0:01

Hey producer, Nate here. A quick note

0:03

before we begin. So we recorded this podcast

0:06

on location. Uh , so

0:08

please bear with any audio quality differences

0:11

between the microphones that we had. Might throw

0:13

you off a little bit at the beginning, but it should ask

0:15

without by the end. All right , please enjoy the show.

0:21

[inaudible]

0:23

digital [inaudible]

0:35

digital scribbler .

0:37

This is a great podcast. Where on location

0:39

at the hope technology school. It's very exciting.

0:41

We've got some of the students from learning curve here

0:43

from hope technology school and they're going to help us today

0:46

with a podcast on inclusion. The actual

0:48

practical real ways that we

0:50

involve ourselves with inclusion can

0:53

do differ, but some people can execute

0:55

on inclusion and other people have it as a theory

0:58

hope technology school is excellent

1:00

at executing inclusion. They've

1:02

had a number of graduations from the school kids

1:05

who've gone on to college and had done really well.

1:07

They are still in the , in the throws are though

1:10

the work of building their learning curve, which is

1:12

their high school program. And we're excited

1:14

to have some of those high school students with us.

1:17

Um , today. Um, we have with

1:19

us , uh , in a an assortment

1:21

of , uh , creatives. Uh , Matthew

1:24

and Christopher Mia , uh,

1:27

one of their teachers, Courtney, Dylan

1:29

, Kayla and Jaden , and

1:31

they're all here to enlighten us.

1:34

Let's get started with really some of

1:36

the ideas and thoughts about

1:38

education and accessibility, which

1:40

are important with regard to inclusion. So

1:42

let me set the table with these things. Of

1:45

course. My name is Ross . Julian , as I've already mentioned

1:47

this as the digital scribbler podcast and

1:49

this episode, we will discuss ways in which technology

1:52

can open up the education system for children with

1:54

disabilities. Now , one of the key words

1:56

regarding inclusion and , and use of technology

1:59

and education is accessibility, being

2:01

accessible, the capacity to make

2:03

it easy and frictionless for someone to

2:05

be able to operate in a classroom regardless

2:08

of their ability or disability.

2:10

And so I want to share with you a few statistics to

2:12

put things into perspective. The high school

2:14

graduation rate for students with disabilities is

2:17

significantly lower than that of those without

2:19

disabilities. A study conducted by

2:21

John Hopkins University in 2013

2:24

concluded that 62% of

2:26

people disabilities graduate high school

2:28

as opposed to the 81.4%

2:31

of American students as a whole.

2:33

They graduate high school. That means 20%

2:36

fewer people with disabilities

2:38

graduate high school than those without this

2:40

disparity is significant and

2:43

linked unquestionably to the inaccessibility

2:45

of the American education system and

2:48

its inability to serve students with disabilities

2:51

adequately. This is the truth in fact

2:53

and one has already mentioned that

2:55

hope technology school has been successful

2:58

at overcoming. When I ended up to go

3:00

to Facebook a couple of years ago, they invited

3:02

me to come in and talk about accessibility because

3:04

it's not only an issue with education as an issue with

3:06

technology. It's an issue with life.

3:08

Now to continue to add context,

3:11

there's a history of work being done to make the education

3:13

system more accessible. In 1985

3:16

the individuals with disabilities education

3:18

act, Ida was put in

3:20

place. This act quote makes available

3:22

a free appropriate

3:25

public education to eligible children

3:27

with disabilities and throughout the nation

3:30

and ensure special education and related

3:32

services to those children. The

3:34

Ida governs how states and

3:36

public agencies provide early intervention,

3:39

special education and related services

3:41

to more than 6.5 million

3:44

eligible infants, toddlers, children,

3:46

and youth with disabilities. So the idea

3:48

of education and technology making

3:50

education more accessible, which

3:52

really comes down to being inclusive technologies

3:55

is important for an minimum 6.5

3:58

million children. Now, although

4:00

this act aims to open the education

4:02

system, it does not necessarily mean

4:04

that sufficient means of accessibility and inclusion

4:07

are available or offered to students with disabilities.

