Article Reflection

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this article entitled- Mobile Devices and Students with Disabilities: What Do Best Practices Tell Us?  because I was able to connect to it.  I had to chuckle when I first started reading it because it commented on something that I put in one of my first posts.  Technology has always held been a sort of mystery and therefore I was always apprehensive to try something new.  Part of that was (and still is) due to a lack of training.  For example, this year I was given both an iPad and a Mimeo (with a tablet) and I had to train myself on them.  I didn’t even know how to turn the iPad on!  Much of what I learned was from taking it home and getting my 11 and 13 year old children to show me!  The authors, I believe, hit it totally on the nail when they maintain that many educators are neither trained well nor supported by school boards in the use of AT technology.  One thing that I have always found frustrating is that teachers have different students with different needs each year.  For this reason, you are often using different AT technology from year to year and often forget how to use a piece of technology, or a program.  When you have several students using several different programs or technologies at a time, and then in addition, teach the rest of the class, it can become overwhelming to many.  Sadly, I know what happens is that some students do not receive the appropriate support from their classroom teachers and the LC teachers often take on the responsibility of using AT for these students. 

The authors also hit it bang on with the comment that students with disabilities enjoy using iPads and iPhones because they are ‘cool’ and they do not set these students apart from the rest of their peers.  I know from talking with other teachers that this occurs for almost everyone.   And I think it’s very understandable- I myself, love playing on the iPad and exploring new apps each day- it’s addictive!  However, as the article states, educators must pay attention to matching the appropriate AT to the student.  I thought that the list of questions to match the right AT to a student is, as the authors, state the best example of best practices because it puts the student’s needs first as you are looking at what could best support and help that student achieve success.   To me, that is number one.

Reference:

Newton, D.A., Dell, A.G. (2011).  Mobile devices and students with disabilities: What do best practices tell us? Journal of Special Education, 26 (3). p. 47.