Computer Applications in Special Education

All of us benefit from advances in and implementations of technology and we must remain cautious yet vigilant while embracing it - cautious and vigilant for the sake of the children. While tools and technology may be great for one child they may not be so great for another in providing the skills needed to enhance his or her learning experience. As I experimented with Second Life, Whyville, PowerPoint, Boardmaker and Inspiration, I found that even with these great tools, one or more of them would not be accessible to some children because of their disability. The disability could be a visual or hearing impairment, cerebral palsy, fine motor difficulty, inability to emotionally and mentally attend. What does this mean? What is most important is the child and their specific need.

Like the blogger on ilearntechnology.com states (http://ilearntechnology.com/?p=923), technology is a great and wonderful thing that is here to stay, however technology in and of itself is not the answer to our prayers when we ask the ourselves, how can we include and assist those children who have special needs. I believe that we many times we allow ourselves to get caught up in the all the bells and whistles of a new technology without fully considering what if my target audience can not see; can not hear; can not correctly order a set of numbers or quickly recall what the teacher asked him or her to repeat a phrase.

I used to program websites for ABC.com. Nothing frustrated me more than after testing a certain web page function on a certain version of Internet Explorer on a Mac, then to have it not work on a certain version of Netcape on a PC. Essentially this is the task at hand with respect to technology. Is it possible to have a tool that meets the individual needs of a child? Yes, but with any tool, we must know the nature of a child's disability first and then devise a way in which to manipulate that tool to include the child.

Kurzweill 3000

Guided reading and reading aloud provide definite benefits for children, even adults who have difficulty reading. Kurzweill is learning program focusing on literacy and language. After experimenting with Kurzweill I could agree with teachers who sing its praises and use it as a reading and language instruction aid. The sample documents illustrate how with Kurzeill the reader can follow along word by word through the text with the aid of a spoken voice.

Kurzweill also offers students tools to help them study. Text and bubble notes (see picture) can be created before the reader reads a particular sentence. Words, phrases and/or sentences can be highlighted or circled as well. Unfortunately pictures and diagrams can not. All in all Kurzweill can be definitely be used by children and young adults with special needs. I will definitely use this tool in my practice in the future.

Low-Tech Writing Tools

There must be something said for low tech tools. A simple and inexpensive pencil or pen grip can make the world of difference to the child with dysgraphia. So too might a paper window, raised line graph paper, highlighter or slant board. These tools are tried and true. No batteries, software download, gigabytes of ram or thousands of dollars in funding necessary. This site, http://www.nsnet.org/atc/tools/writingtoolbox.html lists several low tech writing tools that will likely never be outdated. While I'm all for technology, I'm more for technology that works and that can serve a purpose. Children with special needs demand tools and applications that will enhance their present conditions and circumstances not complicate them further.

My Personal Technology Black Book

As a career changer making the transition into early childhood education, I found a technology "black book" of sorts to use to "catch up" to my more experienced peers. This site (in addition to the others below) is a great resource for beginning teachers and the more seasoned teacher. It lists blogs/archives and a short synopsis of tons of tools and the ways to integrate them in the classroom: http://www.ilearntechnology.com.

There is a plethora of information and links to other resources on the internet. A great deal of time needs to be devoted to taking it all in. It's a daunting task considering what we as teachers and educators must weed through in order to find something that can be applied/modified for children with special needs but one that can be accomplished given a little patience, time, experimentation and determination.

Other resources: Web 2.0 e-learning tips and tools for teachers: http://www.mindomo.com/view.htm?m=48511abbfb7e4145a33dbe6453d0f8af

A-Z resources for Education
http://www.boxoftricks.net/?page_id=29

Boardmaker/Alternative Communication

Boardmaker is one of the most popular alternative communication/assistive technology tools used in special education. The simplicity of this program is a huge plus and the countless images available for use in many special needs situations is comforting.

Boardmaker's draw comes from the fact that it is a tool that lends itself very well to differentiation. Students who rely entirely and almost entirely on picture communication benefit immensely from activities and templates created using Boardmaker. Students who may have behavioral issues can also benefit from Boardmaker activities that establish, communicate and reinforce expected and non-acceptable behaviors. Additionally, Boardmaker can be used to create worksheets displaying and organizing specific concepts through images to enable children with difficulty organizing thought patterns the opportunity to establish clear thought processes. I am a huge fan of Boardmaker and will definitely use this program in the future.

Power Point

PowerPoint in the Early Childhood classroom? I had never thought about this possibility before now. PowerPoint was something that I had seen and used primarily in work presentations and even in these cases the presentations were generic, bland and boring to say the least.

Creating a PowerPoint lesson for early childhood children was a bit of a challenge considering how I had used it previously but I quickly made the shift from boring to colorful and interactive. I also became more aware of making provisions within the presentation for children with special needs. Making the presentation as accessible as possible would ensure that children who would have been excluded from taking part in this type of lesson could easily be included with a few minor adjustments.

Sample PowerPoint lessons and games for children. http://www.pppst.com/ It's interesting to see which lessons are accessible to children with special needs and of the ones that are not how easily or not they can be modified so that they are.

