technology and students with learning disabilities

Lori:

Take a look at www.rogerscenter.com

This is a CD ROM program (based on Orton Gillingham) that builds an association between symbols and sounds in the English language. It utilizes the close association of visual, auditory and kinesthetic elements to help students improve their language skills.

This probable is not new info but in our district we use items heavily as the CoWriter and Write outloud, Inspirations, Intellitalk II, and Kidspirations. For students with fine motor issues in the class we have assessed individual use of Alphasmarts which come with a keyboarding program and Co-Writer add-ons. Also, some students need adaptive hardware as a touch window on the computer or the Intellikeys. The Inspirations program has been used to adapt the social studies and science curriculum in the elementary school for inclusion students. These are the items we used the most in the regular classroom at the time. A small number use items as the WYNN software or voice recognition software. Some students have access to lap tops to use during the school day.
A small number of students use high tech communication devices such as the DynaMyte AAC device in the school and at home.

Hello Lori, my name is Lynn and I am Master of Special Education student at Southwest Texas State University. I am very interested in your project. I am in the beginning phases of researching the use of technology in middle and elementary school sped classrooms. I have found so far that the use or disuse depends on several things.Mostly it depends on the principal’s veiw of it, the district’s funding and most importantly the teacher’s beleif of its nessesity and desire to use it in some form. Would you agree? How do you use it in your own clsassroom? How long have you been teaching in a sped setting? Do you have support form your administration for your tech use in the classroom? Any information you are willing to share will be much appreciated! Sincerely, Lynn R. Scherbarth-Mills

Hi Lori & Denise,

I teach fourth grade in Washington State and use a fair amount of technology in my classroom. I have used Inspirations but not to the extent I would like to with my special needs students. I was wondering if you (Denise) could elaborate a little more on what a typical social studies lesson might look like for a special needs student using Inspiration? I would like to do a better job of incorporating this program into my social studies units.

check out the website for the TRLD 2002 conference in San Francisco:
www.trld.com

I am a teacher in Washington State. I recieved a grant last year which introduced me to all of these programs. I am really interested in how you had the time to get all of this going and how many general ed. teachers you work with. i am in the middle school setting and many of these programs have been a God send for me. The students use this technology in my room but I want it to be more wide spread.

Just sent this email using my home email…thought you might not recongnize it, so am sending it to you again. :0)

Denise,

I found a site on-line that will allow me to use an Alphasmart for 2 weeks, no cost. All I need to do is have the principal to fill out some paperwork!

How do you use the Alphasmart in your classroom? I have two students that have a difficult time writing. They struggle so much with forming letters that they don’t like to write as it takes forever. I want to see if using the Alphasmart will boost their confidence in writing, or atleast their willingness to give it a try.

Peace.
Lori