10. Assistive Technology and Universal Design for Learning: Two Sides of the Same Coin.
Rose, Hasselbring, Stahl, and Zabala
This article was a great read if you are looking for more perspective on the relationship between UDL and AT. Rose et al. highlight the fact that UDL is a fairly new approach to education. I have only heard of UDL this year and I am frustrated that I was not exposed to it sooner. Part of the reason might have to do with the fact that both UDL and AT depend heavily on technology and people are still not completely adept with this.
"The focus of UDL is the learning environment rather than any particular student and AT, modern technology is employed at the level of the individual student to help him or her overcome barriers in the curriculum and living environments whereas UDL, modern technology targets the curriculum itself." These concepts now come second nature to me, however, I feel as though this might have been a useful article to read at the beginning of the course instead of the end.
I like the takeaways of the 3 key aspects of pedagogy for the UDL framework based in the neuroscience of learning: 1. the means of representing information, 2 the means for the expression of knowledge, and 3 the means of engagement in learning. This will be my starting point for when I begin planning for next year in late August. It will give me a lot to think about, it will create quite a shift (and more work) in my planning stages, but it will be the proactive approach I wish I had in place last school year to prevent so much need and confusion!!!!
I am glad that Rose et al. brought up the issue of copyright: "existing copyright constraints limit the distribution of accessible alternate format materials". I created a comprehensive document on copyright guidelines that is handy for teachers.
Lastly, Rose et al. mentions that "we must make every effort to ensure that these two fields [AT and UDL] develop symbiotically" and I believe they will. Once the word gets out it will be obvious to educators that the two come hand in hand and the concept of UDL gives purpose for the use of AT. It will lift the mysticism of "what do I use this device for when I teach" and avoiding the instances of using technology for the sake of it or with the assumption that accessibility will take care of itself.
9. Diagnosis and Intervention Strategies for Disorders of Written Language
Kay
8. Assistive Technology and Writing
Newton and Dell
The tables provided in the article are valuable as well so I included them below:
I also appreciated the comments made about the sharing/publishing component of the writing process. This stage too is very important and most of all, every student has the right to feel pride in their work and their ideas. For some students, Assistive technology can be a game changer toward pride in work.
Lastly, I am glad Newton and Dell brought to light the fact that the "Internet offers additional avenues for publication. Blogs and wikis are useful for sharing short pieces of writing. Knowing that their peers, not just their teacher, will be reading their words often motivates students to put forth extra effort." Overall, this piece has excellent suggestions for all types of writing barriers for many students.
7. Take the Pencil Out of the Process
Leslie Broun
6. iPads as instructional tools to enhance learning opportunities for students with developmental disabilities: An action research project
Cumming, Strnadova, and Singh
Rose, Hasselbring, Stahl, and Zabala
"The focus of UDL is the learning environment rather than any particular student and AT, modern technology is employed at the level of the individual student to help him or her overcome barriers in the curriculum and living environments whereas UDL, modern technology targets the curriculum itself." These concepts now come second nature to me, however, I feel as though this might have been a useful article to read at the beginning of the course instead of the end.
I like the takeaways of the 3 key aspects of pedagogy for the UDL framework based in the neuroscience of learning: 1. the means of representing information, 2 the means for the expression of knowledge, and 3 the means of engagement in learning. This will be my starting point for when I begin planning for next year in late August. It will give me a lot to think about, it will create quite a shift (and more work) in my planning stages, but it will be the proactive approach I wish I had in place last school year to prevent so much need and confusion!!!!
I am glad that Rose et al. brought up the issue of copyright: "existing copyright constraints limit the distribution of accessible alternate format materials". I created a comprehensive document on copyright guidelines that is handy for teachers.
Lastly, Rose et al. mentions that "we must make every effort to ensure that these two fields [AT and UDL] develop symbiotically" and I believe they will. Once the word gets out it will be obvious to educators that the two come hand in hand and the concept of UDL gives purpose for the use of AT. It will lift the mysticism of "what do I use this device for when I teach" and avoiding the instances of using technology for the sake of it or with the assumption that accessibility will take care of itself.
