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Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. 15 | 1

Technology in the classroom: Integrating technology for

diverse learnersEDU 241: Educational Technology

Daniel Moos, PhD


Standards to Guide Your Preparation ISTE NETS OTHER RELEVANT STANDARDS

Teachers:

• use technology to support learner-centered strategies that address the diverse needs of students.

• apply technology resources to enable and empower learners with diverse backgrounds, characteristics, and abilities.

Council on Exceptional Children (2002)

Teachers should :– incorporate and implement instructional

and assistive technology into the educational program.

– provide a stimuli-rich indoor and outdoor environment that employs materials, media, and technology, including adaptive and assistive technology.

Association for Childhood Education International

Teacher candidates should: – create instructional opportunities that

are adapted to diverse students.– know and understand how children

differ in their development.– know how to seek assistance and

guidance from specialists and other resources to address students’ diverse learning needs.


Integrating Technology for Diverse Learners

• Technology can remove barriers. • Technology has come to the forefront in the

movement as a tool to meet the needs of all learners. – equal educational opportunities for students of

many different ethnic groups, linguistic backgrounds, and social and geographical circumstances (Englert & Zhoa, 2001; Zorfass, 2001)

• By removing barriers to learning, technology can provide an avenue for diverse learners to accomplish many difficult tasks independently.


Multiculturalism

• Multiculturalism is the perspective that different ethnic groups should preserve their own culture while assimilating with the other cultures within a nation. – Contrasts older perspective a “melting pot,” (identity

lost?)

• Most likely, your classroom will have students from multiple ethnic groups, for some of whom English may be a second or third language.


Table 15.1: Techniques for Approaching Diversity and

Multiculturalism


Integrating Technology for Learners with Disabilities

• For learners with disabilities, technology can provide an avenue to accomplish many difficult tasks independently.

• Common areas of difficulty for learners with disabilities include: – organization and planning, – Reading and processing– understanding language (print or electronic),– writing and spelling– expressing ideas through language.


What Is Assistive Technology?

• According to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEA, 2004), an assistive technology device is “any item, piece of equipment, or product system, whether acquired commercially off the shelf, modified, or customized, that is used to increase, maintain, or improve functional capabilities of a child with a disability.”

• IDEA also defines the term assistive technology service as “any service that directly assists an individual with a disability in the selection, acquisition, or use of an assistive technology device.”


Figure 15.4: An Example of High-Tech Assistive Technology


Resources

• ePALS Classroom Exchange – http://www.epals.com

• Intercultural E-mail Classroom Connections (IECC) – http://www.iecc.org

• Kids’ Space – http://www.kids-space.org

• The Access Center: Improving Outcomes for All Students K–8 – http://www.k8accesscenter.org

• The Alliance for Technology Access – http://www.ataccess.org

• Assistive Technology Resource Bank – http://coefaculty.valdosta.edu/spe/ATRB

• Videos of Integrating Assistive Technology into the Classroom – http://coefaculty.valdosta.edu/spe/ATRB/Video_Tips.htm

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