technology

Hamilton, B. (2018). Integrating technology in the classroom : Tools to meet the needs of every student. International Society for Technology in Education. Created from empire-ebooks on 2023-11-22 12:40:24.

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CHAPTER 10

Leveraging Technology to Meet Adaptive Needs

ACCORDING TO the National Center for Education Statistics, 13% of U.S. students in public schools receive special education services, and 34% of special education students have specific learning disabilities. In 2015, about two-thirds of students identified for special education services spent 80% of their school day in regular classrooms.

Teacher training on how to modify instruction to meet the needs of students receiving special education services has generally not been sufficient to prepare teachers. Skilled and collaborative special education staff can model strategies to help teachers, but not every teacher has access to such partnerships. This chapter is an overview for classroom teachers to outline strategies that can be integrated into differentiated lesson plans.

Classroom teachers will probably not have access to as many assistive technology tools as the special education staff because the tools, software, and aids schools may need to provide for special education students carry steep price tags. If students need specific assistive technology, such as a sip-and-puff computer device or an eye typer, teachers should depend on the special education department to provide both the device and training.

Classroom teachers should concern themselves with differentiation techniques that enable students with special needs to be successful academically. What strategies will be necessary each year will depend on the children assigned to the classroom. Just as every student in the class comes with a different toolkit of skills and knowledge, students assigned to special education services have vastly different levels of grade-level content mastery and differentiation needs. Working closely with the special education staff and previous teachers can be beneficial for understanding what has been successful in the past. But don’t get caught in a rut of doing only what has been done before—technologies change rapidly and you may find a tool that differentiates in a new way.

The tools listed here are a sample of ways to adapt your classroom to accommodate the needs of some students. If you are already using a mix of approaches to appeal to students with different learning preferences, you are probably also meeting some needs for students in special education services.

Hamilton, B. (2018). Integrating technology in the classroom : Tools to meet the needs of every student. International Society for Technology in Education. Created from empire-ebooks on 2023-11-22 12:40:24.

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Organization Assistance Organizing is often difficult for children with special needs. You can support these students by teaching with organizational tools such as graphic organizers, timelines, concept maps, and story maps. Presenting organizing information visually is also helpful—visual schedules, sequenced picture task cards, countdown timers, and even clip-art cues on worksheets (a pencil for write, eye for read, megaphone for tell or talk, etc.). Although picture cues may seem elementary, they can be used for older students as well. Consistent patterns may also help students. In my research, I spent time in classrooms where teachers used music to transition students into their classrooms. When the music ended, students knew to be in their seats and ready to learn. Teachers accessed the music on Pandora or Spotify.

Speech to Text Students with auditory preferences can benefit from many strategies listed in the chapter on auditory preferences. Closed captioning and repeated viewings can make videos more meaningful for students with auditory preferences. In my research I worked with a hearing- impaired student who used closed captioning for the BrainPOP video she was viewing. She would pause the video, replay troublesome sections, and look up difficult vocabulary on another screen. Having permission to view the video on her own before and after it was used in class let her make sense of the material.

Students who struggle to capture their thinking through writing text can blossom as writers when they use devices with speech recognition. Teachers (or districts) can add speech- recognition extensions to any browser, and many computing devices have speech recognition built in. My friend who has Parkinson’s disease uses speech-recognition extensions on all her devices. The transcripts are not perfect, but the essence is correct, and she can edit the text more easily than she can type for extended periods.

Text to Speech On the flip side, some students need written text converted to speech so they can hear what was written. Text-to-speech apps can enable visually impaired students to hear texts, give a voice to students who are unable to speak, and assist struggling readers. The following extensions and online apps are only a portion of the possibilities.

SpeakIt (Google Chrome extension; Windows or Mac extensions) will read webpages and PDFs that have been opened in Chrome. Highlight the text and click on the speaker embedded in the window.

Hamilton, B. (2018). Integrating technology in the classroom : Tools to meet the needs of every student. International Society for Technology in Education. Created from empire-ebooks on 2023-11-22 12:40:24.

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Natural Reader (naturalreaders.com/online) is an online tool where you can paste text or upload a document. The online version offers a selection of free voices, and text can be slowed down or speeded up based on the listener’s preference. Each sentence is highlighted as it is read.

TTSReader (ttsreader.com) is available online, as an Android app, or as a Chrome extension. Users can upload text and change the reading rate. The online version has a Record button that records the text as it is being read. The audio file can then be downloaded and saved.

VozMe (vozme.com/index.php?lang=en) is an online text-to-speech converter that will read text written in English, Spanish, Italian, Hindi, or Portuguese. Voice quality is mediocre.

Read Aloud (Chrome extension) has been rated highly by users as having pleasing voices and being multilingual.

Text to Speech (iOS) received high ratings from users, including some who had lost their voices for a time and found text to speech a good way to “talk.”

The same students who use text-to-speech apps might enjoy doing assessments on Voki (voki.com), an online tool where students create avatars and type text for the avatars to speak. The free version limits text length and options for avatars.

Reading Support Reading supports have been covered extensively in other chapters. The use of multi-leveled texts, audiobooks, multimedia materials, and podcasts can lessen the burden for struggling readers. When I taught high-school English, many of my students read below grade level, and the only texts we had were classics. I often introduced new plays and novels by reading the first pages aloud, showing a video, or recruiting students to perform a portion of the text. This gave students the opportunity to get “into” difficult texts. Today, teachers have many free audio and visual resources to draw from to make reading in literature or content classes possible for children who struggle to read.

Teachers can also use Rewordify (rewordify.com/index.php) to simplify readings. When text is pasted into Rewordify, the online tool replaces difficult words with simplified vocabulary. Consider building a Rewordify library of the texts you use regularly to give struggling students a reading boost.