9. Diagnosis and Intervention Strategies for Disorders of Written Language
Kay
Kay's opening remarks in her article are staggering. "It is currently estimated that dysgraphia costs American industry and business $30 billion per year." The ultimate motivator for people in this society is money so what better way to get people to start taking dysgraphia more seriously!
She continues with what we've been talking about in class- the complexity of the writing process and how it "represents a highly complex neurodevelopmental process which involves multiple brain mechanisms. It requires the simultaneous and sequential integration of attention, multiple information sources, memory, motor skill, language, and higher cognition." I think all educators as well as people in general need to be reminded of this. Not to mention the fact that dysgraphia is a very complex disorder that has three subtypes (dyslexic dysgraphia, dysgraphia due to motor clumsiness, and dysgraphia due to a defect in the understanding of space). It is so important for educators to be aware of the complexity and the fact that we need to ensure we are being explicit enough in our instructions. Kay comments on the fact that the psychologist need to determine whether direct instruction has been provided before they can even begin to attempt to accuately assess someone with dysgraphia.
The most interesting section of this article, for me as an ELA teacher, is the part on spelling at explicitly teaching mechanics. Kay presents that "advocates of such trends suggest that mechanical writing skills, such as spelling, should not be taught formally. Rather, students should be encouraged to invent spellings. Others are wary of this type of approach for several reasons... A concerned shift away from teaching writing mechanics represents a swing in the educational pendulum that can produce deficits in knowledge of these important components of writing. there is little research support for the notion that writing mechanics will take care of themselves more or less automatically in the course of well-designed composition instruction...begin introducing bypass strategies for the dysgraphic student. Examples include shortening assignments , increasing performance time, grading first on the content of the work and then on the quality, avoiding negative reinforcement, using oral exams and allowing oral presentations from the student, and giving tests in untimed conditions." I will have to reassess my teaching philosophy to see where I stand on this argument before the beginning of the next school year.
Lastly, Kay presents an excellent program to teach keyboarding skills is "Keyboarding Skills for All the Grades". I know now that this will come in handy for me come September.
8. Assistive Technology and Writing
Newton and Dell
I really enjoyed this article's explicit presentation of the different levels of technological solutions for students who struggle with physically writing or expressing ideas. The ones I will take away are:
Low-tech Solutions: pencil grip, slant board, different writing implements
Low-tech Solutions: pencil grip, slant board, different writing implements
Mid-Tech Solutions: portable word processing device (Neo, CalcuScribe, The Writer,
High-Tech Solutions: computer software (iWord), speech recognition software (Dragon/Siri)
The tables provided in the article are valuable as well so I included them below:
Within the article's breakdown of the writing process, I really appreciated the comments made about editing. Correcting mechanics of writing within a piece is very important but also very challenging. I really liked the suggestion of simply having their text read back to them (especially with a text to voice app). I have attempted to have students work in pairs to do peer editing but I think this might be a more effective alternative approach.
I also appreciated the comments made about the sharing/publishing component of the writing process. This stage too is very important and most of all, every student has the right to feel pride in their work and their ideas. For some students, Assistive technology can be a game changer toward pride in work.
Lastly, I am glad Newton and Dell brought to light the fact that the "Internet offers additional avenues for publication. Blogs and wikis are useful for sharing short pieces of writing. Knowing that their peers, not just their teacher, will be reading their words often motivates students to put forth extra effort." Overall, this piece has excellent suggestions for all types of writing barriers for many students.
7. Take the Pencil Out of the Process
Leslie Broun
This article is very well summed up in its title. The main argument is that students with ASD really need to be given alternative ways to present their understandings and ideas compared to the traditional pencil/paper combination. The evidence behind this argument is the fact that students with ASD struggle significantly with movement. "Two of the primary movement difficulties many individuals with ASD experience are hypotonia (low muscle tone and strength) and apraxia (impairment in the ability to execute skilled movements despite having the physical ability and the desire to do so). These two conditions directly affect an individual’s ability to use his or her hands and have a significant impact on an individual’s ability to hold and use writing implements."
