PROJECT PLAN

Inquiry Module
Ryan Zrimec
9/18/19
Description
I am majoring in special education and elementary education. Special education is something that I have always held
close to my heart and something that I genuinely enjoy doing.
SUBJECT AREA OF INTEREST
My area of interest for this project was how to help students learn better within the classroom with the technologies.
IGNITED LABS Technology AREA (AI)
I chose the 3D printer for my AI because I have always known about it, but I have never actually seen it in person and
it was something that could really help with students that want to be able to feel more than have to hear.
For each prompt – provide 1 – 2 paragraphs on your research experience using each technology.

● I think that the 3D printer will really help students learn more hands on. Me, personally, I can not just sit
there and listen to a teacher for an hour. I have to be able to hold it in my hands and do it myself. I think that
the 3D printer will help because students will be able to print off things and be able to hold their things and
use it to their advantage. They would be able to use the printer to make things that correlate to the
curriculum so that they can take it apart and put it back together. Things like cell models or models of
animals.
● The 3D printer takes a very long time to print. When I went there, there was a simple skull being printed. It
was more than ¾ of the way done and it still had 6 hours until it was fully done. This would be hard during
education because it takes so long to print. Teachers would have to plan very far in advance and it could
never be something that was spur of the moment. It is also very expensive. It will be a very large privilege to
get a 3D printer in classrooms because they are so much money. And it potentially could make teachers feel
guilty if they don’t use it. Which also may lead to conflict.
● Once students learn how to print, they could start printing things that don’t need to be printed. Things that
don’t have anything to do with the classroom. This may cause some conflict between teachers and students.
Because students will have excuses of why they did it and the teacher may feel like they have to let the
student do what they want with their 3D printer.

IGNITED LABS Technology AREA (XR)

I explored the Virtual Reality for the XR portion. I chose this one because I have always been interested in how it
tricks your mind into thinking that you are in what you are seeing.
For each prompt – provide 1 – 2 paragraphs on your research experience using each technology.

● I think that it will be very useful to show students what they are learning. If they are learning about the
Amazon Rainforest, we can use VR to show them what it would be like to be in the Amazon Rainforest. This
could also make learning so much more engaging. It would make children really excited to learn about the
things because they would get to feel like they were transported into their lesson.
● The downfall of this technology is that it really could freak children out. I think that it would be especially hard
with younger children. They may get scared of the things they see and VR makes you feel like you are in the
image so it may cause rakus.
● Describe how this technology might be utilized (for good or bad) outside of its original intended purpose? Do
you foresee anything we should be wary of?

IGNITED LABS Technology AREA (IoT)

I chose to use the Specdrums for the IoT. I really enjoyed this technology because it was such a cool technology that
was connected to an app by bluetooth. Then, the person using them would put the little rings on their fingers and
touch the color pads that correspond with a sound from the iPad. You can also touch other colors that aren’t on the
color pad and you will get a sound that is the closest to a color from the color pad.
For each prompt – provide 1 – 2 paragraphs on your research experience using each technology.
 ● I think that this technology would help so much in a special education classroom, especially for students who
are visually impaired. If they have never seen colors, they would be able to associate colors with the sounds
that they hear. They could also use it for students who are just learning colors. It could help them remember
what color is which if they are associating it with a sound.
● There are not many shortfalls of this product. The only thing that I could really see is students getting colors
confused with sounds. Which would be a lot of steps back from where we wanted to be. Even though we
introduced this technology to help and shoot them forward, we could end up taking 1000 steps back
● Even though I would use it as a technology to help visually impaired students, it could be a very fun and
useful tool for general education students. Students could use it as something that even though they are
playing with it, they are learning about the colors and how the sounds are made. They also could start to
learn about the technology that goes into the Spectrums and how they’re made

Research conclusions
Although they are not these huge amazing technological advancements, I really do believe that these technologies
will help a lot in the classroom. As the world advances, the classrooms have to also. These technologies will help so
much in advancing the classrooms. Things like the 3D printer will really help students get hands on in the classroom.
Students will be able to touch the things that they are learning about. I think that it will really help with things like
science classrooms where if they are learning about the human body, they would be able to figure out how to make
the things that they are learning about and then how it works within the body. Then there are things that can help
students advance within the world because if they use the spheros, they can learn how to code to make them move.
The best part of the technologies, is the fact that they can be used so much in special education classrooms. So
many of them can help special education students connect more with the world. It will not only help them, but it will
help general education students. It will just be a different experience for the different students, which is the best part
of it.
The downfall of these technologies is the fact that a lot of technology isn’t in the classroom already. This means that
introducing technology that is a lot more advanced than what is already in the classroom may become confusing for
students. Hopefully that means that students will be able figure it out, but it also means that teachers will have to do a
lot more teaching for things that may not even help the students. Some students are not hands on learners, instead
they are better at listening and bringing these technologies into the classroom could hinder their learning.
Personal Learning experience
I really enjoyed this experience learning about these technologies. There was not a lot of access to this type of
technology in my high school unless you were in STEM programs. It was so interesting to learn about how these
technologies worked. It also was so interesting to figure out how to apply these kinds of technologies into the
classroom. Since my major is special education and elementary education, it helped a lot to figure out how to apply
the technologies to special education and general education students.