Article Summary:
This
article reviews how technology can be integrated into a math classroom,
especially to benefit the Learning Disabled (LD). The authors explored and
summarized previous research about benefits of integrating technology in a math
classroom to assist LD students. They then went on to recommend ways to
integrate 21st century technology into the classroom. During these
recommendations, they pointed out where further research about the integration
of technology in the classroom with the LD students needs to be done.
Technology can be used in a math classroom to the benefit of all of the
students. These technologies do not always need to be “High Tech” and expensive
but can also be “Low Tech” and inexpensive, the purpose of the technology
integration is to help the students learning. To make the integration of
technology more successful research needs to be done about what technologies
are best integrated and the best way to integrate them.
Personnel Experience:
I
have been teaching what my school calls Advanced Algebra, which is really a
class to cover gaps between our Algebra I and Algebra II curriculum. These gaps
where created by the transition to Common Core, once these gaps are covered in
the two algebra courses the Advanced Algebra class will become a course to help
student broaden their knowledge of Algebra I skills before they move on to
Algebra II. In the years that I have been teaching this course, I have had many
students that have learning disabilities. I have used any technologies that I
can to make these students successful in the classroom. Just last year, I had a
student with a hearing disability and we used a set up that had headphones for
her and a microphone for me so that she could hear what I was saying. This
drastically helped her understanding. It also helped her pay attention in class
especially because she caught jokes that I made that no one else was able to
hear. I made these jokes for the express purpose to help her stay focused in
class. I have also used low tech solutions to help LD students, one of the most
popular is a homework/classwork log that the students must take back and forth
from the teacher to the parents every day to help them stay focused and
organized. I had never really considered that low technology solutions are
still integrating technology in the classroom to help the students and this
article really helped me see and understand that the integration of technology
does not always need to be expense or “high Tech”.
Allsopp, D. H., McHatton, P. A., &
Farmer, J. L. (2010). TECHNOLOGY, MATHEMATICS PS/RTI, AND STUDENTS WITH LD:
WHAT DO WE KNOW, WHAT HAVE WE TRIED, AND WHAT CAN WE DO TO IMPROVE OUTCOMES NOW
AND IN THE FUTURE?. Learning Disability Quarterly, 33(4),
273-288. Retrieved from http://eds.b.ebscohost.com.proxy-library.ashford.edu/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=6e981f4e-2c0c-41fa-bdd5-42852b3cd7ba%40sessionmgr110&vid=2&hid=113
