Blog Post 7

      In a classroom setting, tools such as PowerPoint can be greatly beneficial in the process of educating students. For example, I could be teaching a lesson on racial oppression in America in a high school class. To achieve the first level of Bloom's Taxonomy the students would have to show that they could recall facts. I could use PowerPoint to present the lesson with visual and other engaging features offered by Microsoft Office.  After the lesson is taught, I could have a slide with a quick quiz testing their ability to recall some key terms from the lesson.  To reach level 2, I could include some short answer questions asking students to describe or even display some discussion questions and facilitate conversation on the topic.  For level 3, I could examples of racial oppression displayed and encourage them to interpret the situation with our lesson in mind.  This ties into the next step where we could have students differentiate what is and is not racial oppression and discuss the idea of reverse racism.  Then we could use a PowerPoint presentation on effective debate and then set up a debate topic regarding racial oppression.  The class would then participate in formal debate and have the ability argue their points. With the top tier of Bloom's taxonomy in mind, students will create their own PowerPoint in groups on a specific topic within racial oppression.
     Alternative input and output regarding the use of computers for educational purposes is an example of adaptive technology.  Hardware such as joysticks or tracks balls can allow students who do not have the ability to use a mouse to partake in the use of these resources.  Voice recognition systems can also be utilized for those who have trouble typing.  In addition the use of a magnified screen or screen reader allows for students who are visually-impaired to receive information from web resources, visual files, and so much more. Personally, I do not know anyone who has used these technologies, but my father is partially blind.  He was schooled in a very poor region of Jamaica and did not have resources such as these at his disposal. I don't see any challenges other than funding because some schools are better equipped than other and it is unfortunate that people's education will be compromised based off of their current economic standing.  
     Through the web design project I learned more about the design of websites and how to navigate Wix.  I focused on including the required content and making it as aesthetically pleasing as possible!  I enjoyed the project because I am really happy with the end product and I think my website is kind of solid. It was just difficult because the website I was working from is so loaded with features so it would lag as I worked. In my future, this is beneficial because the world is digital-based and having the ability to build a website is crucial.  Next time, I will reach a little further with the design and see where I could take it.
My website can be found here: http://campbellbmarie.wix.com/collegegenetics