Edtech 541 Adaptive and Assistive Technology

• Mild forms tend to be most prevalent

type of disability

• Includes learning disabilities, serious

emotional disabilities and mental

retardation

• Needs assistance with reading, writing,

memory and retention of information

• Key is to balance remediation of skills

and development of higher level

thinking skills

National Library of Virtual Manipulatives

This is a powerful website that offers interactive tools for students to

learn a variety of math topics of

varying difficulties. Students can

access the manipulatives to learn

math concepts visually and

kinesthetically. This website is good

for any student to master their math

skills but it particularly assists

students with learning disabilities.

Glencoe Virtual Math Manipulatives

Students with cognitive disabilities may struggle to

conceptualize difficult math concepts. This

technology provides a blank canvas and a variety of

tools for students to manipulate and learn from. Math

teachers have been using Algetiles and Geoboards

for decades to teach students math concepts with a

hands-on approach. This website provides these tools

in a technological setting for free.

• Affects a person’s mobility or agility

• May experience gross or fine motor skill

difficulties

• Provide students with alternative

methods of accessing keyboard,

mouse and/or monitor

• Goal is to identify appropriate tools for

access and control that allow the

student to participate at the maximum

level

Math Talk

Math Talk is the leading software

in speech recognition

mathematics. This technology

allows students who struggle with

fine motor skills the ability to speak their solutions and have them

typed out. This offers students with

a physical disability the

opportunity to do math without a

keyboard, mouse or pencil. This

program works for developing

graphs also. The math notebook

products that are compatible

with Dragon Naturally Speaking are available from Metroplex

Voice Computing.

EmPower Program

The FX software is designed to make it easier

to type, draw and graph math problems.

Many students with physical disabilities find

mathematics and science extremely difficult

to write. The equations and graphics are too

difficult to construct with standard tools. These

products are designed to make mathematics

and science teacher's jobs easier but many

students with special needs have found that

they also provide the assistance they need.

Efofex has four software program for math: FX

equation, FX draw, FX graph and FX stat. All of

these programs make it easier to write math

problems strictly using the keyboard. The

EmPower Program provides all of these

programs to students with special needs free

of cost.

• Impairments associated with the loss

of hearing or vision

• These disabilities are identified as

hearing impaired, deaf, partially

sighted or blind.

• Assistive Technologies such as speech

to text, narration, magnification or

screen readers are widely used for

persons with these disabilities.

Talking Calculator

The Orion TI-84 Plus Talking Graphing Calculator is a

modified TI-84 Plus with a small attachment that adds

accessibility and additional controls. American Printing

House for the Blind partnered with Orbit Research and

Texas Instruments to make this powerful calculator

accessible. A graphing calculator is a must for any high

school math student and now this tool is fully functional

for blind and visually-impaired.

Math Daisy

This software works with Microsoft Word and Mathtype

programs to provide a text to speech version of

documents for students with visual impairments. Since

many teachers use these tools to write

worksheets, quizzes and tests for math class, this

program would be a valuable technology for students

with sensory disabilities.

Khan Academy

Khan Academy is a wonderful resource for any math

student to use to better understand the lessons in math

class. This website provides instructional videos on

practically every math topic from addition to Calculus. In

2011, Khan Academy made all of their videos universally

accessible by providing closed captioning options for the

hearing impaired and for viewers who speak different

languages.

• Face similar academic challenges as

disabled students and similar

technology tools and strategies can be

implemented to promote success.

• Learning difficulties include struggling

with math computations and concepts,

lack of motivation, and difficulty

remembering a sequence of tasks.

• Goal is to use technology to provide

powerful and motivating opportunities

to engage in learning activities.

BrainPOP

BrainPop is an educational website with over 1,000

short animated movies for students in grades K-12.

This resource provides students and educators with

quizzes, supplemental information and related

materials, covering a variety of subjects of

science, mathematics, engineering and

technology. Presenting math in a fun, engaging

manner like this can be beneficial to all students but

can be especially motivational to an at-risk student.

Math Motivation

This website provides lesson plans, videos and

activities to motivate high school math students

that do not see the relevance of the subject in their

lives. There are numerous resources for showing

students real world examples and helping them

answer the nagging question of, “When am I ever

go to use this stuff?” At Risk students that will benefit

from seeing the value of learning the subject at

hand.

• Need services and activities not

ordinarily provided by the school in

order to be challenged and achieve

high standards

• Goal is to provide students with the

tools to engage in higher level

research and learning experiences

that properly align with their learning

abilities

Problems of the Week

The Math Forum at Drexel University provides a wonderful

website filled with resources and tools for math educators

and students alike. There is a section of the site devoted to

the problem of the week. There is a challenging problem

listed every week for students of primary grades, math

fundamentals, pre-algebra, algebra, geometry and

trigonometry/calculus to attempt and submit online. At the

end of the week, the solution to this problem is posted and

a new problem is provided. This website provides resources

for teachers to implement these Problems of the Week into

their lessons and there is also a library of previous POWs.

This resource allows gifted students to challenge

themselves and develop higher order thinking skills.

Try Engineering

Tryengineering.org is a resource for

students to learn about engineering

and engineering careers. The goal is

that this site will help young people

better understand what engineering

means, and how an engineering

career can be made part of their

future. Students can use this site to

research the lifestyles, education and

accomplishments of engineers as well

as participate in hands-on learning

experiences in the field. This is a great

resource for gifted and talented math

students that may be considering a

career in engineering.

Anderson, G.H. (2010). Glenda’s Assistive Technology Information and More: Math, Math and more Math. Retrieved from:

http://atclassroom.blogspot.com/2010/09/math-math-and-

more-math.html

Roblyer, M.D. and Doering, A.H. (2013). Integrating Educational

Technology Into Teaching, (6th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ:

Pearson Education, Inc.