4:10

It is excellent in theory,

4:12

but rarely excellent in execution.

4:15

Although legal measures ensure access

4:17

to education at a very foundational level,

4:19

the education system and

4:22

classroom settings are still not

4:24

geared toward those with disabilities.

4:27

They often do not have the resources,

4:29

human, technological or otherwise,

4:32

or the training to

4:34

ensure that disabled students can make the most of their

4:36

education. This is why

4:38

I want to introduce some ideas for ways

4:40

in which we can work both. On an individual

4:43

and societal basis to make the classroom

4:45

and learning as a whole more accessible

4:48

to students with disabilities. Again,

4:50

this podcast is not about theory.

4:53

It's about the ability to execute,

4:55

to get it done, and it requires

4:57

thinking different, so how can we work

4:59

to change this? Technology plays a huge

5:01

role in providing independence and learning equity

5:03

. Students with disabilities assisted

5:05

technology comes in many different forms, ranging

5:07

from everyday devices like keyboards

5:10

and laptops to more specified devices

5:12

like hearing aids and screen readers. Assistive

5:14

technology is primarily defined as

5:16

a type of technology that is used to assist a

5:18

disabled person and give them

5:20

the tools to succeed and procure independence

5:23

as most spaces educational

5:26

and otherwise aren't typically

5:28

designed. With accessibility in mind.

5:30

There are many assisted tools and every

5:33

day in our technological age, more

5:35

are being developed. These are significantly

5:37

improving both the quality of life

5:40

and access for people with disabilities

5:42

and students in particular. However,

5:45

even when students have the same disability,

5:47

it does not imply that they need the

5:49

same technology or tools to learn. Just

5:52

as no student has exactly the same learning

5:54

style. Each disabled student

5:56

has a different of optimizing their access. Finding

5:59

a system for each student is

6:01

a highly individualized process

6:03

and often one that will only be optimized

6:06

through trial and error and I make you're going to learn

6:08

that hope technology school is excellent

6:11

at providing individualized process

6:13

to learning. They know how to think different. I

6:16

like to go over a few specific assistive technologies

6:18

and explain how they can have drastic impacts on the

6:20

academic performance and engagement of

6:22

the student with disability. A particular tool

6:24

that can benefit students with a wide range of disabilities

6:27

is text to speech software, which as

6:29

the name suggests, converts text to speech.

6:31

This is helpful for those who have difficulty reading

6:33

print, including those who are blind, have

6:36

dyslexia, have a learning disability,

6:38

autism, ADHD, or a

6:40

variety of other disabilities. This can

6:42

open up the classroom and course material

6:44

to students while also giving them the ability

6:47

to independently function when it comes to studying

6:49

and reading materials instead of having to either

6:51

rely on someone else or not get the

6:53

most of the material. That's

6:55

the possibility is made when we we can

6:57

innovate and avoid the

7:00

resistance to innovation by using these

7:02

technological tools. Teach thought provides

7:04

a breakdown of how this type of technology

7:07

works. Explaining that quote, the

7:09

technology works by scanning and

7:11

then reading the words to the student in

7:13

a synthesize voice using a large

7:16

number of speech sounds that make up words in

7:18

any given context. With the advances

7:20

in speech synthesis, t t s

7:22

technology is more accurate and lifelike

7:24

than ever. Now let's get to the bottom line.

7:26

Empowering. There are also many tools

7:29

and technologies available to students with autism,

7:31

although not particularly high tech noise.

7:33

Canceling headsets can be used in the classroom for

7:35

students taking an exam quiz

7:38

or filling out a worksheet. This will drown

7:40

out any background noise that has the potential

7:42

to overstimulate them or disrupt their

7:44

focus. Noise. Canceling

7:46

headsets can also be a good option for

7:48

those with ADHD or other disabilities

7:50

that result in difficulty maintaining focus.

7:53

In terms of autism as well, there are

7:55

increasing amounts of apps for

7:57

the iPad or iPhone geared

8:00

at helping autistic students communicate.

