How Difficult Can This Be

This video was a very informative one. I particularly like how it was as if we were able to watch as people could experience the learning disabilities that their students may or may not have been experiencing. I have always thought that it is one thing to study and read about learning disabilities in an attempt to better understand them so we as educators can help the students facing them. But to actually have an experience where it is as though you have a learning disability yourself and to be able to go through the same feelings that our students are faced with on a daily basis is something that brings an enlightenment to us that no amount of research and study could ever do. These individuals were able to understand on a deeper and more personal level what a student with a learning disability experiences on a daily basis in and outside the classroom. I wish more of these experiences were offered to people both in and out of the education field so that as a society we could better understand one another. 

There were many parts of the video that struck me as interesting, one of which was when the participants were asked to identify what the poor quality photo was of. This was a simple activity but has a wide variety of was that it could be applied to student learning. A student may be told the information but may not be able to make sense of it or understand it, just like the participants were confused and could not identify what the image was. Some of the participants began to get creative and try to come up with their own idea of what the image portrayed, despite their lack of understanding. This is similar to when students are try to learn and instead of actually understanding the content they make up their own understanding of it, which in many cases is misled and inaccurate. However, as soon as the professor used a visual aide and took the time to show each individual participant suddenly it was as though a light bulb went off in the participants head that allowed them to understand and comprehend what they were seeing. This is one way that we can help our learning disabled children, by simply providing them with the extra tools for them to use in order to help turn the light bulb in their minds on with the understanding of the content. 

It is important for all educators to have a understanding of their students, to know their strengths and weaknesses. With a clear understanding of our students we as educators can alter our instruction and use different tools that will help each of them as individuals to reach their full capabilities. When we have the knowledge of what may work best for one student we can alter our lessons to help that student, and in turn it may help other students as well. Learning disabilities are challenging , especially for the students who must live with them. So as educators we must try to help these students overcome their disabilities and continue to learn and grow, which can only be done if we understand what these students are going through.