From reading the section below, it further cemented my that teachers need to be screened better before hiring them to teach, and this is especially more important in regards to teaching children. It is frustrating to me to read about how teachers are abusing their positions of power in the classroom and target children based on their race, gender, sexuality, class, religion, and/or disability. If schools actually cared about teaching kids, these teachers should not be there in the first place. Teachers who hold these harmful prejudices will only cause long-lasting trauma to students who were unlucky enough to be taught by them, and I am speaking as an Asian-American who has been racially targeted by teachers before as a young student.

This is incredibly important, especially in regards to the use of ebooks. One reason, I find it very difficult to read school-assigned texts without a voiceover, besides issues with focusing I also constantly lose my spot and end up rereading the same line a couple of times. Another reason, I ruined my back during highschool since we have so little time to use our lockers and the building is 4-stories high. If I used my locker, my teachers would get upset that I was late. I ended up having to carry four extremely heavy textbooks up and down, to and from, opposite ends of the building within five minutes through extremely narrow halls and stairs. Now I have to deal with a horrible back for who knows how long, and it interferes with my daily life horribly. Ebooks are something that classrooms should try their best to use, not just for accessibility but also for their physical wellbeing.

It is definitely important for students to be aware of social injustices, and to be more aware of their actions and what they can do to combat it.

I remember during my time in school, discussions about injustices are often dismissed by students and teachers who are unaffected. Teachers would say the topic is “too political and inappropriate” for school, and students would think that anyone who has an issue with the inequality that marginalized groups experience are “too sensitive “ and “just need to get over it”. No meaningful conversations would ever happen and students would develop an increasingly negative association towards social justice because they don’t understand its importance. Most of this could have been avoided if these conversations were allowed to develop... Along with that, students who already do care would not get shamed for voicing their thoughts and concerns. Unfortunately, I was on that end during highschool, it isn’t fun.

It’s frustrating to know that institutions are allowing educators to use these types of programs in their classrooms as they can cause so much damage. Not only do they discriminate against minorities and is highly-invasive for no good reason, students will become distrustful of the educational system in general because of these negative experiences.

Technology is just a tool. Much like art, you can have the finest paints and paper, but if you don’t know how to use them to their fullest potential, why use it at all? Technology can most certainly be helpful to students, as it can help raise student engagement, help them stay organize, and help them perceive topics from angles they would have never even thought about, if the educator just throws a piece of tech at a student and expect them to teach themselves it would do more harm than good. In other words, if technology is going to be implemented in the classroom, educators need to remember that it only exists to enhance the curriculum and not teach it for them.

However, there are cases where technology is necessary. These cases would be in helping lessons be more accessible, especially for those who are not English-speakers or for those with disabilities. In these cases, without technology these students will not be able to get quality education on par to the rest of their peers.

Ideally, all digital tools should be accessible for all students in the classroom. This mean that a tool should be as accessible as it is to a student with no disabilities as it is to a student with disabilities. I am happy to see that there is a specific checklist dedicated to evaluating the quality of educational apps for students with special needs, and I think this must always be used in conjunction with the other checklists and rubrics listed in this article if an educator would like to have a classroom environment that is inclusive of all learners.

Love this brief yet comprehensive checklist to evaluate digital tools against while embodying all the ideas overviewed in this chapter. This is something I can see myself revisiting and using in the future to make sure that all the tools I choose to incorporate into the classroom plays an important role, and that I am not overwhelming students with options or myself with learning the ins-and-outs of every tool.

Though it may be inconvenient and annoying to find out that a tool you want to use for a lesson is blocked, it is important to realize that it is for the best interests of your students in order to keep them safe. As adults, we must do everything that we can to protect our students, and work around the limitations that are imposed by policies which can include, but is not limited to: making our own videos to help teach a lesson, have activities that can be accomplished with paper and some coloring materials, have students find images for their projects by looking through appropriate magazines and news articles and cutting them out.

In any case, if you are unsure about how a tool will handle your students' data it's better to remain on the safe side and make the responsible choice to just not use it. Though tools can make teaching easier, it does not make it impossible if you make the decision to not employ it.

It is becoming increasingly important for educators to thoroughly evaluate tools for accessibility and to put those accessibility features to practice. It has also become more important for educators to also simplify the usage of these tools so all students are able to make use of it. For example, if a tool has a lot of technical jargon educators should either pick a different tool or learn the jargon and translate it into terms that are easier for most people to grasp, or make a tutorial dedicated to using the tool.

