21st Century ACCESS in K-12 Education
by Keri Huddleston, Washoe County School District, NV
 

In 2011, myself and two colleagues who serve students with complex needs in the Assistive Technology (AT) department in our school district, set out to make a video that could demonstrate the kinds of learning opportunities technology makes possible for students in self-contained classrooms. Students featured in our video have complex learning needs that arise from various disabilities including autism, various medical conditions, cerebral palsy, intellectual and physical impairments. They tell a compelling story of how technology access can be a keystone to academic success.

The 9 minute video, aptly named “21st Century Access: Imagine the Possibilities,” was accomplished with the help of our school videographer, support from our Deputy Superintendent and lots of enthusiastic students and teachers. It is our hope that the video may shift assumptions for school administrators, teachers, parents and communities who may not fully be aware of the success these kids are capable of achieving.

Watch "21st Century Access: Imagine the Possibilities" 

Students in our video demonstrate how to use whiteboards, assistive technology software, portable interactive devices, AAC, adaptive keyboards, switches, touch windows and accessible curriculum in digital or electronic formats. You will see how these technologies improved their literacy skills and built their self-confidence. You will see enthusiasm in their faces and hear amazement in their teachers’ voices. We hope you can imagine similar learning scenarios in your school.

Throughout 2011, our students became more engaged. They read with comprehension. They interact during whole group instruction, write full paragraphs and communicate with familiar and unfamiliar partners. 

At first, we thought the video would serve as an attempt to seek funding for increased hardware, software and accessible instructional materials. We felt the technologies were worth fighting for since our students’ showed positive academic results. But, the video became much more of an ambassador of sorts, demonstrating the power of helping students in self-contained classrooms break down their own learning barriers and convince others  of any previous stereotyping of their capabilities. 

When children are given the right tools and strategies to accommodate their disabilities, they can accomplish great things. Armed with our video and a list of beneficial technology programs, we marched into faculty meetings and presented our case. We wanted to see these technologies become more available across our district. We wanted them to be standard and sustainable in our classrooms. And we wanted to talk about some of the obstacles that faced our mission.

As in many schools across the U.S., the Information Technology (IT) team is responsible for controlling access to school servers. They safeguard data, manage licenses and restrict usage of accounts. This is their job. In contrast, Assistive Technology (AT) teams, like us, want more ACCESS to technology and to provide a broader scope of tools to support and improve anytime, anywhere learning opportunities. Through discussions, we acknowledged that our department objectives were opposing in some cases.

Our video actually challenged the thinking process of all of us -- principals, school board trustees and district administrators. We began to collaborate on school-wide technology planning to make it more inclusive for all students. We addressed issues of quality instructional practices and using technology more widely in classrooms to serve students with learning and special needs.

Technology Can Greatly Increases Student Engagement and Productivity

When you view our video, you will see many students using Co:Writer, a simple word prediction writing tool, to express their thoughts. You will see teachers using interactive whiteboards in daily instruction. Frequently, they would also use Read:OutLoud a text-to-speech reading software that highlights words and reads them aloud. Students could go to any number of digital sources including e-books and web pages using this application. They were more engaged in reading and comprehended more content. Their reading and writing skills developed with these technology supports.

Today, teachers, neighbors and friends look at our video and say, “I had no idea that kids with these disabilities could use technology in this way.” We hope you will SEE their potential through our video. 

If your special education department is seeking strategies to approach general education teachers, curriculum coordinators, high level administrators or the information technology staff, feel free to share our video to open a discussion. This is the reason we shared our video with Don Johnston’s team. Together, we can raise public awareness and set higher expectations for ourselves and for the very kids who need technology the most to be successful learners.

Sincerely,  

Keri Huddleston
Moria Soulia
Robbin Vasquez