Special Education Goetze and Walker

Special Education

Goetze and Walker (2004) found that students who are most at risk of academic failure are those who lack reading skills. They found that use of technology enhanced literary capabilities of students who have special needs (Goetze and Walker, 2004). In fact, technology and literacy have a very strong link and scholars have been keenly interested in discovering various aspects of their relationship. Fisher and Molebash (2003) in their study wrote that the Digital Divide is as a cause of concern for many educators who believe that technology has a great role to play in education. They point out that despite the fact that many non-profit organizations have devoted more and more time and effort into constructing a sound and efficient technical setup of it in various schools, these attempts are not only insignificant but they are highly subjective (Fisher and Molebash, 2003). This is evident in studies which found that most schools, belonging to poor urban minority areas, failed to use technology and ended up with worst literacy outcomes (Dowrick, Kim-Rupnow, and Power, 2006).

Fisher and Molebash (2003) argued that some researchers and educationalists made the mistake of treating literacy and technical proficiency on different scales. However, the truth of the matter is that one cannot exist or work efficiently without the success of the other. A good example of this was visibly present in the past decade: the Technology Literacy Challenge Fund of 1997 aimed to advance technical learning and skills of every student while the No Child Left behind Act of 2001 aimed to adopt a more technologically-driven structure to boost the overall literacy amongst students. However, both failed to realize that neither can obtain their objectives without understanding that technical proficiency and literacy go hand in hand (Fisher and Molebash, 2003).

Kartal (2006) asserts that this discrepancy could be associated to lack of methodical studies on the use of technology in education/literacy. This could be because only in recent times technology has turned out to be practicable for educational applications (Kartal, 2006). However, in an earlier study, Martin (2003) pointed out that the results emanating from studies were not consistent. In fact, studies have shown negative impact of use of technology (Martin, 2003). Other researchers, for instance, Doering, Hughes, and Huffman (2003) found that lack of teacher preparation has been the major factor behind unsuccessful use of technology in classrooms. Nonetheless, some experts have advanced that notion that use of technology is an advanced way to deliver lectures and educate the students (Speaker, 2004).

Problem Statement

Use of technology has helped some students in acquiring better literacy/reading skills; whereas it has hindered the learning of others. Fisher and Molebash (2003) and Speaker (2004) found technology as an assistive tool. Martin (2003) and Doering, Hughes, and Huffman (2003) found technology to hinder the learning process. With billions being spent on education each year and with so many schools adapting technology as a means of delivering lectures, it is imperative to come up with accurate and consistent results which give a holistic picture of the use of technology.

Literature Review

Fisher and Molebash (2003) defined literacy/reading as purely a means to extract meaning and understanding from a form of information or knowledge database. What technological improvements has done is given the teachers and students a wide spectrum of choices to extract this information. At first all educational exchanges were mainly aural but with time the advent of books, libraries, the media, journalism, television, the Internet, video games made teacher's task easier. It also increased accessibility to the students. However, when dealing with the students who have special needs, mere accessibility is not the answer and all efforts on technology integration have to include the easier understanding and interpretation of the text available (Fisher and Molebash, 2003).

May (2003) found that technological improvements have made the job of the teacher easier; it has not actually decreased the workload. A teacher still has more than 2 dozen children in his/her class and there are various teaching/learning capabilities and methods that these teachers still have to understand. This difference in teaching/learning is even more enhanced amongst the special-needs students. A teacher cannot overlook a behavioral pattern or force a learning technique upon his/her students. This is one of the main ways that technology has helped teachers. They can now use everyday mechanisms to explain different educational theories with the help of other technological tools or interpretations. However, for technology to actually help in the long run, the teachers need to make sure that the students are giving their input and are involved in the utilization of the technology so as to ensure a higher success rate of education through technology (May, 2003). Leloup and Ponterio (2005) found that use of technology motivated students to learn more, "When students learn to browse online news and magazine sites for articles that interest them personally, they can become more highly motivated to continue to use their language skills long-term because this is a real, day-to-day use of those skills, not just a classroom exercise (pg: 3+)."

