Adaptive and Assistive Technologies for Fifth and Sixth Grade Social Studies
Students today have many different needs than in years past due to better research on learning styles and cognitive understanding. This is why it is a great idea to use the UdL model when teaching. UdL (Universal Design Learning) is a methodology that allows for all students to have the same experiences in your classroom no matter their differences.
According to Roblyer & Doering (2013) there are five areas of special education that can be aided by adaptive technologies. Those being students with moderate or severe cognitive abilities, students with physical disabilities, students with sensory disabilities, At-Risk students, and gifted and talented students.
Students with cognitive difficulties:
According to Roblyer & Doering (2013) “a variety of conditions may impair an individual's cognitive abilities (p 406)." For this reason, we as educators need to make sure we use Web 2.0 tools that allow our students with these special needs to excel in our classroom. The following sources support students who struggle with cognitive disabilities like reading skills, writing skills, and math skills. They can also be used in my fifth and sixth grade social studies class.
According to Roblyer & Doering (2013) there are five areas of special education that can be aided by adaptive technologies. Those being students with moderate or severe cognitive abilities, students with physical disabilities, students with sensory disabilities, At-Risk students, and gifted and talented students.
Students with cognitive difficulties:
According to Roblyer & Doering (2013) “a variety of conditions may impair an individual's cognitive abilities (p 406)." For this reason, we as educators need to make sure we use Web 2.0 tools that allow our students with these special needs to excel in our classroom. The following sources support students who struggle with cognitive disabilities like reading skills, writing skills, and math skills. They can also be used in my fifth and sixth grade social studies class.
Evernote: This is a web-based program that allows you to “clip” and save websites, text, photos, etc. They also have different plug-ins that can you remind you upcoming dates and events. This program would be useful in my class because students could research in an organized place that is accessible anywhere you can get online.
Lucidchart: This is an online mapping tool that allows the user to create very organized mindmaps. These are useful in social studies as we connect many different ideas with one another and great for organizing thoughts. Lucidchart integrates into Google Drive if your school is a GAFE school. Again, making organization simple for students who need help in this area
For students who might struggle with reading or writing, there are adaptive pens out there for them to use.
ReadingPen2: This device works by the student moving the pen over the words they want to know and the pen will read them out loud for the student to hear. In class, students who struggle with reading text could use this pen to help them with words they do not know.
Livescribe pen: This device is more designed for people who have mild learning difficulties. They way it works, is that any notes that you take on paper or your instructor says in class will be saved to the pen that can be later downloaded to online data base.
ReadingPen2: This device works by the student moving the pen over the words they want to know and the pen will read them out loud for the student to hear. In class, students who struggle with reading text could use this pen to help them with words they do not know.
Livescribe pen: This device is more designed for people who have mild learning difficulties. They way it works, is that any notes that you take on paper or your instructor says in class will be saved to the pen that can be later downloaded to online data base.
Students with physical difficulties
According to Roblyer and Doering (2013) students how have “difficulties with motor movements may involve gross-motor or fine-motor movement and frequently exist concurrently with other disabilities (408).” Here are some resources that could be used in my fifth and sixth grade social studies to assist those who meet the aforementioned difficulty.
According to Roblyer and Doering (2013) students how have “difficulties with motor movements may involve gross-motor or fine-motor movement and frequently exist concurrently with other disabilities (408).” Here are some resources that could be used in my fifth and sixth grade social studies to assist those who meet the aforementioned difficulty.
Dragon Naturally Speaking by Nuance: Is a speech recognition software. If you have a smartphone, more than likely you can speak to it and it will find directions for you or send a text or type an email. Dragon works in the same way. As the student speaks into a microphone the program can type papers or even run the computer for a student who it might be physically impossible for them to type on a keyboard. In social studies class, students could use this technology to search the internet, run their own computer or a school computer or event type papers.
Intellikeys: Is an alternative to the fixed QWERTY keyboard. This product is touch-sensitive and can be customizable to fit an individual student needs. Allowing for many different configurations makes this a very useful tool for students who have physical difficulties. In middle school social studies, students who can’t use the traditional keyboard would benefit from this tool. It would be easier for them to type and create a paper or internet search.
Students with sensory difficulties:
According to Roblyer and Doering (2013) students who have sensory disabilities are hampered by the loss of vision or hearing (409). Here are some resources that could be used in my fifth and sixth grade social studies to assist them.
