Using Compensating Technology
With Special-Need Children
Ed Clement
A couple of summers ago, I had the opportunity to work for a company
that helped local industries set up work stations for their disabled
employees. One day a very distinguished and impeccably dressed man
rolled into our office in a powered wheel chair. It was equipped
with a speech synthesizer, similar to the one the mathematician
Steven Hawkins uses, and a lap top computer with a modem connected
to a cell phone. I later learned that after being crippled in his
youth in an auto accident, he had become a self-made millionaire.
It was hard for me to imagine how so disabled a man could have
become so successful. I eventually got up enough nerve to ask him.
His simple one word response was "technology."
Sometimes it is obvious that a student, or students, just aren't
going to master educational skills in the traditional way. When
that happens, maybe a technological solution is worth trying. Some
of the modern technologies that I've found particularly useful in
my classroom are:
- Calculators: This technology is so useful in improving computational
skill and math literacy that I encourage all my students to use
one. I especially like the Texas Instruments TI-83 graphing calculator,
which lets a student enter a string of math operations in the
order in which they're presented.
- Pocket Translators: these devices have really helped my non-
English speaking students function more effectively in an English
speaking educational system.
- Pocket Speaking Dictionaries: These are particularly useful
because they allow my poor readers as well as my bi-lingual students
to work more independently, allowing me to give my other students
the time they need.
- Spell Checking Pocket Electronic Dictionary: No wonder half
the people in America can't spell when we have words like pneumonia
in the English language.
- A PC with Internet access: This is the most useful technology
by far because it will allow you to find the grant money, and
there is a lot of it out there, to purchase all the compensating
technology your students will need. Keep an eye out at this site
for my tips on grant writing.
I'd like to end with a quote from American philosopher Eric Hoffer's
book The Passionate State of Mind: "Where there is
the necessary technical skill to move mountains, there is no need
for the faith that moves mountains." |