8:02

For instance, advent free speech and

8:04

protocol for texts all aim to

8:06

help non verbal children

8:09

communicate and of course digital scribbler produces

8:12

quick talk . They turn type

8:14

words and pictures to speech as well as

8:16

provide exercises for practicing

8:18

using the system to communicate better.

8:20

They're also a variety of forms of technology that can help

8:22

those who have difficulty with fine motor skills

8:24

navigate the classroom. Recent devices

8:27

like the iPad or certain tablets can be useful

8:29

in allowing a student to circumvent the physical act

8:31

of writing and still function independently.

8:34

For instance, students can fill out worksheets

8:36

on an electronic device for either

8:38

math and language arts that require clicking

8:41

a correct answer or an abbreviate

8:43

to allow them to still participate

8:46

in an exercise. Additionally,

8:48

many alternative keyboards are available

8:51

that can be created and programmed with features

8:53

specific to students with accessibility

8:55

needs. I'll be attaching a link to a

8:57

vendor that sells these types of keyboards below,

8:59

so if you are a student you know is interested,

9:02

they can quickly and easily find it. This

9:04

of course is just a brief dabbling in the

9:06

wide range of technologies available. There

9:08

are over 400 products that aim to make the

9:10

world and classroom more accessible

9:13

to those with disabilities. These assisted

9:15

technologies and accessibility tools

9:17

will undoubtedly improve the ability of the school

9:19

system to accommodate

9:22

students with disabilities and ultimately

9:24

have numerous positive outcomes on

9:26

an individual level. It will allow students

9:28

independence and equity when accessing

9:31

the classroom as well as studying and doing

9:33

homework outside of the classroom on a

9:35

systematic scale. It would undoubtedly

9:37

result in much higher

9:40

statistics of students with disabilities

9:42

graduating high school and college with better grades

9:45

as they will finally have equal access

9:48

as their non-disabled peer.

9:50

This is the power of inclusive

9:52

technologies at this point. That

9:54

is not as much a matter

9:57

of technology and devices being developed

9:59

as they already have. It is

10:01

much more a matter of students all

10:03

over the world having access to these

10:05

technologies in a classroom setting,

10:08

but also in a personal capacity. The

10:10

major problem is that access

10:12

to these resources is limited by many

10:14

factors. Whether that is lack

10:17

of knowledge or financial barriers we

10:19

need to do better to remedy this problem

10:22

without limiting students access

10:24

to their education. A considerable part

10:26

of this process is raising awareness

10:28

and bridging understanding so that students

10:30

with disabilities can be empowered

10:32

and have access to the education

10:34

system. Carol Dweck talks

10:37

about a mindset growth mindset

10:39

versus a fixed mindset. The belief

10:41

with fixed mindset is that students

10:43

are essentially who they are when they enter the classroom,

10:46

and there's not much you can do to change it, but

10:48

a growth mindset takes on these

10:50

technologies and puts them to work to help

10:52

students overcome their human limits.

10:54

And so again, today we're fortunate

10:57

enough to have students from hope technology

10:59

school who have used technologies,

11:01

who've worked really hard in school, who've

11:03

worked with teachers to create a culture where

11:05

accessibility exist for all types of students.

11:10

Pardon the interruption for a quick word

11:12

from our sponsor. The hope technology school

11:15

fosters achievement through innovation, technology

11:17

and community and a challenging academic

11:20

environment through inclusive classes.

11:22

They provide opportunities for every student regardless

11:24

of ability to thrive academically, physically

11:27

and socially in order to develop into globally

11:30

responsible citizens. They offer an individual

11:32

learning experience to all students in

11:34

each of their accredited classrooms from preschool

11:37

through high school. So if you'd like to learn more, visit

11:39

hope tech school.org, that's hope

11:42

tech school.org. Now back

11:44

to the show.

11:46

So let me just start off by asking you guys

11:48

a few questions. We've got, some

11:51

are great students here, but uh,

11:53

one

11:54

of the questions on here that I think is really interesting

11:56

and you guys worked as a team to kind of think

11:58

these things through, but as do you think inclusion

12:01

is popularized in our culture or do

12:03

we have a long way to go? That's a , that's

12:05

a really cool question. What do you think about that?

