Enabling Dreams with Assistive Technology

"Assistive technology is a set of adaptive tools that support students with disabilities in learning activities and daily life task, and it is having a particularly important impact on these students" (Eggen & Kauchak, 2010). It also provides resources to overcome barriers that the disability has created. For students with special needs like Susanna Sweeney-Martini, she says, “Assistive technology is the major foundation of my life. Without it, I could not exist as I am today” (Ken, 2005). In order for Susanna to successfully participate, she needs accommodations that incorporated assistive technology into the curriculum such as a wheelchair, laptop, and speech recognition devices. The problem is the lack of awareness in the teachers to implement these assistive technologies in the classroom. Also under Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), students with disability are required to have these tools.  

When implementing an assistive technology in the classroom, it is important to personalize the tools for an individual. Students who are under IDEA have an Individualized Education Program (IEP), which the school must abide to. Not a single student has the same IEP, because students have different disabilities and needs. I am in favor of collaboration of assistive technology, because I understand how these tools impact student's academic and functioning skills. But for general education teachers, they may disregard implementing assistive technology in their classroom, because they do not understand. With the current movement of mainstreaming and inclusion, general education teachers are bound to have a student with disability. So teachers must incorporate these tools into the lesson plan for students with disability to actively participate in the least restricted environment (LRE). 

I have a cousin, named Kouta in Japan. Until few years ago, I did not know he had severe intellectual disability. In comparison to the American culture, the Japanese culture is not as open. My father's side of the family cares about opinions, so they tend hide bits of information from us, "children." It is unfortunate, but it is the truth. Kouta is 8 years old. He is unable to communicate and often lost in his own world. In Japan, students with disability are often segregated from regular school and instead attend specialized school. His parent gave up on the idea of Kouta being able to talk and act like his twin brother. I could sense hopelessness that his parent was experiencing. I wish  I could share some success stories with assistive technology, but I cannot. Because it did not happen yet. 

Instead, I want to share a remakable story about a girl named Carly Fleischmann and how technology helped enable her dreams. Carly has severe autism and moderate intellectual disability. Her disability disabled her from communicating and connecting with the people around her. Being diagnosed with autism at the age of 2, her parent did not believe she would be like her twin sister, who does not have a disability. "Therapists say the key lesson from Carly's story is for families to never give up and to be ever creative in helping children with autism find their voice" (McKenzie, 2008). After a decade of intensive therapy sessions, she found her inner voice with the help of technology. She is now able to communicate with others. When I first saw her story, I thought about my cousin and hoped Kouta would have a chance to find his voice as well.

  I believe that every student has the potential to blossom with some help from the community. Although assistive technology is a valuable resources, it also depends on the people who work closely with the students. They are teachers, therapists, psychologists, and mostly importantly parents. Carly's story illustrated that parental involvement is an essential factor for students to progress. As a future special education teacher, I believe we must be positive and hopeful that our students will be able to achieve anything that they desire. Although assitive technology cannot be the solution for all the disabilities, we must still continue to incorporate it in the lesson plan. The goals are for students with disability to be included in the general education classroom as much as possible and develop skills to successfully transition into the real world. 

This is a short video I made using PowToon. It is intended for younger children to give them a general idea about assistive technology and how it can enable dreams. 

References

Eggen, P., & Kauchak, D. (2012). Educational Psychology. Upper Saddle River, NJ: 

              Merrill/Prentice Hall.

Ellis, Ken. (2005). Assistive Technology: Enabling Dreams [Video File]. Retrieved from 

              http://www.edutopia.org/assistive-technology-enabling-dreams-video

McKenzie, John. (2008). Autism breakthrough: Girl's writings explain her behavior and 

              feelings. ABC News. http://abcnews.go.com/Health/story?id=4311223

                                                                      

Collaboration and Technology

            The purpose of the educational game assignment was to evaluate an online educational game based on its effectiveness in student’s learning. We were randomly assigned a group to work with. The challenge was to collaborate effectively with our varying majors and personalities. Our group consisted of three special education majors, two elementary majors, and one ESL major. Our obstacle began, as we searched for an educational game that we all agreed on. It was an eye opener to realize the number of online games offered as a resource for both parents and teachers. Because we tried to find a game that would satisfy all of our majors, it was surprisingly time consuming. Our challenges continued as we tried to perfect an educational game and technology tools.

            As a student, we are comfortable with receiving a rubric from a teacher, but rarely do we get an opportunity to create one based on our standards. Instead of creating a rubric first, we found a game. So the process felt backwards and I believed we were overthinking how to create a rubric. But after setting guidelines of what we wanted to assess, it became easy. As future educators, we understood the controversy of technology in students’ learning and development. According to Eggen and Kauchak (2012), “as with all learning activities and tools, clear learning objectives and careful planning are essential if students are to derive maximum benefit from technology” (p. 53). As we evaluated the educational game, we only recommend the game as a review or practice, but cannot replace a teacher.  

            “SpellingBee” was an educational multi-player game that assisted students from 3^rd to 5^th grade with their spelling, listening, and typing skills. In special education classrooms, I had seen the use of phonics to help children learn the letter sounds, so they can eventually read and write. Through “Spelling Bee”, they can apply what they learned in class to play the game. It can help students learn correct pronunciation. It can also help students recognize letters and words. The challenge is to incorporate the educational game into the curriculum without completely depending on it. Ehri (2008) supported, “without a solid foundation and without continued instruction in word spellings and regularities, a student will have difficulty sustaining strong spelling skills” (p. 5).

            For our presentation, we used wix to create our website to detach ourselves from the traditional PowerPoint presentation style. I thought voki was the most helpful technology tool, because it added the child-like elements into our website. When creating this website, our target group was elementary. Wix provided us the tools to create colorful and well organized website, but voki made our presentation entertaining and enjoyable for children. I also thought, we as a group stood out because of our voki, “Super Bee.”

Wiggio offered us the opportunity to have cyber-meetings without having to physically meet in a mutually agreed place. This was helpful, because we had conflicting schedules. With six people in the group, it was especially difficult to manage and set up outside meetings. I was impressed with Wiggio that the chats would directly be forwarded to our personal Gmail account. So I was able to receive notification from my Gmail account that my group members were trying to contact me via Wiggio. The website was easy to navigate, so we used Wiggio to have videoconferences, group chats, and so on. Wiggio was a website that I would use in the future to have group meetings and conversations.

              It is important to be aware of the resources provided to help students in their academic and nonacademic learning. Through this assignment, we were able to utilize the various technology tools to better our presentation. Wix allowed us to go beyond the traditional presentation style. Anyone can access our website to obtain information about the game and ways teachers as well as parents can incorporate it into the child’s life. We included a variety of insights, such as the common core standards and effectiveness in different majors. Wiggio served as a tool of communication between the group members, which made the presentation possible. Such technology tools exist to help the quality of education as we embark on the 21^st century learning.

References

Eggen, P., & Kauchak, D. (2012). Educational Psychology. Upper Saddle River, NJ:

            Merrill/Prentice Hall.

Ehri, L. C. (2010). Learning to spell - a challenge for elementary students with ld.

            Retrieved from http://www.greatschools.org/special-education/LD-ADHD/1021-spelling-     
            elementary-students-with-ld.gs?page=all