assistive technology

I am going to BSU so that some day I can teach history or social science at a middle school. Globes, maps, and charts are very important when teaching history but they can be very hard to understand for many reasons. Often, the lettering on those tools can be very small, the lines separating areas unclear, and some students have a difficult time using the tables to find cities or other places of interest.

On you tube, I found two demonstrations of Tage It talking objects and maps that would facilitate map reading for both visually impaired students and those students who have difficulty understanding or translating the information on a map. This Tag It system works with desktops, laptops, and hand held devices making it practical in the classroom and on field trips.

Maps or objects like artifacts have computer chip dots as well as braille placed where ever a point of interest. The student takes a pen and touches that area and a voice comes on to tell what ever information has been downloaded for that chip. This product comes with flags of other countries that, after touching with the pen, changes the language to meet the needs of all students.

For a history or geography class this Tage It system would provide a fun and easy way for all students to learn.