Educational Assistive Technology

“Clearing a path for people with special needs clears the path for everyone.”

Video Transcript:

There are a lot of hot topics in today’s educational world. One of which is how to incorporate educational technology into the classroom. There is a comic strip that has been out for quite awhile that depicts a man shoveling snow off of the stairs. He leaves it on the ramp and the people there are quite upset. The caption reads something to the effect of that if you pave the road for special needs learners you pace the road for all learners. I find this extremely profound and important because the same is true in the classroom. There is a famous quote that’s out there. I wish I knew who it was from but I don’t but it is very profound. If learning materials are not accessible for all learners, then the learner’s abilities are not accessible to the educator. If you think about that a few minutes it is extremely profound because it talks about how we need get to know our learners. Roblyer and Doering talk about this in their text. They talk about two ways to do this through remediation and compensation. With remediation we are helping our learners perfect a craft. Maybe through therapy or through some other means but there’s a craft that they are already gaining ground and then we are just helping them improve it. Another way is through compensation. This is basically a way to accommodate difficulties to help their performance. Sometimes it is through high tech options, low tech options, or even no options at all. All these options are extremely important, but the only way we can use them effectively is if we get to know our learner in the classroom. So, dive down, get deep with your students. Learn your students and search out the different ways you can help your learners strive to be better. One of the ways you can do this is to go to the ISTE conferences or to some other educational technology conference so that you can be familiar with the technology that is out there in today’s world and help your students become more successful.

Resources:

Giangreco, M. & Peytral Publications, Inc. (2002). Comic. http://www.peytral.com. https://www.peytral.com

Roblyer, M. D., & Doering, A. H. (2009). Integrating Educational Technology into Teaching (5th Edition) (5th ed.). Pearson.