Multi-Modal Madness

Podcasts, blogs, twitter, and digital videos are all examples of multi-modal techniques that can be used within general education and special education classrooms to teach literacy.  Before taking a graduate course on the different techniques that have been developed to accommodate students within the classroom, I had absolutely no experience with several of these techniques that the professor had introduced to us in class and found it challenging to begin using these means of communication and expression. I had never been exposed to them.  Despite the initial struggles I encountered, I found myself enjoying exploring and learning about these forms of literacy and actually  being able to complete assignments by creating my own podcasts and setting up my own blogsite.  I have discovered that using these means of multi-modality not only will benefit students without disablilties, but it will benefit students with severe disabilitities by giving these students the capability to do be complete activities that are done in the general education classrooms.  These accommodations set these students with severe disabilities apart from being disabled to being "dis-abled".  Learning about these technologies will definately be a part of my classroom.  I have been lucky enough to learn about these helpful tools and I see these tools as a gift for me to share with my future students. :)