Assistive+Technology+Reflection

= Assistive Technology Reflection=

Universal Design, Differentiation Cubed
If Universal Design guidelines are implemented with current and emerging technologies the real and perceived educational constraints of supporting all learners in public classrooms may be overcome.

Technology can significantly aid in providing multiple means of representation, expression and engagement (CAST, 2008, p.10) of learners and their environment to support all students in becoming expert learners. Teachers will need to capitalize on new and innovative technologies to differentiate the three axes of Universal Design (representation, expression and engagement) to support all learners in their classroom. I am conservatively optimistic about the promises of technology and constantly skeptical about the opportunity cost of technological choices made in educational institutions. As educational institutions are exploring the powerful shiny means of technology I am interested in the ends of our current technological trajectory.

Constraints in public school classrooms make supporting all learners a challenge. These constraints may be attributed to the learner, system or cultural conditions. For instance, the learner’s physical, cognitive and motivational conditions may be constraints. The current educational system’s organization and allocation of limited economic, temporal and spatial resources can be another set of constraints. And of course, for any agent of change in an institution, the most familiar and challenging constraints may be the values and philosophical nature of the power culture, educators and learners.

The Kalikow Curriculum Materials Center provides many assistive technology devices and curriculum to support learners with a variety of disabilities. The most visible assistive technology devices are those that support physical disabilities because of their material nature. From the innovative low-tech pen and pencil assistive grips, to the high tech communication devices like the $6,899 dollar Tango, a variety of current physical constraints that challenge learners may become rudiments.

From a more affective perspective, early evidence showed seventy five to ninety percent of teachers involved in the Maine Learning Technology Initiative (MLTI) have reported a slightly improved to improved impact on traditional, at-risk, high achieving and special education students motivation and engagement (Gravelle, 2003, p.6). The introduction of the Apple laptops and wireless network infrastructure in Maine schools has made a subjectively reported impact on learner’s affective constraints.

Computer adaptive testing technologies, like those employed by the Northwest Evaluation Association (NWEA), coupled with rapid and accurate analytical tools and differentiated and meaningful classroom resources have the promise of accurately measuring individual student gains and guiding the optimal personal instructional level with relevant resources to increase the efficacy student’s educational experiences. I am hopeful yet skeptical about such claims. How much instructional time and material resources will be allocated to testing? When an environment is not one to one (one student to each computer) students cannot use computers when they are all being used to administer tests. How much teacher training and assessment result processing time will occur to ensure the results are used in a timely and effective manner that will positively impact each student? It is important that the ends of process are clearly defined before the process is executed. How will the data be used? Will the data be used to more accurately track students based on ability level or improve the efficacy of student’s personal learning experiences? If scarce time and material resources are sufficiently allocated for a robust implementation for the achievement of common defined goals NWEA technologies and resources may significantly support the development of expert learners.

The use of new and emerging communication technologies in the classroom is enhancing the experience of all learners. Specifically, the use of wikis, easily and collaboratively editable websites, is really changing how students interact with teachers, peers, their local and the global community that is engaged in a particular dialogue or issue of interest. As Paul Allison, a teacher and blogger at East Side Community School in Manhattan eloquently said “ to write in a wiki is to compose within a living organism” (Allison, 2005). What could be a better way to collaboratively construct and document the evolution knowledge about a topic or opinions about and issue? I am exploring how to use wikis with students as a multimodal resource and an interactive medium of expression in and out of the temporal and physical constraints of our existing classroom.

The marriage of conventional and flexible representation, expression and high engagement strategies with effective technology implementation will aid in overcoming constraints to support all learners in the public school classroom.

Reference List

Allison, Paul (2005). nycwp.org/paulallison. Retrieved July 21, 2008, from nycwp.org/paulallison

CAST (2008). Universal design for learning guidelines version 1.0. Wakefield, MA

Gravelle, Paula B. (2003). Early evidence from the field the Maine learning technology initiative: Impact on the digital divide Occasional paper #2. The Center for Education Policy, Applied Research, and Evaluation at the University of Southern Maine. Retrieved June 21,2008, from www.usm.maine.edu/cepare/Reports/MLTI_Impact_Digital_Divide.pdf