In “One without the other: stories of unity Through Diversity and Inclusion” by Shelley Moore and Leyton Schenllert, inclusivity and diversity were treated as more than supporting students with special needs. In other words, there’s no “special needs”, there are just “needs”. Or, everyone’s needs are special, and should be treated equally. I myself is a student with special needs, I can lable myself as a good listener rather than a good reader, I can also lable myself as an international student who have language barriers. I have many learning obstacles, but I don’t think myself as not equal to other students. My “disabilities” in learning does not make my learning purposeless. Moore and Shenllert’s chapter expressed how I view diversity and inclusivity.
I agree with the statement that: “Inclusion is not about integrating students by housing them into (or out of) forced containers of classrooms and schools. Inclusive education is about providing opportunities with supports for all students to have access to, and contribute to, an education rich in content and experience with their peers. Period” (19). To be honest, I feel more engaged in online courses than in-person courses because there’s more time for off-line discussions with diverse groups of people, and with multimedia being widely used in the classroom, and with social media helping establishing close connections, inclusivity and diversity were being more celeberated before. For example, with MOOC, students can re-watch videos on course content if the Zoom meeting does not provide them with enough understanding. With social media, students regardless of their location could come together and discuss materials that they don’t understand. Collaberation is not limited to time and location, which helps individual learner to learn from a variety of diverse voices. I believe creativity was build on expanding old views or emerging different old views to a new one, and technology such as multimedia defintely makes this process much easier.
Source:
“One without the other: stories of unity Through Diversity and Inclusion” by Shelley Moore and Leyton Schenllert, Introduction & part 1. https://ebookcentral-proquest-com.ezproxy.library.uvic.ca/lib/uvic/reader.action?docID=4832579&ppg=11
Leave a Reply