Week 7: Accessibility Reflection

At link to practice I had the privilege of watching a teacher use GPT to make an assignment assessable for a student with Down Syndrome. They were doing a short story unit and the students were asked to write their own story. The teacher asked this particular student to create a list of words that they wanted to incorporate into a story. Chat GPT created the story and then the student was able to edit the story as they wished. This was a great example on how GPT can be used to engage all students and how accommodations to assignments can be made.

I was particularly interested in learning about ways to incorporate podcasts or dictation tools into the classroom and how that would be beneficial. This is a fabulous way to create opportunities for students that have difficulty with fine motor skills or processing delays. Teaching and allowing your students to use these tools is so important. Especially when as a teacher in most contexts I am more interested in knowing what the student knows rather then how well they are able to write it down. I find it sometimes difficult to write as quickly as my brain thinks and I think this is even more difficult for secondary students.

It was also interesting learning about how important contrast in colours on power points are . While creating power points both for work and school I have been more conscious of the choices I am making. I also am trying to make my slides more simple and not as busy as I am more aware that a busy backdrops can be overwhelming to the learner. It is a difficult balance sometimes to use meaningful images that create context to the material while not bombarding the viewer with images.