Sunday, September 19, 2010
Special Ed Technology
After our meeting last Saturday, I got to thinking about how special education teachers use technology in the classroom. I work with children who have cerebral palsey, mental retardation (I despise that word) and multiple disabilities. It is all fine and dandy when the schools give all the classrooms smartboards and laptops for their classrooms, but what about my students? I need other kinds of technology, for example switches with the electronic devices attached to them. These are too expensive to be bought with our special education allotment. It is very frustrating...
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
It seems that at our school the special education classrooms are always the last to get new technology but our children are not self contained, all of our special education students are in the classrooms with pullout that is specific to their IEP. These classrooms still need new technology though, even for pullout, especially since these are usually students that are struggling. I do not know much about the technology that is at Rocky Mount Elementary which is where the self contained classrooms are located. That is where Dymphna works so it will be interesting to see what she says about it. I agree, needing what we know we need, whether it's technology or not, and never getting it, is very frustrating.
ReplyDeleteI agree that special education funds are short and it seems that our students get left out often. I think that technology money needs to be spread out to all students. I would have to agree that the technology for our students is different than laptop or Smart Boards. Our students need communication devices and switches. I would say that our students need the technology more than other students. Without the technology our students would suffer more than the general education population. Our school system does write many grants to get the technology we need. I have to agree that it is very frustrating.
ReplyDeleteI too work in a special education room. We don't have all the little gadgets everyone else has. I beleive that these students are important too. I can understand your frustration. I feel that technology is important for these little people to. I almost believe more so. They need the technology to learn and grow. In your situation they need technology to help them function in the classroom, which is more important. These exceptional people do deserve the chance to be exposed to technology and grow from it.
ReplyDeleteThanks for stopping by our blog! I love getting comments from people outside the Ds community. As you read, we are totally new to IEPs and the education system for our son with Down syndrome, so I don't have anything to offer, but I hear your frustration. My 3 older kids' school is just getting smart boards, but only because it was funded by parents and some private donors (and it's a private school). As for the kids you teach, you say you hate the term "mental retardation". Of course, you don't have to use it... we parents hate it, too. Developmentally delayed, intellectual disabilities, etc. are better choices and soon the term MR will no longer be used and replaced with ID. Maybe one day the word "retard" won't be used to classify our precious children if it's no longer used anywhere else. One can only hope... Have a great Thanksgiving.
ReplyDelete