TRAINING SPECIAL EDUCATION TEACHERS IN ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGY
Effects of Training Special Education Teachers in Assistive Technology
Stephanie Wade
Liberty University
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TRAINING SPECIAL EDUCATION TEACHERS IN ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGY
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Abstract
A systematic review of articles relating to the effects of training special education
teachers in assistive technology was completed. Studies are showing that special education
teachers do not have needed knowledge of assistive technology. In a society where there are an
increasing number of students in special education programs that would benefit for assistive
technology it is important for teachers to understand it, and be able to correctly implement it
within their classroom. Training both students as a part of special education teacher training
programs and training established classroom teachers in assistive technology may have an effect
on them using it in their classroom. There is a need for special education teachers to understand
assistive technology to be able to appropriately follow requirements of assistive technology in
the IEP. The prevalent theme throughout literature shows teacher training has an effect on
teachers using assistive technology within their special education classroom.
Keywords: assistive technology, training, university programs, special education, visual
impairment, professional development, teacher training
TRAINING SPECIAL EDUCATION TEACHERS IN ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGY
Effects of Training Special Education Teachers in Assistive Technology
Assistive technology can open up possibilities for students with special needs. Assistive
technology has helped students with special needs succeed in general education classrooms.
Because of advances in technology and more understanding of the benefits of assistive
technology, there has been more legislation that provides students and teachers with assistive
technology in the classroom (Pucket, 2005).
Special educators believe assistive technology helps students achieve reading and math
skills, improve standardized test scores, improve and meet objectives in the IEP, yet studies
show that the use of assistive technology is underutilized in today’s classrooms (Li, Ajuwon,
Smith, Griffin-Shirley, Parker, & Okungu, 2012). Assistive technology must be considered for
all students receiving special education services when developing the IEP according to the 1997
amendments of IDEA (Dalton & Rouch, 2010). Literature has shown that its underuse could be
due to lack of teacher training in assistive technology. Studies have shown that teachers are
unequipped to use assistive technology devices in the classroom because of lack of training
(Safhi, Zhou, Smith, & Kelley, 2009).
One aspect of assistive technology that I could not find in the survey of literature, were
studies dealing with training teachers in assistive technology in urban schools that serve lower
income students. Unfortunately, no studies were identified pertaining to this matter, so this will
be discussed as a recommendation for further research.
Definitions
Assistive technology by definition is "any item, piece of equipment, or product system,
whether acquired commercially off the shelf, modified, or customized, that is used to increase,
maintain, or improve the functional capabilities of individuals with disabilities" (Dalton &
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Rouch, 2010, p. 13). This definition is broad to include high-tech and low-tech devices
(Yeunjoo, Vega, & Ashton, 2005). Low-tech devices include magnifying objects, pencil grips,
simple calculators, and brail writers, whereas high tech devices include computerized devices.
The definition of disability that I am using is “an impairment of body structure or
functioning, a limitation in activities, or a restriction in participation, conceived as a dynamic
interaction between health conditions and environmental and personal factors” (Brackenreed,
2008, p. 70). The definition of disability is extremely broad and covers mild through severe
impairments. Assistive technology was created to help overcome disabilities.
Method
An extensive search of research articles was conducted using resources and databases
available through Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia. The most useful databases were
ERIC, Education Research Complete, Academic Search Complete and ProQuest. The following
key words were used to help narrow search results: assistive technology, adaptive technology,
teacher training, educational technology, university programs, and special education. It was
also critical to set some exclusion criteria for the search to help keep focus on the answers to the
research question; what is the effect of training special education teachers in assistive
technology? Consequently, articles older than 1995, were excluded due to the large number of
improvements that have taken place in educational technology and the changes in laws in special
education. Research articles that focused on hearing aids as assistive technology were
eliminated. Articles that reviewed or studied assistive technology had to meet the educational
definition of assistive technology and had to have support of the validity of the study. Lastly, all
articles collected and included were peer-reviewed.
