Dave L. Edyburn
The goal of Edyburn’s article, “Learning from text, was to find
ways technology can facilitate learning form text and enhance learning of students
experiencing reading challenges in the general education classroom setting. Edyburn
points out that students who have disabilities, in areas such as reading, that
reflect skills much lower than grade level can demonstrate appropriate academic
achievement with the aid of assistive technology. It is proactive to provide students
with disabilities compensatory technology that allow students to spend their
time learning and covering the outcomes just as their peers without learning
disabilities. This article puts forth a good effort in providing the reader
with ideas about when compensatory technology should be implemented. The
article provides the reader with examples of instructional technology products
for teaching students to read. Edyburn breaks this information up into three
sections, helping readers to determine which resources work best for their
current situation. The information is divided up into sequenced reading
instruction with extensive student management systems, specific skill
development, and improving reading through individual performances assessments.
Edyburn provides the reader with a systems approach for making text accessible and
a taxonomy of text modification strategies. The systems approach is described as
roadmap that readers could use when making text accessible to students. The
taxonomy of text modification strategies would be beneficial for teachers or
program planning teams interested in determining appropriate technology that
could be used for a student. It allows the reader the ability to connect the
type of assistive technology consideration that should be explored based on the
reading problem and the functional difficulty. An example of this is, if the student
has an inability to see the text and the functional difficulty is considered low
then the assistive technology consideration that should be explored is screen
magnification. I believe that the taxonomy of text modification strategies
found in this article would be beneficial to my teaching practice when
exploring assistive technology for my students. Edyburn also provides the
reader with information on bypass reading, dividing this into no-tech response,
low-tech response, and high-tech response. The reader is provided with websites
and supporting information. Teachers interested in using eBooks as part of
their teaching practice are provided with information on where to find e-texts.
Ultimately, Edyburn does a good job of describing different strategies that
teachers could use when teaching students with a reading or print disability.
The author discusses many strategies such as bypass reading, decrease reading,
support reading, organize reading with graphic organizers, and guide reading.
IPads as
Instructional Tools to Enhance Learning Opportunities for Students with
Developmental Disabilities: An Action Research Project.
Therese M. Cumming,
Iva Strnadova, Sylvia Singh
Cumming, Strnadova, and Singh’s article looked at how mobile
devices such as iPads provide learning opportunities for students and the
perceptions of students with developmental disabilities and their teachers on using
the iPad as an instructional tool. The article focuses on four students, a student
with epilepsy and autism, two with moderate intellectual disabilities, and one
student with autism and a global development delay. The findings of the article
provide the reader with great information on why mobile devices such as iPads
should be used in the classroom. Cumming et al. discuss how the teachers taking
part in the study all believed that the device made differentiated instruction easier
for each student and that improvements could be found in student work. Students,
when using the iPads, were also described as becoming more independent
learners. Readers of the article, have access to great ideas of when using
iPads can be useful, such as reading texts in English class because it reduced
time students needed to read novels. Teachers used iPads during cooking class
to help students read recipes. The authors also discussed challenges with using
iPads with their students. Some challenges that were discussed were not always
finding apps that they wanted for lessons that they were teaching and finding
high interest, low level, and age appropriate apps. A strength of this article is that it allows
the reader the perspective of teachers using iPads in their teaching practice.
The reader can get an in-depth look into the positives and challenges of using
iPads in the classroom with students with developmental disabilities and
determine how they wish to implement iPads into their own practice. I believe
that the information in this article provides me with a positive outlook of
using iPads in my practice.
Harnessing the
Potential of Technology to Support Academic Success of Diverse Students
Dave Edyburn
Edyburn suggests the importance that technology can have on student
learning and helping build academic success in this article. Many great
insights are discussed to help change the way educators think about the use of
technology in the classroom to enhance class teaching and learning. Edyburn
suggests that in order to diverge from traditional instruction, educators must
begin with the premise that every classroom is made up of diverse learners. When
thinking this way, educators can concentrate on the content that they wish to
pass on to their students and the method that will best allow this transaction.
This is an interesting approach to teaching and learning and one that will
limit the use of textbooks as the primary form of information transfer. The
article provides the reader with a great example of digital text enhancing learning,
by showing a screen print of the website “The Brain.” Students learning using
tools such as digital text like “The Brain,” offers flexibility that cannot be
found in standard textbooks or other traditional instructional tools. Students can
have the words read to them aloud, display the information in different languages,
and change the size of the print. Edyburn goes on to point out that students
who are blind or have low vision can benefit from digital print, whereas find
difficulty from gaining information from fixed print.
