Using Ipads With Students With Disabilities : Lessons Learned From Students, Teachers, And Parents

It is estimated that one in every sixty eight children will be diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (CDC, 2014). In schools around the country these students are struggling in their classroom environment due to deficits in three areas; communication skills, social skills, and repetitive behaviors or interest (Marder & Fraser, 2012). Implementing the use of technology in the classroom like iPad, iPod, android tablets, e-readers, and computers is beneficial to students with autism spectrum disorder. It can increase communication skills, can help make their classroom experience more pleasant, and it gives them the best chance at success.

iPads and tablets have become a popular choice of teachers in many classrooms worldwide due to the positive impact it has on the students. Tablets offer a wide variety of educational applications that have the ability to be downloaded onto the tablet for the students to use. The use of tablets in the classroom, “offer a unique home-school connection by providing students with a classroom experience that relates to the technology-saturated real world” (Blackwell, 2013, pg. 233) The use of iPads and tablets in the classroom provides students with a hands on learning approach to any

Students don’t just watch, listen, or read with iPad — they create with it. iPad

Samantha Light, grade 1 teacher at St. Juans catholic elementary in Toronto, Ontario noticed that her students learn better when they use technology, such as iPads. Light wants to make learning more enjoyable not only for her students, but kids everywhere, as she thinks it will make students want to participate in their teachers lessons more.

and iPods has increased from 6.21 hours a day among 8-18 year olds to 7.38 hours a day over

The first set of questions were used to see what technology teachers use and how often they use them. The seven different devices that were surveyed are computers, smart boards, mobile devices, tablets/iPads, digital cameras, clickers, and televisions/projectors. Each device was rated based on use either daily, weekly, monthly, yearly, or never. Using this data we can see which devices are used most and least by teachers. These charts also show us which devises teachers and students are most familiar with in the classroom. The most significant statistic from this first set of questions is that 91% of teachers use computers daily and weekly in the classroom (Fig.

The XPRIZE article, “Students Build Apps for Peers in Special Education” by Joni Blecher, explains how students use the technology skills they have learned in school to help others in need of befitting from it. Allen Brooks is an entrepreneur turned teacher. During one of his days working at San Elijo Middle School in San Diego, he witnessed some students in need extra learning tools as they had disabilities that hindered them. When he saw these students in Mrs. Dudley’s class, he though of SMART Technologies’ SMART Tablet and how much it could benefit these students in need. He then put his computer students into groups of six to observe a class filled with disabled children. Brooks assigned his students to create an app that would help these

Having an iPad required for class will benefit the student in numerous ways. iPad are fun to learn from, will help future back problems, and will cost less overall. It solves numerous problems and is a fun way to learn from. It is a smart choice and is a rewarding program for the students and

Spooner et al. (2014) argue that using technology allows students to get the additional support they need while not distorting instructional content. Their study had two research questions, they first wanted to determine the effects of systematic instruction paired with Ipad’s 2 to teach shared stories. Spooner et al.(2012) then wanted to know the effects that the Ipad2 shared story instruction had on literacy comprehension.

The author provided a literature review of the popularity of use of the iPad in the classroom, among students with or without disabilities. The review found that students with disabilities had greater engagement and behavioral response rates when using iPads and teaching applications on the iPads as opposed to more traditional methods of teaching. Through this background knowledge, the author sets up her research proposal.

The survey measured communication with peers, school personal, and family. Half the participants where able to communicate with peers, school personal, and family with little assistance and the other half of the participants needed full assistance to use the iPad for communication. All of the participants enjoyed using the iPad for academic fun activities. Out of the 18 participates two (2) did not enjoy using the iPad for communication.

At the end of the intervention teachers were given a likert scale to access the value of the intervention, the usability of the Ipad2 to facilitate instruction, the appropriateness of the material, and the generality of skills learned in the intervention to other academic areas. All four students had relatively low baseline scores before the intervention. At the end of Spooner et al. (2014) intervention all students showed an increase in the number of steps performed independently after the intervention, however only two students increased performance on listening comprehension questions. In additon Spooner et al. (2014) found that there was a functional relationship established with the use of the Ipad2 and systematic instruction to

The use of technology in educating children with special needs has widely grown in the past few decades. Individuals with special needs are unique and all have different areas in which they need assistance. Due to the advancements in assistive technology, computer programs, software, and other technology tools, it has become much easier for people to find useful and easier ways to become educated. Because of this, “technology has changed the way people with disabilities live, work, and learn.” (Winzer,98)

In 2010, apple introduced it’s newest technology, the iPad, which promised to bring mobile technology into every home and classroom. With the introduction of the iPad comes new considerations for learning and pedagogy. (Sheppard, 2011) McKenna (2012) suggests that the internet is as common a school fixture as lockers and library books. Additionally schoolwork is one of the most common activities performed online. One of the motivators for schools to adopt iPads was the ability to use interactive textbooks. The portability of the iPad made it not only easier to carry than several text books, but easier to use. The other motivator to iPads and digital textbooks is that the interactive features and capabilities. Digital textbooks can be updated to contain the most current information.

Education has found its way into the loop of technology. Teachers are using ipads and laptops during class time to help conduct experiments, or share a presentation. This is allowing the students to gain instant access to the information they are seeking. Students also receive the opportunity to complete their homework online and print off their assignments instead of just using paper and pencil. Another pro for Technology in Education, there are countless sources out there which help enhance learning. In one research conducted, they compared the performance of teaching kids how to read a clock. One group was coached by an online app, another was shown by a toy clock, and the last group was trained by a drawing example. The results revealed that the children that were taught by the toy and app exceeded the paper drawing group (Galetzka).