Today’s Ed Tech topic was how we can use ed tech to support our diverse students learning needs. Our classrooms in 2023 (and beyond) in Canada have youth from all kinds of backgrounds, abilities, and challenges. Some students are immigrants or on exchange from other countries and English is not their native language. Others suffer from a chronic health condition and require modifications to fully participate in class activities. Others are not neurotypical, and may understand and process material differently. There are plenty more examples we can think of too!

Teachers should strive to provide equity in learning to all students. Equity is not the same as equality; equity means that we are giving customized supports and modifications to each student, taking into account their own unique learning goals and support needs, to allow them to participate at the same level as all the other students in the class. Some students may require more support, and others less.

To this end, it is important that we consider not all disabilities look the same. Some students may come to class with a chronic pain condition that severely impacts how much they can participate and learn, but on outward appearance, we can’t “tell”. We should never assume our students are one way or another, and it is imperative that as educators we make a serious effort to get to know each individual, and their unique needs, strengths, and learning goals in order to tailor our lessons for them as much as possible.

Technology can help us bridge this gap! One of the tools we discussed this week was using speech-to-text, and screen reading devices/applications. These tools allow students who are blind, visually impaired, or have challenges with reading or typing (dyslexia, dysgraphia, ADHD, etc) be able to learn class texts on their own, and at their own pace, as well as demonstrate their understanding without having to write. These technologies can also be a huge asset for ELL students, along with translating applications. These students may be ahead in conversational English, but struggle with the mechanics of writing and reading in English.

A consideration for educators when using technology, though, is accessibility mindfulness. What I mean by that is, if we are creating blogs, videos, or electronic documents or other resources, we should ensure we are doing so in a way that is equitable. The font should be large enough that all students can see it, we should make sure that our text and background colours are distinct enough to be clear to everyone, and that we organize text in a way that screen-reading or translating applications can “capture”. There are several websites out there to check accessibility, such as WAVE which is an accessibility organization. You can type your URL into their checker box, and it will tell you how well your site stacks up against principles of accessibility on the web, and how to make modifications! Unfortunately, when I checked my own blog, my score was on the lower end! Thankfully though, it has told me how and where I can make changes, which I will do my best to incorporate in the coming weeks! If you have your own educational website, I encourage you to see how yours stacks up! Let me know in the comments 🙂

To close, we watched this really short video in class about web accessibility. I found it to be a really helpful, concise summary. If you (like me!) are looking to improve your accessibility in tech, I would recommend giving it a watch, I have linked it below!

Cover Image credit:

Photo by Nathan Anderson on Unsplash