Week 2

This week I interviewed my 13 year old nephew who attends Wauconda Middle School.  I asked him what types of technologies he used, and his list seemed endless for such a young person.  He uses his smart phone, almost obsessively, and can never be without it; a 13 year old, with a smart phone?! He frequently uses WIFI on his phone, as well as on his dad's laptop which he carries with him when he can.  He also plays PS3 on a near constant basis as well.  He uses wireless controllers for the game system, as well as a headset so as to be able to communicate with other players. 

He runs cross country, and plays soccer and works out as much as he can, working around his gaming time of course.  He has a watch that acts as a heart rate monitor which stores weekly exercises.  It's almost like a computer log on your wrist which helps him keep track of his past excursions as well as accomplishments and failures. 

I strongly believe that he is most definitely a digital student; the boy can hardly be without technology without going through some type of withdrawals.  He gets irritated if he is away from the game or his phone for too long.  He is very tech savvy as well, he fixes most of our technical difficulties at our house, my mother and I can never seem to do well with that part of the house. 

The name of the site I went to was called the Alliance for Technology Access,
 http://www.ataccess.org/
Their purpose is to inform both children and adults with disabilities to participate in their communities.  They want to empower those with special needs, and have the tools necessary to do so, the technology tools.  Their main goal is to make technology accessible to everyone, so they train and hold forums and events in order for people to learn more about them. They realize for the need for emergence of technology as well as the ease it is in accessing the technology as well. 

I firmly believe and agree that technology needs to be accessible to EVERYONE and EVERYONE should be knowledgeable on how to use the technology with students and adults best interest at heart.Technology is not always an easy language to be accustomed to, and through the ATA providing training is a huge plus.  This is a great community to be involved in, especially because I plan to go into Special Education, I will need to be aware and knowledgeable on how the devices of my students work.