Assistive Tech in Practice: A Look Back and Beyond

If you ask a teacher today what it means to "be a teacher", chances are their response will be quite a bit different that the responses you would have collected from teachers who were posed the same questions 25 years ago.  Even when reflecting upon my career to date, there are marked difference in the profession from my first day in the classroom (6 years ago) until now.  Classroom compositions are changing; expectations are changing and how we go about daily business is changing.  So when I contemplate what I have learned from this course it can be answered simply: I have learned how to be a better teacher.  I have a better appreciation for not only the necessity to engage and reach all learners, but I have gained a better understanding of how to accomplish this feat.

As classrooms continue to diversify, the demand is heightened to create inclusive practices.  We have a duty as educators to provide opportunity and occasion for optimal learning for all.  This is a tall order.  Through our exploration of the Universal Design for Learning, I have gained an understanding of the brain networks (recognition, strategic and affective), how the function of these networks is unique to each individual as their fingerprints and how to best offer and provide options within these networks to meet the specialized needs of the individuals within a classroom.  

     In our quest to provide the options each individual needs to best experience, digest, explore and express their learning, it is of little surprise that technology can play a significant role.  As technology permeates nearly all aspects of living and learning in the 21st century, it has its place in lessons, explorations and expression of learning.  As I walk the halls of my current school, there is not a classroom to be found where the teacher within is not attempting technology integration in some form.  However, using technology just for the sake of using technology is not enough.  Technology is a powerful tool and understanding how to harness and wield this power is the secret to using technology as a means to unlock the world for certain individuals. 

The SAMR model is a framework that helps educators consider the context within which they are using technology in their classroom.  And while the Substitution and Augmentation levels of technology integration can certainly benefit needing children, it is within the Modification and Redefinition levels that the true magic of technology transforms learning.  It is the Modification and Redefinition levels of the SAMR model in which technology is employed to wield its true power.  Within these levels, educators are using technology to achieve tasks and feats that would be unattainable without the employment of technology.  If educators aspire to use technology to its true potential, they must strive to integrate it at these levels of the SAMR model.

 

Currently, the bulk of my teaching assignment is courses in the acquisition of French as an additional language.  In my classrooms for Core French and Integrated French alike, I have students with varying ranges of ability, with varying degrees of knowledge of the French language.  One of the most powerful learnings I have gained from this course is the ability to discern which technologies, apps and programs are best suited to the needs of my students as they pertain to the acquisition of an additional language.  I feel that I have a more developed sense of awareness of how to make a good match of a piece of assistive technology to the needs of the learner.  

For example, one of my Core French classrooms is comprised of multiple English as an additional language students.  For many of these students, French is not a language to which they have been previously exposed.  After evenings 3 and 4 of this course,  I know that I can know use Siri Speech to text as another method of helping these EAL students make connections between the phonetic sounds and the accompanying letters that we find in the French language.  It is also a means for students to view words and phrases and have them translated into their native language to increase effective communication in the classroom.

Read and Write 4 Google is another invaluable tool now in my arsenal for providing necessary assistive tech to my students with LD.  As French is a language option for this extension, these students now have a compensatory option to aid them in their viewing, production and comprehension of the French language.  

Often, students from the Special Education class in our school are members of my Core French class as well.  In particular, I am working with one girl who has selective mutism.  While we have been working with Chatterbox kids and Sock Puppets, after exploring options for those with disabilities in oral communication, I now have an expanded selection of options of AAC from which I can select to help her achieve goals in my classroom.  This allows us both to make more precise choices that facilitate a better AT fit for the task and situation, such as Proloquo 2 Go, in addition to a multitude of others.

As I continue to further my AT competencies, I can see the express need to share what I am learning with my colleagues.  Our school holds both full staff meetings, grade level meetings and PLC meetings on a monthly basis.  Within these meeting times, carving out a portion of time that specifically focuses on technology would be an effective course of commencing conversation about effective practices and methods of technology and AT use.  Creating a Google Classroom designated to discussion on technology and AT within our school will also give teachers direct access to documents and links to useful apps, programs, videos and strategies that may be beneficial to their practice.

Firstly, by sharing the AT strategies that work in my classroom with my fellow Grade 7 teachers, it may give them ideas as to how these strategies can then be employed in their practices.  We teach the same students and strategies that benefit them in one subject area may also be of service in another.  As these students advance into the next school year, collaboration with educators at the following grade level, and the sharing of useful technology and strategies will prove to provide consistency in support for the students in need.  This consistency will  ensure that needing students will be provided opportunities for optimal engagement and learning throughout their scholastic career.  Lastly, by opening this dialogue, I provide myself with the opportunity to continue my own personal growth and learning in this area, to learn of new and effective methods of using technology in my own practice for the betterment of the learning environment and explorations for all learners in my classroom. 

