Articles

Article Review: Assistive Technology and Universal Design for Learning: Two Sides of the Same Coin.
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Summary: This article talks about Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and Assistive Technology (AT) may seem similar but are in fact different. However while being different they complement each other in education of students with disabilities. The article first examines how AT has dramatically helped students with disabilities succeed in the educational progress by giving them the tools they need to participate. AT tools, such as computer-screen enlargers, alternative keyboards, and text to speech readers to name a few. It then goes on to explain how UDL is a relatively new concept in education compared to AT. While UDL and AT seem similar in their goal of increasing access and participation of students with disabilities, they were different in many ways. The article states that AT is more of a individual solution that increases disability students’ functional capabilities and tries to increase their independence in the learning process. It is unique and personalized to the individual student. UDL on the other hand is a way to reduce barriers to all individuals – it helps decide how to make curriculum and learning environments more accessible to a greater amount of students. So while UDL sees the problem as an environmental problem, AT sees the problem as an individual problem. While the two can be costly and cumbersome independent of each other, together they work to enhance student learning and engagement. The article further discusses how NIMAS (The National Instructional Materials Accessibility Standard) is moving to provide accessible, alternative versions of text in a timelier manner. NIMAS is a policy and technology advance that hopefully will lead to better distribution practices for publishers and consumers. 

Tips to take into the classroom from the article:

·         With more advances in quality AT in the classroom and materials that are ready-made for students – it will allow for teachers to have more time to focus on learning rather than the production of accessible materials.

·         With more and more textbooks having accessible digital versions, they can be provided for both students who need them and students without disabilities who might prefer them. It reminds me of the ETextbooks.

·         The more we as teachers create lesson plans using universal design, the better the AT individual students use can applied towards the learning process and learning for all individuals is enhanced.

·         While the Chafee Amendment guidelines made strides in some students with disabilities accessing alternative print formats – we must not forget about the other large amount of disability students not covered under the Chafee Amendment. There is still work to be done in ensuring all students with disabilities have access to the alternatives to printed text they require.


Article Review: Learning from Text
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Summary: This article begins by examining the urgency and problem of students with reading disabilities and whether or not the solution is remediation or compensation. It starts with a reminder of how daunting the reading can be for students with reading issues, and the embarrassment and frustration they face very class, every day, every year of their schooling. The article further considers what should be done when a student fails to learn class content because they can’t read the printed text and talks about how this problem exacerbates as the student moves to middle school. So how exactly is it decided whether a student should receive remediation (further support in reading instruction) or compensation (approaches that will help the student achieve the curricular goals). Which goal is more important in the classroom – learning how to read or reading information to learn? And if a student cannot read, do we continue to push reading remediation at them? This article discusses how in the United States, because the above question is not frequently asked, many students leave school as a result. Next, a list of instructional technology tools are given such as  products for teaching students how to read like Balanced Literacy and Read 180, as well as tools for specific skill development like First Words. The article delves into the idea that to provide students with the tools they need to succeed in the regular classroom; we must find a good balance between remediation and compensation strategies. Providing students with compensatory strategies is not cheating but providing students with reading disabilities the tools they need to enhance their performance in the regular classroom. One positive way to think about compensatory strategies is it might provide students the opportunity to finish a task earlier and that time can then be used for remediation strategies or teaching certain skills thus increasing the student’s feelings of success. The article then gives a systems approach to making text accessible by asking six key questions that examine things like the students’ environment, characteristics, reading tasks, reading texts, remediation or compensation, and final stakeholders’ responsibilities. A table is also provided which looks at individual reading problems and gives possible AT solutions to consider. Final the article looks at each of the compensatory strategies individually and explores which AT tools could be useful in implementing the systems approach. Bypass Reading is a strategy that avoids the student reading by having the teacher read the material and provides all printed material in audio files. Low–tech ideas (involves audio recordings on the reading) are given such as Books Aloud and Audible.com., as well as high-tech ideas (converting the printed text into digital format and then creating audio files) such as WordQ and Write OutLoud. Another bonus for students is when these text files are saved in MP3 format because they can then listen to the text on their music players. Another compensatory strategy is to Decrease Reading which is exactly as it sounds – to decrease the demands for students with disabilities by finding materials at lower reading levels. Windows on the Universe is suggested as a possibility because it provides readers with three interest levels. Another suggestion is to use the AutoSummary feature of Microsoft Word to create an executive summary of the reading.  Support Reading, another compensatory strategy involves giving the reader support with vocabulary by providing pictures. Using the image search of Google to add illustrations to text to help students with vocabulary and using multimedia dictionaries to motivate students to examine new words. Organizing Reading with Graphic Organizer is another strategy that allows students to show relationships between concepts and ideas. Inspiration and Kidspiration are suggested methods to create graphic organized with students. The last compensatory strategy looked at is Guide Reading which is where teachers provide study guides and notes to help students with certain texts by providing chapter summaries and character/plot analysis, think of Cliffnotes and SparkNotes.

