During the past week, we had the opportunity to research some different assistive technologies that we can use in the classroom.  One of my younger brothers struggled with school and he had some assistive technologies which made understanding the different tools in this topic more comprehendible.

The method that I selected to focus on was Dragon Talk to Text.  My brother who has working memory deficit said he found it far easier to get his words and thoughts across when doing this, rather then having to write and try and recall his thoughts or ideas while doing so.  As time progressed, he said he found himself being able to keep up with the thoughts he was having, transitioning to typing them out instead of using the talk to text.

My biggest takeaway from this lesson is that with assistive technology to be open to the different possibilities and support students in any way that we as educators can.

Additionally, we touched on sketch noting as well.  This is a way to interactively incorporate images to go with important ideas and text.  I had never heard of sketch nothing prior to our lesson on it with Rich but after having gone over this, I found myself utilizing it just that same week to help study for a midterm.  For myself, this strategy was extremely useful as it incorporates and relates images to the text you are wanting to try and recall.  This triggers something in the brain that relates the image to the text that corresponds with that.