4.

3 Diversity, Cultural Understanding & Global Awareness

Candidates model and facilitate the use of digital tools and resources to support diverse student
needs, enhance cultural understanding, and increase global awareness. (PSC 4.3/ISTE 4c)

ARTIFACT: Podcasts and Visual Learning Tools Blog Post

The diverse learners blog post artifact titled “Podcasts & Visual Learning Tools | ITEC 7430 |
Module 5” was developed to showcase strategies teachers can use to support a variety of learners
and how digital tools/technology and podcasts can be effectively used to support diverse learning
needs, enhance cultural understanding, and increase global awareness. This blog post was
completed independently.

This artifact showcases the ability to model and facilitate the uses of digital tools and
technology to support diverse students needs, enhance cultural understanding, and increase
global awareness by sharing classroom experiences and examples of tools that are available to
teachers to support their instructional and pedagogical practices. As a classroom teacher, my
experiences varied with working with students with various needs. This blog post illustrates my
ability to incorporate technology to support any type of learner and to provide meaningful
experiences for them. Within the blog post, Coggle (a brainstorming Google Chrome extension)
was used as an example of a tool that supports diverse learners. Coggle allows students to create
mind maps and visual representations to organize their thoughts. Alyson Harris advocated for the
use of concrete visual instructional practices to support students with autism spectrum disorder
(ASD) (2012). Flipgrid, Skype, blogging, and podcasts were also noted as methods being useful
for connecting students with environments that are culturally different than their own. It was also
noted that these tools were important for creating culturally inclusive spaces where learners
could exchange information and skills reflective of their own cultures.

The completion of this artifact allowed me to see how the usage of any digital tool could be used
to support diverse learners. Technology supports personalization, differentiation, and it provides
a platform to connect students with different people throughout the world. Although there were a
plethora of examples shared in this blog post, if I were to update it in the future, I would include
personal examples from other lessons/projects that included opportunities where students
connected with experts outside of the classroom. I would also like to include teachers’ and
students’ perspectives on how digital tools have supported them pedagogically and
instructionally. It would be interesting to see their perspective on how digital tools have aided
their teaching and learning.

Blog posts share my understandings and experiences. Constructing this artifact allowed me to
connect with the work that I have done with teachers and students over the years. This, in turn,
affected how I coach/support teachers, which then affects how they teach their students. I am
also able to share this information with my colleagues and professional learning groups. Though
these are vastly large groups and the impact is not immediately evident, the exchange of
information and discourse indicate that positive change is taking place.

Reference
Harris, A. (n.d.) Visual supports for students with autism. Retrieved from
http://jhepp.library.jhu.edu/ojs/index.php/newhorizons/article/view/77