Leading From The Heart

by Tracy Rosen, teaching & consulting since 1996, blogging about it here since 2007. All views are my own and you should take them with a grain of salt, I do.

Tag: technology

  • Computer Literacy for Students with Special Needs: Dewey + Vygotsky

    How can we create a positive future for students with ‘mild to moderate cognitive delays‘ in Quebec’s public secondary schools?At present, Quebec’s education system is in the process of major reforms. At the secondary level that translates into the creation of 3 learning paths for qualification to post-secondary programs:

    1. General Education Path
    2. Applied General Education Path
    3. Work-Oriented Training Path.

    The first 2 paths culminate with a Secondary School Diploma (SSD), while the third path offers 2 options:

    1. TCST – Training Certificate for a Semiskilled Trade
    2. PWTC – Pre-Work Training Certificate

    The students I work with, identified with mild to moderate cognitive delays, have generally not been expected to graduate from high school. The creation of the different learning paths at the secondary level may now offer a much more positive option for these students.

    The question remains, how can we best ensure the success of these students within this framework?

    I believe that by teaching all students computer literacy, how to use computer technology to enhance their learning, we are introducing them to valuable tools that will assist them in creating meaning from the raw material of the world around them. For students with special needs, in this case with mild to moderate cognitive impairments, facility with computer technology becomes even more valuable when we take into consideration the difficulties these students have with communication on a variety of levels and the possibilities that technology can offer them to overcome some of these difficulties.

    I believe that in order to design effective programming we need to look at both the individual and society. In his comparison of Dewey and Vygotsky, Glassman (2002) identified similar questions they both pursued in their work including how we can understand human activity in order to promote and guide learning. The men differed, he argued, in the way in which they viewed the process of human activity. For Dewey he saw the point of entry as human inquiry – essentially we ask a question and search for the tools we need to solve it. For Vygotsky it is the social context that drives inquiry – social history and tools determine what we ask questions about.

    If we look at learning from a systems theory perspective, we understand that every part of a system affects every other part. The individual can effect change on society and vice versa.

    When I consider my question from within a systems theory framework, I come to the conclusion that BOTH Dewey’s and Vygotsky’s views must be taken into account simultaneously in order for authentic, meaningful learning to occur.

    This paper will review the literature pertaining to the use of technology to enhance learning for students with mild to moderate cognitive impairments in light of both Dewey’s and Vygotsky’s views on learning, as each place emphasis on different aspects of a learning system, so as to better consider the whole system.

    Some Articles I am reading…

    Atkinson, T., & Atkinson, R. (2007). Creating learning communities for students with special needs. Intervention in School and Clinic, 42(5), 305-309.

    Day, S. L. (2002). Real kids, real risks: Effective instruction of students at risk of failure. NASSP Bulletin, 86(632):19-32.

    Downing, J. A. (2006). Media centers and special education: Introduction to the special issue. Intervention in School and Clinic, 42(2), 67-77.

    Hardré, P. (2004). Starting from the end: Designing instruction for technol-
    ogy skills. AACE Journal, 12(3), 315-330.

    Kingsley, K. V. (2007). Empower diverse learners with educational technology and digital media. Intervention in School and Clinic, 43(1), 52-56.

    Li-Tsang, C. W. P., Lee, M. Y. F., Yeung, S. S. S., Siu, A. M. H., & Lam, C. S. (2007). A 6-month follow-up of the effects of an information and communication technology (ICT) training programme on people with intellectual disabilities. Research in Developmental Disabilities, 28(6), 559-566.

    Liu, Y., Cornish, A., and Clegg, J. (2007). Ict and special educational needs: Using meta-synthesis for bridging the multifaceted divide. pages 18-25.

    Looney, M.A. (2005, September). Giving students a 21st century education. Technology Horizons in Education Journal, 33(2), 58.

    Mabry, L. and Snow, J. Z. (2006). Laptops for high-risk students: Empowerment and personalization in a standards-based learning environment. Studies In Educational Evaluation, 32(4):289-316.

    Pierson, J. M. (1999) Transforming engagement in literacy instruction: the role of student genuine interest and ability. Annals of Dyslexia v. 49 p. 307-29

    Popkewitz, T. S. (1998). Dewey, Vygotsky, and the social administration of the individual: Constructivist pedagogy as systems of ideas in historical spaces. American Educational Research Journal, 35(4), 535-570.

    Prawat, R. S. (1999). Cognitive theory at the crossroads: Head fitting, head splitting, or somewhere in between? Human development, 42(2):59-77.

    Prawat, R. S. (2002). Dewey and vygotsky viewed through the rearview mirror-and dimly at that. Educational Researcher, 31(5):16-20.

    Waxman, H. C. and Padron, Y. N. (1995). Improving the quality of classroom instruction for students at risk of failure in urban schools. Peabody Journal of Education, 70(2):44-65.

    Williams, P. (2005). Using information and communication technology with special educational needs students: The views of frontline professionals. Aslib Proceedings, 57(6), 539-553. Retrieved March 9, 2008, from ABI/INFORM Global database. (Document ID: 961001831).

    Peter Williams, Hamid R. Jamali, David Nicholas. (2006). Using ICT with people with special education needs: what the literature tells us. Aslib Proceedings, 58(4), 330-345. Retrieved March 9, 2008, from ABI/INFORM Global database. (Document ID: 1091223451).

    Wissick, C. A. (1996). Multimedia: Enhancing instruction for students with learning disabilities. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 29(5), 494-503.

  • and now…youtube.

    my previous post about facebook got me to thinking about other online venues where kids are commenting on their teachers. If you go to YouTube and search for teacher, angry teacher, mad teacher, you will find quite a few cell phone videos of teachers who are out of control. (Teacher Yelling at Student, Angry Teacher)

    We can react by asking what cell phones are doing in classrooms. We can react with shock at the kids who are acting out. We can go on about how technology is taking over.

    I react by saying that kids are bearing witness to us. We can no longer expect what goes on in our classrooms to stay there. That is the reality. I choose to accept the fact that the technology is there and to teach my students about how to use it responsibly.

    I also choose not to yell at my students or to treat them in an unacceptable way. As a teacher I know that I am one of the biggest models in a students life. Everything I do is under scrutiny. When they see me angry and yelling they see a teacher out of control and no way do I want to model that kind of behaviour!

    Maybe this technology is a flashing light, reminding teachers to be accountable for the way they treat their students. More importantly, reminding schools to provide support for teachers so they don’t get to the point of not knowing what else to do but yell, scream, belittle, humiliate.

    Some argue that teachers are at times being provoked by students for the sole purpose of making these videos. Regardless – the teacher is the adult. At what point would I allow myself to get so provoked by events or behaviour that I would act in this way?

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