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St. James R-1 School District strives to ensure that their students are receiving a top-
notch education. This includes trying to have the best technology available to implement into the
classroom. They want to be sure that the future of their students and community is bright and
opens many opportunities for both the student’s future as well as the future of the community.
The technology implementation that is looked at looks beyond backgrounds, physical
capabilities, and even giftedness. Total inclusion is always kept at the for front upon
technological decisions. The school district has committed themselves to technology integration
into the classroom to better the academic experience to allow for a rich experience for students
and educators. This offers more motivation, and willingness to complete lessons. It has also
shown more resources available to help those that may struggle. Those resources that would
otherwise not have been available without technology. The technology inclusion plan is primarily
made up of two objectives that align with Universal Design for Learning or UDL. The
International Standards for Technology Educators (ISTE) and the Technological Pedagogical
Content Knowledge (TPACK) standards in technology.
Using these technology standards in combination with different technology integration
such as “Storyboard That” will help students and educators achieve a better academic experience
for everyone. The first goal of the district is to focus and increase the access students and
educators have to the tools and assistive technology that helps provide alternative platforms for
all different learners using visual, auditory, and interactive methods. This helps enhance the
learning experience individually for students. The second goal will focus on the empowerment of
students centered learning. This will have a strong view on inclusion for all learners using the
different technology such as “Storyboard That” along with other technology that follow the
standards. This will also give educators support with different resources and strategies to add to
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their instruction. The primary objective will be to ensure that all different learners are
accommodated no matter what their learning abilities or inabilities are. When looking at
inclusion you can see it greatly has to do with how educators respond to students’ individual
differences than how they configure their instruction, the creation of instructional environments
that advocate for educational success, and an offer a sense of belonging for all students (Gargiulo
& Metcalf, 2017).
Assistive technology is defined as any item, product system or piece of equipment that is
either acquired off the shelf commercially, customized or modified to increase, maintain and/or
improve the capabilities of students with disabilities (Gargiulo & Metcalf, 2017). The St. James
R-1 school district wants to be able to ensure that students and teachers can demonstrate proper
use of the technology that is being incorporated in the classrooms. Technology such as
“Storyboard That” will be there to incorporate into lessons and offer students the opportunity to
show their creativity and include all learners within the classroom giving them all an equal
opportunity. Technology and its advancement in the classroom have been a gift for a lot of
educators as well as students. It offers so much support and resources. If we look at this
biblically James discusses how gifts, we receive are all from above. “Every good gift and every
perfect gift is from above, coming down from the father of lights with whom there is no variation
or shadow due to change” (ESV Bible, 2001). James was talking about many things and of
course didn’t even know about technology at the time, but God did. God knew what would be
given to us throughout time, he knew the benefits we would find in technology for students and
how it can help students be successful.
There are three basic assistive technology categories. They are (1) non-tech, (2) low-tech,
and (3) high-tech. When using low-tech or mid-tech assistive technology you can see how digital
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material is used in curriculums, and with high-tech assistive learning you can see how digital
technology is used for the learning experience and not just in the curriculum (Maloy et al., 2017).
Using a combination of low-tech and high-tech will help St. James school district accomplish
their goals for their students and the community.
Educators are a big part of the success plan for the school district. Therefore, they will be
offered training to ensure they are comfortable using technology such as “Storyboard That”.
They will be given the opportunity to explore and create accounts to be sure that they are well
versed and able to use the technology to benefit their teaching as well as their students’ learning
journey. The use of assistive tools used in the classroom with technology will have a final result
of inclusion for all different learners and offer so many more resources for those that need it. Not
only will the students and educators’ benefit, but the families and community will also benefit
and can watch the growth in every area no matter the disability, background, physical or mental
capabilities. This will offer a great atmosphere for all involved.
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References
English Standard Version Bible. (2001). Crossway Bibles.
Gargiulo, R. & Metcalf, D. (2017). Teaching in today's inclusive classroom. Cengage Learning.
Maloy, R. W., Verock, R., Edwards, S. A., & Woolf, B. P. (2017). Transforming learning with
new technologies (3rd ed.). Pearson
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