Review of Related Literature
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Due to the large number of studies that explored a large number of possible factors
dealing with assistive technology in the classroom, the findings in this review will be grouped
into the three categories (a) disability categories, (b) types of assistive technology, and (c) types
of teacher training.
By grouping the factors into these three categories, it simplified and
organized the process of reviewing the vast amount of data.
Disability Categories
Assistive technology helps students overcome disabilities. It can be essential for students
with physical and visual impairments to complete tasks. While assistive technology is essential
to visually impaired students, literature suggests it is underutilized the in the classroom. “The
nonuse of assistive technology by students could be attributed, in part, to the inadequate
knowledge and skills of teachers of students with visual impairments in this area” (Li, Ajuwon,
Smith, Griffin-Shirley, Parker, & Okungu, 2012, p. 657). University programs for teachers of
students with visual impairments is lacking in training of assistive technology. In a study by Li,
Ajuwon, Smith, Griffin-Shirley, Parker, & Okungu (2012) of teachers with visual impairments
their research showed through the gathered qualitative data that integrating training in assistive
technology in university programs of teacher of students with visual impairments is effective.
Assistive technology can be helpful in the case of mild disabilities such as learning
disabilities. Rarely teachers utilize assistive technology with these students. For students with
learning disabilities audio books and voice activated word processing such as Dragon Naturally
Speaking can be helpful. According to the definition of assistive technology software programs
that help students meet IEP goals are assistive technology (Puckett, 2005). In the case study of
Alex, a university student created a study teaching a student with learning disabilities how to use
assistive technology. Then the student learned the technology through the study, and used it in
TRAINING SPECIAL EDUCATION TEACHERS IN ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGY
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her classroom. The teacher saw the effectiveness, and the student, Alex, taught the teacher how
to use the technology (Brackenreed, 2008).
Autism is another disability where assistive technology can be very useful. It is rapidly
on the rise, and teachers underutilize assistive technology as a support for students with Autism.
In a study by Hess, Morrier, Heflin, and Ivey looking at strategies that are used with students
who have autism in Georgia public schools assistive technology was the most utilized strategy in
teaching with students with autism, but it was only used by a fourth of the teachers. Many of the
other three fourths said it was not utilized because of lack of knowledge by the teacher in
implementing it.
Assistive technology helps students with physical impairments. Many times these
students lose out on valuable academic skills because of their physical limitations. Instead of
working on literacy skills, students with physical impairments work on overcoming physical
skills (Zascavage & Keefe, 2007). Teacher training using assistive technology with students
with physical disabilities is especially effective, because it helps overcome the physical
limitations and then teachers can concentrate on academic skills. In self-contained classrooms
less focus seems to be on academics and more on meeting physical goals, which assistive
technology can help overcome.
Types of Assistive Technology
Some teachers believe assistive technology is costly and hard to use. Research shows
that there are many different types of assistive technology. Technology can be as simple as a
special pencil grip or high tech such as special computers. Literature suggests that sometimes
that teachers tend to rate themselves based on being uncomfortable with assistive technology as
being uncomfortable with only the high tech devices.
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According to Sze, one difficulty in teaching students with severe disabilities is their
inability to communicate (2012). Assistive technology can help overcome these barriers. High
tech communication devices can be helpful, but it is essential that teachers understand the
technology to implement it correctly. Careful planning is essential when choosing the type of
assistive technology to use in the classroom. The teacher being a part of the interdisciplinary
team helps in the implementation and sometimes choice of the type of technology device to use
(Dissinger, 2003).
Types of Teacher Training
There are several ways to train teachers in assistive technology skills. Literature suggests
that it is important that assistive technology be implemented in university special education
programs. Even though there have been advances in technology, unless there are teachers that
understand these technologies and integrate it then the technology is ineffective. Athabasca
University created an online course to teach its preservice teachers assistive technology.
