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Technology in Middle School Special Education Articles:
CONTENT AREA: Digital Video: Mere Oaks School
GRADE LEVEL: Middle School
URL: http://www.ictadvice.org.uk/
Mere Oaks is a special educational needs school (SEN) with 120 students most of whom have physical disabilities. Their teacher has found that digital video technology helps the students overcome barriers to the use of instructional technology. When producing a short film, the students use digital video editing software by connecting the computer to an interactive whiteboard and are assigned to use digital media equipment and film techniques compatible with their disabilities.
CONTENT AREA: Video Self-Modeling Intervention in School-Based Settings: A Review
GRADE LEVEL: Middle School
URL: http://questia.com
This article reviews many studies that have taken place to determine the effects of video self-modeling to promote acceptable academic and behavioral performances. For special needs students with low academic achievement and disruptive behavior, as well as for the control students exhibiting these same problems, video self-modeling has proven to be far more effective than verbal or written approaches to modifying the areas needing attention according to the research reviewed in this article prepared by Hitchcock, Dowrick, and Prater.
CONTENT AREA: Meet Catherine Kelly’s Students—Media Stars One and All
GRADE LEVEL: Middle School
URL: http://www.cec.sped.org/bk/cec_today/january2003/cectoday_01_2003_02.html
To improve her special needs students reading, writing, and public speaking skills, Kelly has introduced them to broadcasting their Nutty News and making movies as the Hollywood Kids. All the projects she devises for them are aligned with the curriculum and standards. This article describes how she goes about creating and implementing the media projects to enhance the motivation and skills the young people need to acquire.
CONTENT AREA: Curriculum Access in the Digital Age
GRADE LEVEL: Middle School
URL: http://www.edletter.org/past/issues/2002-jf/digitalage.shtml
The Harvard Education Letter: Research Online relates the successful impact that the software program Thinking Reader has on special needs students in a seventh-grade class in a school north of Boston. This program, as described in the article by David T. Gordon, has a digital text that highlights each word, audibly follows the highlighting, and interactively engages the students in comprehending the content. CAST researchers are reviewing the results of broader based studies of this digital tool.
Related Technology Integration Websites:
CONTENT AREA: NCIP—National Center to Improve Practice
GRADE LEVEL: Middle School
URL: http://www.edc.org/FSC/NCIP
NCIP’s site acts as a vehicle to improve the use of technology for the special needs student. Again coverage is extended to all ages, but it is especially critical as presented for the middle school student as it deals with cognitive, social/emotional, and physical aspects of their special needs.
CONTENT AREA: Teaching Probability in the Middle School
GRADE LEVEL: Middle School
URL: http://www.cast.org
The Case Studies that appear on the Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST) web site exhibit benchmark applications of technology integration for special education classes. Middle school integrative lessons are amply represented. A not-to-be-missed case study is Ms. Randall’s use of her school’s state-of-the-art computer lab to teach probability to her sixth-grade inclusion class. She incorporated the CAST-created Universal Design for Learning (UDL) into her plan and posted the plan on the site’s Teaching Every Student (TES) link.
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