Schmar-Dobler (2003) found that reading on the Internet actually enhanced student learning. They wrote, "The union of reading and technology on the Internet is causing educators to take a new look at what it means to be literate in today's society. New forms of literacy call upon students to know how to read and write not only in the print world but also in the digital world." May (2003) emphasized the need of great technological sense and knowledge for all current and future students. This is one of the main reasons why the students need to get accustomed to using these advancements and their implementations. This is also what has led to the incorporation of technology in a classroom setting. All these technologies aim to increase the students' intensity of wisdom, cooperation and text assessment. A good and simple illustration of this is a book review, which can be an individual task or a group task that use software programs such as Kidspiration and Timeliner. These software programs help students visualize their thoughts and opinions as well as communicate them efficiently. Now literacy reading skills are very important for both normal students and special-needs students because exposure to literacy is not only through books anymore. In fact the range of information is more vast and varied in accordance with the technical improvements; this is why the teaching of literacy/reading is far trickier then before (May, 2003).

To improve the reading skills of special-needs students, teachers use technology in the following spheres to make them (a) hear word tones; (b) decipher and interpret words; - understand overall expressions; (d) understand word span; (e) become knowledgeable and confident with their reading style (May, 2003). Gwinn, Horn, Johnson, and Watts-Taffe (2003) found that use of technology has given students access to tools which allow them to interpret, compare and contrast, integrate, and communicate ideas electronically. Gwinn and his colleagues found that technology and literacy are fast congregating.

May (2003) notes that one of the most successful ways that reading amongst the special-needs students has been enhanced by using technology is through group book reviews. The class is first given a list of books to choose form and then the students are divided in different groups based on their choice of book. There are prearranged meetings and the pages that need to be read in each group are decided before students meet in groups. During group meetings students engage in certain leaning task hat involve the interpretation of the story, the characters and their choices, the plots, the twists, the climax, the main incidents and their denotations. The whole idea is to make the children focus on what the story is about and how it has evolved through events and different interpretations.

May (2003) found that one of the most commonly used applications in this group book review task is the AlphaSmart mainly because of its simplicity and popularity among the special-needs students. The task would mainly involve the interpretation and rewriting of the story so that the teacher is aware of how well the student understands the plot and how much work he/she does. This also helps the teachers analyze the influence that the group opinions might have on the individuals within the group.

May (2003) notes that amongst other applications that are fast becoming part of the curriculum for improving the reading and understanding of the special-needs students are Kidspiration and Timeliner. The Kidspiration software program helps the students recall the main events and characters of the story and their influence on the overall plot while the Timeliner software program helps the students to analyze the timeliner in which the major incidents in the storyline took place and their aftermath on the following timelines.

May (2003) writes that another technique that is now being used with special-needs students is the teacher reading aloud and then having the students roam around their environment and take pictures that they feel relate to the story. Then students use AlphaSmart software to paste the picture and explain in a paragraph why, how and where in the plot they feel that picture relates to the story. This tests three things: (a) student concentration; (b) student level of understanding of the general plot; and - student imagination. This is an important implementation because it opens the students' horizons and allows them to see the general links and relations that their own lives might have with the stories that they read. The implementation of taking the pictures is one way that this has been successfully achieved. This use of a camera is a very flexible application and is being used in different ways for different special-needs students.

May (2003) found that cameras are being used to also expand the span of words or vocabulary amongst the special-needs students. The teacher hands out a set of words to the students and explains their use and different interpretations and then asks them to take photographs in accordance to what they have understood. Any good reader will relay that the best part about reading is the expressions and vocabulary. Vocabulary is mainly an understanding of the use and interpretation of the words being used and this process has helped the special-needs students in their reading skills when it has been included in the curriculum.

Use of advancing technologies in education

Use of technology has been widely recognized as a vital tool for literacy improvement. Although, the relationship between technology and literacy improvement has been asymmetrical, enough evidence exists to encourage teachers to use latest technology tools to advance student learning. The three most successful applications that have enhanced the literacy education over the years for the special-needs students are (a) Voice detection software; (b) Tele-cooperation operations of the Internet, and - Personal Digital Assistants (PDA) and new portable processors or devices (Fisher and Molebash, 2003).