FrontRow Juno: Is a sound amplification system. In general, sound amplification is great for those students who may be hard of hearing. Many teachers stand in front of the classroom to do their instructing, so if you have a student who is hard or hearing, it would be difficult for them to keep up in class if they are too far from the teacher. One product I had a chance to use this summer at different presentations was Juno by Front Row. What I like about it was it combined the convenience of portable audio products with the sound quality of installed systems. With Juno, you can also capture your lessons and share them later. It has a wireless pendant microphone for the teacher. You could also purchase the additional student microphone so that everyone has the chance to be heard. This tool would be great to amplify mine and student voices when doing peer instruction, or group work. Also if you are a lecturer, then this could be beneficial too.
According to Roblyer and Doering (2013) students who have sensory disabilities are hampered by the loss of vision or hearing (409). Here are some resources that could be used in my fifth and sixth grade social studies to assist them.
FrontRow Juno: Is a sound amplification system. In general, sound amplification is great for those students who may be hard of hearing. Many teachers stand in front of the classroom to do their instructing, so if you have a student who is hard or hearing, it would be difficult for them to keep up in class if they are too far from the teacher. One product I had a chance to use this summer at different presentations was Juno by Front Row. What I like about it was it combined the convenience of portable audio products with the sound quality of installed systems. With Juno, you can also capture your lessons and share them later. It has a wireless pendant microphone for the teacher. You could also purchase the additional student microphone so that everyone has the chance to be heard. This tool would be great to amplify mine and student voices when doing peer instruction, or group work. Also if you are a lecturer, then this could be beneficial too.
Califone Noise Canceling Headphone: Some students may be over sensitive to outside noises and depending on the environment may need noise canceling or noise blocking headphones. According to the Califone website (n.d.) by filtering out undesirable sounds and reducing distortion, this headphone increases the perceived loudness by creating high frequency harmonics that are not masked by low frequency sounds without raising the actual volume, which allows students to remain focused. This would be beneficial in my social studies class as we use our computer lab a lot and to be able to have students focus on videos and not having distractions around them would help them to focus.
Clarity Deskmate: Students who have visual difficulties may have a hard time seeing the screen. While many new operating systems come with the built in capability to magnify their screens, older versions do not. For those older machines, you could use Clarity Deskmate to magnify the screen, visual aid or teacher. This helps students with low vision feel at home in any classroom environment. This device could be useful in my social studies classroom because we use a lot maps and images to help figure out past and future events. So students with poor vision would benefit from having this device to see the images more clearly.
Students who are at-risk:
According to Roblyer & Doering (2013) “students at risk for school failure are not considered disabled in the sense of the federal definition or disability. However, their lack of success in school often parallels the low performance of students with disabilities (409).” Here are some Web 2.0 tools that could be used to amplify my students learning in my fifth and sixth grade classroom.
Students who are at-risk:
According to Roblyer & Doering (2013) “students at risk for school failure are not considered disabled in the sense of the federal definition or disability. However, their lack of success in school often parallels the low performance of students with disabilities (409).” Here are some Web 2.0 tools that could be used to amplify my students learning in my fifth and sixth grade classroom.
PowToon: Is an online animation tool that would help captivate and motivate students who are at-risk and engage them in their learning more, I would have them use PowToon to create a video of their understanding of a topic or concept. By having students be creators, it will increase their motivation in my classroom. As I am teacher who uses the Flipped Classroom Model, I could have my students use PowToon to create videos for future classes to use on specific topics.
BrainPop: Is an online emporium of animations designed around specific content that engages students. By watching short video clips to enhance lessons, then taking short quizzes, students who are at-risk do not recognize they are doing class work because of the multimedia component BrainPop implements into every lesson. I have used some of their videos in class to introduce topics in social studies.
Students who are gifted and talented:
“The most current definition of gifted students (2004) reads as follows: Students, children, or youth who give evidence of high achievement capability, or in specific academic field, and who need services and activities not ordinarily provided by the school in order to fully develop those capabilities (Roblyer & Doering, 2013, p 411).” The following Web 2.0 tools can be used in my fifth and sixth grade social studies classroom.
Virtual field trips: Since my subject is social studies, we cover the geography, peoples, and histories of Latin America, Asia, Africa, and Europe in fifth through sixth grade. To allow my gifted and talented students an avenue to explore anyone of the these regions more, I would set them loose on a virtual field. A great resources for this a virtual field trip of the Seven Wonders of the World. After the students have explored one or more of these places (depending on what we are covering) they could report back to the class about their “trip” to a far off place.
“The most current definition of gifted students (2004) reads as follows: Students, children, or youth who give evidence of high achievement capability, or in specific academic field, and who need services and activities not ordinarily provided by the school in order to fully develop those capabilities (Roblyer & Doering, 2013, p 411).” The following Web 2.0 tools can be used in my fifth and sixth grade social studies classroom.
