In this research the authors examined middle school special education teachers' perceptions of assistive technology during literacy instruction with students with high incidence disabilities. A survey explored the use, effectiveness, and factors impacting use or effectiveness of assistive technology for literacy teaching and learning. Results suggested teachers' perceived assistive technology to be an effective tool for literacy, but use it minimally. When assistive technology was used, teachers indicated it was an effective literacy support. Teachers also reported barriers to using assistive technology in literacy including cost, usability, and lack of training/experience. However, factors such as previous successful experiences with assistive technology and assistive technology supporting students' learning encouraged assistive technology use. The consistency of teachers' reports of needing more experience and knowledge in assistive technology to fully use it suggests implications for preservice preparation such as providing additional experiences and information on assistive technology.
Technology is a natural part of education for all students across a variety of subjects, including mathematics, as educators work to prepare students for tomorrow's work force and align their curriculum and teaching with national standards such those developed by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM, 2000). This article reviews the literature on mathematics, assistive technology (AT), and educating students with high-incidence disabilities in grades K-12 from 1996 through 2007. The results of the literature review revealed three main areas of AT in mathematics for students with disabilities: anchored instruction, computer-assisted instruction, and calculators. The review focuses on what has been done and suggests that we do know some things in terms of effective AT and mathematics education (i.e., anchored instruction). It then discusses where the field needs to go to improve its knowledge base (i.e., researching AT currently used in the teaching and learning of mathematics, and researching recent innovations in mathematics technology).
This project explored a newly developed computer-based voice input, speech output (VISO) calculator. Three high school students with visual impairments educated at a state school for the blind and visually impaired participated in the study. The time they took to complete assessments and the average number of attempts per problem were recorded when they used the VISO calculator and their typical individualized method of calculation. The results indicated that the time to complete assessments and the average number of attempts per problem decreased as the students continued to use the VISO calculator. Students reported positive perceptions of the calculator, particularly noting the independence it provided as compared to their typical means of calculation. Implications for practice, limitations of the study, and future research directions are discussed.
This study examined the efficacy of pentop computers on the written expression of three secondary students with mild disabilities. A multiple-probe design was used to establish pentop computers as a potentially effective tool for increasing the quality and quantity of written expression. Each student learned to use the pentop computer and the accompanying writing software. Students were instructed to write essays without using the pentop computer during baseline, and then with it during the intervention phase. When using the pentop computer, students' essay quality scores increased from baseline; during generalization students' scores decreased. Although a few technological problems were encountered, the pentop computer was found to be a valuable tool for students to use in planning and writing essays.
This exploratory study examined differences in the problem representations of a case‐based situation by expert and novice instructional designers. The experts and half of the novices (control group) received identical directions for case analysis, while the other novices (treatment group) received additional guidelines recommending analysis strategies that experts tend to use. After participants' case analyses were scored on four dimensions of problem representation, a Wilcoxon nonparametric test was performed. Significant differences were noted between experts and control novices on the total score and on two dimensions of problem representation. Treatment novices did not differ significantly from experts, while control and treatment novices differed significantly on one dimension. Implications for future research and practice are discussed.
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