Student Success

Advocates of design thinking in education know what you’ve heard. “Its hard to look at design thinking and not see it as a buzzword” says Ryan Bretag, director of instructional innovation at Glenbrook High Schools District 225 outside Chicago. “When we narrow down design thinking to just a bunch of steps that you can follow […]

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 […]

Digital games excel at building a range of skills without students realizing they are “learning” says Marissa Miller, a special education teacher at Warwick Neck Elementary, which is part of Warwick Public Schools in Rhode Island. Some of these games come with puzzle pieces, styluses and other physical components. Link to main story: Edtech equalizers […]

Though not yet used widely in special education, virtual and augmented reality have the potential to be game-changers. Dan Phillips, director of the Technology Resource Center at the Marin County Office of Education in California, has given VR headsets to children in wheelchairs, allowing them to walk and move virtually as they work on a […]

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. […]

“Don’t blame boys’ bad behavior on the way we dress.” That’s the message—first delivered by a group of female high school students—that led Santa Fe Public Schools in New Mexico to adjust its dress code in spring 2018. “We had several young ladies who felt the dress code was somewhat sexist, and that it was […]