While reading this article I was very aware of my meta-cognition that Broun's arguments were really preaching to the choir but as stated near the end, "there are few studies that specifically discuss the handwriting issues of students with ASD" so in order to have this implemented system wide, there will need to be more progress in this field.
While reading this article I was very aware of my meta-cognition that Broun's arguments were really preaching to the choir but as stated near the end, "there are few studies that specifically discuss the handwriting issues of students with ASD" so in order to have this implemented system wide, there will need to be more progress in this field.
6. iPads as instructional tools to enhance learning opportunities for students with developmental disabilities: An action research project
Cumming, Strnadova, and Singh
This article presents an interesting study on the integration and use of the iPad in a classroom with developmental disabilities. Within is provided a concise definition of UDL ("Universal Design for Learning promotes access and inclusion through the development of flexible learning environments comprised of multiple means of representation, engagement, and expression") which was a term I was unaware of until taking this course.
One of the useful findings from this article was the fact that they found that "using video in instruction not only supported students in learning and generalizing academic skills but also was very motivating for them. They found that video was particularly successful in teaching students: (a) sign language, (b) functional living skills, (c) reading, (d) community- based instruction, and (e) social skills." Another take away from this task in general is the idea of a "social story". This is an interesting concept useful for students learning to interact in a socially acceptable manner using many different technological forms.
A second great point made in this article is the fact that "although technology has greater benefits for students with disabilities than for their peers without disabilities, they are half as likely to own computers, and one- quarter as likely to access the Internet" Poverty is a HUGE factor affecting people's education and we need to be mindful of this all the time.
I appreciated that Cumming et al. presented the fact that "there is little empirical evidence to support the widespread adoption of the devices in either general or special education" despite the bandwagon trend with iPads in the classroom. Each member of my staff were provided with an iPad this year which leaves me with a few questions about what we are or will be expected to do with these devices. It is recommended from this study that teachers are "given time and iPads before the tablets are introduced to the students. This will allow them to become proficient in using the devices, and give them an opportunity to explore apps for specific students and their learning needs." I am curious as to what the expectations are with these in the immediate future. The biggest concern for me is the fact that we have not been I serviced on the devices as a staff. I feel much more proficient with using the iPad and a number of its useful educational Apps compared to before taking this course, however, I am definitely in the minority on my staff. Additionally, the funny thing is, anyone on staff could ask these questions to our administrators, however, no one wants to be seen as the one who gives the idea or the reminder. I might end up having to be that person when I return in the fall since I now feel well equipped if we were to be asked to use them more extensively.
The last point I found interesting from this article is the fact that "the general education teachers in this study seemed to feel that it would be unfair to allow some students to use the technology while it was not made available to others" This brings me back again to the idea that fair is not equal and that we need to seriously consider EQUITY when it comes to UDL and AT. Cumming et al. argue that the "implementation of inclusive settings should be studied, looking more closely at how mobile technology can support the learning of all students within the UDL framework. Only then can inclusive education ideals can be achieved." We need to shake all of the traditional concepts of what a fair classroom looks like if we are truly going to be making learning accessible for all.
The last point I found interesting from this article is the fact that "the general education teachers in this study seemed to feel that it would be unfair to allow some students to use the technology while it was not made available to others" This brings me back again to the idea that fair is not equal and that we need to seriously consider EQUITY when it comes to UDL and AT. Cumming et al. argue that the "implementation of inclusive settings should be studied, looking more closely at how mobile technology can support the learning of all students within the UDL framework. Only then can inclusive education ideals can be achieved." We need to shake all of the traditional concepts of what a fair classroom looks like if we are truly going to be making learning accessible for all.
5. Learning from Text
Dave L. Edyburn
One of the points made that truly resonated with me was how obsolete cum files and IPP documents become in helping a student, especially in the later grades, if compensatory strategies are not provided. A student is known to struggle with reading so then why do we still expect them to 'just try' in other classes? Edyburn asks, "How much failure data is needed document the fact that a student can’t do a given task? Based on the evidence, can’t failure be predicted in advance?" So the stance is to be proactive and this can be done through UDL planning and compensatory strategies nod technology to "enhanced performance system that produces functional outcomes indistinguishable from those of his peers."