Bookshare (bookshare.org), sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Special Education Programs, limits membership to individuals who can document print disabilities with physical causes, such as visual impairment or inability to hold a book, or some learning disabilities that make reading difficult. This service does not extend to

Hamilton, B. (2018). Integrating technology in the classroom : Tools to meet the needs of every student. International Society for Technology in Education. Created from empire-ebooks on 2023-11-22 12:40:24.

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students with nonphysical causes for reading disabilities, such as autism, emotional/behavioral problems, or English language learners. Although eligible users may be only a small number of students in a school, if you teach students with those print disabilities, accessing to up to 100 per month from the library of digital texts, including periodicals, can make a critical difference in their education. Bookshare has updated its site to improve content and services, “from learning how to download your first book to using advanced features, accessing training, and getting more involved in the Bookshare community.” Core services have not changed.

Feedback Options Students identified for special education support often struggle with self-esteem because of internalized perceptions that they are “less than.” Some students may need feedback about their work and behavior more frequently than other students. Well-designed formative assessments not only can gauge students’ understanding of the day’s learning objective, but can provide feedback whether students are keeping up or need support.

When students submit work, give feedback as promptly as possible about their performance. Feedback is not merely a grade! Instead, feedback should identify correct and inaccurate work and suggest next steps for improving.

Kaizena (kaizena.com) is an audio tool that can be installed directly into Google Docs. Highlight any portion of a document, activate the record feature of Kaizena, and provide feedback. Audio feedback can be more efficient than written notes.

Recap (letsrecap.com) is a free chat and video tool for teachers that also works with Google Classroom. Teachers set up their classes and pose questions. Students respond either by chat or video. Although teachers need to set up with a laptop or Chromebook, students can use any devices for their responses. Teachers could use this as a formative check for understanding.

Collaboration Opportunities Expertise in working collaboratively is highly valued and even necessary for success in the workplace. Collaboration does not happen intuitively, so teachers must scaffold the skills and provide plenty of practice opportunities. Common Sense Education has a page (tiny.cc/1dziwy) devoted to building teachers’ capacity for creating collaboration projects.

A common problem in classroom cooperative groups is the unevenness of participation. Students identified for special education services often find their voices are not honored.

Hamilton, B. (2018). Integrating technology in the classroom : Tools to meet the needs of every student. International Society for Technology in Education. Created from empire-ebooks on 2023-11-22 12:40:24.

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Designing the collaborative project so every student must contribute will scaffold participation. For instance, if a team of four students is responsible for teaching a section (chapter, act, stanza) of a literary piece, students need equal responsibility for contributions. The teacher can decide how to chunk the tasks to be equal. Students may have responsibility for the four tasks of researching outside analysis of the piece, identifying symbolism in the text, developing four higher-level thinking questions (and potential answers), and summarizing theme/character/plot development. Each participant can take primary responsibility for one task and secondary responsibility for a second task. Notice that no one has administrative roles of being timekeeper or taking notes—those roles do not involve students in the active work of thinking. Students can use a free whiteboard app such as Whiteboard.fi (whiteboard.fi) or Web Whiteboard (webwhiteboard.com) to share ideas, resources, and questions as they then collaboratively decide how to present their information to their peers.

Assistive Apps When I taught, I didn’t always know which students were identified as having special needs, so my approach was to assume every child had individual needs I should assess and address. Some of the following apps were designed to address specific challenges; others could be appropriate for all students. Some work across multiple devices; some are single platform. The list is a sampling of what may be available for little or no cost. Online searches for tools that meet specific challenges often provide rich collections of apps.

Character Story Planner (Android) provides planner charts so students can create or profile characters. Could be used by students to track characters in a book being read (with a tag of the book’s title for sorting) or to develop a character for a writing project.

Adobe Spark (iOS and online at spark.adobe.com/edu) has three focused apps: Spark Page (word processing and photos), Spark Post (social media with links), and Spark Video (digital storytelling). The Education version includes access to all the advanced tools for free.

LitCharts (Android, iOS, and online at litcharts.com) is a library of literature guides from the creators of SparkNotes. Students can read summaries, notable quotes, and analyses of themes, symbols, and characters. A good supplemental resource for struggling readers.

Aipoly Vision (iOS) recognizes items and colors for the visually impaired. Point the phone camera at an object and press a recognition button to hear what is being pointed at.

Breathe2Relax (Android and iOS) teaches deep breathing to turn on the body’s relaxation reflexes. Originally designed for the military, it could be useful for students with anxiety.

Miracle Modus (Android and iOS) has 14 visually interesting scenes that react to touch and are calming to some individuals on the autism spectrum.

Hamilton, B. (2018). Integrating technology in the classroom : Tools to meet the needs of every student. International Society for Technology in Education. Created from empire-ebooks on 2023-11-22 12:40:24.

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iBrainstorm (iOS) supports note-taking, diagrams, and drawing. Students whose work seems disorganized because they have trouble tracking snippets of knowledge and information benefit from a multi-method information-gathering tool like this.

Marti (iOS) supports individuals who need tasks broken down into progressive steps. Combines visual cues (pictures or video) with sound.

DD’s Dictionary: A Dyslexic’s Dictionary (iOS) assists in finding a word and focuses on word spelling. Audio pronounces the word as confirmation.

ClassDojo (Android and iOS) assists teachers in providing positive feedback to students, sharing with parents, and creating groups. Students can customize their Dojo avatars and share their work by adding pictures and videos to their portfolios.

Hamilton, B. (2018). Integrating technology in the classroom : Tools to meet the needs of every student. International Society for Technology in Education. Created from empire-ebooks on 2023-11-22 12:40:24.

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