Final Thoughts

I did not expect to learn about the existence of so many both high tech and low tech ways to assist in the instruction of special needs children.  I think I expected to only learn about fancy technologies, such as Kurzweil or Livescribe.  When I completed the Boardmaker activity, I realized that technology can be very helpful, but it is not necessarily a replacement for simple, effective activities such as a matching game.

As I move ahead with my career, I will take with me a better understanding of how to design curriculum that is accessible to special needs children.  I hope that by thinking about these issues, exploring technologies, and creating lessons, I’ve internalized a general idea of how curriculum needs to be modified in order to reach more children.

In general, I’m glad this class did not focus simply on theory.  I’m glad that we combined theory with the learning of actual technologies.  Although learning technical information is often a challenge for people with a liberal arts background (which many teachers possess), I think that ignoring this challenge is a mistake made by too many technology-related classes at Teachers College.  Thank you.

Digital Minds

While listening to the presentation about children growing up in a digital age, I was thinking about what students would need to be taught in order to help them succeed in our new world.  Clearly, as technology becomes cheaper and more pervasive, students will have no problem gaining access to powerful, Internet-ready computers (this is true even in poor American neighborhoors--see Generation M2, a 2010 report by the Kaiser Family foundation).

The challenge, therefore, is to help children make the best use of these tools.  Current use of technology by young people focuses mainly on socializing and media-consumption.  Children are mainly using computers to talk to friends, watch YouTube videos, and play games, but they are not typically using technology to create their own unique media.  Although students' prefered use of technology is not all bad, it is arguably the role of teachers and parents to encourage students to use computers in more creative ways.  When students use computers for the purpose of blogging, video creation, podcasting, animation, design, and programming, there is greater chance that they will be developing the information, media, and technology skills required for success in the 21st century.

Special needs students should also be expected, as much as possible, to create their own media in the classroom.  Special needs students, just like their reguarly developing peers, are growing up in a digital world.  They see digital media all around them.  The excitement generated by learning how to contribute to this new world--as opposed to simply observing it--is something that special needs students need to experience.

Issues of Assessment

When listening to the lecture about assessing students, I wondered about how to compare the standardized test scores of disabled children with the test scores of non-disabled children.  Merriam-Webster defines the word "standard" as something set up for "the measure of quantity, weight, extent, value, or quality."  Arguably, as soon as a testing accommodation or modification is put in place, any resulting test score can no longer be measured against the test scores of students who take the non-modified version of the test.

Rather than change the test to meet the needs of disabled children, perhaps it would be better to create a larger number of tests that students could choose to take.  That way scores between students with similar disabilities could be compared.  For instance, a standardized reading test could also exist in a number of alternate forms, such as:

• One with more time
• One with presentation changes (e.g., questions are read)
• One with response changes (e.g., answers are given via an augmentative communication device)
• One with simplified questions

There would probably need to be more options than the four listed above in order to accommodate a wider variety of special needs children.  Furthermore, some students will always need to have unique modifications.  Nevertheless, by having a greater number of standardized tests to choose from, the integrity of scores would be better maintained.

Augmentative Communication

While listening to the augmentative communication lecture, I couldn't help but think of congresswomen Gabrielle Giffords who was injured by a gunshot last year.  I had recently seen her first news interview since the incident.  Diane Sawyer asked her if she planned to run for reelection.  Struggling to find the words to answer, Ms. Giffords simply said the word "better."  When Sawyer indicated that she did not understand, Giffords again repeated the word.  Seeing that she still was not being understood, Giffords turned to her husband who was sitting by her side.  Her husband explain what she meant: "She wants to run for reelection only after she gets better."

The fact Gabrielle Giffords has someone to turn to for help speaking is of huge benefit to her ability to communicate.  Augmentative communication devices, both low-tech and high-tech, are wonderful.  But without assistance from a caring and understanding aide, I wonder how much they're able to help.  I've never worked with children who were unable to speak, but I wonder how much they prefer relying on a device to speak compared to how much they prefer getting help from another person.  Through which means of communication are they better able to express themselves?  And through which means do they feel more independent?

Planning with Technology

I thought the Planning with Technology lecture brought up some good points.  Very interesting was the question, "How do we incorporate technology effectively to overcome barriers, without creating more?"  Although I've seem plenty of ways that technology has enhanced and eased learning, I've also seen how technology can sometimes complicate things.  For instance, at Friends Seminary they having to deal with plenty of technology issues, including students' game playing on iPads, shattered iPad screens, network problems, SMART board problems, software compatibility problems, eBook book registration problems, and file saving problems (files are sometimes saved locally, sometimes saved on the network, and sometimes saved in the cloud).  On top of it all, the technology leaders are often strained for time.  Indeed, sometimes there simply seems to be too much technology to learn.  As a future technology leader myself, I'm starting to believe that the simplest solution is almost always the best one.  For instance, I'm already wondering if school networks are necessary.  Can't students simply always upload their files to a cloud such as Google Docs?

As for students with special needs, the importance of keeping things simple is even more important.  A student such as Jack who has limited working memory and ADHD could easily have his education hurt through poor, disorganized, depersonalized, or redundant integration of technology.

The Power of Assistive Technology

I think it's great that there are so many technologies out there to help people with various disabilities.  I'm also surprised at how many of the solutions for helping the disabled seem to be designed--or at least thought up--by regular people.  For instance, the "Disabled Bodies, Able Minds" article tells the story of how a disabled boy came to play a musical instrument:

A school employee sought out a music-store owner named Robin Amend, who is also a musical-instrument inventor and repairman. Amend, whose grandfather had played a musical instrument despite having only one arm, designed a euphonium with a joystick that electronically instructs the valves of the euphonium to move. Later, an engineer worked with Amend to refine the joystick technology.

It's remarkable that this technology would never have been created had it not been for the minds of a school employee and a music store owner.  Likewise, in the video "Adapting Classrooms for AT Users," many of the assistive technologies are very "low-tech." (for instance, simple solutions involving things such as buttons, spinners, switches, a door opener, and a specialized chair).

Kurzweil

I think Kurzweil is an excellent text-to-speech program to use when an actual recording of a text is not available.  In other words, I think that an actual human recording of a reading—if available—should always be selected before choosing to have Kurzweil convert text to speech.   This is because the intonation, fluency, and expression of a computerized voice are of much lower quality than a human recording.  Perhaps the technology of the future will improve the ability of computers to read aloud, but as of now the technology has its faults.

The ability of Kurweil to help students decode specific words is less problematic.  I can see how the Picture, Definition, Synonym, Pronounce, and Syllables buttons can all prove very helpful to students with disabilities.  Also, the ability to make highlights, make annotations, and extract both to an outline can also help students organize their understanding of a text.