Assistive Technology

Wahl , L. (2003, August 5). Assistive Technology: Enhanced Learning for All . Retrieved from http://www.edutopia.org/assistive-technology-enhances-learning-all

Summary:

            Educators to help students with disabilities and special needs use Assistive Technologies (AT).  AT can be as simple as a triangular pencil grip or as advanced as a keyboard configured for a one handed typists or software that can read a textbook to a students who “understand 9^th grade History but can only read at a 3^rd grade level”.  AT enables students who have special needs to be incorporated into the mainstream classroom, in hopes of ensuring a proper and equitable education for all. AT is mandated by the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, which states that all school districts must provide AT to all qualified students.  Of course these technologies can be expensive, and often require training of teachers and volunteers to use them and run them properly.  Wahl also writes of students who volunteer to help students with the technologies, during an open study time or recreational period. 

Reaction:

            There is no doubt that technologies are becoming more and more a part of our daily lives.  While computers were mainly a novelty in classrooms 20 years they are ubiquitous today, with many teachers and students carrying powerful computers (iPhone, Droids) in their pockets all day every day.  The article states that these technologies can be extremely useful in helping students who have disabilities.  My question is do they actually help, or do we just assume that they do?  The author offers no studies of use of technologies in improving education for students with special needs. We tend to fetishize technology and assume that it is the magic bullet that can cure nearly every problem with education.  I believe the fact is that sometimes it is helpful and sometimes it is not.  Technology can tend to be distracting, often taking class time away to “fire up” the technology, and get it going before actual teaching and learning take place.  Another problem with the AT is that it is expensive, and as it is federally mandated it is an expensive that cannot be avoided.  Technology advances so very quickly that it is quite possible for it be come totally obsolete once it has been paid for, installed and the teachers and students have been trained to use it properly, making it a poor use of school funds. There is no question that AT can be useful, especially in creation of an all inclusive classroom, yet I have reservations about its efficiency, costs and longevity.