Assistive Technology: Providing Learning Opportunities and Access For All Students

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Assistive Technology Providing Learning
Opportunities and Access For All Students

• MITTEN Seminar
• October 22, 2002

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Assistive Technology and the Law

• (1) Assistive Technology Devices
• (2) Assistive Technology Services

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The term assistive technology device means

• Any item, piece of equipment, or product system,
  whether acquired commercially off the shelf,
  modified, or customized, that is used to
  increase, maintain, or improve functional
  capabilities of children with disabilities.
• These devices can range from an adapted pencil to
  sophisticated microprocessors.

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The term assistive technology service means

• Any service that directly assists a child with a
  disability in the selection, acquisition, or use
  of an assistive technology device.

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Assistive Technology Services include the
following

• The evaluation of the needs of a child with a
  disability, including a functional evaluation of
  the child in the childs customary environment.
• Purchasing, leasing, or otherwise providing for
  the acquisition of assistive technology devices
  by children with disabilities
• Selecting, designing, fitting, customizing,
  adapting, applying, maintaining, repairing, or
  replacing of assistive technology.

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AT Services (continued)

• Coordinating and using other therapies,
  interventions, or services with assistive
  technology devices, such as those associated with
  existing education and rehabilitation plans and
  programs.
• Training or technical assistance for a child with
  a disability or, if appropriate, that childs
  family and

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AT Services (continued)

• Training or technical assistance for
  professionals who provide services for, or are
  otherwise substantially involved in the major
  life functions of children with disabilities.

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Handout Provided
How To Support Students With Learning Differences
The Assistive Technology and Education
Connection. By Leonard V. Pisano,
Ph.D. http//www.ldonline.org/ld_indepth/technolo
gy/assistive_technology_howto.html
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Wayne ATRCs Lending Library

• Try before you buy
• Short term trial
• Long term trial
• http//www.resa.net/atrc

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• Low Tech Tools to
• Support Literacy

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Pencil Grips

• Support poor writing due to a lack of fine motor
  control and even pressure.
• Avenue to support hand and finger fatigue.
• Try different styles with students to support
  improved grasp.

Region IV STELA Project 2002
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Raised Lined Paper

• This unique paper actually has raised green
  lines! The raised line assists children by
  providing a physical bump to help feel where to
  stop.
• This bright white paper 81/2 x 11 printed with
  green lines, comes in 2 widths. Wide rule, with a
  dashed line or narrow ruled

Region IV STELA Project 2002
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Post-It Note Collection

• Use Post-Its to mark where to start and stop
  reading.
• Use Post-Its to mark the Table of Contents,
  Index, and other reference points for quick
  access.
• Use to locate a given chapter and assignments for
  easy location access.

Region IV STELA Project 2002
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Post-It Note Collection

• Use to locate and return to information needed to
  answer questions.
• Great to move the question through the pages
  while locating answers.
• Use to write notes and summaries on pages.

Region IV STELA Project 2002
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Post-Its Continued

• Brainstorm ideas, one per sheet.
• Easy to rearrange ideas and prioritize.
• Use different colors for categorizing ideas.
• Post vocabulary lists right inside the text
  moving through pages.
• Edit and revisions become easy to note.

Region IV STELA Project 2002
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Erasable Highlighters

• Highlight key ideas and erase with ease.
• Make note of unfamiliar words.
• Supports over highlighting tendencies.

Region IV STELA Project 2002
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Highlighter Tape

• Removable reusable
• Easy to write on
• Use a coding system
• Pink important vocabulary.
• Blue chapter questions.
• Yellow dates
• Orange facts/picture/maps
• Green names to know.
• Words that they do not know, to look up.

Region IV STELA Project 2002
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Highlighter Tape Storage Tips

• Laminate a 5x7 card for each student.
• Each student may store their tape(s) on their
  card for future use.
• Highlighting techniques need to be taught and
  modeled.

Region IV STELA Project 2002
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What about OVER Highlighting?

• Provide students with 2 or 3 long strips of tape
  on a wipe board or laminated sheet of paper.
• Ask them to highlight 2 or 3 most important facts
  on the page.
• Allow them to use these tape strips only.
• Encourage them to keep moving the tapes as they
  find more important information.

Region IV STELA Project 2002
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Index Tabs

• Use as page markers to mark the important, often
  used parts of textbooks
• Index
• Table of Contents
• Reference portions of a book
• Maps
• Glossary
• Dictionary
• Gazetteer

Region IV STELA Project 2002
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Redi-Tag Page Flags

• Use to point out answer details once found.
  (use color codes)
• Use to point out vocabulary to return to.
• Use to point out key facts.
• Use to locate in general.

Region IV STELA Project 2002
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EZC Reader Reading Strips

• Reading strips are an aid for beginning readers
  and for experienced readers who need help
  focusing attention.
• Simply place the reading strip on top of the line
  to be read.
• The colored plastic highlights the line enabling
  the reader to easily focus and concentrate on the
  words to be read.
• Available in yellow and blue.

Region IV STELA Project 2002
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Webster's New Misspeller's Dictionary

• "How can I look it up in the dictionary if I
  can't spell it?"
• Handy dictionary alphabetically lists the most
  common misspellings of more than 15,000
  frequently used words, and gives the correct
  spellings in easy-to-read boldface type.

