From
The Packet in N.J. In the picture, Aaron Hoats uses a Kindle to read a novel.
The silver-gray iPods stored in a small, crate-like box in Kate DeLong’s classroom are filled, not surprisingly, with audio files listened to by teenagers. But it’s Harper Lee, not the Black-Eyed Peas, you’ll find on the media players.
Ms. DeLong is a teacher at Newgrange School, a nonprofit educational institution in Hamilton for children with learning disabilities. The iPods are just one example of how the gadgets most of us perceive as being simply cool or convenient are being used in the education of students.
Ms. DeLong teaches a class of students who are on the autism spectrum. As she puts it, her pupils don’t necessarily have a reading disability, “it’s more about their social skills and the nature of being on the autistic spectrum.”
Students in Ms. DeLong’s and other classes use iPods to listen to books as they read along with a printed copy. Those books include Ms. Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, Night by Elie Wiesel and Drums, Girls & Dangerous Pie by Jordan Sonnenblick. Ms. DeLong says she listens to all of the books before sharing them with her class (of the multiple recordings of To Kill a Mockingbird, she chose the one read by actress Sissy Spacek).
Another gadget Ms. DeLong uses is the Kindle, Amazon’s electronic device that holds reading materials such as books, magazines and newspapers. The Kindle’s features allow users to look up word definitions and to underline passages. It also has a vocal reader, though the voice is somewhat robotic and misreads the occasional word, such as acronyms.
”It’s one more tool we have to keep the kids involved with stuff,” says Howard Kaplan, educational director at Newgrange, of the technology used in classrooms. “And they like it because it’s cool. Technology grabs everyone’s attention and so they’re focused where you want them to be focused.”
Other technologies available to Newgrange students include the use of Mac laptop computers and SMART Boards, a sort of techno chalkboard. Teachers can write on SMART Boards, of course, but students and teachers can also move elements drawn onto the board. Another handy feature lets teachers project their computer screen onto the board. Also, notes and diagrams can be drawn onto images in different colors — it looks similar to John Madden working a Telestrator during a football game.
Joan Grande, who teaches history at Newgrange, says the SMART Boards allow teachers to add more excitement to their lessons. If she were discussing ancient Rome, for example, she could pull up an image of the Colosseum off the Internet.
”As you’re talking or guiding them through something, you can pull the pictures up immediately, they can see it, they don’t have to just listen to you,” Ms. Grande says. “It’s there, they know what you’re talking about.” Teachers, of course, create lesson plans, but the technology also allows them to improvise.
Educators’ SMART Boards and laptops help keep students engaged. That’s likely because while the students have learning differences, Ms. Grande says their technological skills are very good. Newgrange has a ratio close to one laptop per student, according to Ms. Grande.
Still, in using all this technology in the classroom, Ms. DeLong says it’s important for teachers to remember that not all students are good with new technology.
”I think it’s really important to help the kids understand that the technology is there to help them and assist them, but we can’t assume that all kids are good at it,” she says. “Even though they’re more savvy and they might be open to techy things, because they have processing difficulties and delays we have to take a step back.”
Newgrange is approved to teach grades kindergarten through 12. Bob Hegedus, the school’s principal, says its youngest students are in second grade because public schools usually keep students through kindergarten and first grade before recommending them to a school specializing in teaching kids with learning differences. The school’s students come from 42 different districts. (The institution also operates an education center in Princeton, which offers services like tutoring, educational evaluations and reading screenings for people of all ages.)
Mr. Hegedus says most students at the school have language-based differences. It could mean they can read but have trouble comprehending, or they may be able to read and comprehend, but can’t express themselves in writing.
Technology, and ways to apply it to classroom settings, have coincided with changes in the way students, particularly those with learning differences, are taught.
”Taking a look at where it was 20 years ago and where it is now, it’s really grown leaps and bounds, for the better I have to say,” Mr. Hegedus says. “Especially with all the technological advances, I think that’s been a boom for our students. The technology gives them a step ahead in many respects.”
Laws governing special education and awareness of learning disabilities have contributed to improved education as well. Terms like “autism spectrum” have helped parents understand that not all autistic children have the same learning differences, for example.
”I think people are probably more aware that there are services for kids who are struggling in school,” Mr. Kaplan says. “So people will ask if a school takes care of their kid’s needs.”
Expectations are higher for these students than they were 20 years ago (many graduates go on to college) and so is the understanding of what they can accomplish. Mr. Hegedus says many of the students at Newgrange have “hidden talents” that often go unrecognized in traditional classrooms. These include artistic and musical abilities. Of how technologically savvy some students are, the principal says, “It’s just amazing.”
”We present our kids to the same kinds of academic rigors (as traditional schools),” Mr. Hegedus says. “But we do it in different kinds of ways so that we are preparing them to further their education if that’s what they want to do.”
From The Packet in N.J. In the picture, Aaron Hoats uses a Kindle to read a novel.
