3.

4 Adaptive and Assistive Technology

Candidates facilitate the use of adaptive and assistive technologies to support
individual learning needs (PSC 3.4/ISTE 3d)
Artifact: Assistive Technology Implementation Plan
Reflection:
The Assistive Technology Implementation Plan was an unstructured field experience
I completed with a high school 9th grade student. The goal of the assignment was to
work with a student with special needs to identify an assistive technology to be
used to help that student in school. This student has an IEP and a processing
learning impairment.
For this artifact, I worked with a female 9th grade student who has been diagnosed
with a learning disability and ADHD. After interviewing her case manager and
having correspondence with her mother, I found out she struggles in school with
reading. The struggle is not that she cant read, the impairment is a processing
problem. I also interview the student, she was frustrated with her grades and
wanted to do better. She had freshman English and Reading in her 9 th grade year.
The idea was to increase her Lexile score to enhance her reading. In the English
class, she will be allowed to use an app called Total Recall. This will help her
organize her thought process to write paragraphs and eventually papers. Another
app Evernote will be assisted to help her write papers. Both apps helped her to
facilitate in adaptive and assistive technologies in becoming proficient at
writing paragraphs and eventually writing papers. The reading course helped her
with strategies to become more proficient at reading and comprehension. The apps
were so successful a request to include them as accommodations in her IEP.
I learned how to include assistive technology into a students daily routine to help
them learn or complete daily assignments. It doesnt have to be anything fancy. A
simple app or two could enhance students learning. In an effort to improve this
artifact I wish I could I have followed in the next semester and see if any other apps
could have helped the student be successful.
The work that went into creating this artifact had a definite impact on student
learning. The two apps that were introduce to this student had a direct impact on
this students success in her English and Reading class. Her grade in both classes
was a B, and her teachers and case manager said her activity with the apps had a
direct correlation with her grade. More important her self-esteem rose this
semester because she felt her grades in these two classes were a great
accomplishment.