12:07

Kaylee , you have a thought on that?

12:09

Um, I think inclusion is definitely not

12:11

popularized in our culture. Um,

12:13

just cause I think that people usually

12:16

bully people instead of include them.

12:19

And they usually singled

12:21

out. And I don't think people

12:24

really like know much about special needs. So then

12:26

they don't include because they do not understand .

12:28

So does that mean to you guys that when you practice

12:30

inclusion it's going to decrease how much bullying

12:32

goes on? Do you think that, do you have any

12:34

thoughts on that? Meaning that

12:37

when you have an inclusive class where there's

12:39

all kinds of different students and they're always accepted,

12:41

do you think that it makes bullying less

12:44

often or do you think it's more often? What do

12:46

you think? Um, I definitely think

12:48

it'll make bullying less often because

12:50

if everyone is included in that same group, then

12:52

no one would be like looked down on

12:54

cause they'd all be like together and no one would be alone.

12:57

So you guys have an inclusive class, is that right?

12:59

Yes. So what , what do you, what do you do

13:01

to help include each other? Talk,

13:03

you talk, chat. You just chat.

13:06

So in other words, instead of leaving somebody in the corner

13:08

silent and ignoring them, you

13:10

include everybody in conversations. That's interesting

13:12

, right, man . Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's

13:14

awesome. I love that. Um,

13:17

I would say just being a friend

13:19

to everyone and , and , and Matthew was

13:21

talking about that being a friend involves talking.

13:23

Yeah. So what are some of the ways, like I know

13:26

you like , uh , I don't want to

13:28

say what you like, but you have some favorite

13:30

sports and favorite games. Are

13:32

there any sports or games you use to include

13:34

people or try to learn how to include people? Um,

13:38

well, just like any, any game

13:40

in general , you just like, if they don't know how to play it and then you can

13:42

, um, you can just teach them and then cool

13:45

lead them in and then they can have fun with

13:47

you. Because I know a lot of times, you know, I, I, when I was

13:49

going to school, if a kid couldn't do something,

13:51

you just generally left them out. And so what you're

13:53

basically saying is that hope technology school, the mindset,

13:55

you guys have this, if someone's not

13:58

able to do something, you're willing to teach them how to do

14:00

it with. What do you think about that? [inaudible] have you

14:02

ever, have you ever seen that happen at the school

14:04

where , uh, where someone's being left

14:06

out and you guys try to include them?

14:09

[inaudible] most of the time in like PE

14:11

or like some sport that we play

14:13

in PE . Oh okay. That's cool. So that means

14:15

when you guys get a break in , you're out in PE, well a

14:17

break from sitting in a chair in the classroom that

14:20

a lot of times you guys are trying to include kids

14:22

who might not normally be included in that. That's awesome.

14:24

All right . What do you guys think about , um,

14:27

the, what it means to include, cause we've been talking about

14:30

inclusion. So what does that even mean? Cause

14:32

a lot of people out there saying, I like what these kids

14:34

are talking about. Less bullying, more

14:37

talking, more helping other kids

14:39

be involved, but they may not

14:41

even know what it is , what inclusion is. So just tell them what

14:43

it means to you. Um, honestly I

14:45

think what inclusion mean to just not leave anyone behind.

14:48

And honestly, like an example of inclusion

14:50

is if is sitting alone, you

14:52

would just go up to them and include them in your group.

14:55

Right. That's what friends do. And in order

14:57

to include yet to be friends to everyone. So

14:59

you know, I would got to go to one of your basketball

15:02

games and a lot of people may not know the hope technology school

15:04

has an assortment of sports and

15:06

one of them is basketball. Um,

15:08

and maybe later on , uh , Courtney, the teacher

15:11

who's in the podcast can talk about , uh,

15:13

the sports they have. But , uh,

15:15

I know if you , if you play on the basketball team,

15:17

so does the basketball team have inclusion? Yes

15:20

. Yeah. Yeah. Ha . How

15:22

does , how has that happened ? You mean you have some kids on

15:24

your basketball team that have special needs?

