Adapting to the Unexpected

Until I watched the video, Enabling Dreams, I had never thought about how to incorporate assistive technology into a classroom. However, now that I have seen what wonderful things students can do with the help of technology, I am trying to figure out how to incorporate it into my classroom if needed.

As I think about it, I think that some of the important features that would need to be included in a lesson plan would be that we need to make sure we are equipped with the necessary technology. I had a student who was in the 7th grade this year that was autistic but able to work out math problems at about a 5th grade level if he used a calculator. I was always able to modify the lesson that the other students were learning to allow him to work on problems of the same sort, but with a calculator. It made him feel good to be able to do it on his own. The lesson I made for him compared with the lesson for the other students because if they were dividing with decimals he was able to do that also and on his own.

I think that it is great to start working with the students at such an early age with assistive technology. This helps them to learn and understand it in their primary years so that once they hit middle school and on they will be proficient at how to use it. One thing that I think would be useful to the child and to the teacher as well would be for the parents to be involved in the learning of how to use the technology. I think that some classes should be offered where the parents are the ones to use the technology and interact with it. This would help them to understand just what their child needs to do on a daily basis.

I think that to include a disabled student the lesson would of course have to be modified based on what the student can and cannot do. This is something that all teachers need to be aware of. I think that it also depends on the student, on how much the student wants to push himself. If that student wants to be treated like everyone else and do the lesson the same way even if they struggle then I would modify it to fit their needs while still allowing them to do it like the other students. I think this is something that will take some time to be able to do and I would have to know the assistive technology that the student needed, but it is something that I would be up to try to figure out.

The assessment that I would use would be to see what the student can do and how much he has learned. I would give summative assessments along with the other students just allowing more time or modifications if necessary. I would also give formative assessments to make sure that the student is understanding the lesson and able to finish it on his own. Of course, I would be there to help and guide as needed.

All in all, I haven't had to work with any students that needed any assistive technology other than a calculator so I haven't had to learn how to incorporate it into the classroom quite yet. But I look forward to seeing just how much a student can progress when given the chance to use assistive technology.


References:
Assistive-Technology: Enabling Dreams. (n.d.). Retrieved June 8, 2010, from Edutopia.org: http://www.edutopia.org/assistive-technology-enabling-dreams-video

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