Teacher Education

Abstract: This article describes a comprehensive assistive technology (AT) teacher preparation model designed to address both general education and special education or early childhood education students. National technology standards provide the context for the model that incorporates (a) an innovative component, consisting of webbased modules and hands-on experiences, designed to prepare general education teacher candidates; and (b) a traditional component, consisting of coursework and experiential activities designed ...

Abstract: This article describes a comprehensive assistive technology (AT) teacher preparation model designed to address both general education and special education or early childhood education students. National technology standards provide the context for the model that incorporates (a) an innovative component, consisting of webbased modules and hands-on experiences, designed to prepare general education teacher candidates; and (b) a traditional component, consisting of coursework and experiential activities designed ...

While assistive technology (AT) consideration is required by the IDEA in developing IEPs for all students with disabilities, little guidance has been offered to date regarding the role of data in the consideration process. This article presents a series of data graphs that may assist teachers in making decisions about AT both prior to acquisition and following implementation of solutions considered by teams.

Abstract: On December 10, 2004, selected education and assistive technology (AT) leaders were invited to an AT visioning activity that intended to lead to the development of a national AT agenda. Participants were presented with seven questions to stimulate thinking regarding both the status and future of AT service delivery. Themes resulting from the discussion of each question were identified during the course of the meeting and were presented back to participants for consideration and refinement. Specific issues are ...

Abstract: Professionals on IEP teams increasingly are considering the potential contributions of assistive technology as they develop programs for students with disabilities. However, a significant technological “generational gap” may exist between the members of these teams and the young people they seek to serve, as the quality and quantity of student interactions with technology may differ dramatically from those of IEP team members. This gap may manifest itself in the selections of technology that may impair social acceptance of ...

Abstract: This study investigated the perspectives of teachers in an early childhood center concerning their thoughts and feelings about the implementation of a school wide assistive technology (AT) program designed to enhance emergent literacy skills for children identified as being at-risk or having special needs. Qualitative methodology was used to gain perspectives of all participants. Semi-structured interviews, observations in the classroom, and a self-assessment of AT knowledge and practice were used to collect data. Data were ...

This project investigated the educational outcomes of the use of SOLO™ from Don Johnston Incorporated (DJI) as a support to interventions designed to increase the writing skills of students with learning and academic disabilities. Teachers of students with mild disabilities (learning and behavior disabilities) at each of three levels (intermediate elementary, middle school, and high school) who had previously received training in the use of portable keyboarding devices, voice output, word prediction and/or text-to-speech ...

Assistive Technology Outcomes and Benefits is a collaborative publication of the Assistive Technology Industry Association (ATIA) and the Special education Assistive Technology (SEAT) Center at Illinois State University. This publication is provided at no-cost to readers. It is a peerreviewed, cross-disability, transdisciplinary journal that publishes articles related to the benefits and outcomes of assistive technology (AT) across the lifespan. The journal's purposes are to (a) foster communication among vendors, AT Specialists, AT Consultants ...

This article explores the potential of User Groups as a professional development venue for early childhood educators in developing operational and functional competence in using hardware and software components of an Assistive Technology (AT) Toolkit. User Groups are composed of varying numbers of participants having an interest in technology, and are led by one or more skilled facilitators who meet with participants across time to help them acquire and demonstrate new technology skill sets. A series of these groups were conducted with seven early education professionals serving young preschool children who were at risk or who had disabilities. The impact of these User Groups was examined using self-reports subsequent to User Group participation. Specific data were collected regarding the types of technologies that had been used, and the types of classroom instructional products that had been created and implemented in classrooms using the technologies. A discussion of the value of User Groups is presented.

Recently new ways of administering course evaluations have moved to an online format. There have been advantages and drawbacks to online course evaluations as compared to paper-pencil evaluations. One of the greatest concerns with online course evaluations is the lower response rates compared to paper-pencil surveys. This research study aims to find out whether those concerns are legitimate by examining the students' response rate to a new online course evaluation implemented at a small size public university in the United States. Investigating variables such as class format, class level, and class size, there were no statistically significant results, suggesting these factors did not play a role in students' response rates. What potential factors may have played a role in these results will be further discussed.

Although models have been proposed to guide the important work of school teams as they implement the assistive technology consideration process, little understanding exists as to how these models relate to recommended practices for educational assessment. This article proposes a comparison between educational assessment practices and four selected models of the assistive technology consideration process that are documented in the literature. The strengths and limitations of the assistive technology consideration models are discussed and recommendations for future research and practices are presented.

Supplemental material, JDPS-01-18-0006R2_Appendix for Recommendations for a National Research Agenda in UDL: Outcomes From the UDL-IRN Preconference on Research by Sean J. Smith, Kavita Rao, K. Alisa Lowrey, J. Emmett Gardner, Eric Moore, Kimberly Coy, Matthew Marino and Brian Wojcik in Journal of Disability Policy Studies

This study examines how college students rate Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) in terms of User Interface Design and Universal Instructional Design. The research participants were 115 undergraduate students from a public midwestern university in the United States. Each participant evaluated three randomly chosen MOOCs, all of which were developed on the Coursera platform, using rubrics for User Interface Design and Universal Instructional Design. The results indicated that students had an overall positive impression of each MOOC's course design. This study concludes that overall course design strategies are not associated with the massive dropout rates currently documented in MOOC learning environments. The authors suggest the use of appropriate instructional design principles be further explored.

Reduction of the quinoline ring in an a v b 3 antagonist yielded a 1,2,3,4-tetrahydro derivative as two diastereomers, the four isomers of which were separated by sequential chiral HPLC. Two isomers had significant a V b 3 antagonist activity with improved oral bioavailability, relative to the corresponding quinoline derivative.