Week 9: Issues Related to Training SE Teacher for Technology

Describe issues related to training special education teachers to use technology.

I found it interesting that special education technology has been a part of the US system since 1879 when Congress approved $10K for Braille material. And later on the government created SEIMCs to help make education technologies more accessible to SE teachers. With that as a backdrop, and in spite of the efforts of universities and colleges to training teachers on the use of technology, there still remain issues in this area. Today’s teaching student is generally tech savvy but much of this knowledge is centered on communication software, spreadsheet, word processor, graphic production software products. What many new teachers have is little exposure to those technologies that help their effectiveness in teaching their students and by extension, the improvement of their student’s grasp of the content. The area of assistive technologies is another area where that is most likely little to no exposure by the new SE teacher.

Give examples of no-tech, low-tech, and high-tech solutions for special students.

A few examples of tech solutions for special education students are:
No-tech; Teaching to person to use their body in a different manner to minimize impairment such as typing with one hand. No-tech solutions are those that are available in any environment at any time with no limitations.
Low-tech; Organizational systems, highlighters, portable dictionaries or other non-electrical solutions that provide support in specific tasks. Low-tech solutions are also low in cost and are flexible to the student’s needs
High-tech; Can be complex electrical or hydraulic systems such as stair-lifts, powered wheelchairs, voice-activated environmental controls, electronic spelling checkers. The high-tech solutions are more costly and more restrictive due to user skills and portability.

What are the "history wars," and what are their implications for technology use in history?

The "history wars" refer to a debate about the content of Social Studies classes. The debate is concerns the role of history in the Social Studies curriculum. Some of the questions that are part of this debate are whether Social Studies should be mainstream and traditional historical events or whether broader themes should be taught.

With technology providing more access to information via the Internet, the debate about Social Studies content is partly in the hands of the students. Students can research information on more traditional history topics or may find other social issues more interesting. In any event, not only will the teacher need to know mainstream history but also continue being exposed to broader issues in order to intellectually "feed" the student.

With students' ready access to information on the Internet, what might be the concerns of social studies teachers?

The concern that any teacher may have with information from the Internet is reliability. While a teacher may provide links for students to use for research, there is no guarantee that the student will stay within the directed "zone" of research. If the Internet becomes the primary source of student information for Social Studies then the teacher's influence as the Subject Matter Expert can be diminished. I can't see the Internet losing ground to traditionally taught subjects so the best that educational institutions is adapt and direct the learning experience rather then be pushed along by the massive data available on the web.