The paper ascertains three new advancements in computers and web technology (Kurzweil 3000, Jouse 3, and virtual reality) that could find suitable beneficial use in the multi-state assessment of K-12 students with significant cognitive disabilities. There are a detailed explanation and rationale on Kurzweil 3000 as one of the innovations that are most practical among the three for the district to implement soon. The paper also presents a proposal for strategic training needs analysis of teachers for K-12 students with significant cognitive disabilities.
New advances in computer and web technologies
New technological advancements in computer and web are instrumental in both instruction and assessment of students with significant cognitive disabilities (Snyder & Huber, 2019). For example, open resource educational platforms avail free educational resources and tools to enhance the learning and teaching processes for K-12. The k-12 students with significant disabilities have varying strengths and abilities; for instance, one may demonstrate difficulty due to autism or traumatic brain injury, and another could be having issues with their intellectual skills or having multiple disabilities. The three new advancements in computers and web technology for the use can help assess K-12 students with significant cognitive disabilities, including Kurzweil 3000, Jouse 3, and virtual reality.
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Jouse 3
Jouse 3 enables children to manage almost any gadget using any parts of their mouth, chin, cheek, or tongue using a sip-and-puff system (Bouck, 2016). The technology is distinct for its accuracy and fast response, and K-12 students can effectively use it for drawing and computer games. Jouse 3 can work with Windows, Linux, Macintosh, and UNIX computers and has provision for two switches.
Virtual Reality
Virtual reality (VR) can be an excellent tool for K-12 students with significant cognitive disabilities, for instance, students with autism and learning disabilities. A general VR case is where the student uses the VR tool, interacts with various scenarios having different challenges. As the student uses the VR, they interact with avatars and are given choices to respond coupled with real-time reinforcement for appropriate behaviors as well as what they might do better, (Satsangi & Miller, 2017). Other VR cases help students by promoting mindfulness and allowing those with motor disabilities to manipulate objects in ways they could not in the physical world.
Kurzweil 3000
Kurzweil 3000 is a top text-to-speech (TTS) software. It is very useful for assessing K-12 children with reading difficulties. It is helpful for students that struggle with literacy, and its wide range of features aid the student in multiple integrations. Students can use Kurzweil 3000 to access features such as numerous TTS voices, 18 different types of language and dialect, talking spell-checkers, picture-dictionary graphics of over 40,000 words, and also magnification of texts among many others (Snyder & Huber, 2019). Students have access to a multi-sensory literature approach, and the tool is available on both Windows and Macintosh.
Kurzweil 3000 is the most potent for the district to implement soon. The rationale behind this assertion is that the technological tool has graphic organizers that can help K-12 students in the organization of their thoughts in writing processes. Notably, K-12 students that have dysgraphia or disorders around written expressions, especially conceptually, could optimally benefit from the use of Kurzweil 3000 (Bouck, 2016). The students can use the technology in mapping out their action’s course. Moreover, based on the kind of writing, the tool’s graphics organizer can cause the user to describe objects, choose an event’s course, or engage in tasks to help in the planning process. Kurzweil 3000 varies in types and sophistication levels.
Strategic training needs analysis for teachers.
Program evaluation and individual needs analyses are vital strategies in conducting the training requirements analysis for teachers of K-12 students who have significant types of disability (Papanastasiou et al., 2019). Consideration of the number of students the teacher will be handling, the diversity of the disabilities, ages, and curriculum requirements are foundational to analysis. Upon establishing the needs of the target students, the next step would be to analyze the skills and tools the teachers already have versus those they don't have and measure them against the curriculum requirements and the facts about the student in question.
References
Bouck, E. C. (2016). A national snapshot of assistive technology for students with disabilities. Journal of Special Education Technology, 31(1) , 4-13.
Papanastasiou, G., Drigas, A., Skianis, C., Lytras, M., & Papanastasiou, E. (2019). Virtual and augmented reality effects on K-12, higher and tertiary education students' twenty-first-century skills. Virtual Reality, 23(4) , 425-436.
Satsangi, R., & Miller, B. (2017). The case for adopting virtual manipulatives in mathematics education for students with disabilities. Preventing School Failure: Alternative Education for Children and Youth, 61(4) , 303-310.
Snyder, S., & Huber, H. (2019). Computer-assisted instruction to teach academic content to students with intellectual disability: A review of the literature. American journal on intellectual and developmental disabilities, 124(4) , 374-390.
