Assistive Teaching

Ted Hasselbring and Margaret Bausch present readers with an article that pleads for the struggling student. They have done extensive research on technology-assisted education and provide some good points in favor of its utilization in the general and SPED classroom.

• Most students with learning disabilities struggle with reading which negatively affects their abilities to scaffold learning. The foundation is missing or too shaky to handle more weight.
• Text-reader software (Read & Write Gold; Read, Write, and Type!; Learning System; Read Naturally; READ 180) allows students to work at their own pace and level.
• AT (assistive technology) has the power to integrate students with disabilities into the general ed classroom.

While I love the advancements in technology that are allowing equal academic success and independence to all students, I have to wonder where Hasselbring and Bausch think we can find more time. What would their model look like in the classroom? A student wearing special headphones or using portable text-reading devices in the classroom works nicely, but a row of students on computers during class is disruptive to everyone.

How can we make this work?