15:27

Yeah . So does , does that bother

15:29

you? Does that make you feel like, oh no , we're going to lose

15:31

now? How do you feel about it? Uh,

15:33

we just helped to include them and get them

15:35

a chance to , um, just make

15:37

a great play and have fun. Oh, that's cool.

15:40

So you've actually worked to get them a good place

15:42

so they can feel like they get the experience or

15:44

something like that . Does it, does

15:47

it make everybody on the team happy when

15:49

someone was special needs succeeds? Is that, do you,

15:51

have you noticed that? Yeah . Cause

15:53

it shows progress shows progress.

15:56

And does it mean a lot to the kid? If you noticed

15:59

that the one kid that's special needs is

16:01

able to succeed with other kids that are typical,

16:03

there's a sense of them feeling more of the group,

16:06

more part of the group because they're able to do

16:08

what everybody else can do. Have you noticed that? Yeah.

16:11

Speeds . I remember one game, one

16:13

of the kids on our team who has special needs made a

16:15

shot and everyone just went crazy. So

16:17

that just made us all happy that he made his first shot

16:19

at the season . Feels like a group accomplishment.

16:21

Huh? So one of the things we're learning about inclusion

16:23

is inclusion is something that makes everyone

16:26

feel successful. Not only the special

16:28

needs kid or person with disability to get included,

16:30

but people who are typical feel successful,

16:33

helping that individual make progress.

16:35

So these are some pretty good things. Do you guys have

16:38

any questions? Get any questions in your mind right

16:40

now? Got Any jokes? No

16:42

jokes are made jokes. You don't have any jokes? I've got a

16:44

joke. Not, not. Who's their

16:47

mo? Mo Hu . Mosquito.

16:49

There you go. [inaudible]

16:53

what did you think when I was, when we were going over

16:55

the introduction, what did you think about the

16:57

fact that it said there's 6.5 million

16:59

kids with disabilities? I

17:02

don't think it's too crazy because there's a lot

17:04

of people in our world, you know?

17:07

Um, but it's still a big number of people.

17:10

Yeah. Um, yeah, it's a bit , it's a

17:12

, it doesn't surprise you in some sense

17:14

cause you may be having been in an inclusive classroom

17:17

so you are aware of people with disabilities. Right.

17:19

Whereas I think some kids aren't. Like when I was growing

17:21

up, I really, I just was like, oh that's

17:23

the special ed kid over there. I never had

17:25

them in my classroom. I never associated with

17:27

them. And so by being in hope

17:29

technology school, I think you guys are a lot more familiar with

17:32

that. How about, how about you guys? Anybody

17:34

else? 6.5 million. Yeah. Um,

17:36

I'm surprised that it's so low because

17:38

, um, well

17:40

I guess one reason why is because not everyone

17:43

is diagnosed. Yes. And um,

17:46

just everyone has their challenges. So , um,

17:48

it might not seem like they have

17:50

, um, like any

17:53

special needs, but they might

17:55

have some. Yeah. Yeah. And we do

17:58

that fact that the typical ed graduation rate

18:00

of typical students is 84%. You have

18:02

to wonder if that 20% are people who

18:04

have an undiagnosed disability and just

18:06

right out of school. Right. Yeah. So I think

18:08

that's an excellent thought. Go ahead, Courtney.

18:10

Yeah. Even as an educator, I

18:13

was actually amazed

18:15

by the, by the stat because

18:17

it made me think, wow, we really, we really

18:20

need this and we really need

18:22

inclusion just in general.

18:25

Um, cause I thought that was a , a

18:28

large number of, of students

18:30

that were missing in , in our education

18:32

system.

18:33

Right. And some of these students are people who grow up to be

18:35

famous. Albert Einstein was in

18:37

Churchill. Those are two guys who went to church.

