Students with ailments in schools such as hearing-impairment, low-vision, a broken right arm, or autism seem to naturally have a harder time with certain aspects in the classroom. There is new technology and tools in this day in age that help provide these students with disabilities a chance to close the gap between them and other students. Numerous tools have come onto the market in an effort to improve the learning process for each of the groups listed above.
A student with a hearing-impairament often has trouble listening along in class to what their fellow students and teacher are saying. This increased the amount of time it takes a student to get the information in a way that is easier and reliable for them. A type of software that guides learning for students with this impairment is speech recognition software. These devices allow for a microphone that is spoken into to convert the speech that is spoken into a text that can easily be read (Wikibooks, 2011). Having a text in-front of students with hearing impairments allows them to not worry so much about listening to what has been said but reading it. This speech recognition software is helpful for all subject areas, but in science a student can now listen to discussions and input their own ideas that allow them to critically think instead of just trying to keep up. Without this technology, these students would just fall deeper and deeper behind in the growing learning experience they have through social learning in the school setting.
A student with low-vision often has trouble reading the words on the front of the classroom on the board or projector. Struggling to see what is being written by the teacher or other students can hinder the students ability to correctly identify what is exactly being taught in class. A new technology item known as E-readers are allowing texts to be written in a book that they can hold and see easier. This technology also has the capability to perform text-to-speech which allows the words on the E-reader to be read aloud to the pupil using it (Wikibooks, 2010). There is another type of book that allows the book to talk to its students. The Daisy book is the new era of talking books that can even allow video playbook to be read to the students. In classrooms, a talking book helps students tremendously that have vision problems. Being able to hear what is going on in a lecture out of a text instead of reading it can create a balance that these students find hard with their impairments. In my classroom in the future, I hope that talking books can help all students use their strongest learning style (either visual or verbal) to help relate a textbooks information into their own minds.
A student with a broke right arm often does not know how to write anymore if they were only right handed. Keeping up in school during this time without learning to write with your other hand can bog a student's learning down tremendously. Technology like the speech recognition technology can allow these type of students to communicate with their teacher for assignments by saying what they want to write or do and the software will then take it into a form that can be turned into a teacher. Also E-readers can allow these students to read from their textbook and other required books easier. Since E-readers are more compact and smaller, they usually can be operated by one hand, allowing the student to use their non-dominant hand for functions. Each of these tools can keep a student with a broken arm caught up in all of their assignments for class while the bone heals.
A student with autism has a challenge in most every field they learn in school. Having some specialized attention given to them to help with their reading and writing can be monumental in their aspirations of keeping up in school. A talking book, like the Daisy, in an easy way to share in the digital society (Wikibooks, 2009) but also to aid in reading of books at a pace that is easier for the student to comprehend. Also speech recognition software allows a student with autism who is having trouble writing for an assignment speak what they want to write and express their opinions in that manner. For an English class, instead of a student having trouble reading the book and writing the paper down. These two tools can help the student read the book, or have the book read to them plus speak exactly what they want to write for their paper in a timely manner.
Technology has come a long way in helping the needs of those with disabilities. There are numerous ways in this day in age to make sure students of all capabilities have tools to help further their education and keep up with an ever demanding field of learning. In my classroom, I will hope to balance the challenges students with disabilities bring to a main-stream classroom with having the advantage of technology and tools that can help give them one step up in the effort to have complete understanding in their education.
References:
Wikibooks, (2009). Assistive technology in education/Daisy. Retrieved from: http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Assistive_Technology_in_Education/DAISY
Wikibooks, (2010). Assistive technology in education/E-books. Retrieved from: http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Assistive_Technology_in_Education/eBook
Wikibooks, (2011). Assistive technology in education/Speech recognition software. Retrieved from: http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Assistive_Technology_in_Education/Speech_Recognition_Software
Great job this week! Nice citations and references!
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