Article 6 - "Assistive Technology: Enhanced Learning for All"

Summary:
In Lisa Wahl’s article, “Assistive Technology: Enhanced Learning For All” the author begins by describing a variety of students with special needs whose needs are meet by using various technology. She then describes the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), and that it requires that assistive technology (AT) be used in order to ensure that every student gets an appropriate, effective education. Wahl then explains that, although AT is federally mandated, its use has some obstacles: lack of teacher training, lack of experience with the technology, and lack of funds. She then gives some examples of specific schools that are using AT successfully in order to make the education of special needs students more effective, and explains how they utilize volunteers (and older students) to help with managing AT. She ends the article by explaining how important teacher-parent communication about goals and progress are.

Comments:
I love that assistive technology is becoming more common in schools, but I wish there were more parent education about how simple requests for tools could make their child’s education so much more effective. In my practicum, I have a student with low vision whose parents won’t request a high powered magnifier, because they don’t think she needs it. This simple tool would make all of her school work so much easier. She is able to use assistive technology on the computer, but when she’s not using the computer, her learning is slowed by her vision impairment. I think that there are more problems in the way of making AT more widely used than the author touches on, and that there is still a long way to go before these tools are made equally and effectively available.

Wahl, L. Assistive technology: enhanced learning for all. Edutopia. Retrieved from http://www.edutopia.org/assistive-technology-enhances-learning-all