Hi everyone,
In a world where technology is rapidly reshaping education, assistive technology (AT) stands at the forefront of inclusive innovation. Our immersive Open Educational Resource (OER) aims to explore how AI is transforming assistive technology, especially those designed to support executive function.
We cover:
- How assistive technology is being used in today’s classrooms
- How AI integration helps enhance accessibility and personalization
- What executive dysfunction is and how it affects learning
- Which tools are helping students overcome executive function challenges
- What the future holds for assistive technologies and AI-powered assistive technologies
- Visit the OER Website Here and engage in the discussions.
- Join the discussion after you complete the OER by commenting below!
After you are finished exploring the OER, please join the discussion below. In addition to answering the discussion questions, we would appreciate any feedback on how we can further improve our OER.
Discussion Questions:
- What assistive technologies supporting executive function do you already use in the classroom or in your daily life?
- If you could design one assistive technology that would support students in the classroom, what would that be? What skill would it support?
- Do you have any concerns about the increased integration of AI into assistive technologies in education?
Looking forward to your insightful contributions to the discussion,
Tim & Anna
The common theme or biggest benefit I noted is: Good AT helps people be(come) themselves. In other words, impactful and well-integrated AT supported by AI can increase learners’ capacity for authentic communication and meaningful participation through more personalized supports. As someone with ADHD too annaren, I couldn’t agree more.
The most common AT I see being used in education is speech-to-text/text-to-speech technology. In my local context, Read&Write and Immersive Reader are used and accessible on all district devices and accounts, yet I feel they are inconsistently used and understood by educators. In other words, I don’t think the personalized piece is as developed as it needs to be for these things to be as powerful as they could be in my context.
I often think we can all benefit from using personalized AT and AI tools where we struggle in life and that many of these tools should be freely accessible to anyone who wants to use them to learn and live a healthier life. I also wonder how different life would have been for myself, had I been diagnosed with ADHD much earlier and had access to better, more personalized supports.
While the beneficial affordances are clear, there are caveats that must be addressed in the design of AT — as noted in your work. If the true goal is to create meaningful, ethical, and impactful supports we must address privacy, accountability, sustainability, and algorithmic bias in their design and use of AI.
Thanks for your thoughtful response, Patrick! That personalized piece is very important. In terms of the inconsistent implementation of assistive technology by teachers, you hit on something that I have always thought about the implementation of any type of technology within schools–which is that there is a lot of mental labour that goes into using technology in classrooms. It can be difficult for teachers to keep up with that. The technology support offered to teachers when it comes to learning and implementing technology, assistive or otherwise, hasn’t kept pace with the amount and speed with which new technologies come to the fore. Perhaps this is something that AI can support educators with in the future AI doesn’t have to necessarily have to deal with cognitive overload and the limitations of the human memory and brain.
Great job Anna and Tim. I learned a lot from your OER and it made me reflect a lot in how I use assistive tech in my own teaching practice and day-to-day life. It also made me realize I use quite a bit of assistive tech myself. For example, I rely heavily on reminders on my phone for various things because I have a difficult time remembering, even if I write it down somewhere. Most of my classroom experience with AT is in using Google Read and Write, but admittedly, I have had mixed results with getting students to use that tool consistently.
This probably already exists to some degree, but I’d love to see an AI tutor focused specifically on coaching a student to gain the skills associated with listening, considering the viewpoints of others, responding, and asking follow up questions. Though fundamental to civil discourse and learning from others, this is something that I find is difficult to find the time and space to give students to practice, especially in a low-stakes environment.
The concerns that I have around AI use in assistive tech are largely discussed in your OER. Issues around data security, privacy, bias, surveillance capitalism, and over reliance are the main ones that I have. If data collection can be minimized, biases mitigated, and strong ethical frameworks put in place, it would be very exciting to see more AI integration in these technologies in education.