18:39

It wasn't very good in school. I mean most of you

18:41

may not, or many of you may not know who he is, but he's

18:43

the prime minister who led England is the reason that

18:46

World War II was one . Albert Einstein didn't even speak

18:49

for the first few years. Uh, and so

18:51

what happens a lot of the times is we think people

18:53

are not able to do anything

18:56

special because when they, when they first

18:58

meet them, when they're young, they're limited. But

19:00

if they can get through that limit and get through those breaks,

19:02

make, make a breakthrough through those limits, all

19:04

times something special happens. All right . Let's talk about

19:07

a couple of other things. What helps you

19:09

be successful in your classroom? So you've got an inclusive

19:11

classroom. What helps you be successful

19:13

in there ? Not An overload of

19:15

homework. Not An overload of homework. Yeah

19:17

. Don't want to get followed up. Tell me why homework

19:20

can, can make it more difficult to learn. Um,

19:22

well if there's too much of it, it's

19:25

hard. It's easy to get like behind

19:27

if you don't finish it and then you're already behind,

19:29

you know? Yeah . Um, and then you keep on

19:31

getting more and then it piles on and piles on

19:34

and then you sometimes start to procrastinate

19:36

and then, you know, I'll , I'll just keeps on piling

19:38

on. So it sounds like in your classroom here at hope technology

19:40

school, this, the, the teachers are really

19:43

focused on making sure you learn, not

19:45

just giving you a lot of homework. So that's pretty cool.

19:47

What else you guys think about it? Um , mmm

19:50

, I think like , um, something

19:52

that helps me be successful in the classroom is usually

19:54

like listening to music, right? He's , when I listen

19:56

to music while I work, it just takes my mind off

19:58

of things I could that could be distracting. So

20:01

what music do you like to listen to? Uh

20:04

, I usually listen to like hip hop, sometimes

20:06

pop. Can you give me a favorite, a

20:08

favorite song? Or if they were artist . How about

20:10

artists? I have favorite artist. I like

20:13

listening to Brock Hampton , Brock Hampton . I've never

20:15

even heard of Rockhampton. Rockhampton . I

20:18

listened to his islands . You listen to them. Sometimes

20:21

you have rockhamptons like it cause listen to music

20:23

while you're doing work. I do. You do

20:25

Christopher, what do you listen to? Um,

20:27

I also listen to hip hop and rap.

20:29

Okay. Anybody to any favorite song or

20:32

artists ? Um, I

20:35

like a juice world.

20:38

Alright . I don't even know who that is. Uh, Zach

20:40

Fox . I don't know who that is either, but

20:42

I'm glad you're listening to them. I hope. All right

20:45

. Okay, cool. So when you listen

20:47

to music, sometimes it helps you. I imagine relax helps

20:49

you focus and that's really cool thing. And you're allowed to

20:51

do that in the school, Huh? So some schools

20:53

wouldn't allow you to listen to music while you work. So again,

20:55

that's another way that hope technology school makes

20:58

sure that your education and your homework is in visual

21:00

individualized to you. All right , let's

21:02

look at a couple of other things. Cause I think you guys have been thinking

21:04

about a lot of these things. Can you tell me what kind

21:06

of devices or technology you use since

21:08

this podcast is about the use of technology?

21:11

What kind of devices do you use? Can you tell me about it? Anybody?

21:13

Chromebooks. Chromebooks. All

21:16

right. All right. And is this a laptop? A desktop?

21:18

Would he have laptop or, yeah,

21:21

a laptop. Okay. What else? We use

21:23

phones to phones. Smartphones , yet

21:25

we allow the phone. They don't ban smartphones . Huh?

21:27

All right. So use them [inaudible]

21:30

and that helps you in, in class helps

21:32

you do better. Is that right? Any other devices

21:34

that you use? Um, we use the TV

21:36

sort of, we look at it, but it's connected

21:38

through the computer. So I guess we're technically

21:41

still using the computer. Yeah, but you're using,

21:43

you're using projection technology so that while

21:45

you're working on your Chromebook you can also

21:47

have the teacher explaining things from the screen

21:50

and that keeps you guys all networks together.

21:52

If you know what that means. You're all working together

21:54

on it. Courtney, are there ?

21:55

Yeah, I uh , for English class

21:57

we use an audio book in class,

21:59

so we listen to the book

22:02

as a class during class

22:04

time and then they have access to that

22:07

if they want to read it at home or there's also

22:09

youtube will often read the books

22:11

out loud that we have in class also . Okay

22:13

. All right .