Unfortunately, too many teachers as of now are neglecting to do these things (such as turning on captions or leaving students to wrestle with complicated programs on their own) to help make education more accessible to all. This also shows an urgent need to raise awareness within education circles to be mindful of those with disabilities and for those who require accommodations.

I feel like this is something that a lot of instructors tend to forget to acknowledge. A lot of programs are inaccessible to those with weak devices or wi-fi. For example, I used to have a really old computer passed down from my older brother that was so weak it struggled to open Google Chrome since the browser just ate up so much RAM. Of course, since then I upgraded to stronger devices and have multiple ways to carry out assignments if something starts acting up, but not many people will have this privilege that I have.

A smartphone is very limited compared to a desktop or laptop, a tablet has some more features but it can still be limited. A decent desktop or laptop can be pricey to attain, and depending on the price point the longevity may not be much either. And even then, lower-end or cheaper used models cannot run programs that are commonly used in certain majors, such as many Adobe products like Photoshop or Illustrator.

Connecting to an external computer through a cloud can also be unreliable, not all school computers are the best. I remember at the art school I used to attend, some of the Macs struggled to run any Adobe programs and would randomly crash in the middle of a project. Also, depending on how many people are online or the state of the wi-fi of the school or student, the connection can be unbearably slow. Also, who knows when it can randomly cut out during a time sensitive project?

Speaking of connections, wi-fi is also a huge issue. Some companies like Comcast are very spotty and tend to shut down for hours at a time with no warning, and students have no other ISP to switch to since no other service can be available in the area since most new ISP startups tend to focus on big cities first, like Starry internet. Due to this, instructors should be considerate and have lessons available to students who cannot attend the class at the scheduled time, may it be through recordings lecture or having someone prepare notes of that day. Just not recording classes to force students to attend is not a great option, not everyone can see into the future.

Though, in order to combat problems regarding accessibility to software and other programs, I think it is important to prepare a list of alternatives that are easy on most devices for students to pick from. For example, Many Adobe products have affordable (and just better overall, but that is my opinion since I just really dislike Adobe) alternatives, like Photoshop can be replaced by Procreate or Krita, and for something with more features: Clip Studio Paint (for desktop) is an excellent option since it is a one-time payment unlike Adobe's subscription plan (also it goes on sale more often than not). Canva, as stated in this article, is an excellent tool that has such a large array of uses and allows for collaboration and is extremely accessible. Carrd.co can be used for website building on mobile devices or desktops unlike Wix, and also unlike Wix, which has an unsightly banner running on the top of the site advertising itself, Carrd has it at the bottom and it is not very noticeable, making it very easy to make beautiful sites no matter your experience.

There are just so many options available, no one should be bound to a single program or suite.

I feel like this is something that is often overlooked by everyone, including myself at some points. Windows and iOS are not the only operating systems that are out there, there's a decent amount of people who use (and only use) Linux. Not everyone uses or wants to use Google Chrome, especially those who are concerned with their privacy or rather not have 50% of their RAM taken up by one tab. Some people even just dislike Chromium in general, or they have a browser that they have been using forever and they just don't want to switch to a different one because it really does take a lot of time to switch, then there's some people who cannot just have two different browsers since they might not have the space for it either, so it would be frustrating to delete their favorite browser just to be able to run one extension for school. Personally, I have to run two browsers since Hypothes.is isn't available on my preferred browser by a trusted developer and even though I don't mind switching back and forth, others might. It is important to acknowledge people's preferences and hardware limitations and it is important to make the effort to find software that can be used across a range of devices.

As someone who has been using Twitter for years, I never knew that this feature was available. This seems like an incredibly useful tool for educators since they can all gather on the platform and discuss specific topics. The different perspectives on these topics can be a valuable learning experience for everyone.

However, since it is Twitter it would be pay to be mindful of who you interact with, as the site can be rife with those with terrible intentions looking to cause issues. Before taking someone's words to heart, check their account to make sure that they are adding to the discussion for the sake of exploring the topic and learning from others and not just to waste everyone's time by upsetting people with offensive and inappropriate comments. When encountering the latter, just block/mute, report, and move on-- interacting with the tweet would give the user more visibility to those who may share the same harmful ideology, which can only bring about more problems.