Edyburn also promotes the value that universal design can
have for all learners in the class. All students can benefit from supports,
such as digital media, if made accessible in the classroom environment, not
just students with learning disabilities. Edyburn provides an excellent example
of how the use of technology and the UDL principal helps promote student engagement
in the classroom, by students using computers that give feedback to complete
math problems as an alternative to students answering math questions on paper,
submitting them to the teacher and waiting for them to be passed back. By using
technology, the teacher can help students become engaged in the learning
process and stay focused on a learning goal. The article also does a good job of promoting
the importance of using technology as a method of enhancing student learning.
Integrating the iPad
into Language Arts Instruction for Students with Disabilities: Engagement and
Perspectives
Therese M. Cumming
and Cathi Draper Rodriquez
This study provides the reader with the perspectives of
teachers, paraprofessionals, and students on how iPads can be used for students
with disabilities to better access the curriculum. This study would be of interest to educators
interesting in teaching language arts in that it looked to determine the impact
iPads can have on student with language based disabilities engagement during
language arts instruction. Cumming and Rodriquez provided the reader with
interview data that helps the reader receive a better perspective of the
results of the study. The article provides the reader with great graphs that
allows the reader to view the academic engagement for all for students participating
in the survey, with showed positive results in three of the four students. The
teachers and paraprofessionals expressed that students taking part in the study
benefited from the using the iPad and the language builder app. They went on to
suggest that the iPad helped the students work independently and students did
show signs of engagement during the implementation of the iPad. However,
teachers, paraprofessionals, and students taking part in the study suggested
that the app being used would have been more engaging if it provided more
feedback. Teachers reading this article would benefit from this information in
that student engagement benefits more from high interest apps. Teachers should
use caution when using iPad apps and make sure that the apps are engaging as
well as informative.
The fast-Paced iPad
revolution: Can Educators stay up to date and relevant about These Ubiquitous
Devices?
Deanna C. C. Peluso
In this article, Peluso raises the point that just because students
have the opportunity to use iPads and other technological devices in the classroom,
does not mean that students will use these devices for educational material. To
find a solution to this issue, Peluso suggests that students should have an
active role in determining what it is they want to learn by using technological
devices such as the iPad and how these devices can be used in the classroom
environment. I believe that teachers reading this article may adapt the idea of
collaborating with students when discussing technological devices and
educational curriculum to their own classroom settings. Students are exposed to
the latest trends in technology and this could prove beneficial to teachers
when addressing the learning needs of their students. Teachers could gain
valuable insight into how to implement technology such as iPads and iPods into
their teaching practice by collaborating with students.
What Middle School
Educators Should Know about Assistive Technology and Universal Design for
Learning
Victoria Zascavage
and Kathleen G. Winterman
Zascavage and Winterman’s article is an excellent resource for
teachers working with students in any educational setting, not only those
working in middle schools. In the article, Zascavage and Winterman focuses on
the inclusion of students with learning disabilities experiencing difficulties
in reading and writing in general education classrooms. The authors provide the
reader with a list and description of many forms of assistive technology that
can used in the universal design for learning classroom. The authors look at
speech recognition programs, text to speech technology, and technology to facilitate
written composition. The authors provide the reader with interesting case
studies that can be used as ideas when incorporating assistive technology into
their own teaching practice when. The article also provides the reader with an
overview that can be used when selecting technology in a language arts
classroom. I believe that teachers could benefit from this overview because it
provides them with a foundation or checklist for determining how technology
will be used in a particular lesson. Overall, I believe that I, as well as,
other teachers would benefit from this article because it provides many ideas
on how to use assistive technology in the classroom setting to support students
with and without learning disabilities.
Conclusion
When reflecting on each of the articles discussed above, I
realise the impact assistive technology has on education today. Teachers, more
than ever, have access to tools that can have a powerful impact on students,
especially students with learning disabilities. Mobile devices such as, iPads, iPods,
can allow students to take ownership over their own education, allow them to
develop as independent learners, and effectively communicate their ideas and
what they have learned. I believe that from reading the six articles above I
have gained greater insight into universal design for learning classrooms and
the importance they have on inclusion. With this in mind, I believe that as a
teacher I should focus on creating a classroom environment that supports the
needs of all learners by adopting a UDL approach. By using the information I
have taken from the six articles above, I believe that I will be better able to
differentiate my lessons to support the needs of my students by using a variety
of assistive technology including iPads, iPods, and other technological
devices.
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