Hi Mark,
Thank you for your insightful feedback! I really appreciated how you connected what you learned about assistive technologies to your own personal experiences. Your example of using phone reminders resonated with me as I have been trying to implement these tools in my daily routine to help me stay organized. This example is a good reminder that assistive technology isn’t just for students who require formal accommodations, but something many of us rely on to support executive functioning in our daily lives!
I love your idea of an AI tutor that is designed to coach students in active listening, perspective-taking, and meaningful discussions as I believe these skills are crucial to success in the classroom. Although most of the AI tutors I have tried, such as Khanmigo, do not have a focus on improving a student’s active listening skills, they are designed to have Socratic style discussions that encourage student inquiry. These tools may be able to help students view different perspectives for certain issues and learn how to reflect meaningfully on their work.
I am also hopeful that the concerns regarding AI are addressed as AI integration into assistive technology can help improve the ability of these tools to provide access to the curriculum for students with disabilities or problems with executive functioning.
Thanks,
Tim
Hi Mark,
Thanks for your insightful thoughts! Your observation about using assistive tech quite a bit reminded me of one of the reasons inclusive learning principles are encouraged in schools–which is that while they benefit certain students more, they ultimately tend to benefit all students in the class. I like your idea of an AI tutor focused on listening and conversational skills. I feel this type of assistive tech could especially benefit neurodivergent students who want to practice social skills within the low-stakes environment you mentioned.
What assistive technologies supporting executive function do you already use in the classroom or in your daily life?
– One of the biggest assistive technologies supporting executive function for me is the text-to-voice feature. As someone with reading difficulties from an early age, the ability to have text be done on voice that is now standard on most websites and even digital texts have improved the quality of life for studying. In fact I would say, it’s the reason that I was able to pursue higher education like my masters as there is the ability to learn the way I prefer to learn.
I see this now in the way we offer education in the corporate world. The same course is offered in different modalities as a way to support those who don’t have the time or have different learning needs.
If you could design one assistive technology that would support students in the classroom, what would that be? What skill would it support?
In the spirit of the thread we’ve had in class, I would say that having an AI powered learning assessment tool would be very useful in the classroom settings and also at home. This AI would gather information on the learner about preference and ways to support their education and communication. This AI would also be able to recommend ways that caregivers and parents can help the learner at home and in the community to do this function.
Do you have any concerns about the increased integration of AI into assistive technologies in education?
I think it’s about ensuring that the voices that truly advocate for assistive technologies in education from reputable organisations (BC Center for Ability, government agencies, the united nations) are part of the datasets that are trained into the AI and that the research for ongoing development of new tools as we see new ways to diagnose and support people are part of the process. My big concern is that it becomes the next big venture for large monetized entities to capitalise on when access to these technologies should be built on ethics and equity and not a dollar value.
Hi Rico,
Thank you for sharing your personal experience with using assistive tech in your education. I have recently started using voice-to-text and text-to-voice software, and I have found those immensely helpful when I am dealing with eyestrain from staring at a computer screen for too long. I agree that disabled individuals and reputable advocates need to be involved in key decision-making around privacy and dataset access to ensure that user data is handled ethically.
Right now, I can’t think of any tools I’m already using in my classroom, but I’m really excited about the potential of AR and VR in my teaching down the road.
If I were to design a tool for my students, I’d probably create something that helps them break down research projects into smaller, manageable steps—with built-in deadline reminders and resource suggestions.
From my experience, many Master’s students struggle with planning their thesis projects, often leaving too much until the last minute. I’ve also noticed that some tasks—like collecting data, refining literature, and even starting preliminary analysis—could actually happen in parallel, saving time and reducing stress.
Ideally, this tool would guide them in structuring their work more efficiently, so they don’t end up rushing at the end.
Hi Yan,
Thanks for sharing your keen observations! Yes, that is definitely something I myself struggle with as a graduate student! It’s one of the reasons I decided to take a course-based Master’s instead of a thesis-based one. However, I think AI tools like GoblinTools could be a really helpful piece of assistive tech for students now. I used it in the course of this project and I plan to use it for other projects in the future.
