Download Introduction to Assistive Technology (AT)

Special Needs Education
Damian Gordon
What is Assistive Technology?

“Any product, instrument,
equipment or technical
system used by a disabled
or elderly person, made
specially or existing on the
market, aimed to prevent,
compensate, relieve or
neutralise the deficiency, the
inability or the handicap.”
International ISO-9999
Standard
Last Week
Individual Challenge

Can you find out
what GIDEIs are?
and come up with
a few examples.
History of Education
History of Education

We start off with the Greeks, and in
particular,
–
–
–
Socrates
Plato
Aristotle
History of Education

University began to spring up in the 11th and
12th centuries
Universities
Behaviourism
Behaviourism


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All things should be looked at from the
perspective of behaviour.
And it doesn’t matter what is going on in the
mind, it just matters what the behaviour
So there is no difference in the behaviourist
mind between external behaviour and
internal thoughts.
Ivan Petrovich Pavlov


(1849 – 1936)
Russia psychologist,
who train dog to
associate feeding with
bells.
Pavlov’s Dog
Edward Lee Thorndike



(1874—1949)
theory of connectionism
Cats in boxes to see if
they could figure out how
to escape
Cats in Puzzle Boxes
Burrhus Frederic Skinner


(1904-1990)
American psychologist,
and founder of Radical
Behaviorism
Operant Conditioning Chamber
(“Skinner Box”)
Cognitivism
Gestalt Psychology



Gestalt - "essence or shape of an entity's
complete form"
"The whole is greater than the sum of the
parts" is often used when explaining Gestalt
theory.
They see objects as perceived within an
environment according to all of their
elements taken together as a global
construct.
Principle of Reification
Principle of Emergence
Instructional Design

Active Learning
–

A Cohesive Approach
–

Instruction must be planned with a clear vision of what the students will do
with the content presented. It is critical that students interact with the
instructional content and that activities be developed to promote and
support open-ended, self-directed learning. Content should never be
delivered for memorization, but instead for use as a tool in planned and
sequenced activities.
Lewin wrote that a piecemeal approach to guiding learners to accept new
ideas, attitudes, and behaviors is ineffective. Instead, a cohesive approach
must be utilized to support changes in cognition, affect, and behavior.
Impact of the Social Environment
–
Lewin theorized that before changes in ideas, attitudes, and behavior will
occur, modifications in a learner's perception of self and his/her social
environment are essential. He also argued that it is easier to create change
in a social context than individually.
Constructivism
Constructivism


Learning is an active process: Direct experience, making
errors, and looking for solutions are vital for the assimilation
and accommodation of information. How information is
presented is important. When information is introduced as an
aid to problem solving, it functions as a tool rather than an
isolated arbitrary fact.
Learning should be whole, authentic, and "real": Piaget
helps us to understand that meaning is constructed as children
interact in meaningful ways with the world around them. Thus,
That means less emphasis on isolated "skill" exercises that try
to teach something like long division or end of sentence
punctuation. Students still learn these things in cognitive
constructivist classrooms, but they are more likely to learn them
if they are engaged in meaningful activities (such as operating a
class "store" or "bank" or writing and editing a class
newspaper).
Zone of Proximal Development


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
Vygotsky’s term for the range of tasks
that are too difficult for the child to
master alone but that can be learned
with guidance and assistance of adults
or more-skilled children.
The lower limit of ZPD is the level of
skill reached by the child working
independently.
The upper limit is the level of additional
responsibility the child can accept with
the assistance of an able instructor.
Scaffolding is changing the level of
support. Over the course of a teaching
session, a more-skilled person adjusts
the amount of guidance to fit the
child’s current performance
Scaffolding Theory

He used the term to
describe young children's
oral language acquisition.
Helped by their parents
when they first start
learning to speak, young
children are provided with
instinctive structures to
learn a language. Bedtime stories and read
aloud are classic
examples
Instructional Design
Reigeluth’s Elaboration Theory
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Organizing Course Structure: Single organisation for complete course
Simple to complex: start with simplest ideas, in the first lesson, and then add
elaborations in subsequent lessons.
Within-lesson sequence: general to detailed, simple to complex, abstract to
concrete.
Summarizers: content reviews presented in rule-example-practice format
Synthesizers: Presentation devices that help the learner integrate content
elements into a meaningful whole and assimilate them into prior knowledge, e.g.
a concept hierarchy, a procedural flowchart or decision table, or a cause-effect
model .
Analogies: relate the content to learners' prior knowledge, use multiple
analogies, especially with a highly divergent group of learners.
Cognitive strategies: variety of cues - pictures, diagrams, mnemonics, etc. can trigger cognitive strategies needed for processing of material.
Learner control: Learners are encouraged to exercise control over both content
and instructional strategy. Clear labelling and separation of strategy components
facilitates effective learner control of those components.
Reigeluth’s Elaboration Theory
Bloom’s Taxonomy
(Meaning)
•Evaluation: compare and discriminate between ideas, assess value of
theories, presentations make choices based on reasoned argument,
verify value of evidence, recognize subjectivity
•Synthesis: use old ideas to create new ones, generalize from given
facts, relate knowledge from several areas, predict, draw conclusions
•Analysis: seeing patterns, organization of parts, recognition of
hidden meanings, identification of components
•Application: use information use methods, concepts, theories in new
situations, solve problems using required skills or knowledge
•Comprehension: understanding information,grasp meaning, translate
knowledge into new context
•Knowledge: observation and recall of information,knowledge of
dates, events, places knowledge of major ideas
ADDIE Model
Universal Design for Learning:
Differentiated Instruction
Universal Design
Universal design is the design of products
and environments to be usable by all
people, to the greatest extent possible,
without the need for adaptation or
specialized design.
–Ron Mace
What is Universal Design for Learning?

Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is a researchbased framework for designing curricula—that is,
educational goals, methods, materials, and
assessments—that enable all individuals to gain
knowledge, skills, and enthusiasm for learning. This
is accomplished by simultaneously providing rich
supports for learning and reducing barriers to the
curriculum, while maintaining high achievement
standards for all students.
Differentiated Instruction

No two students are alike.

No two students learn in the identical way.

An enriched environment for one student is not necessarily
enriched for another.

In the classroom we should teach students to think for
themselves.
"You might belong in Gryffindor,
Where dwell the brave at heart,
There daring, nerve, and chivalry
Set Gryffindors apart”
"You belong in Hufflepuff,
Where they are just and loyal,
Those patient Hufflepuffs are true
And unafraid to toil"
"Here in wise old Ravenclaw,
If you've a ready mind,
Those of wit and learning,
Will always find their kind."
"Here you are in Slytherin,
Where you'll make your real friends,
Those cunning folk use any means
To achieve their ends."