Tips to take into the classroom from the article:

·         Remember that remediation is not going to necessarily work with all students. At some point one must look at perhaps providing a balance of remediation and compensation strategies. At a further date, perhaps compensation is moved to 100% of the time.

·         Allowing students the opportunity to use compensatory strategies such as AT not only gives them access to the general curriculum and text, it may free up time to teach more skills due to the fact that tasks may take less time. As well it may give student success in the classroom by allowing them to increase their performance in the curricular outcomes.

·         Table 2 – A taxonomy of text modifications strategies that reminds one that text to speech is not the only solution in the classroom as an AT tool. Depending on the reading problem and functional difficulty, there are different AT considerations such as screen magnification and language translation to name a few.

·         The five compensation explanations give great resources for different compensatory strategies at the individual level. Great resource!

·         I was quite interested in the AutoSummary feature of Microsoft Word; however it was removed from Office 2010. There are ways to get it back to later versions of Word, but this is something I would have to spend a bit more time exploring. I will be exploring the following website, http://www.addintools.com/documents/word/where-tools-menu.html which apparently gives a solution to restoring the classic tools menu in later versions of Word. I am not a techie person so I might ask a tech person for support in this.

·         Great reminders of high-tech reading responses to guide reading harder texts such as NovelGuide and Pink Monkey.

·         Another support reading feature that was not mentioned that I would utilize in the classroom was Google Read & Write picture dictionary. This article reminded me what a great program it is and how many of the different features can help support readers with disabilities.

Article Review: Take the Pencil Out of the Process
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Summary: This article was written as a response to how children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) have writing difficulties due to motor impairments and how teacher should allow them access to computers to elevate these difficulties. The article addresses how parents of children with ASD are frustrated due to the fact that their children are not being allowed to utilize keyboards for writing tasks. Broun (2009) discusses how no matter how much intervention is done with certain students, due to abnormalities in the brain, handwriting of these students will never improve, “…underlying neurological abnormalities that may cause differences in their movements and execution of motor tasks”. (p. 15). The article also argues that because so much energy is going into the writing process when it comes to these ASD students that it is diverting away from their intellectual energy of performing the written task. In other words, there are putting no effort into the content of the written materials because they are exerting too much energy into forming letters and words. Braun considers many of the arguments around computers in the classrooms: it not being fair; cost; printing is still an important skill, and time to teach someone to type. All the arguments are debunked in the article. Fair is not always equal, we give students what they need (computers in this case). There are older, secondhand affordable machines that can be use or parents can supply machines and accept the risk involved. Keyboarding skills in this day and age are the most important skill after students can perform mundane writing tasks such as writing their name, address and number. Lastly, students can be practicing how to type while other students are practicing their printing and after initial demonstration of typing by the teacher – students are usually able to work independently. As well, paraprofessionals may be utilized in many cases. The article then considers the implications of keyboarding for nonverbal students with ASD. It talks about how this technology gives these students a voice they never had before and goes into the personal stories of Carly, Julia, and William and how the technology helped them. How these students were about to communicate their ideas and thought like never before. Lastly Braun gives starting points and strategies for considering whether the technology is fitting and useful for the student as well as how teachers can lead the student in learning the technology.

Tips to take into the classroom from the article:

·         Always remember to think about what is more important when it comes to the individual student – being able to write the answer with pen/paper or showing what they know.

·         In DI we are told to accept different products and expressions of learning (keyboarding or speech to text).

·         In Universal Design for Learning we are supposed to allow for use of materials and strategies (keyboarding or speech to text) that promote learning for students of all abilities.

·         I love the Keyboard Bingo game that allows students to develop letter location skills – personally I think this would be a great idea to use with all students!

·         Lastly, Braun makes the following statement, “I would also urge teachers not to wait, but rather to allow and encourage these students to allow and encourage these students to use the keyboard as their primary writing instrument now”. (p. 20). It was interesting to read this article because it opened my eyes to the fact that pen/paper is not going to work with all students and why wait exactly? What are we waiting for when it comes to the time frame for inserting technology into these students lives that are struggling with pen/paper?