One-to-one instruction with students with special needs is undoubtedly priceless. However, with the onset of digital technologies such as iPads we see that there are other avenues through which we can create engaging and effective learning environments for our special learners.

Technology has been an integral part of the development of education in today’s digital age. With devices such as laptops and iPads, students can participate in simulations and other behavioral learning exercises. Students may also be more motivated to complete tasks if the digital experience is personalized and engaging. But how does technology help students with learning disabilities such as autism? According to recent studies, iPads have proven to be an effective tool for students all across the autism spectrum. The functionality of the device has made the academic experience accessible and ideal for visual learners. The touch screen is especially great for children who have difficulties with fine motor skills which can impair typing or writing. Another key advantage of the iPad is that academic programs and activities are highly interactive. This allows children to think visually and to exercise other skills in their development.

There are several iPad applications to help your child learn everything from reading to mathematics. For instance, Story Builder is an application to help children create, record and share narratives in their own voice. The app includes 50 form-generating story lines and 500 audio clip questions to guide narrative development. Additionally, Story Builder is designed to help children form paragraphs, integrate ideas and make high-level abstractions from inferences. If your child needs extra help in mathematics, Math Bingo is an engaging math-focused game that helps build basic arithmetic skills. For children who have difficulty with verbal communication, Proloquo2Go is an incredibly useful tool. The app provides natural sounding Text-to-Speech voices that help children identify and match symbols with various vocabularies. Its purpose is to guide children from symbolic communication to full literacy. Other interesting iPad apps include Super Duper: What Are They Thinking and Conversation Builder.

To better understand how the iPad can positively impact a child’s learning experience, here is a video of a nine year-old boy named Leo who is using an iPad app called First Words. Leo has autism but he is doing exceptionally well with spelling and pairing pictures with words.

What really inspires us about the iPad is that it is so adaptive and user-friendly. It has significantly changed the academic experience for individuals with and without learning disabilities. Apps are readily available online which is convenient for parents to pick and choose from the comfort of their home. Since no child responds to technology in the same way, it is important that parents use a variety of tools and applications to give their child the best chance to succeed. The iPad, and other education technologies, is a supportive resource for every student, regardless of abilities, and continues to revolutionize the way we think about learning.

REFERENCES

 

The Dawn of Computer-Graded Essays

USA Today recently reported the results of a study conducted in the United States to determine whether automated essay-scoring computer software can accurately grade student essays.  After using the software to analyze 17,500 papers, the results concluded that the software is in fact capable of doing this.  A small number of teachers already use computer-aided scoring, and as the technology becomes increasingly feasible and available, there is every chance that its use will become widespread across the United States and Canada.  The question we are faced with is: Is this a good thing?

For teachers, essay grading takes time, and as a result of this, students can only receive so much writing feedback from their teachers per year.  With this in mind, it seems that a major advantage to implementing essay-grading software is that students will be able to receive much quicker feedback for their written assignments.  The period of time it takes a teacher to properly grade a written assignment can place limitations on the amount of writing experience that students can attain in school.  Essay-grading software can remove some of these limitations.  And even though the software can only grade students on technical writing skills, its existence could mean that students may spend more time actually writing—and we all know that the best way to master a skill is to practice.  The technology will also potentially take some work off of the teachers’ plates, giving them more time to focus on helping students develop their ideas.

However, while essay-grading software can remove certain educational limitations, it must be remembered that the technology does create its own limitations as well.  A computer can judge an essay on its technical merits, but it can’t really determine whether or not the essay has a unique writing style, or whether it presents sophisticated ideas.  This kind of feedback is critical for students who wish to become truly great writers and at this point, such feedback can only be delivered when the essay is read by a human audience.

Perhaps the best approach here is ultimately to combine the human approach with the computer approach.   In such a combined approach, a computer could grade the technical aspects of a paper, so that teachers could spend their time focusing on the writing style, and the ideas that are presented in that paper.  In this way, the new technology will not replace the human element, but could assist it.

Do you think that computer graded essays are a good thing?

 

This post uses information from:

http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/story/2012-04-23/essay-scoring-computer-software/54493662/1

Students and Social Media  


Recently, more and more stories have been coming to light regarding students being punished for their actions on social media.  In the Philippines, a student was recently banned from her Catholic high school graduation ceremony because of a picture of her that was posted on her Facebook page; in the UK, a university student was suspended and sentenced to jail for 56 days because of derogatory remarks he made on Twitter; in Brooklyn N.Y., a Jewish high school is threatening all students who use Facebook—even on their own time, with expulsion unless they delete their accounts and pay the school a $100 fine. 

Amidst these controversies, we are faced with the growing question of exactly what rights students have and ought to have in the context of social media.  Schools of course have a right to demand that students adhere to certain rules within school hours and upon school grounds; but when students are on their own time do they not have a right to freedom of speech and freedom of expression? And if we are to tell them that they cannot freely express themselves on social media, that they must censor themselves all day, every day; how can we justify that and still claim that we allow students the right to freedom of speech?

As the influence of social media grows, cases similar to the aforementioned examples noted above are only going to increase, and students from kindergarten to university may be forced to choose between two conflicting sets of rights: the right to education and the right to free expression.  With this in mind, the time has come to have a serious discussion about students and their social media rights.  As we move forward, it is important that we work towards both protecting student rights, and setting clear boundaries for what is and is not ok to ensure that students do not inadvertently get themselves expelled, fined, or even sent to jail.

What do you think? And what criteria would you use to determine the amount of influence that schools may have over their students’ online behavior? 

It’s time for students to have an official social media bill of rights. 

 

This post uses information from:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/philippines-student-banned-from-graduation-ceremony-over-facebook-bikini-photo/article2383819/

http://mashable.com/2012/03/28/racist-twitter-user-jailed/

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/27/brooklyn-high-school-fines-students-for-using-facebook_n_1382964.html

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