Feedback from this course has been positive because it involves multimedia case studies,
discussion, and visuals of different types of case studies (Chmiliar and Cheung, 2007). Other
universities are implementing classes where practice with assistive technology is done in actual
classrooms during a practicum. This method can be effective also in training future special
education teacher’s different technologies, so they can be competent in their own classroom.
According to a study by Gronseth, Brush, Ottenbreit-Leftwich, Strycker, Abaci,
Easterling, Roman, Shin, and Peter van Leusen (2010) all teacher education programs in the
United States are required to include a technology course, but rarely to programs include
assistive technology courses. Teachers in general education tend to have more experience with
the different types of technology they are expected to use, whereas special education teachers
TRAINING SPECIAL EDUCATION TEACHERS IN ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGY
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have little training in university programs in assistive technology. One study done at the
University Illinois found it especially useful teaching both general education and special
education teachers’ assistive technology, because of inclusion (Wojcik, Peterson-Karlan, Watts,
& Parette, 2004).
Since university programs before the passage of No Child Left Behind rarely included
training in assistive technology, it is important to train existing teachers in using assistive
technology. Literature suggests that it is effective to train existing teachers through professional
development (Dissinger, 2003). Dissinger (2003) created an inservice course on assistive
technology that showed effective as the end survey all participants felt they learned something
new from the course. Because technology is rapidly increasing once problem in teacher
understanding of assistive technology is that the understood information becomes rapidly out of
date (Sze, 2012). There is an ever increasing importance to keep special education teacher up to
date on the latest in assistive technology.
Key Findings/Implications for Professional Practice
Most studies reviewed were based on data collected from research studies that looked at
qualitative and quantitative data. I also looked at 2 literature reviews to research my topic. The
empirical research on assistive technology training shows that teacher training programs increase
competence in special education teacher using technology. This research can be used to continue
to develop teacher training programs for both the pre-service and the established classroom
teacher.
With newer legislation mandating the usage of assistive technology in schools it is
essential that teachers have the competence to understand its importance to students in special
TRAINING SPECIAL EDUCATION TEACHERS IN ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGY
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education programs to overcome disabilities. It used to be the job of the speech therapist or
assistive technology specialist to implement the use of assistive technology, but now teachers
being a part of the interdisciplinary team need to be able to implement its use in the classroom
(Chmiliar and Cheung, 2007). Teachers need to have an understanding, so they the IEP can
legally be followed when it includes assistive technology as a related service.
Conclusion/Recommendations
In conclusion this review of literature found that lack of use of assistive technology in
special education classrooms today mainly is due to a lack of knowledge of special education
teachers. Since assistive technology covers such a broad area it is hard for teacher training
programs to give students competence in every area of assistive technology. This reviews
showed the need for continued empirical research regarding assistive technology usage in the
classroom, and ways for teachers to gain more understand to it is utilized for the benefit of
students with disabilities.
So many different variables have an effect on the use of teachers using assistive
technology. It is recommended that more in-depth case studies be done to gain a better
perspective as to which teacher training program is the most effective in teaching special
education teachers to utilize assistive technology in their classroom. It would be very useful to
also look at the school districts access to assistive technology in studying the teacher’s use of
technology.
It was also very difficult to find any studies that dealt with lack of accessibility of training
of assistive technology in schools. It would be helpful to see research on if increasing access to
assistive technology is a factor on usage. Accessibility seems to be a factor in urban schools that
serve at risk students, but most studies have dealt with suburban schools or schools associated
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with universities. There is a need to see if training teachers in urban schools increases the use
and access of assistive technology in an urban setting.
The focus of this review is to look at the effects of teacher training teachers utilizing
assistive technology in the classroom. In reviewing the literature at hand, it is obvious that there
have been many studies done that determine why teachers do not utilize assistive technology in
the classroom. It is safe to say that the best way to improve the use of technology is to provide
teachers resources that give them competence in utilizing assistive technology.
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References
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