Virtual field trips: Since my subject is social studies, we cover the geography, peoples, and histories of Latin America, Asia, Africa, and Europe in fifth through sixth grade. To allow my gifted and talented students an avenue to explore anyone of the these regions more, I would set them loose on a virtual field. A great resources for this a virtual field trip of the Seven Wonders of the World. After the students have explored one or more of these places (depending on what we are covering) they could report back to the class about their “trip” to a far off place.
PBS NOVA: Is a great TV series that explores many different aspects of our world. Sometimes they have shows that are based on past civilizations (like the Inca’s). I would have my gifted and talented students do further exploration of the a topic that would be covered by NOVA appropriate for our class.
Google Hangouts: Is like Skype, where you can video conference with another person, but with Google Hangouts, you can have more participants than with Skype. I would use Google Hangouts to connect my classroom with various other classrooms who have gifted and talented students. By connecting our classrooms for these students, they could collaborate on a similar topic and create something to share with our classroom. It would be a great experience to get students who are alike in other parts of the country or world working together.
iPad Apps for Special Learners
Cognitive difficulties - Popplet (lite version or $4.99) From the developers: Popplet is platform for your ideas. Popplet’s super simple interface allows you to move at the speed of your thoughts. With Popplet you can capture your ideas and sort them visually in real time. The Lite version only allows you to create one Popplet on your iPad while the paid version lets you create an unlimited number of local popplets, which can be shared with and edited by other Popplet users, both on the web at popplet.com and on their iPads.
Students could use this app to stay organized and collaborate with other students on projects.
Physical difficulties - Dragon Dictation (Free) From the developers: Dragon Dictation is an easy-to-use voice recognition application powered by Dragon Naturally Speaking that allows you to easily speak and instantly see your text of email messages.
Students could use this app to help them type their papers or take notes in the classroom.
Sensory difficulties - ZoomContacts $4.99 From the developers: ZoomContacts is the perfect “Large Print” contact application for iPad and iPad Mini users who have difficulty seeing the small text on their screen. ZoomContacts uses Apple’s internal database to store and manage information but presents it using multiple font size/color combination choices. This makes it easier on the eyes for those folks who could use a little visual assistance.
Students who have difficulties with version could use this app to find text that fits their visual needs best.
At-Risk - Minecraft - Pocket Edition ($6.99 or Lite) From the developers: Minecratf is about placing blocks to build things and going on adventures! The Lite version does not have a save feature feature or as many of the blocks as the paid version.
Students could use this app to create a video game based on a concept or topic in class for other students to play.
Gifted and Talented - Smithsonian Channel (Free) From the developers: This app introduces a brand new way to watch, find, and explore the vast video collection of the Smithsonian Channel. Personalize your own version of the channel by selecting your favorite topics.
Students could create their own channels based on topics we cover in class to find more rich video content to help enrich their understanding even more.
Cognitive difficulties - Popplet (lite version or $4.99) From the developers: Popplet is platform for your ideas. Popplet’s super simple interface allows you to move at the speed of your thoughts. With Popplet you can capture your ideas and sort them visually in real time. The Lite version only allows you to create one Popplet on your iPad while the paid version lets you create an unlimited number of local popplets, which can be shared with and edited by other Popplet users, both on the web at popplet.com and on their iPads.
Students could use this app to stay organized and collaborate with other students on projects.
Physical difficulties - Dragon Dictation (Free) From the developers: Dragon Dictation is an easy-to-use voice recognition application powered by Dragon Naturally Speaking that allows you to easily speak and instantly see your text of email messages.
Students could use this app to help them type their papers or take notes in the classroom.
Sensory difficulties - ZoomContacts $4.99 From the developers: ZoomContacts is the perfect “Large Print” contact application for iPad and iPad Mini users who have difficulty seeing the small text on their screen. ZoomContacts uses Apple’s internal database to store and manage information but presents it using multiple font size/color combination choices. This makes it easier on the eyes for those folks who could use a little visual assistance.
Students who have difficulties with version could use this app to find text that fits their visual needs best.
At-Risk - Minecraft - Pocket Edition ($6.99 or Lite) From the developers: Minecratf is about placing blocks to build things and going on adventures! The Lite version does not have a save feature feature or as many of the blocks as the paid version.
Students could use this app to create a video game based on a concept or topic in class for other students to play.
Gifted and Talented - Smithsonian Channel (Free) From the developers: This app introduces a brand new way to watch, find, and explore the vast video collection of the Smithsonian Channel. Personalize your own version of the channel by selecting your favorite topics.
Students could create their own channels based on topics we cover in class to find more rich video content to help enrich their understanding even more.