22:14

That's very good. Anybody else? Any thoughts on

22:16

the technologies that you use, devices that you use?

22:19

Um, anything else that goes online ? Haven't you used

22:21

virtual reality any point ? Oh yeah, we did.

22:24

Yeah, we did that like twice. [inaudible] you've used

22:26

that twice. It did not want to use it again. No,

22:28

I love it. I'm hoping to use it some more this year.

22:30

Okay, well you gotta put a plug in there, put a plug in for

22:32

your teacher . Say let's get more virtual reality. Tell

22:34

me what you liked about virtual reality though on a

22:37

virtual reality. What I like about it is just like

22:39

when you put the thing on, you can just like

22:41

see like everything and you don't have to like

22:43

worry about anything that's around me . You can just see

22:45

like whatever's in the, what

22:47

do you call it, the in the virtual

22:50

world to old world. Yeah, we did recently Rome.

22:53

Right. Where we actually put ourselves

22:55

inside the coliseum . Yeah . And we got

22:57

to see everything that was in here . No, that's

22:59

really put yourself inside the car. Did it dope that all of you get to

23:01

do that or was it just the one ? Yeah . Yeah. Yeah. What did

23:03

it feel like to you Kayla, when you went in there and you took

23:05

a look?

23:05

It felt kind of weird because looking

23:07

places isn't the same as in the real

23:09

world because you would be looking maybe at the wall

23:12

when you're looking down at the like actual arena

23:14

of the coliseum .

23:15

Okay. Alright . Did anybody else have a interesting

23:17

experience looking at the Coliseum ? Did you get scared?

23:20

I didn't get scared, but it was just a weird thinking like

23:22

wow, like I'm in the Colosseum in Rome.

23:25

Yes. There's the looking at everything that's there and

23:27

the Internet and the nice air can cause it gets hot over there.

23:29

The nice air conditioning of your, your room,

23:31

you get to go to the go wrong. You know,

23:33

I went to Facebook to do some virtual reality

23:35

work and uh , they put me in a room

23:38

and we tested some stuff out. And so they kept running

23:40

me through all these different virtual worlds.

23:42

One Minute I was in Hong Kong, the

23:45

next minute I was , uh , I was on a fishermen's boat

23:47

and like Thailand. And then the

23:49

next minute I was , uh , on top of the Empire

23:51

State building, I'm afraid of heights. I

23:54

started sweating and getting nervous and

23:56

I told the guy, I'm nervous. I'm a little for you. Want me to turn it

23:58

off? I go, no, it's okay. So when you're in the virtual

24:00

world, you can actually get sensations that

24:02

are equal to what you would get if you were actually there.

24:05

That's a cool technology. I think you should use it more.

24:07

And of course people with disabilities have to be careful because

24:10

using virtual reality can sometimes

24:12

be a trigger if you're playing

24:14

games to seizures . So if you're

24:16

looking at movies and looking and around

24:18

the world is different than playing games.

24:20

Did any of you have any educational games that you use

24:23

or any educational learning tools? Quizlet.

24:26

Quizzlet yeah. Oh, I like that. What's quizlet ? Um,

24:29

do you usually use it to like study words

24:32

and figure like, okay, remember the vocabulary

24:34

stuff? Um , and there's like different

24:36

games like matching games or um,

24:39

write the word before, like the definition falls

24:41

from the screen. Beautiful. Whatever . Beautiful. I love

24:43

it. Quizzlet that's something for parents out there. Any

24:45

of you have that you think of any other games that you use to

24:47

learn? If not, that's okay because

24:49

I have a couple of more questions if you don't mind. Now

24:52

I need to ask you guys, do you all like sports? I

24:54

mean, I talked to Matthew, Matthew's

24:56

an artist and so he's one of those elite minds

24:58

and we'll come back to him to learn about the rd likes.