A great question posed by Edyburn is "how do we decide if the best course of action is remediation (i.e., additional instructional time, different instructional approaches) versus compensation (i.e., recognizing that remediation has failed and that compensatory approaches are needed to produce the desired level of performance)?" Also, "what percentage of time and effort will be devoted to remediation and what percentage of time and effort will be devoted to compensatory approaches?"Currently, there aren't any specific guidelines on what is the most effective balance between the two (percentages or for certain grade levels). This seems to me that this way of thinking about intervention is both fairly new but more importantly, fairly impossible to create a prescriptive scale without considering each individual. That is why it is important to identify each students specific deficits and then use recommended strategies for such situation.
Some useful information for guiding certain approaches can be found in Figure 4
A Systems Approach for Making Text Accessibleis. I especially liked the following:
Remediation:
-literacy acquisition
-compensation vocabulary/concept development study skills
-higher-level thinking
Compensation:
-bypass reading
-decrease reading
-support reading
-organize reading
-guide reading
Table 2
A taxonomy of text modification strategies (Edyburn, 2003)
This is an excellent list of compensatory strategies descriptions along with relevant instructional and assistive technology tools that could be used in implementing the strategy.
In the end Edyburn states that there is a "paradox of assistive technology consideration" because even though support staff are aware they are expected to use AT, their "limited knowledge about assistive technology often deprives the team of opportunities to actually consider the full array of technology possibilities for enhancing performance." On top of this, there is still not overt discussion or precision on how one should balance remediation and compensation with the use of technology. With the questions from this article more arise, however, we seem to be moving in the right direction.
4. The Education of Dyslexic Children from Childhood to Young Adulthood
Sally E. Shaywitz, Robin Morris, and Bennett A. Shaywitz
The main takeaways for me from this article is the justified argument that the identification approaches that discern between students who are low-achieving children and those who are struggling readers is not used appropriately. The research indicates that “children who do not meet these arbitrarily imposed criteria [for low-achieving] may still require and profit from special help” in reading. Just because they do not struggle a lot. Does not mean that they would not make great progress with some scaffolding instruction.
Another takeaway for me is the proof that dyslexia can be detected genetically so "if a child has a parent or sibling who is dyslexic, that child should be considered at risk and observed carefully for signs of a reading difficulty." And most importantly, just because dyslexia can be hereditary does not mean that reading intervention will not result in reading gains with these students. "Focused, intense, systematic, and explicit interventions can positively impact word-reading development, with some expected transfer impacting comprehension, in even the most severely disabled dyslexic readers and that many different types of remediation programs can be effective."
Not everyone has the access to DNA analysis but there are other ways to identify dyslexia which are much more complex. A diagnosis needs to be made by a qualified clinician who considers the child's "history, observed the child or young adult reading, and administered a battery of tests that assess the child’s cognitive ability, academic skills including reading accuracy, fluency, and comprehension, spelling, and language skills.
Lastly, This article helped to outline for me the 5 essential elements required for effective reading instruction, they are: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension
A great read and clearly from this post, lots was learned that will be very useful for my future teachings.
3. Reading Disabilities
David A. Sousa
This chapter is an excellent resource to refer to as an educator. As the reading states, "all teachers are teachers of reading, and thus should have the training to strengthen the reading skills of students at every grade level." As a teacher even in the English field I feel I am undertrained to work at strengthening specific reading skills. This reading is an excellent resource to compensate for this shortfall.
After reading this I truly appreciate that reading is one of the most difficult tasks we ask the young brain to undertake. I am much more sympathetic of the staggering 20-30% of students who will struggle with reading their entire lives. I also have a new appreciation for the programs such as Reading Recovery for the amazing intervention work that is done to retire a person's brain while reading. Changing how a person processes sounds (phonemic awareness) and decoding written text is a very daunting task. Not to mention overcoming a lacking mental lexicon (for multiple reasons) with late talkers in a language like English that has a deep orthography (correspondence of 44 phonemes to 26 graphemes done 1100 ways).
