The New Assistive Tech

Make Learning Awesome for All!

Christopher Bugaj

• Publisher: International Society for Technology in Education
• Year: 2018
• eBook ISBN: 9781564846846
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education Standards

This playful yet professional book is designed to help educators select, acquire and implement technology to help all students, but especially those with special needs. School districts often struggle to develop consistent practices for meeting the needs of special education students. With this book, you'll learn how embracing student-centered approaches like project-based learning and growth mindset works to support students with disabilities. You'll get guidance on how to plan and execute educational experiences using technology centered around the needs of students with disabilities. And you'll learn how to effectively and consistently consider and select technological supports based on the specific needs of an individual student with a disability.This book:

• Details how an educational team can request assistance to determine technology needs.
• Explains how to conduct and document assessments to help an educational team make informed decisions about technology needs.
• Describes a proactive approach to professional development for individuals and for those who train others on the use of technology.
• Assists individuals or teams in creating an action plan for developing a culture of inclusion.
• Interweaves stories, songs and other exciting features to make learning fun!

The New Assistive Tech is a catalyst for breaking down walls between special education and general education, and will help all educators realize they have tech knowledge (and can build upon that knowledge) that can be used to support students with disabilities. Audience: K-12 educators

Shifting Attitudes to Improve Learning Experiences

In any good book, there is conflict. The protagonist faces some sort of challenge to overcome. This book is no different, except here, you are the protagonist; you are the hero of the story. The challenge is to imagine the experience of school in new way: imagine every student, with or without disabilities, choosing to be at school over any other activity. This chapter explores steps that can be taken toward that end.

Advances in technology provide educators with the opportunity to design every learning experience with individual needs in mind. These changes have led to revolutionary ideas that have made educators reconsider common practices and rethink what education really means.

Let’s begin by diving headlong into how contemporary philosophies, initiatives, and practices positively impact and influence the instruction of students with disabilities. In this chapter, you’ll:

1. Learn how to shift student and educator perspectives on school from a place where one needs to be to a place one wants to be.

2. Examine how traditional practices in school impact the attitudes of students toward learning—especially those students with disabilities.

3. Explore how to reshape and rethink what it means to be a teacher by rebranding the profession.

4. Learn a short process for designing inclusive, accessible, student-centered learning experiences.

ISTE STANDARDS ADDRESSED

ISTE Standards for Educators 2b. Advocate for equitable access to educational technology, digital content, and learning opportunities to meet the diverse needs of all students.

ISTE Standards for Educators 3a. Create experiences for learners to make positive, socially responsible contributions and exhibit empathetic behaviors online that build relationships and community.

ISTE Standards for Educators 5a. Use technology to create, adapt, and personalize learning experiences that foster independent learning and accommodate learner differences and needs.

ISTE Standards for Educators 5b. Design authentic learning activities that align with content-area standards, and use digital tools and resources to maximize active, deep learning.

ISTE Standards for Educators 5c. Explore and apply instructional design principles to create innovative digital learning environments that engage and support learning.

ISTE Standards for Educators 6a. Foster a culture where students take ownership of their learning goals and outcomes in both independent and group settings.

ISTE Standards for Educators 6d. Model and nurture creativity and creative expression to communicate ideas, knowledge, and/or connections.

The Like–Dislike Continuum Activity

Let’s do an activity. In the space below, list five things in the world that are generally liked—or even loved—by most people. Now, these things can’t be stuff we need in order to survive as humans, like water or food, but they can be types of drinks or food (like chocolate). Again, these are things that most people really, really, really like. (And it’s totally okay to write in this book [or to annotate it if you’re reading an ebook version] because it is your copy!)

Got your five things that people, universally, seem to like? Great! Now, let’s do another five. This time, however, let’s do five things that humans, in general, don’t like. Document those five items in the space below using any method that works for you.

Likes	Dislikes
1.	1.
2.	2.
3.	3.
4.	4.
5.	5.

Now, let’s combine the lists and then sort the items, ranking the items that people, according to you, like the most (number 1) to what they like the least (number 10). Take your time and think about it. Feel free to go back and adjust your answers above if need be. We want to make sure this list feels accurate to you, as we’re going to use it later as a basis for measuring other items.

1. (Most liked)

2.

3.

4.

5. (Generally liked)

6. (Generally disliked)

7.

8.

9.

10. (Most disliked)

What you’ve just built is a scale by which you can measure any concept to see how much you think the general population enjoys it. For example, imagine most students attending school. Ask yourself, “Where do students rank school on my 10-item scale of likes and dislikes?”

Now, take away the social component of school and only consider the academic aspects of it. Does that change the ranking at all?

This activity has been done with educators many times in live and virtual events. The ranking of “school” is almost always the same, with people placing it somewhere between root canals and mosquito bites, or between sunburns and traffic jams. Some educators are adamant that most students would rank school near 9 or 10 in the realm of disease, natural disasters, and death. Although there are students who are exceptions, a general agreed-upon principle is that school, to put it simply, sucks.

Students tend to equate school with something one just needs to get through: a drudgery, a slog, a grind. Graduation parties tend to celebrate an escape to freedom, like getting out of prison, rather than a celebration of the academic experiences had. This negative connotation for school is held by most students, regardless of ability.

Most students do not have a disability. In fact, according to the National Center for Education Statistics, approximately 13 percent of the student population has a disability (bit.ly/ncesdisabilitystatistics). Imagine how much less enjoyable school might be if you had a physical, sensory, cognitive, or language-based disability in an educational environment where the experience is not necessarily designed with you in mind.