Fisher and Molebash (2003) in their study trace the track of technological advancements and point out that at the advent of the 21st century, all of the above applications were still being tested hypothetically on the drawing board. The speed at which these have been practically implemented and yielded successful result is simply astonishing. Fisher and Molebash found that all technological advancements have followed the pattern that Gordon Moore pointed out more then 4 decades ago. Moore had said that in theory all microchips had the capacity to improve and enhance within a period of 18 months. This statement, called the Moore's law, has held true since that day and stands true for the digitally driven society today. The alteration or adjustment in the Moore's Law is that Moore had restricted the phenomenon of speedy advancements to the speed of microchips while in today's society this theory holds true to include everything from speed, power, memory and price (Fisher and Molebash, 2003).

This rapid increase in the advancements of technology is one of the main reasons for the incorporation of tools like computers and cameras and others in the school setting because without them students will not only be bored but also the educational setup would be backward and not up to the par of what is required in the developing societies. Computers, Nintendo, cell phones, e-mail and the World Wide Web have become such an integral part of the daily life that it is hard to imagine a time when they did not exist. The use of technology within a classroom setting of special-needs students makes these students more confident and comfortable in thinking that they can operate all these things and tools that the normal students operate. This technology tools also help special need students' reading and comprehension skills. This ubiquity of technology tools like PDA, TVs, cell phones, video games, Walkmans, computers, and modern publishing resources, is why all types of students feel more accustomed and engaged in a classroom where technology is incorporated in the academic curriculum.

One of the most useful applications to enhance the reading skills of the special-needs students, thus far, has been the tele-collaborative venture that uses the Internet as its main source of communication. The significant fact of the Tele-collaborative ventures is that it mainly incorporates some of the most commonly used mechanisms of telecommunications like the tools e-mail, debate mediums, synchronous chats, and videoconferencing,. All of these tools and mechanisms are then use to communicate within and amongst classroom, schools, and universities as well as across borders to address the commonalities and difficulties faced by the special-needs students. Once these commonalities are identified then numerous organizations join hands to work on problem-solving techniques and structures (Fisher and Molebash, 2003).

Enough practical applications and evaluations have shown that the proper and informed execution of the tele-collaborative ventures can immensely benefit the K-12 special-needs students and encourage them to look for multiple interpretations, improve their reading skills and increase their span of knowledge as well as vocabulary (Fisher and Molebash, 2003).

The Personal Digital Assistants (PDA)

The rise in the use and success of the Personal Digital Assistants (PDA) is one of the main reasons why it is now being used on such a large scale in the educational institutions as well. Even though the PDA was initially used as a storage device for the names, dates, reminders and/or addresses, it has now become versatile enough to provide the teachers with a sort of an electronic calculator and mobile computer that they can use to access the Internet, perform online tests and assessments, record results, scores, and keep grade books. The popularity of the PDA has forced the Education Committees in Florida to create an efficient software based on the PDA format that will help the special education teachers to document student activities and follow the Individualized Education Plan (IEP) (Fisher and Molebash, 2003).

Fisher and Molebash (2003) pointed out that the PDA can also allow the teachers to manage or oversee a group of students and gather/record the facts in their ongoing discussions. This recording once believed to be painstaking, is done without much effort by using PDA's and teachers can use the information gathered to analyze student's comprehension abilities and modify their teaching methods accordingly. They also asserted that the PDA with the compilation and evaluation of information can be used for measuring and ranking the overall performance of the students by analyzing whatever information entered by the teacher (Fisher and Molebash, 2003).

One of the most important features of the PDA is the accessibility to the Internet and the online books. It is true that the generation gap makes some teachers want to carry on with books while the students prefer the Portable Document Format (PDF) format. The advantage of having a book stored in the PDA is that it can show the meaning, pronunciation and use of a word that the student did not recognize (Fisher and Molebash, 2003).

The downside with the use of PDA though, as Fisher and Molebash (2003) highlight, is that the overall monitoring by the teachers would have to increase. This simply means that the easy access to the email or Internet for the students might be distracting and destructive if used inappropriately and the notes passing between students will become easier and difficult to control. Hence the monitoring and repercussions would have to made stricter (Fisher and Molebash, 2003).

