diverse
cultures
• Understanding of students’ knowledge
• Aware of students’ backgrounds and use it to guide instruction based on
prior knowledge of students

6. How to Teach Students
to be Culturally Responsive
Strategies:
• Set high expectations for students
• Actively engage students in their learning and facilitate learning
• Visit students’ families and communities and connect lessons with
that
• Allow students to be facilitators in their own learning

7. Establishing Collaborative Communication
• Different cultures have formal and informal ways of speaking, listening, and
communicating / interacting with others
• Examples of different culture communications-
o Telling different stories may not include beginning, middle, and end. Other cultures rely
on personal anecdotes and experiences to tell stories
o Knowing when to speak and when to listen can indicate one's culture. Some cultures
think “speaking their mind” is valued whereas others think it is not necessary

8. Technology Benefits All
• Technology can be used to tear down the four walls in the classroom, but it can also
be used to create more opportunities for those with special needs
• Digital technologies are useful to ALL students, especially ones with special needs
• Assistive technology (AT) is used to help accommodate students with disabilities
“AT has been deemed a critical component of the successful classroom inclusion and academic
success of students with learning disabilities as it can help them circumvent areas of challenge
and complete tasks more efficiently and independently” (Cunningham & Lamond, 2021).

9. Assistive Technology
• Accommodations must be made for students who need them; assistive
technology should be readily available for students who may need it
• Some examples of Assistive Technology:
- High-tech: speech synthesizers, touch-sensitive pads, text-to-speech
software, etc.
-Mid-tech: word-processing software, captioning, talking dictionaries, etc.
-Low-tech: timers, calculators, switch toys, etc.

10. Summary
• Technology is beneficial when expanding the opportunities to learn in the
classroom
• Expanding learning outside the walls of a classroom through technology
allows for new learning of content and culture
• Being culturally responsive is critical when interacting with others from
different cultures
• Assistive technology provides opportunities for those with special needs to
expand their learning as well

11. References
Cennamo, K. S., Ross, J. D., & Ertmer, P. A. (2019). Technology integration for
meaningful classroom use: A standards-based approach. (3rd ed.).
Cunningham, T., Lamond B., (2021). The weak link in assistive technology - the
internet. Computers & Electrical Engineering .