AlphaSmart, Literature Review! Melissa Whyman! 10/9/11 !

Search Procedures! As a Special Education teacher, I have become a member of the Student Council for Exceptional Children. Along with my membership to this organization, I receive monthly journals and magazines pertaining to education issues around students with disabilities. This was my rst step in the Literature Review. I looked at issues of Teaching Exceptional Children, Learning Disabilities, and Exceptional Children. I found that Teaching Exceptional Children has the most useful journal articles. I then moved onto textbooks related to students with disabilities as well as Web Literacy. I found these books to be useful in the law aspect of technology for students with disabilities. I then went to the internet to further my research. I searched through articles on Google Scholar. I found one excellent article. My initial google search produced the AlphaSmart website which had important information on how the device is used. !

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Findings! Paper made life easier. Centuries later, a new and even more powerful technology emerged that started to replace paper.(November) This technology has had amazing transformations in the way students and the world operate. The technology related assistance to individuals with disabilities act of 1988, often called the Tech Act, authorizes federal funds to be granted to the states to help create statewide systems for delivering assistive technology and technology services to people with disabilities. (Turnbull) It is because of this Act that my current school has had the access to 15 AlphaSmarts. These assistive technology devices are any item, piece of equipment or product system, whether acquired commercially off the shelf, modied, or customized, that is used to increase maintain, promote the functional capacities of children with disabilities. (Turnbull)! Assistive technology has, of course, had the biggest impact on students with disabilities. Many students who were previously thought to be unteachable have been able to access curricula, including the general curriculum, by using these tools. (Teaching,2006) It is this idea of giving students assess to learning that they previously couldnt achieve that has brought me to my action research. Does the use of technology really help students? In our classrooms, it is not unusual to see students who struggle to produce legible print. IN actuality, many students have difculty with the physical printing and writing process (which will henceforth be referred to as handwriting)- difculty that is signicant enough to interfere with their academic performance. (Teaching, 2009) If this is the case then, Does technology make it easier for students with disabilities? ! As early as 1984, computers were considered as a writing medium for students with learning disabilities and research has been continuing to address the use of the computer for the writing needs of students with learning disabilities.(Teaching. 2009) As a Special Education teaching federal law mandates the consideration of AT when writing a students IEP. They must identify available accommodations, modications, and

AT that promote access to the general education curriculum. (Teaching, 2006) Because of this law I need to make sure that I include all things that will assist students in their academic and future endeavors. Keyboarding is a critical life skill, and in education, the focus must be on the skills that will serve our students well now and in their future.(Teaching, 2009) Writing is a difcult and demanding task requiring attention to multiple processes. Data fro the national assessment of educational progress shows three out of every four 4th, 8th and 12th grade students demonstrated only partial master of necessary writing skills and knowledge at their respective grade levels. (Expectional Children) This data shows that students need to be given another avenue to express their knowledge.! For many students with ASD(Autism Spectrum Disorder) and other developmental disabilities, intellectual or cognitive processing takes a backseat to the effort involved in the motor planning that must go on in order to put pencil to paper. Thus, the students quality and quantity of response is diminished.(Teaching, 2009) Technology can change all of this for students. The use of an AlphaSmart can assist students in their ability to produce more and higher quality work. Some might argue that the cost is too high to be able to get technology into the hands of all students with Learning Disabilities. All that is needed is a word processing program. The student will not need access to the internet or any other programs, nor will the students need a new computer.(Teaching, 2009)! When each student was given an AlphaSmart, a high percentage of students saw word processors as a primary tool for writing. Having unfettered access to an AlphaSmart also changed the way they approached writing, according to their teachers, nearly universally improved the quality of their work. (Russell) I hope that the use of AlphaSmarts with my students also increases their quantity. Beside that I just hope to see if it improves their ability to complete the task. Perhaps more importantly, all three participating teachers reported that the increased technology led to higher quality student work. The teachers elaborated that students were more willing to write longer drafts of their papers for all subject areas and they were more apt to remember about paragraphs and quotation and punctuation marks. (Russell) I feel like this proves that technology does improve student work.Individuals with communication, physical, learning, and sensory disabilities use assistive devices to gain greater control over their lives and environment.(Teaching, 2005) As a teaching this is my primary goal for students. If they are able to gain greater control over their lives then they will be more motivated to work. !

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Conclusions! After compiling all the information on the topic of AlphaSmart use for students with disabilities, I found that the research states students who use assistive technology can produce more detailed, expressive writing than if they used the standard pencil and paper. The use of this Assistive technology assists students whom have motor issues as well as expressive difculties. I didnt nd much research on the idea of work completion increasing with the use of the technology. However, the research did show that the quantity of work was increased. My action research will give me a greater sense of how successful assistive technology is for students in regards to work completion. !

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References! Brown, L. (2009). Take the Pencil Out of the Process. Teaching Exceptional Children, 42(1), 14-21.! Cramer, M. M., & Turnbull, R. (2002). Student study guide to accompany Exceptional lives, special education in today's schools, 3rd edition. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill/Prentice Hall.! Marino, M., Marino, E., & Shaw, S. (2006). Making Informed Assistive Technology Decisions for Students with High Incidence Disabilities. Teaching Exceptional Children, 38(6), 19-24.! NEO Direct - Perfect for All Writing Needs. (n.d.). NEO Direct - Perfect for All Writing Needs. Retrieved October 10, 2011, from http://www.alphasmart.com! November, A. C. (2010). Web Literacy. Empowering students with technology (2nd ed., pp. 1-2). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.! Russell, M., Bebell, D., Cowan, J., & Corbell, M. (2003). An AlphaSmart for each student: Do teaching and learning change with full access to word processors?. Computers and Composition, 20(1), 51-76. Retrieved October 9, 2011, from http://0-www.sciencedirect.com.skyline.ucdenver.edu/science/article/pii/ S8755461502001755! Salend, S. (2005). Using Technology to Teach About Individual Differences Related to Disabilities. Teaching Exceptional Children, 38(2), 32-38.