With all the technology available for use in the classroom, I'm somewhat weary of buying educational programming for use by my students. It seems that most of the programs out there are simply put out to appeal to teachers and students, but we don't seem to have any information about how effective they actually are and if they provide any real teaching or lesson learning to students. I suppose the best way to choose a program would be by word of mouth--talking to other teachers, administrators, etc., to see what they've used in the past and what seems to have been a successful tool for their students. There are so many programs for everything you could want a program for that I fear I don't even know where to start looking. I enjoyed going through the websites last class and looking at the products that are available, though it just reinforced that fact that they are numerous. I think the idea of free trials was very pertinent to our discussion and I believe it's definitely worth looking for software that allows a free trial use before purchasing just to get a feel for it and explore the product more in-depth. Reviewing the return policy is also very important. I'm glad that this is a topic we covered in class simply because I feel better prepared to address it as a teacher in my own classroom later.
Working through the assistive technology diagram has also been helpful. I'm a special ed teacher and there are still certain devices that I don't know much, if anything, about. Just be aware of everything that is available is an important aspect of teaching. The school I was in for student teaching didn't have a lot of money, so we didn't have a lot of extra technology. Will's demonstration with the SmartBoard was actually my first introduction to it. It's exciting and I want one already! I just hope I can stay on top of all of the information out there for students with special needs.
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