Teaching Students with Special Needs through Technology

Image taken from actual article (ISTE).

Hello there fellow bloggers!


This week I researched One Size Never Fits All by Jennifer Courduff. The article is about technical integration in schools for students with special needs. "What teachers really need is to learn to match specific curricular tasks with technology resources that engage students, increase understanding, and enhance learning" (ISTE).

 

I agree that technology can be a great tool to teaching students, if it used properly. Technology can help those of us who are more of visual learners, need to see the words, or simply learn better by doing rather than just listening. I happen to learn better by seeing, doing, and listening all combined. This does not mean I have a learning disability, but that I have a different way of retaining material. In this article, they are conveying a new approach to teaching students with special needs. Teachers are trying to find new ways to improve our programs and came to the realization that schools were not offering enough tech integration training or focusing on students with special needs.

Creative Tech Integration is just one way this program can be integrated. "We recognized that formal, standalone training does not—and never will—meet the needs of teachers of students who are exceptional. The spectrum of curricular, social, emotional, and physiological needs is much too broad. What teachers really need is to learn to match specific curricular tasks with technology resources that engage students, increase understanding, and enhance learning" (ISTE). This program was designed as a Community of Practice model allowing for change to be made as each individual teacher/school sees fit. Assistance in learning about the technology was given in 'toolkits' that include: Fusion writers for extra help, resource binders, headset microphones for individual and uninteruppted learning, and interactive technology tools for all of the special education teachers using this program.

 

Some students who have a fear of writing or speaking infront of other students, due to learning disabilities or fear, have an equal opportunity to shine and be confident with their work while using technology. The computers and software today have become so advanced that they can correct entire essays and help students correctly type, learn, read, and write. Giving our students confidence is key to their learning success...

In order to gage whether this strategy is working in the schools integrating it, they studied real results.

"Students who have great difficulty organizing their thoughts and put-
ting them into words are not motivated to write. By using programs such as the speech-to-text feature in MS Word, word prediction, and text-to-speech programs in the Fusion writers, students’ attitudes toward writing have changed. Reluctant writers have become enthusiastic about using the computer to speak their stories into existence. Because of this, students read and write daily and are improving their grades and scoring better on district assessments. Some students were able to meet academic growth goals for the first time in their lives!" (ISTE).

Face-to-face support was key to this programs success. Online collaboration is their largest component said to be integrated into this program. Because of our current climb in technological networking such as texting, typing, online research, television, etc. we are becoming more and more technological every year. For students to be behind in this trend can only hurt them. It is smart to start our students learning technology and integrating it into their lesson plans. This will not only help special needs students but also 'core' curriculum and overall school lesson plans better teach our youth and provide them with tools to succeed in their futures. 

 

 

One Size Never Fits All: Technology Integration for Special Needs. Courduff, J. Learning & Leading with Technology. June/July 2011. Retrieved from ISTE October 15, 2013.