This reading broke down the reading process in a comprehensive manner. Reading requires 3 neural systems (visual/orthography, auditory/phonology and executive functioning/semantics). The executive functioning was explained in a detailed webinar as the conductor of the brain orchestra.
Not only is this reading useful for background information on reading, it is also one of the first resources I would refer to when I teach a student with reading difficulties. A student could be a reluctant reader for a number of reasons but this chapter does an excellent job of outlining a number of reasons, why they exist and sometimes some possible intervention techniques.
Highlights on this for me was the fact that there is a missing gene that is connected to reading disabilities, meaning that this can be hereditary. Also, Dyslexia occurs when a person has less grey matter in their brain as well as different structures in the brain or fewer neural connections.
Culture:
There are a number of ways in which a person can struggle I the reading process.
-Phonological deficits,
-Differences in auditory and visual processing speeds,
-Structural differences in the brain,
-Working memory deficits,
-Genetics and gender,
-Lesions in the word form area,
-Word-blindness
in addition to the non-linguistic causes such as
-Perception of sequential sounds,
-Sound-frequency discrimination,
-Detection of target sounds in noise,
-Visual magnocellular-deficit hypothesis, and
-Motor coordination and the cerebellum
This long list imply that dyslexia may not have a universal origin in all humans, but that the biological abnormality of impaired reading is dependent on culture (the example given is the fact that Chinese language employs symbolic representation of meaning instead of phonemic).
Gender:
This grey matter deficiency or detrimental genetic make-up affects boys and girls the same. It is still assumed by some that boys are more susceptible to the genetic make-up that creates reading deficiencies, the reading states that "the true reason may be because boys are overidentified (often due to their rambunctious behavior) and girls are underidentified (sit quietly in class and obey the rules). Recent studies indicate that many girls are affected as well but are not getting help they need." I connect this to the misconceptions of ADHD and how it is assumed that there is a larger male population affected by ADHD. Research has shown that this is inaccurate but seen to be true simple because girls are affected by ADHD differently than boys.
The Future:
MRI provides amazing perspective into how dyslexia occurs. The reading started that, "the different patterns between good readers and those with dyslexia are so consistent that neuroscientists believe that functional imaging may one day allow for early detection of dyslexia, perhaps even before a child begins to learn to read." This early detection along with early intervention allows for the retiring of the brain before it's too late. It would allow for struggling readers to "more closely approximate the reading circuitry in the brains of typical readers, resulting in accurate and fluent readers". It is amazing how maul able the young brain can be, so with the correct kind of intervention, many students (as shown by the results of the reading programs in this chapter) can be coached toward a much more seamless experience as a reader.
2. Touching the virtual, touching the real: iPads and enabling literacy for students experiencing disability
Rosie Flewitt, Natalia Kucirkova, and David Messer
This article was a good example of a specific school's perception on the benefits and sometimes disadvantages of using an iPad for CAI (Computer Aided Instruction). There is direct correlation between the kinaesthetic performance of touch & reward and the motivation & ability to achieve high levels of independence and success in literacy. Flewitt, Kucirkova and Messer illustrate that thanks to iPads, students with disabilities no longer need to be temporarily excluded from classroom activity. The article hit home for me as an ELA teacher the importance of touch to demonstrate for students the cause and effect if their own actions, tracking movements on the screen with their own eyes and allowing the understanding of on screen symbolic representation (the building blocks of literacy).
Students with low mobility also benefit from using the iPad in the form of requiring "minimal effort when compared to the precision and coordination needed for computer use, where students’ attention was divided between a keyboard and a screen located in separate physical spaces." Aside from the students with learning difficulties requiring an iPad, there was not any additional attention drawn away from the differing levels of support required to successfully complete the same task. As someone teaching in a slightly different learning environment, the use of an iPad would most likely would be for only the students with physical or learning difficulties. It is always a priority of mine to not is gel out a student, however, if I had a one who required real, vicarious or virtual touch, they would be the only ones.