Hi Anna and Tim, I really enjoyed your OER and learned a lot! I’m taking the task organizer tool with me 😉
That is actually one of the thinks I use GPT for the most, task break down and organization. As I mentioned in the Padlet discussion, I often get overwhelmed when there is a huge task, and have trouble breaking it down for it to feel less intimidating. I also use GPT, like you mentioned, Anna, to organize my research and thoughts. With tasks that require a lot of research, and that as you move forward, keep “showing branches” of topics to cover, it was very overwhelming and stressful for me. I feel that I stress a lot less with this aid that GPT gives me.
But, moving to the next question, I do worry that my brain might get a bit lazy. In early years of education, I think it is very important that we are taught to do this in an analogical way, without aids, because that is how our brain makes the connections we need to move forward. As we grow up, perhaps in middle school, I think these tools can be introduced, because they will allow us to do more things in a more effective way, and in the end that is the point of technology: to help us do the same things in an easier and more effective way.
Great job! And great “preface” for our OER coming this week on Neuroscience and wearables 😀
Hi Victoria,
Thanks for sharing your incisive thoughts and personal experience. I am in the same boat as you in regards to using AI. In fact, I tend to be quite stubborn about it! I have not used AI for any of my coursework until this course. I want to ensure that I develop the graduate-level skills first before I start using AI. However, since David encourages us to experiment with AI, and I believe interacting with AI is a useful skill to have, I felt this course (nearing the completion of my degree) would be a fitting time to try using it for my coursework.
Wow Anna and Tim, I really enjoyed your team’s OER this week 😀 I really love the Kahoot self-study activity – although I love a bit of competition, i’m only competitive against myself, so the self-study quiz was a great match to my need.
Currently I’m not in a school environment, but I do host a lot of online workshops – here, we try to use alternative text on the pdf we use, or we have a member who will summarize the key insights and discussions from the facilitator and/or participants, and write it onto chat. As online environment is prone to distraction, having a key person (or AI even) to summarize discussion points in real time is super helpful and keep the people engaged.
Hi Annie,
I’m glad you enjoyed the Kahoot! Having someone summarize the key points is a helpful way to consolidate the information and pass along the key points to the attendees! That is something I will keep in the mind for the future if I ever host any online workshops. Thanks, Annie!
Thank you both for putting together this week’s OER. I found the content really captivating and appreciated how well you captured the human side of this topic. The Goblin task was especially enlightening and that is one tool I will definitely be adding to my bookmarks!
The increased integration of AI technologies in assistive technologies may have a few of the usual downsides that come with AI but there are so many potential benefits and as with most technologies these days, AI is bound to be integrated at some level. My biggest concern would be that automated AI supports could remove a crucial human element from the equation. Based on the stories you shared this week, the close personal relationship between the children and those supporting them is an essential ingredient in so many successful recoveries.
Hi Ken,
Thanks for sharing your thoughts! You make a great point about removing a crucial human element from the interaction. That is definitely something on my mind as well because I have friends who will interact with AI and use it as a sort of therapist or sounding board. On the one hand, I see the appeal of having ChatGPT be a nonjudgmental and objective sounding board. On the other hand, I wonder if this type of interaction supplants the opportunity for someone to share their feelings with a friend instead. So many things to chew on when it comes to AI!
Great OER Anna and Tim! I went in with some very basic conceptions of what Assistive Technologies were and left with a much more broad perspective of what this “market” encompasses.
It might be a stretch, but I have actually created my own low-level assisted technology to help with some of my own executive dysfunction. I take a daily medication at 5pm, and am horrible at remembering to take it. Leaving it on the counter, putting it in my calendar, setting alarms – nothing has truly stuck. I know enough programming to be dangerous, so I put together a little “app” to help solve my issue. I put an RFID sticker on my medication container, that I scan every time I take a dose. Scanning pings a little web server of mine. If the web server doesn’t get the ping by 9pm, then it sends me a text message. At 10pm, it texts my girlfriend. And at 11pm, it calls my phone.
