I am not a teacher. However, during my student teaching I learned a lot about assistive technology. When in the classroom I learned nothing about assistive technology. I had two autistic children who did not use any technology in my classroom. They were taken out of the class after lunch and taught in their own classroom for the rest of the day. During staff development we were not shown any technology that could or would be made available to use in our classroom.
Over the past couple of semesters I have had to do research on assistive technology and have found it to be very interesting and would one day like to use it in the classroom. although, assistive technology is a great idea I think the training and incorporating it would be very expensive but very beneficial.
Sarah,
ReplyDeleteYou pose the questions “At what cost?” And “Will it be used?” I don’t know about other schools but at the school where I work our students do use the technologies provided. Granted they are sometimes expensive but they allow students who might not have been willing or able to participate more fully in classroom activities and discussions. As a result I think the benefits of such technologies outweigh the potential costs; as long as they are utilized. It is a shame that the students in your student teaching class did not have technology available to them in the regular education setting. I know last year we had one autistic student who was unable to communicate clearly without a voice out-put device and she would become very frustrated and sometimes disruptive without the device. However with the device she was able to get her point across and participate in classroom activities.
Sarah, I have an autistic son, and I really share your frustration with regard to using technology to help these students. We have provided the technology to the school for our son to use. If it weren't for that, he really would not much have access to it, and things can get quite disruptive in that situation. With his laptop, he can remain calmer and still be very productive. I would like to think that, over time, anecdotal experiences such as ours will enable people to see that in the "big picture" it is in everyone's interest to ensure that these special needs students have access to the technology that they so clearly need to be able to move forward.
ReplyDeleteI really hope one day teachers and students will be able and willing to use more technology in the classroom. I worked with a program at UMD and was able to work with autistic students and was able to see the benefits technology could bring to those students. I just wish that one day every student could get this opportunity.
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