As this course comes to a close, I am prepared to move forward into my practice, confidant that the knowledge I have gained will shape how I teach for the better.  I have improved not only my understanding of why technology plays such an important role in education, but how I can optimize technology utilization to create optimal learning for all students.  By exploring assistive technology as we have, I have acquired and honed skills in selecting appropriate technology with a stronger grasp of the ideal clientele for specific technology.  I am excited to continue my education in assistive technology, knowing that I am on the path to supporting each individual in my class and future classes in surmounting obstacles in their educational journey, and can truly aid them in their quest of reaching their dreams and achieving their true potential.  

   

             

AAC- Giving a Voice to the Voiceless

Oral communication is an integral component of daily life in the classroom.  We rely on conversation to impart knowledge, to understand how students are interpreting and absorbing this knowledge and how they are using it to scaffold and deepen their learning.  We rely on verbal communication to share ideas, collaborate and build safe and productive learning environments.  Communication is not only the life blood of the classroom, but is also the life blood of the human experience.  So what happens if the ability to communicate is impaired?  How can we create meaningful educational and human connection when the means of connection are compromised?  That was the theme explore for our class this evening:  how can we build bridges to close the gaps of communication for those whose ability to communicate verbally or in writing has been altered?

Creativity paired with advancing technology have formed a formidable duo in creating practical and empowering solutions for those who do not possess the ability to communicate orally.  Our first video of the evening featured two university students who are attempting to give a better heard voice to the hearing impaired community.  While sign language is a well established form of communication for the hearing impaired, the majority of the population are not conversant in this language.  These two students are in the process of building a bridge to traverse this gap in communication.  Their invention:  a pair of gloves that, when worn by a person performing sign language, register the words being communicated and send the signal via bluetooth to a phone or device to be read aloud.  Revolutionary motion to speech technology.  This invention is an ideal example of technology can be used to increase communication for all humans, how assistive tech serves to empower and how we, as educators, can find ways to promote learning for all within our practice.

AAC, Augmentative and Alternative Communication, is another method of giving a voice to those that are seeking a way to be heard.  AAC strives to make the most of communications, making communication as quick and effective as possible.  Words and phrases can be created on various AAC devices, and with a press of a button, those words can be read aloud.  People with Cerebral Palsy, ASD (non-verbal), Parkinson's, MS, ALS and those who have suffered strokes and head injuries that have impaired their ability to speak are empowered to engage with others by sharing their thoughts and participating in conversation.  Proloquo 2 Go, as we have explored earlier in this course, is an AAC program that allows this communication to take place efficiently and effectively.  As we progress further into the 21st century, improvements in AAC have subsequently created more authentic and accessible communication.  Programs now contain features that allow the users to "speak" with accents and dialects, connectivity via Bluetooth and communication from device to device have changed the game for AAC.  As educators, AAC permits authentic and meaningful communications between teachers and students as well between students.  Due to AAC, educators can now have a more clear picture of student learning and comprehension, and a better idea of student interests and personality , which serve to optimize learning potential and forge bonds and develop stronger relationships between student and teacher.  In addition, the student is also able to develop deeper connections to their classmates and peers.    

AAC functions to break down barriers in communication, but it also works to break down myths, mysteries and misunderstanding around people that are non-verbal. Until very recently, lacking the ability to communicate via speaking or writing, it was very difficult to truly discern cognitive ability in previously non-communicative people.  AAC has allowed users to remove the mystery and show the world just how much they have to offer.  It allows users to self-advocate and dis-spell any misconceptions surrounding the inability to speak or write with the inability to think and learn.  Despite the fact that their bodies do not function to full capacity, they can be more than capable cognitively.  It gives a voice to the voiceless.  It gives back lives.  

If there was ever any doubt as to the power of assistive technology to give back lives, it would certainly be removed by the powerful video we watched of Tyler's journey.  Assistive tech that was made available to Tyler, such as switch access, motorized wheelchair, and Clicker4, over his years in school, have served to help him flourish academically and socially.  When watching this video, to me, the one piece of technology that seemed vastly enrich his school experience was the Ipad.  By employing direct selection via the tongue, there was a noticeable increase in his ability to engage with peers and curriculum in class with the Ipad (I feel that he has real potential as a DJ in the future!).  As Tyler grows and progresses, advancements in technology will continue to help him reach his full potential.  To me, it further stresses the importance placed on educators to stay abreast of these advancements, to seek out training in this technology and increase awareness of these devices and programs.  In this way, we will be able to work together to provide engaging, meaningful, and authentic learning for all, and have better means of helping all students to achieve their true potential.