25:00

But Christopher , what's your favorite sport? Um,

25:03

video games. Video Games. What Video

25:05

Games is the sport do you like? Um

25:08

, four night . Oh, you mean actually

25:10

playing video games as yeah, it is. Do you

25:12

have any sports you'd like me? Yeah . Uh

25:14

, a lot. You have

25:16

a lot. So you like to play sports? Yes.

25:19

That's cool. I like that. And then Dylan.

25:21

Hey , what's your favorite sport? My favorite sports

25:23

to play our football and basketball

25:26

and sometimes frisbee [inaudible] . Does that mean

25:28

you have favorite sports to watch? Did ? Yeah,

25:30

on basketball and football I usually love to watch.

25:32

Right . Kayla, do you have a favorite sport? Um, I have

25:35

a lot of favorite sports, but I don't like watching

25:37

them. You don't have a lot of friends like

25:39

Jay ? Do you have a favorite sport? Yeah, basketball

25:41

and Frisbee. Basketball. Frisbee. What's your,

25:43

what's your favorite basketball team? Oh

25:45

, no worries . No worries. Okay. And we've got a good room

25:48

here so far. All right . So when you

25:50

guys start thinking about, we've talked about technology,

25:52

we've talked about inclusion, we've talked about how inclusion

25:54

and technology work together. We're starting

25:56

to cover a lot of territory. Is there any

25:58

other thing you want to talk about or tell me about

26:01

with regard to inclusion and why? It works or why

26:03

it's good. Anything else in your mind?

26:05

You don't have to. That's fine. How about

26:07

hope technology school? Can you tell me

26:09

why hope technology school is so unique?

26:12

Any of you tell me that. Why is it so unique?

26:14

Why is it so special? It's small. It's

26:16

small. So small classrooms, I assume

26:18

that makes it easier to learn. And also it

26:20

makes it easier to like get to know everyone.

26:22

Oh, so that didn't , and that increases inclusion. So one

26:24

thing you can learn about if you can keep those classrooms small, makes

26:27

inclusion easier. Any others?

26:28

I think as a school and

26:30

coming from, I taught in public

26:33

school and now I'm here

26:35

at hope technology school. I've seen

26:37

how the whole community wants

26:39

to include how, it's kind of a mindset

26:41

of everybody that can , what are you talking

26:43

about? So the teachers, the students,

26:46

the parents, everybody wants to

26:48

work at including, it's actually part

26:50

of our school rules, but it's also something

26:52

that I think people come to school

26:55

desiring. So you get

26:57

students, I mean I see on our

27:00

class during recess is

27:02

or during break, like they're playing games together

27:05

so they love card games or like

27:07

it's the goal of everybody to be

27:09

a part of the conversation or to be included.

27:11

If someone doesn't know something, there's

27:14

a responsibility on the students in on

27:16

the teacher, but I see it on the students to

27:18

make sure that other student knows what to

27:21

do or knows what the next step

27:23

is in the instructions. It's not like one

27:25

person's responsibility. It's kind of everybody's

27:27

you're saying is it hope technology is more than a classroom.

27:30

It's a community and as a culture and

27:32

they getting that culture and getting that community

27:34

in requires that not only do you have students

27:37

that include, but you have to have teachers and

27:39

parents who believe in inclusion and that that's

27:41

what makes tech hope technology school so powerful.

27:44

Well, you guys have been great today. It's been

27:46

great to spend some time with you on the digital scribbler

27:48

podcast and we thank

27:50

you for all your insights, your smarts,

27:53

and sharing with all of our listeners what

27:55

it takes, not only to use technology

27:57

in the classroom, but to build an inclusive

27:59

environment. Make sure if

28:02

you're out there listening, that you check out our [email protected]

28:05

scribbler.net that you subscribe

28:07

to our channel. If you like it, give it five stars.

28:10

If you don't like it, give it five stars either

28:12

way. And , uh, if you are

28:14

looking for a great school that practices inclusion,

28:17

don't forget to check out hope technology school,

28:19

www.hopetechschool.org

28:22

is the website for hope technology school. If

28:25

you want to check it out, have a

28:27

wonderful week. And we thank you from hope technology school

28:29

on location.

28:30

[inaudible] .