Given that the King-Sears piece was featured as a "Commentary" article designed to spark conversation about contemporary topics, I would like to take this opportunity to extend the conversation and highlight nuances associated with translating UDL theory into practice. As someone who has been involved in helping individual teachers as well as schools, states, provinces, and policy makers translate UDL theory into practice, I am concerned about the ability of the profession to implement a construct that it cannot define.

The editors and CEC are pleased to offer this series of special feature articles addressing topics of wide-ranging interest for all in special education.

No abstract

Scholars and practitioners alike are challenged by the pace of change and the challenge of staying apprised of current developments in their discipline. Despite the ease of accessing the World Wide Web and its ever-increasing supply of information, the professional journal continues to serve an important gatekeeping function that validates and manages a discipline's emerging knowledge base. The purpose of this study was to examine the extant knowledge base that contributes to recent additions to special education technology knowledge. Research synthesis methods were used to examine two questions: How widely scattered is the literature on special education technology? What have we learned lately? The table of contents from each issue of 31 journals in special education technology, special education, and educational technology published in 2000 were studied. The procedures yielded a corpus of 906 articles of which 197 articles (22%) were judged relevant for this review by contributing to the emerging knowledge base on special education technology research and practice. Analysis of the literature scatter revealed relevant literature could be found in 29 journals but that a core set of four journals contributed 55% of the relevant articles. Content analysis of the relevant articles revealed several recurrent themes in the literature: (a) augmentative and alternative communication (AAC), (b) accessibility (c) assistive technology, (d) implementation issues, (e) Internet applications and web resources, (f) preservice teacher education, and (g) technology integration. The value and limitations of this synthesis methodology are noted along with the implications of this work for future research.

Despite ready access to technology and the overwhelming amount of information available via the World Wide Web, the professional journal continues to serve as a critical source of information used by researchers and practitioners to stay apprised of current developments in their discipline. To facilitate use of the extant knowledge base, this study utilized research synthesis methods to examine two questions: How widely scattered is the literature on special education technology? and What did we learn in 1999? The table of contents for all 1999 issues of 26 journals in special education technology, special education, and educational technology were studied. The procedures yielded a corpus of 788 articles of which 114 articles (14%) were judged as contributing to the emerging knowledge base on special education technology research and practice and therefore relevant for this review. Analysis of the literature scatter revealed that 92% of the relevant literature could be found in 12 journals and that a core set of four journals contained 60% of the relevant articles. Content analysis of the relevant articles resulted in a profile concerning what the discipline has learned in 1999 relative to research and practice on a wide array of topics in special education technology. The strengths and weaknesses of this literature analysis approach are discussed and the implications of this work for future research and practice are noted.