Technology, specifically the iPad, is transforming the way all students interact with literacy both in and out of the classroom. The following examples provide inspiration by demonstrating successful implementations of the iPad for literacy learning for students with special needs.
“It is difficult to say what is impossible, for the dream of yesterday is the hope of today and the reality of tomorrow.” ~Robert H. Goddard
Dennis Lamme Jr. uses his iPad to assist him with early literacy skills including letter and number recognition.
http://vimeo.com/16678024
Woodlynde School uses accessible audiobooks to assist students with learning disabilities.
Watch Daniel (age 13) uses his iPad to work on picture-word association and word decoding skills.
Read this account of “How Apple’s iPad Transformed Mr. Cooke’s Reading Intervention Classroom.”
Meaghan Roper, a student with visual impairments, describes her experience with using an iPad in the classroom.
Grade 11 students at the Lab School of Washington (a private school for students with learning disabilities) use iPads to dissect T.S. Eliot’s “The Waste Land”. They use an app that allows them to create notes on the text, edit notes, watch video interviews with scholars and listen to interpretive readings.
School staff found that by providing students with iPads equipped with text to speech applications and e-reading capabilities, they have been able to unlock great potential for learning. The iPads:
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helped students stay focused, engaged and invested in their success
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assisted with sequencing weaknesses and students with poor working memory
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provided ease of access to information without having to rely on adult intervention
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afforded great opportunities for individualization and differentiated teaching
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allowed students can privately work at their own pace
What the students said:
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“The iPad reads to me. It helps with comprehension – I know what it is saying and I am also reading at the same time.”
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“When I use [it], reading doesn’t seem like a bad thing.”
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“If I don’t know a word, I can get a definition right in the text.”
What the teachers said:
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“I feel like it’s a much more powerful day” for students”
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“We’ve reduced the number of minutes that are spent in frustration.”
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“Students enjoy being able to sit in a beanbag or walk around, the portability of a tablet allows that.”
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“The iPads are engaging because there’s instant feedback, It’s easy to operate, it can read to them if they need it to read to them.”
Watch as this young girl uses her iPad to assist her in learning to read!
This student with spinal muscular atrophy demonstrates how he used his iPad to create a digital literacy project.
“iPod, iListen, iRead” is an article describing how a similar technology (the iPod) has successfully been used to help students improve their reading skills in Escondido Union School District near San Diego California.
“iPads make reading personal at Harriet Bishop” is an article demonstrating how teachers at an elementary school in Savage MN is using iPads to improve reading achievements among gifted students.
Longfield Academy in the United Kingdom has noted enhanced learning across the curriculum and an increase in collaborative learning through the use of iPads.