Students with special needs come in all types, from the physically, mentally or emotionally challenged to the exceptionally gifted. In Integrating Educational Technology into Teaching, Roblyer breaks down students with special needs into five main target groups:
- Students with cognitive disabilities
- Students with physical disabilities
- Students with sensory disabilities
- Students who are at-risk
and
- Students who are gifted and talented
Despite the obvious difference in the challenges the students in each of these target areas have, there is one thing that each of these special needs groups has in common:
Technology can make a difference in their education!
Educational technology is a powerful tool for students in each of the five target groups and their teachers. Appropriately integrated educational technology can help bolster students engagement in the learning process and help them reach achievement goals that might otherwise be unattainable. Hasselbring and Williams Glaser (2000) report that:
Teachers have found that technological innovations can help even the playing field for special needs students and enable these students to succeed in the regular classroom. Technology for students with special needs is defined by federal law as "any item, piece of equipment, or product system, whether acquired commercially off the shelf, modified, or customized, that is used to increase, maintain, or improve functional capabilities of individuals with disabilities." This broad definition encompasses a wide variety of both high-end and low-end technologies that have proven to be useful for improving educational options for students with disabilities. (p. 103-104)
While there are some tools on the market that can be used across a broad range of students (see: Technology Helps Turn Around Struggling Students in Florida School for a discussion of how Classworks aided a Florida school system in meeting several challenges), most of the challenges faced by students in the five target groups can best be addressed through targeted technology integration that is designed to meet each student's particular need and help to address their specific challenges. By addressing students challenges, we help to create an environment where they are not hampered by their disability and are free to learn in a less restricted manner (Hasselbring and Williams Glaser, 2000; Roblyer, 2006).
There are many technology tools that can help us as educators to address the needs of specific target groups. Students with disabilities display a broad spectrum of disability levels in the classroom from mild cognitive and emotional impairment to severely disabled cognitively and physically. The tools used to address such disabilities range from the same tools we use with non-impaired students (perhaps just with a modified technique) to customized solutions tailored to an individual student. Here are just a few suggestions on tools that might help to address each disability type:
- Students with cognitive disabilities:
Skill and Drill software that aids students in recall and retention
Text2Speach softwares - Students with physical disabilities:
Adaptive keyboards and mice
Mobility tools - Students with sensory disabilities:
Screen readers
Brail devices
Microphones for audio amplification
- Students who are at-risk and Students who are gifted and talented
While these two categories represent students with very different challenges, the tools used to address these groups can sometimes be very similar as both groups of students need to be engaged in their learning (Roblyer, 2006).
Software that allows the student to engage with materials in an alternative way (e.g. games)
Software that allows the student to express themselves in alternative ways (e.g. multimedia production software)
If you would like more information on Information and Communication Technologies for specific special needs you may find the information provided by AbilityNet to be very useful: http://www.abilitynet.org.uk/edu_factsheets.
References:
Hasselbring, T. and C. Williams Glaser (2000). The Future of Children, Vol. 10, No. 2, Children and Computer Technology (Autumn - Winter, 2000), pp. 102-122. Princeton University Press. Retrieved April 26, 2010 from http://www.jstor.org/stable/1602691.
McCrea, Bridget (2009). Technology Helps Turn Around Struggling Students in Florida School: Florida school taps Classworks to integrate benchmarks. T|H|E Journal. Retrieved April 23rd, 2010 from http://thejournal.com/articles/2009/08/06/technology-helps-turn-around-struggling-students.aspx.
Roblyer, M. D. (2006). Integrating Educational Technology into Teaching (4th Edition). Prentice Hall.
Jes-I found you thoughts about the tools for gifted and at-risk learning being much the same very interesting. I think we often forget that it isn't really the tools they can use, but how they can use them that separates these kids from each other. In my research during product development and in my classroom visits, I unfortunately see the opposite. I often hear about all of the things at-risk students CANNOT do. Rarely do I see teachers really, truly challenging these kids. Its understandable because that is hard to achieve while working with the rest of the class. Technology has the capability of bridging some of this gap and pushing kids in to achieve, despite their differences.
ReplyDeleteJes,
ReplyDeleteThanks for this article. I like how you say that technology is a tool. I see all too often that teachers use "technology" because it is a state standard. However, they really don't understand why they are using it. Many see playing a YouTube video as using technology and to some extent it is, but when it gets into the realm of assistive technologies then that is truly exciting and potentially ground-breaking.