Assistive Technology

XtraMath is the first tech tool I'll look at that us educators can use to foster student's goals of self-directedness and their learning. Should teachers need students to engage in independent learning due to distance learning or homework tasks, XtraMath can be assigned to students to develop their students. Teachers can assign each student an individualized set of math problems to work with, and through the repetitive tries and guidance the website offers, students engage with the math they were assigned independently. Students can develop self-directedness as XtraMath provides a daily objective for students to complete. Having a reoccurring goal is a good way for students to develop the responsibility needed to achieve self-directedness. Furthermore, the students must put in effort to achieve this goal, they cannot just guess by process of button mashing.

Prodigy is the second tech tool I'll look at that we as educators can use to foster student's goals of self-directedness and their learning. Similar to XtraMath the teacher has the option of assigning specific content for the student to interact with. Through Assessments such as Plans and Assignments teachers using Prodigy can provide students with content they have to spend time with to master. The Plans assessment is a very practical way to foster student learning as they are giving multiple interactions with the math concepts the teacher wants them to learn. With Prodigy, the math is presented to the students amidst a roleplaying computer game, this is a way that prodigy helps to develop self-directedness. The students are enjoying the roleplaying elements of the game as they are also solving math problems. There is also a mode of Prodigy that requires the students to focus on more math computation and less of the roleplaying, should that be a necessity.

Kahoot! is an assistive technology that can meet the needs of students in a school setting. Kahoot! can enhance the students learning by reinforcement right after a lesson. After a teacher presents the material to the class, a class Kahoot! over the subject matter can help students apply their newly acquired knowledge in a meaningful way. The game-like experience that Kahoot provides keeps the students engaged and excited during the review. Also, keeping the students engaged is one of the student needs that Kahoot helps meet.

Quizizz is the second assistive technology that I will look at that can meet the individual needs of students in a school setting. With Quizizz a teacher can make a digital quiz on any topic, or they can choose a premade quiz from the arsenal on quizizz.com. Teachers can assign the quiz to their students for an assessment after a direct instruction to check for understanding. The teacher can assign the quizizz to the class and ask them to practice it until they have achieved a certain amount of mastery. Quizizz also has adaptive learning integrated into to ensure students are interacting with a unique set of questions every time which helps to prevent copying and rote learning. Taking a quiz right after direct instruction is a good way to promote student learning, as they are having to recall the information they just learned about and put it into practice.