Today in class we talked about how we can include students through technology in the classroom. This involves certain elements like a Telepresence robot.

 

Immediately, I think that this would be great for students who have certain disabilities and cannot enter a classroom. Every student deserves an education and technology can help us become more inclusive and give certain students a better way to learn.

Relating what we learned to our Inquiry Project

This could be used to help teach English Language Learners and International students. Online, there are already hundreds of ways to learn English and I could even get on my webcam and help students all over the world learn English.  However, not many of these programs offer an opportunity to enter a real English classroom in Canada. I think this could benefit international ELL students who may be nervous to enter a new school to get some experience before they get there. It also is more inclusive and would help students who are ill or unable to attend the class for any reason.

A Few Worries

My only worry about Skype calls, video conferencing, and online courses is the fact that as a theatre teacher, I feel that it would be very difficult to teach a student via video chat. I could teach acting but the student would not receive as valuable of an education as other students would. Furthermore, PHE, Band and Drama all lose the aspect of trying to build an ensemble and teamwork. I do think these are valuable skills for youth to have. Although, some students may not be able to work in groups and therefore they would not take drama and other classes should be available to them.