Voice Recognition Technology (VRT)

Fisher and Molebash (2003) pointed out that the emphasis on learning how to type has grown in importance over the years and now students, along with learning how to read and write, are expected to learn how to type as well. Most of the time, teachers use the computer lab time to allow the students to type and increase their typing speed with time. However, when dealing with special-needs students, this is not always easy. The current format of the keyboard is based on the Sholes' "QWERTY" which was designed by Christopher Latham Sholes in the 1870s. Over the years, people have been reluctant to change the format as it was seen as too much of a hassle to teach the typists to type in an updated and more efficient keyboard (Fisher and Molebash, 2003).

The most likely progress that is expected of the VRT is that it will soon recognize speech and convert it to text simultaneously. Fisher and Molebash (2003) recognized that the use of VRT will change the way the future generations read and write but they also highlighted that the challenge for most educators will be to incorporate the language capabilities, such as reading and writing, in a way that is easy to adjust to and comprehend (Fisher and Molebash, 2003).

There have been criticisms made on the use of technology and how it changes or lessens the expectations for the students on a large scale. May (2003) argues that the truth of the matter is that with the increase in distractions that are present nowadays, the students need to be constantly engaged within a classroom setting and the use of technology does that extremely efficiently. Kelley (2005) found that critics of assistive use of technology in classroom were partially true and she gave recommendations for improving the integration of technology into classrooms. She writes:

While this novelty aspect of the computer costs time in learning, it also produced considerable enthusiasm and interest on the part of the children. Teachers will have to balance these two dimensions as they plan for technology use in their instructional programs. In addition, a number of practical recommendations that emerged from this action research project include pre-selecting Internet sites for the children, providing lessons on skimming and visually scanning text, teaching children how to navigate Web pages, and assigning a buddy to assist and share information (pg: 184)."

The misconception that exists amongst many still is that technology is the answer to all teaching hazards when dealing with the special-needs students; however, May (2003) notes that it is the proper incorporation of the technology available that makes the teacher's job easier. The use of technology is a fairly new concept and has been regularly used in the past decade or so, however, the results in the reading and comprehension skills of the special-needs students are undeniably better. Castek, Coiro, Henry, Leu, and Mcmullan (2004) agree with the findings of May. They write:

When considering how to use the Internet to expand response opportunities, a useful starting point is to consider the many resources available that inform initial book selection. It is essential for students to learn how to locate good books to read that match their reading level and interests. If a good match between reader and text exists, motivation to read grows and so do responses; the more successful experiences a reader has, the better a reader becomes (pg: 496+)."

Beukelman, Beukleman, Ranklin and Wood (2003) found that using relevant set of tools enhanced literacy amongst first grade students. Relevant technology tools allowed students to, "independently read words beyond their normal reading ability and to stay engaged in the literacy task at hand (pg: 132)." Correspondingly, May (2003) notes that teachers have to analyze the technology that will be most useful for the student in accordance to its implementation and the students' capabilities. If the incorrect technological tool is used it will hamper learning and decrease the level of confidence of the student. Also the teachers cannot expect the students to understand the use of the technological tool without initial instruction and explanation of its use.

Purpose of the paper

The purpose of this paper is to find out the impact of using technology on learning/reading skills of low level student with special needs.

Research Questions

How is technology currently used in today's classrooms to enhance learning/reading skills of low level student with special needs?

How could teachers better integrate technology into instructions of low level students of special needs?

Methodology

Research method and design

The research method being used in this study is qualitative as qualitative study does not always ignore the bias side of things, and is not always objective. In fact, all qualitative researchers monitor people in certain settings (in this case, it is assessing the role of technology within the modern educational environment of low level students of special needs) and then come to different conclusions depending on the techniques or methods they have chosen to employ.

Phenomenology will be used as the research design as it analyzes and works as an investigative factor. It helps construct a holistic and intricate comprehension and analysis of the social problem (the role of technology within the modern educational environment of low level students of special needs). Researchers are a definitive factor during the data compilation process. Also, when carrying out qualitative research on the role of technology in education, the whole research will be accompanied by a thoughtful and vivid explanation with the process being the focal point.