For educators and learners alike, education technology is a revolution. The role of technology in education is growing, and it is important to understand how to use it in the classroom.
The benefits of technology in education include: increasing access to education, improving educational outcomes, improving student and teacher learning, and supporting inclusion.
As a whole, research into how technology can improve access for people with disabilities and special needs has grown since the early 2000s due to the improvements in internet accessibility for all users.
Supporting Learners With Disabilities – New Education Technology for Accessibility
New technologies in the past decade have made the inclusion of learners with disabilities easier and more accessible for all. This is especially true for learners with visual impairments, as screen readers and voice recognition are becoming more advanced.
The use of learning management systems, or LMSs, can make it easier for visually impaired learners to learn from their peers. Software like Blackboard and Moodle contains built-in tools that allow text to be converted into audio files and translated into different languages.
Assistive technologies are also increasingly being integrated into classrooms everywhere.
Some examples include Braille displays that can be used as a computer display, digital voice recorders that minimize background noise, and TVs equipped with closed captions to help people who are hard of hearing read along while watching television.
With these new technologies, students with disabilities can catch up with their peers without worrying about the cost or availability of assistive devices.
Accessibility in Mainstream Education
Let’s first talk about accessibility in mainstream education. Has it been a struggle for you to keep up with your classmates and achieve the same learning outcomes as them?
Have you been able to participate in some of the same activities, even if they were modified to fit your specific needs?
Have you had access to special tools or technologies that made it easier for you to get the most out of your time at school?
If so, then you have likely benefited from mainstream educational accessibility.
Students with disabilities have a right to participate in mainstream educational settings but also often benefit from doing so.
This is because they gain exposure to their peers’ social and educational experiences, which can help them develop their own identities and relationships.
Having access to resources that allow students with disabilities to engage in these settings more fully is an important part of ensuring equity in our schools.
This is common by providing accommodations—changes made within an existing system—to students who need them. These might include things like extra time on tests or special seating arrangements (so someone using a wheelchair could sit near the front of the class).
However, not every student with disabilities will be able to use these kinds of adjustments without encountering barriers due to their disability.
Inclusion in Education and Technology
With a host of new features designed to remove the barriers that prevent some students from learning, technology is paving the way for an inclusive future. But what are these features, and why are they important?
For one, many people with disabilities have difficulty accessing education because they may not have access to transportation, or their disability limits their independence.
Education Technology can help by providing tools that allow them to learn at home and on their own terms. It also offers a wide range of resources like Sweetstudy’s homework answers that can be used in conjunction with traditional learning methods. That way, students with disabilities don’t feel excluded from classroom activities due to issues related to their disability.
In addition, technology enables more personalized teaching experiences and allows teachers who use assistive devices like wheelchairs or laptops with screen readers (which read aloud written text) easy access into classrooms where they might otherwise face physical barriers just getting through doorways!
The future of education and inclusion looks bright. With more and more education being delivered digitally and with new pieces of education technology in flux, there are increasing opportunities to use digital media as a means of inclusion.
As every educator knows, the learning landscape has undergone profound changes over recent years. We can’t predict what the classroom will look like in the future, but we can say that it will likely bear little resemblance to classrooms today.
In fact, if you asked one hundred people to draw a picture depicting what they think school looks like, most would likely draw rows of desks with a teacher at the front of the room.
But more than likely, this won’t be true for much longer as distance learning becomes ever more popular, especially as online and remote learning become increasingly prevalent.
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