No Child Should Be Left Behind

Many kids across the world have a disability that holds him/her back when wanting to fulfill their dreams. Dreams such as playing a sport, finishing high school, painting a picture or even playing an instrument. With the introduction of assistive technology, many of those kids are starting to turn their dreams into a reality. In the “Enabling Dreams” video, Susanna Sweeney Martini mentions, “Assistive technology is the major foundation of my life. Without it, I could not exist as I am today” (The George Lucas Foundation, 2005). As future educators, one must think about the importance of technology to many students as it helps many of them get through the entire day of school. Also, teachers who have students that use assistive technology should find ways to incorporate them into lesson plans in order to give them the opportunity to interact, participate, and learn just like their classmates without disabilities.

Growing up and attending school on Guam, I rarely saw any of my classmates that needed assistive technology in order to complete daily activities. Many of my classmates usually had a one to one aide to complete the work for them, rather than the student with the disability doing any of the work. In addition, the major thing that I noticed was that many of my teachers did not include my classmate with a disability in the group lesson as my teacher did not know how to incorporate my classmate in the class lesson. Although there are some courses at the University of Guam that helps future educators handle a student with a disability, I believe that there should be classes that deals with students who use assistive technology because not many teachers will be familiar with the type of assistive technology a student might use. In the “Enabling Dreams” video, it seemed like many of the teachers were experienced in handling the students who used assistive technology. In short, the lack of education in regards to assistive technology can be detrimental to students with disability, as many teachers might not know how to incorporate them fully into the classroom.

As a future educator, one way I will incorporate assistive technology into my classroom is by introducing the technology application called “Voki”. For example, if I had a student who has a hard time speaking properly because of a disability, Voki would be a great tool for him/her to use in order to communicate his/her thoughts about a particular topic because Voki offers a text to speech option. Although this application would be aimed towards the student with a disability, students without a disability would be greatly encouraged to use the application because as the years go by, technology usage will only increase more. Incorporating assistive technology is a great idea and teachers should be encourage to do it in their classrooms, but there can be some negative effects to incorporating assistive technology. For example, in an article composed by Gabrielle Young and Jeffrey MacCormack, they quote various authors who pointed out the negative effects to technology incorporation into the classroom, “However, obtaining personal access to laptops and computerized devices does not ensure engagement and increased academic success” (Donovan, Green, & Hartley, 2010). Also mentioned in the article, “Teachers and students need to be trained in how to meaningfully integrate technology into academic contexts so that the devices don’t detract from learning” (Dell, Newton, & Petroff, 2012). Technology incorporation can have its negative effects, but I see it to be more beneficial to students rather than distracting as it can incorporate students with disabilities and students without disabilities, making classroom participation equal.

One of the major problems Guam faces in regards to assistive technology is finding the funding to supply students with the technology. The Guam Department of Education cannot even supply many of the public schools with textbooks for students to take home, so how can they even pay for equipment that uses assistive technology? With more teachers and students becoming more technologically literate, it is important for the government to supply funds for schools that require special supplies in order to fulfill special needs for some students, as many teachers can lost without their valuable technology. School fundraisers can be a great way for teachers to purchase supplies for their students that need that technological support. Although not much money will be made to benefit the entire classroom, the future will look bright for future students with or without disabilities.

To sum everything up, assistive technology is very important to many students with disabilities, as it helps them complete daily activities, such as reading, writing, or speaking. Not only does it help them complete day to day activities, but it also helps the student achieve their dreams, such as playing sports or playing instruments. As I mentioned earlier, I have not really seen any of my teachers accommodating students with disabilities or incorporating them into classroom activities. It is important to incorporate every student into one’s lesson plan, whether the student has a disability or not. With the incorporation of technology into the classroom, students can tend to get distracted, but the positive effects of having technology can easily outweigh the negative effects. On Guam, many schools lack the necessary funds to supply students with assistive technology, but that does not stop some teachers from being active by fundraising money or requesting for loans from the federal government in order to have a fully inclusive classroom. To conclude, teachers also should be able to adjust their teaching strategies whether assistive technology is available or not, in order to fit the needs of all students in the classroom. Some teachers do not apply what they learned in college, which may slowly destroy that teacher when he or she does not know what to do in certain situations.

References

Dell, A., Newton, D., & Petroff, J. (2012). Assistive technology in the classroom: Enhancing the

school experiences of students with disabilities (2nd ed). Boston, MA: Pearson

Donovan, L., Green, T., & Hartley, K. (2010). An examination of one-to-one computing

In the middle school: Does increased access bring about increased student engage

-ment? Journal of Educational Computing Research, 42, 423-441.

          doi:10.2190/EC.42.4.d

Edutopia. (2010, July 28). Assitive Technology: Enabling Dreams [Video file]. 
            Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXxdxck8Gic