Enabling Dreams: The Use of Assistive Technology in the Classroom

Enabling Dreams

            Every student has a right to be included into a classroom, even students with disabilities. Inclusion in the classroom is needed for students with disabilities to have proper interaction with students without disabilities. Including disabled students into a lesson is very important in the part of the teacher and it will require a long planning process and proper thought into what the student needs to do and learn.

            By having a revised lesson plan for disabled students it will give the student an opportunity to be a part of the class and learn at the same pace as the other students. Important parts of a revised lesson plan that give disabled students an opportunity to participate in class are the recent technologies that are available for them, such as a laptop and the devices that help them understand concepts. The revised lesson plan will not only help with the disabled student, it will also help you as the teacher and the other students because it will help with classroom management and make the environment easier for everyone to learn efficiently.

            Activities for inclusion of AAT are a challenge for many teachers if the right technology is not available for the teacher and student. If the right technology is available some activities that should be added into a revised lesson plan are cooperative games that include the disabled student to work with the other students. Teachers can create a cooperative game using a special program on the computer for the disabled student but will still create challenges for the other students is an idea. The cooperative game will be a supplement for the lesson the teacher will teach in the next class. I would go and find special programs on the computer and technologies that would help supplement my disabled students learning. Computers are really important because like in the “Enabling Dreams” video there are special programs out there to help assist disabled students and that are very effective. Looking at the difficulty level of inclusion I would plan and organize my lesson very thoroughly and test its efficiency and improve on it as the school year goes on.

            A revised lesson plan is very important when having a disabled student in your class. This is true because not every disabled student can automatically work inclusively with the other students in class. It will take time and a lot of further planning, organizing, and the right assistive technology to have a concrete revised lesson plan for the disabled student. Just by going into the class with no revised lesson plan for a disabled student may hurt you as a teacher because you won’t really know how to include your disabled student with the other students and teach your lesson effectively.

            For criteria I would use special quizzes and questions that were specific to the disabled students learning. I think by quizzing I’ll be able to test the disabled students effectiveness with learning through the revised activity. Also by talking to the student and getting their reaction to the revised lesson will you really understand the effectiveness of your activity. Assessing the technology that you have selected and determining the effectiveness of that AAT will help to make a more better and efficient revised lesson plan because it will show which technology worked and which did not. The effectiveness of the assistive technology is key for the disabled student to effectively learn the lesson.