Prezi is another presentation tool that I found online. It is essentially PowerPoint taken to the next level. Presentations can be posted live. Here's an interesting presentation about raising a child with disabilities and inclusion. http://prezi.com/9qhxa8c7ezyt

Interactive White Boards

Before this class I had heard of Smartboards but never fully knew what they were capable of. Furthermore I hadn't realized that Smartboard - like Scotch tape, Xerox copy and Saran wrap - has cornered the market so much that the terms smartboard and interactive white board are used interchangeably.

Having seen the interactive whiteboard demonstration, and seen what "Smartboard" can do, I couldn't help but feel excited and overwhelmed and the same time. There's so much that can be done with Smartboard and this lends itself to thinking about where to begin and how might interactive whiteboards be used not just as a "cool tool" but as a tool to reach and educate all children.

The number one reality for me and for more experienced and seasoned teachers is that they have never used one before. For others it might be that their school that does not have interactive whiteboards, particularly some of the more under resourced schools. The second reality is how does one find the time to experiment with an interactive white board given the nature of the work day. There never seems to be enough time to do anything nowadays. The use of interactive white boards comes with many challenges to say the least. One might think that if classrooms are equipped with interactive whiteboards, teachers would be equipped with the proper training to use them to the benefit of the children.

I found some sample interactive whiteboard lessons here that I plan to check out: http://www.learningtoday.com/corporate/interactive-whiteboard-lessons.asp

Second Life

My initial experience with Second Life was not a great one. Confusion, frustration and anxiety are just a few words I can use to describe the experience. Like most things, it took some investigating and getting used to. I am proud to report that I have become a fan of Second Life for social networking. Can Second Life be used in the classroom? Yes it can, for those students who 1) are visually able, have fine motor control, and can physically and mentally attend for long periods of time. Second Life is beyond a doubt, a social networking tool and definitely not a tool one might use to teach an eight year old a lesson on how 1 plus 1 equals 2. My concentration is early childhood education and unfortunately I give Second Life, a PG-13 rating. Since the average user is male and 39 years of age, it is simply not the place for children in this day and age. Conversely, Second Life could expose the hearing impaired or physically disabled young adult/adult who might not normally socialize with his or her peers outright, to the virtual world where their disability does not hinder his or her ability and does not influence how others react to and treat them. Second Life guarantees anonymity and affords the disabled the opportunity to exist in a virtual world where they can escape their reality for a time. This can be a truly liberating experience for them and anyone else seeking a little "freedom".




I found some interesting press on Second Life in the New York Times recently. SL is definitely being used in different ways.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/22/fashion/22Avatar.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=second%20life&st=cse

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/22/fashion/22Avatar.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=second%20life&st=cse.

Ergonomics

So in addition to being old school, I must confess, I haven't taken the time to make my work station "work" for me. I am not a teacher but like teachers in an effort to get the job done, i.e., address immediate issues at hand -- possibly calming a child down, putting out fires and basically trying to get some work done -- much time is not spent on meeting the needs of the child or in this case the worker. With close scrutiny, you can see that my desk is about 30% ergonomically correct. Check! My computer is positioned centrally and directly in front of me. The keyboard is located under the desk for proper allignment between my arms and legs. Another check! It goes downhill from this point. Halfway through the day my throbbing and numb right wrist reminds me of where my work station falls short. My keyboard rest, does not tilt down parallel with my forearms and lap but rests about an inch above my lap. Often times is rests directly on my lap. There isn't much space between my desk and chair. If there were I might be able to position my keyboard and mouse better to east some of the strain I feel in my wrists. Also, speaking of mice, I sit nestled into the corner of my desk because I share a cubicle with a co-worker. I often have to manuever my mouse back and forth because, 1) the keyboard is not long enough to hold both a keyboard and mouse and 2) my chair fits snuggly in the right corner of the desk. NOT an ideal position to sit for hours typing.

Part of the problem with creating ergonomic work stations may stem from a) budgetary constraints and/or b) not knowing that a keyboard should be placed parallel to hands and legs or that a computer screen should be placed centered, directly in front of you. This is sad but true. It costs money to make a work station truly ergonomic or at least a reorganization of entire office spaces.

Online Bookmarking

So I'm old school. I'm new to the whole social bookmarking scene. Yes, I'm one of those people who still has about 100 or so favorites saved within a dozen folders. After about 2 minutes I can find what I'm looking for. Is that a bad thing? Since I use two or three different computers in a day - my personal computer, my work computer and a computer in the library at school - I could probably benefit from a bookmarking tool that saves my favorites centrally so that I could pull them up at any machine. I decided to give two tools a try...delicious and stumbleupon. I will put them to the test. Stay tuned!

UPDATE: So I'm digging Stumbleupon. It definitely makes it much easier to access my favorites no matter what computer I happen to be working on. It's worth noting that I can "poach" other people's favorites by doing a simple search according to my interest. The same can be true of my favorite sites. That's the whole idea of social networking, right?

Univeral $1 Design Challenge

Have you ever sat at your desk and searched around feverishly in your drawer for an important contact's card or note? Have you then fumbled around in the same drawer for a push pin to post said business card or note to your bulletin board? My universal $1 design challenge may take the fumbling out of your day. It is called the bulletin board pocket. It is made out of a foam sheet which cost $.47. The idea behind the pocket is to essentially hold your most important cards and notes-to-self in one convenient place. It is a pocket that is tacked to one's bulletin board near one's desk and eliminates the aimless rifling through scattered desk drawer items.