Region IV STELA Project 2002
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Webster's New Misspeller's Dictionary

• Brief definitions help distinguish among the
  different meanings of many words.
• Readers are aided by syllable divisions that make
  it easier to remember the correct spelling, tips
  on becoming a better speller, and useful advice
  on avoiding common causes of misspellings.

Region IV STELA Project 2002
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Resource List for Low Tech Literacy
Accommodations http//www.resa.net/atrc/Resources
20for20Low20Tech20Accomodations.DOC
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Products Demonstrated at Seminar

• Portable Word Processors give students access to
  word processing

The AlphaSmart 3000 www.alphasmart.com
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Software Demonstrated at Seminar

• Idea Organizing Software

DraftBuilder www.donjohnston.com
Inspiration and Kidspiration www.inspiration.co
m
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Software Demonstrated at Seminar (cont)

• Talking Word Processors

IntelliTalkII www.intellitools.com
WriteOutLoud www.donjohnston.com
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Software Demonstrated at Seminar (cont)

• Word Prediction

CoWriter www.donjohnston.com
WordQ www.wordq.com
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Software Demonstrated at Seminar (cont)

• Reading Support

ReadPlease.com Free text reader for Windows
Kurzweil 3000 www.kurzweiledu.com
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Software Demonstrated at Seminar (cont)

• Reading Support

• Start-To-Finish Books
• High-interest, controlled- vocabulary
  seriesthat gets struggling students reading.
• www.donjohnston.com

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Electronic Text Available http//intersect.uorego
n.edu/digitallibrary/libraries.html
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Region IV STELA Project

• Developed by The Region IV Assistive Technology
  Consortium www.resa.net/regionIV
• The Region IV Assistive Technology Consortium is
  comprised of AT consultants who serve eight
  southeast Michigan intermediate school districts
• Jackson, Lenawee, Macomb, Monroe, Oakland, St.
  Clair, Washtenaw, and Wayne County RESA.

Region IV STELA Project 2002
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How the STELA Project Evolved

• Much of the past work of the Region IV AT
  Consortium has focused on the special education
  low incidence population.
• The STELA Project, with a focus on high
  incidence disabilities was developed in large
  part to the growing concerns about supporting
  struggling students (high incidence disabilities
  at-risk students) in the general education
  classroom.

Region IV STELA Project 2002
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How the STELA Project Evolved

• Much of what has gone into the STELA Project
  Kits was shaped by the feedback we received
  from teachers across all eight counties.
• Teachers were most concerned about ways to meet
  the literacy needs of struggling readers and
  writers within the general education curriculum.

Region IV STELA Project 2002
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Region IV STELA Project

• This year is our first year of implementation of
  the STELA Project in 56 pilot sites (general
  education classrooms) across the eight southeast
  Michigan counties.
• Each pilot site consists of one general education
  teacher and one special education teacher.

Region IV STELA Project 2002
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Region IV STELA Project

• Teachers across all 56 STELA sites will be
  receiving the same training and kits
• And, all teachers will be assisting us in
  collecting the same data on students
  (approximately 1,500 students total).

Region IV STELA Project 2002
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Region IV STELA ProjectWhat We Hope To Learn

• What strategies, tools, and technologies support
  the learning and academic performance of
  struggling readers and writers across the
  curriculum?
• What kinds of supports do teachers need to enable
  them to integrate various strategies, tools, and
  technologies across the Language Arts Curriculum
  with confidence and efficiency?

Region IV STELA Project 2002
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Region IV STELA ProjectWhat We Hope To Learn

• How might teachers reshape their instructional
  practices across the Language Arts Curriculum
  when provided with similar training opportunities
  and ongoing support in the implementation of
  various strategies, tools, and technologies
  within their own classrooms?

Region IV STELA Project 2002
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Research Questions Guiding the STELA Project

• To study the impact of the STELA Project in its
  first year of implementation, three sets of
  research questions were developed. Although a
  primary goal of the 3-year project is to consider
  the impact of technology on students overall
  literacy performance, we will only be measuring
  students writing performance in the first year
  of implementation.

Region IV STELA Project 2002
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The first set of questions relate to Student
Outcomes

• How does the integration of technology impact
  students performance in writing?
• How does the integration of technology impact
  students attitudes toward writing and how
  students view themselves as writers?
• How often do students use specific tools and how
  useful are those tools in terms of supporting
  students performance in reading and writing?

Region IV STELA Project 2002
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The second set of questions relate to Teacher
Outcomes

• How does the integration of technology impact
  teachers literacy practices over time?
• How often do teachers use specific technology
  tools, how are the tools used, and how do
  teachers rate the usefulness of the tools in
  terms of supporting students literacy?

Region IV STELA Project 2002
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The third set of questions relate to the impact
of various levels of support on both teacher and
student outcomes.

• How does the nature and level of support provided
  to teachers by county project consultants and
  trainers impact teachers literacy practices over
  time?
• How does the nature and level of support that
  teachers offer to one another impact teachers
  literacy practices over time?
• How does the nature and level of support provided
  to teachers impact students performance in
  writing over time?

Region IV STELA Project 2002
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Research Method Design

• The STELA Project is not an experimental study
  because we are not using control classrooms and
  we are not concerned about controlling for all
  variables. In fact, we are enthusiastic about
  exploring the unique differences that emerge
  across all the project sites. We are simply
  looking at how the process of training, support,
  and the integration of technology unfolds in
  natural classroom settings and the kind of impact
  this evolution has on student learning, as well
  as on teachers instructional practices.

Region IV STELA Project 2002