Now, let’s consider most educators. Where do they put school on your scale? Take away the fact that an educator is being paid to be there. Take away summer breaks too. Consider just the day-to-day actions of an educator. Where does school fall?

Ask the next 10 educators you meet how they are doing, and you’ll probably hear phrases like, “I’m hanging in there,” “It’s almost Friday,” “Is it break yet?”, “I’m getting by,” and a slew of other phrases that express frustration, aggravation, and annoyance. It’s rare that you hear how great everything is, how much they love their jobs, and how they can’t wait to be back the next day.

Now, imagine you’re an educator who works primarily in special education. The turnover rates for a special-education teacher are very high, with an attrition rate averaging approximately 13 percent per year (McLeskey, Tyler, & Flippin, 2004). The attrition rate of special educators moving to general education positions is more than 10 times larger than general educators transferring into special-education positions (McLeskey et al., 2004). Using this turnover rate as one metric, the number of people who last in special education is lower than that of teachers working primarily in general education.

The cultural perspectives on school in the United States, whether from educators or students, regardless of ability, are almost universally bleak. It is time to change school into something everyone deems as a positive experience.

Snow Day!

In certain parts of the United States the months between November and March are filled with a magical sense of hope and wonder. Students and educators alike become sorcerers, wizards, and witches casting spells and concocting potions to influence the weather. Some flush ice cubes (only three!) down the toilet. Others dance around in their kitchens wearing blue-and-white pajamas inside out. Still others freeze a spoon (or a white crayon) and place it under their pillows. These rituals are performed with great care and precision in the hopes of summoning Jack Frost into action. If successful, he will answer desperate prayers by creating a storm so treacherous that officials will cancel school. When that call comes, the radiating elation is so immense, it can melt an iceberg!

Why is it that those who attend and work in a school are so overjoyed to have a temporary reprieve from the environment in which they spend seven hours a day?

No matter how much they love what they are doing, everyone enjoys a day off—a day free of obligations and responsibilities. Right?

Maybe not.

What if the experience of school was so amazing that students and teachers felt sadness rather than happiness when notified of a snow day? What if students and teachers everywhere loved the experience of school so much that they practiced rituals to keep inclement weather at bay rather than embracing their inner Elsa? What if, as a culture, closing school for a day brought about feelings of disappointment at what wouldn’t be accomplished that day rather than pure bliss at what would be avoided? What if students craved school because they knew that attendance on that day meant they’d be working toward making a meaningful contribution to society by attempting to solve some problem plaguing the lives of others?

Wouldn’t everyone be happier if students and teachers enjoyed the school experience so much that they desperately wanted to be there? This shift in thinking can be achieved—but it won’t be fairy or elven magic that changes this perspective. Like the accumulation of billions of snowflakes, this change can only happen over time through people, just like you, designing awesome experiences. Technology can help too! Thanks to your efforts, when a storm is brewing but a school remains open, people will consider it the most wonderful time of the year.

Name This Disability

Figure 1.1 is a worksheet that contains printed questions about content related to science, such as the properties of matter. Below each question is a space for a student to handwrite a response. The student has attempted to answer each question, but the legibility is questionable. Erratic letter formation, size, spacing, and alignment make the words and sentences difficult to decode.

Using the description and any other powers of observation and resources at your disposal, answer this question: What disability does this student have? (Dyslexia? Dysgraphia? A visual impairment? A physical impairment that impacts motor function of the upper extremities? Multiple disabilities? What do you think?)

The answer is that this work was produced by a typically developing student in sixth grade with no known disability.

Concerns abound with this example but not regarding the student’s abilities or learning. Instead, the concerns center around the design of the lesson, the teacher’s expectation, and the materials presented. Did the experience of completing this activity help the student fall in love with the content or has repeated participation in activities like this pushed the enjoyment of science further away? After completing the assignment, does the student feel a sense of pride in the work done and the learning that has taken place? Does this activity consider the needs of each individual student or was every student in the class given the same sheet with the same expectation to complete it in the same way?

Figure 1.1. A worksheet completed by a student.

Do discouraging experiences like the one above make up the majority or minority of this student’s time spent in school? Does this student’s experience vary greatly from the experience of other students around the United States (or the world)? Does this experience foster creativity, collaboration, critical thinking, or any of the other skills necessary to prepare students for the future (such as those outlined in the ISTE Standards at the beginning of this chapter)?

You be the judge. (See Figures 1.2 and 1.3.)

Figure 1.2. Articles taken from a student’s backpack at the end of any given week.

Figure 1.3. To the recycling bin on the last day of school!

A EULOGY FOR WORKSHEETS

Today, we gather to pay our respects to a staple of the school-based environment for decades: worksheets. Everyone knows worksheets—they’ve shaped hearts and minds for generations. Assigning a worksheet as a way for students to demonstrate what they’ve learned has ensured hours of peaceful activity, keeping most students quiet and still. Completion of a worksheet has helped students feel that sense of accomplishment in starting something, answering questions, and then finishing it. Countless students have experienced the joy of expanding their working memory through the task of temporarily memorizing facts to complete blank spaces and then abando...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• About ISTE
• About the Author
• Acknowledgments
• Dedication
• Contents
• Foreword
• Introduction
• PART I: Education Re-Envisioned
• PART II: How to Consider Assistive Technology for Everybody
• PART III: Requesting Assistance
• PART IV: Enacting Change
• Moving Forward
• References
• Index
• Back Cover