Creating and Learning Through Technology

Celebrating Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month

This project is a part of the Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month celebration because it supports a Latino teacher or a school where the majority of students are Latino.

My Students

“Integrating technology with face-to-face teacher time generally produces better academic outcomes than employing either technique alone.” – Edutopia. Using technology to create, construct and practice is invaluable; students WANT to produce and collaborate while they develop, compete and learn.

My students are energetic and fun inner-city high school students.

My students have a range of disabilities including learning disabilities, visual impairments, autism and intellectual disabilities. Many of them are also English Language Learners. My students show greater enthusiasm when learning is interactive, interesting and includes technology. My school is located in a large urban city. Of the 3,100 students 94% are low-income, 10% of the students have disabilities, and 8% are English Language Learners. More than 75% of my particular students are low-income, have disabilities and are English Language Learners. I teach my students not to let their personal home situations, English Language Learners status or disabilities hinder their academic or social emotional growth.

My Project

All students have the right to access interesting and innovative instructional materials; for my students who are low income, have disabilities and/or are English Language Learners, it is difficult. At times, motivation to learn and the desire and confidence to produce is difficult. By incorporating technology, motivation is automatically increased. Whether it is producing a written response for an online reading program, generating questions for an interactive game such as Kahoot, creating a collage to display their understanding of a concept in literature; technology provide the opportunity to not only create, but to interact and project their work for presentation or play. Using iPads in every day instruction allows students to interact with literature. It allows students to collaborate, discuss and access educational tools. By being able to display articles, videos or student work, students will have the opportunity to have interactive instruction.

This project will provide my students with access and engagement.

The applications, learning tools and games available through the iPads allows students full access to learning activities at any time. Students are more confident, more motivated and actively participate in educational activities as it provides the opportunity to engage in their learning both collaboratively and independently. They can then utilize the games, presentations, videos, etc. that they create in class and beyond.