Very elaborate. Did it solve the issue? No. But it certainly helped. I never thought of it as assistive technology at all until this OER.
While there are ethical, environmental, and privacy issues abound, the integration of AI into assistive technologies is definitely intriguing. The potential seems immense – purely based on AI’s ability to ingest contextual information about a user and leverage that to create truly personalized and adapted solutions. I have always been intrigued by http://www.rewind.ai which presents itself as a digital brain by ingesting everything you do on your computer and phone, allowing you to essentially remember any digital action you partake it. Again, some definite privacy red-flags, but certainly compelling from an assistive technology standpoint.
Thanks!
Forgot to mention – one small improvement suggestion for the OER site: the “next page” buttons currently open the next page in a new tab, I’d suggest having them open in the same window.
Also thank you for the feedback! That is a great suggestion and we will implement that function when we improve our OER In the future 🙂
Hi Duncan,
Thanks for your insights and sharing your own experience with assistive technologies! Although most of the emerging assistive technologies are high-tech, low-tech assistive technology like the example you gave can be just as helpful!
I have not heard of rewind.ai before but it seems like it would be useful in helping to personalize and streamline people’s computer and phone usage. However, this serves as a good reminder of privacy and data collections concerns around AI integration. If I were to use this app in my daily life, I would need to look carefully at the data collection policy, where the data is stored, and who will be able to access my data. Despite these concerns, apps like these have immense potential to help people with daily tasks and more. Would you consider using rewind.ai yourself?
Thanks,
Tim
What assistive technologies supporting executive function do you already use in the classroom or in your daily life?
I use several assistive technologies that support executive function. There are digital calendars and reminders on my phone that keep me organized and help me manage my time effectively. As a busy person, personal reminders help me in keeping track of my schedules and tasks. I also use OneNote for my note-taking activities. These tools support goal-setting and make it easier to stay on track with my academic and personal tasks.
If you could design one assistive technology that would support students in the classroom, what would that be? What skill would it support?
It would be great if I could design a personalized AI executive function coach. This is a wearable or tablet-based assistant that supports organization, time management, and focus. It will assist students in reminding them of their deadlines and schedules and assist them in their tasks. It can also give students focus techniques based on their learning styles and mood. I would want this tool to instill independence in students and to keep track of their progress and tasks.
Do you have any concerns about the increased integration of AI into assistive technologies in education?
That would be data privacy and security. AI tools collect sensitive student information, which could be misused or inadequately protected. There’s also the risk of over-reliance on technology, which might hinder the development of self-regulation and independent learning skills.
Hi Anna and Tim! What an amazing OER, and what a life-saver Goblin Tools will be when it comes to tackling assignment 3! Assistive technologies are and will continue to be great aids for students and even for teachers. With the amount of “stuff” that needs to be completed on a daily basis, it’s easy to get lost and overwhelmed, and even more so if you struggle with ADHD or ASD. Assistive technologies are definitely life-savers for many people.
In my daily life, I use assistive technologies like speech-to-text, visual schedules and checklists, post-its, graphic organizers, interval timers, ChatGPT, and interactive whiteboards. I did not even realize how many of these were assistive technologies, so this OER really opened my eyes!
As I teach ESL, I think my students would benefit from as assistive technology that could help support their language learning journey more easily. Especially for students with executive dysfunction, I can only imagine the challenges they might face in having to complete work in a foreign language when dealing with tasks in their native language is already difficult.
As mentioned in the OER, data privacy is a huge concern when it comes to AI integration in any aspect of education. The overrelience students have on such tools is definitely something I have also been seeing recently, especially since using AI to help with work in a foreign language is the easy route that many students like taking. Finally, sustainability issues and environmental racism are huge reasons why we should be limiting our use of AI as much as possible.