Ware County School District in Georgia has downsized its inventory of assistive technology. Thanks to a slew of technological advances, many of the specialized tools their special education students had used to communicate and learn are now redundant. "We don't need portable keyboards or word processors anymore" says Barbara Sonnier, the district's assistive technology coordinator. […]
Students who have significant physical disabilities can benefit greatly from advances in "eye-gaze technology." With various platforms, students move their eyes to type letters or select pre-programed phrases. They can also navigate the internet and use computer programs with eye movements. Link to main story: Edtech equalizers in special education At Kent Intermediate School District […]
Educators know that most dyslexic students will need interventions and accommodations throughout school, but best practices continue to evolve as more is learned about this reading disability.
The ever-increasing pace and variety of technological developments continues to be a challenge for K12 assistive technology products. As education content becomes available in more digital forms—videos, software programs and apps—adapting platforms for student use is critical to help those with special needs access information as easily as do their classmates. In addition, with more […]
These days, McKenna Smith is back in the classroom. She's a high school student in Missouri's Nixa Public Schools, but had been unable to attend classes since elementary school because of chemotherapy treatment. But Smith didn't miss as much interaction with teachers and classmates as she could have because she connected with them remotely—via robot. […]
When Christopher Marczak joined Maury County Public Schools in Tennessee as superintendent in fall 2015, he quickly realized that while every school in his district of 12,000 students was doing the best job possible, each had a vastly different approach to teaching literacy. "There were no systemic solutions" says Marczak. "Yet I wanted to get […]
Many students at Oxnard Elementary School District in Southern California have a dual challenge in gaining reading proficiency. Not only do they struggle with developing literacy skills, but over 56 percent of Oxnard's 17,000 pre-k through 8 students are learning English as a second language. To help these students overcome their literacy deficiency, in 2014 […]
Recommended books offer ideas for makerspace activities, insight into online teaching, a behind-the-scenes look at reform and philanthropy, and methods for teaching steam in elementary school. Meaningful Making:Projects and Inspirations for Fab Labs and Makerspaces Constructing Modern Knowledge Press From the Transformative Learning Technologies Lab at Stanford University's Graduate School of Education comes this compendium […]
A wealth of choices. Accessible at home or at school. Both fiction and nonfiction options. Those were the qualifications for new ELA software for the 37,000 students of West Ada School District in western Idaho. "We had other instructional reading tools, but they were very expensive and did not provide content at the time" says […]
Nearly 10 percent of the 18,680 students in the South Bend Community School Corporation in north central Indiana are English language learners. With students of varying levels of proficiency spread across the district's 33 schools, finding solutions to help students increase their skills, particularly in reading comprehension, proved difficult. In spring 2014, leaders at the […]