I appreciated that (even if it was only mentioned briefly) one teacher expressed reservations about young children over-using new media at the expense of their social development. Earlier in the article it was noted that the use of these devices can also be good on the social side, so it's really just like anything else, all good things in moderation. The pros far outweigh the potential cons. They provide portability, accessibility, flexibility and responsiveness, they opening up powerful avenues for the embodied sharing of everyday experiences and narratives and overall deeper engagement with literacy.
After reading this research I am convinced that iPads can "enable many students to achieve independent, accomplished and pleasurable completion of classroom-based literacy activities through the sensory mode of touch. Students’ touch engagement with the iPads was integral to their involvement in both the social and learning fabric of their classrooms and allowed them to be physically and vicariously ‘in touch’ with their classmates, and virtu- ally and figuratively with the wider society."
The most convincing part of all that these touch sensory devices are integral to the quality of life for these students was the description of how the students "cradled the iPads lovingly in their arms, stroked them and smiled happily at each other, relishing the sensory and haptic exploration of these new media devices enveloped in softly padded and colourful protective jackets." This elicited quite an emotional response from me. I sometimes take for granted the things that me and my "average" students can accomplish in the classroom, so for someone who struggles every day in a learning environment, I can only imagine how important special these devices would become to them.
I may have been cynical about the whole iPad bandwagon phenomenon up until I read this article. I believe that some still put the iPad because of its bells and whistles and because it seems trendy (coming from a PC lover's perspective) but I cannot allow my bias to deny the fact that these devices are groundbreaking for certain learners in society.
1. How Use of an iPad Facilitated Reading Improvement
Barbara McClanahan
The expression from this article that there is a lack of research on Computer Aided Instruction is not surprizing to me. As some one who likes to think of herself as technologically competent, I still am not very on top of things when it comes to using CAI with my students in the classroom. I feel that there still needs to be a lot of catching up to do in terms of the hardware in the classrooms and more importantly, the training to go along with the devices.
There is a great explanation of the benefits of CAI in the article from the following:
"They point to specific characteristics of CAI that may promote sustained attention and improved work performance of such students; these include presentation of learning tasks in multiple modalities, the capability of chunking tasks into more manageable pieces, and repeated trials with immediate feedback. Additionally, CAI offers one-on-one tailored instruction that is self-paced, often along with the novelty of game formatting which promotes engagement and attention. All of these characteristics directly address the core symptoms of ADHD."
This is very applicable for me because I teach in the middle school. Even on top of the student who are diagnosed with having ADHD, there are many students who are very distracted for a number of reasons. Engagement is useful no matter what they student may or may not have been labeled with.
-Manipulative touch screen promotes the use of several modalities (especially visual and tactile/kinesthetic)
-Added aspect of recording to own reading and play back to hear own mistakes while looking at the text may have enabled integration of the aural modality with the visual and tactile/kinesthetic more readily and effectively.
-The higher levels of sensory stimulation using the iPad may have allowed Josh to engage in the learning task in ways that typical classroom experiences do not.
-The touch screen and use of the stylus may have added to Josh’s sense of being in control.
I really appreciated the point made that Josh recording his own voice made it much more meaningful experience. He made more of an effort to slow down and to correctly read the words so the recording sounded better when playing it back. He also had better comprehension when he listened to his own voice as opposed to someone else's voice when reading along.
This article was also great for taking away different apps I might find useful:
-Flashcards +
-Compound Boogie (game for compound words)
-Vocabulary Builder
-Miss Spell's Class
-ABC Alphabet Phonics
-Stories2Go (sorts main ideas of a story)
-Inferencing Poster (umbrella graphic organizer)
-Insert feature with stylus (allows for marking notes on screen display)
I really appreciated that these programs were explicitly mentioned. a
Since this article is from 2010, I'm curious as to whether there has been improvement in the quality of research on this topic. I'm sure that there will be an exponential growth in this sphere of educational improvement. Overall, this was a useful read!
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