Assignment on assistive technology and differentiation.

1. ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGY AND
DIFFERENTIATION
PREPARED FOR:
DR. LIH-CHING CHEN WANG
CLEVELAND STATE UNIVERSITY
ETE 572 ASSIGNMENT #2
PREPARED BY:
PATRICK RILEY
06/07/2022
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2. OVERVIEW
• Introduction
• Goals
• Define Assistive Technology
• Define Differentiation
• Assistive Technology Selection Method
• Examples of Assistive Technology
• My experience using the Google Extension Read Aloud
• Examples of Differentiation
• Conclusion
• References
• Credits
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3. INTRODUCTION
• Differentiation and assistive technology have recently come to
the forefront of education. They are both extremely valuable to
the learning experience for students and will continue to be for
years to come. We continuously see these terms pop up, but
the same questions continue to show up, what exactly are they?
How do I use them properly? How can I ensure my students are
putting these opportunities to good use?
• This presentation will serve as a guide to help answer these
questions.
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4. GOALS
Our goals for this presentation are as follows:
• Explore, identify, define and describe differentiation and
assistive technology
• Provide examples of technologies including one that I tested
out
• Provide strategies for differentiating with technology and using
assistive technology
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5. ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGY DEFINED
• There is a wide variety of assistive technology available to
students
• According to Stroh (2017), “Assistive technology consists of
devices and services. An assistive technology device is an item or
piece of equipment that helps a person with a disability increase,
maintain, or improve a student’s functional capabilities.”
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6. DIFFERENTIATION DEFINED
• Differentiated instruction has become a looming topic in the
educational landscape over the past few years
• According to Sparks (2015) differentiation is, “the process of
identifying students’ individual learning strengths, needs, and
interests and adapting lessons to match them.”
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7. ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGY SELECTION
METHOD
• Assistive technology is becoming a huge resource for many
teachers, but often school resources and money arise as major
issues. For the three examples, I have selected FREE online
technology options. While it is possible that there may be
better options to be purchased, free resources provide access
to all teachers and especially to all students
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8. ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGY EXAMPLE 1:
BOOKSHARE
• Bookshare is a digital library that allows students to read books
through text to speech. It is the largest online library of
accessible books in the world (Martin).
• A child MUST have a documented print disability to access this,
like dyslexia. However, students who do not qualify may
access texts through a public library.
• Text to speech is a fantastic technology and combining it with a
text a student may be reading in class can do wonders for a
struggling student.
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9. ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGY EXAMPLE 2:
ONLINE OCR
• Online OCR is a program that converts images into digital text
files. Students need to use a code and can do up to 15 free
pages per hour (Martin).
• The only major con is that if they need to go at a higher rate
than that it is $7.95 for 100 pages. Either way there is still
great value in this.
• This program would be a great addition to any classroom, but I
see it being particularly useful for elementary school students.
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10. ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGY EXAMPLE 3: GOOGLE
EXTENSION READ ALOUD: A TEXT TO SPEECH
VOICE READER
• While Bookshare is a great option for books, adding this
extension to google allows a student to have any text read
right to them.
• This is a great option for students who struggle with text and
need clarity on an assignment.
• It is incredibly simple to download and can pinned right to your
screen next to the extension button.
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11. ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGY REVIEW: GOOGLE
EXTENSION READ ALOUD: A TEXT TO SPEECH
VOICE READER PROS
• I selected this particular assistive technology because I discovered it as I was
searching around for different assistive technologies online and it stood out to
me for a variety of reasons.
• As I discussed in the previous slide this add on was a quick download, click to
pin it to google chrome and you are ready to go.
• It is incredibly simple to use, you can either highlight a portion of the text or you
can simply click on it and it will begin reading the whole page.
• You can pause, stop or use the skip option to move ahead in the text as well as
change the voice, speed, pitch and volume. There is also an option to have
window pop up on the screen that shows the specific text being read.
• Overall this is a great tool, easy to install and very effective for any students that
need text to speech.
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12. ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGY REVIEW: GOOGLE
EXTENSION READ ALOUD: A TEXT TO SPEECH
VOICE READER CONS
• A draw back I did find is that if you have a pdf open through google
drive (ex: assignment 2 directions) it will not let you select an
individual section but instead starts reading from the beginning of
the text. This could be an issue for students doing work through
google drive. A quick fix I found though is if you download the pdf
and then click the read aloud it asks you to open the pdf from your
laptop online and it will then do all the normal functions.
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13. DIFFERENTIATION STRATEGY 1: EXPLICIT
TEACHING
• This form of differentiation is often simplified “I Do, We Do, You Do” (Main).
• The main focus is to offer numerous opportunities for students to practice
both in groups and individually to build conceptual understanding of new
ideas (Main).
• The ”I Do” phase is where the teacher models or works through an example
in front of the whole class
• The ”We Do” phase the teacher works through the content with the students,
gives feedback to the students, and offers support to the entire class
• The “I Do” phase is where students work in groups or individually and the
teacher either monitors and/or moves around to provide feedback
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14. DIFFERENTIATION STRATEGY 1: EXPLICIT
TEACHING
PERSONAL EXPERIENCE
• I have been trained in explicit instruction as part of my professional
development this year.
• It has by far been one of the best programs I have been through.
• It centered on consistent review as well as taking little checks particularly
during the “We Do” phase. One example of this is the use of the
miniature whiteboards and dry erase markers to do quick checks. It can
be used for the final answer or, where I found it most effective was
chunking parts of problems or activities. This allowed me to see where
students were getting tripped up and correct them before moving onto
the “You Do” phase. 14

15. DIFFERENTIATION STRATEGY 2: FLIPPED
CLASSROOM
• A flipped classroom has students watch their content (or what many teachers call the
lecture) at home and then in class students spend all of their time on activities, labs,
worksheets etc. It allows students to pause and/or go back in the initial content so that
they can go at their own pace (Main).
• Once the students get to the classroom, the teacher has more time to move around and
assists groups or individuals wherever they are having issues at.
• Students may also even begin to move ahead, knowing that instead of homework they
are completing the content they need for the next couple days and won’t have to worry
about other work outside of class.
• The cons of this strategy is of course mainly, students not watching the videos. This is
something that needs to be addressed in the expectations with students.
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16. DIFFERENTIATION STRATEGY 3:
DIFFERENTIATE THROUGH FORMATIVE
ASSESSMENT
• Formative assessments are hugely important part of teaching. They give
you an idea of how your students are doing on content. Giving the
students different options for their formative assessment is one way to
differentiate. The options could be but are not limited to: oral
conference, written responses, graphic organizer or collage (Miller).
• These options give kids the ability to choose what they feel most
comfortable for the given content.
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17. DIFFERENTIATION STRATEGY 3:
DIFFERENTIATE THROUGH FORMATIVE
ASSESSMENT - CONS
• There are some cons to this style of differentiation. While it is incredibly
effective in letting the students work to their strengths, it can certainly
become burdensome on the teacher. Having to create multiple forms of a
formative assessment each time you give one can be a daunting task.
This tactic can be something that is added to the “toolbox” of the teacher.
Instead of doing it every time use it as often as is manageable and begin
build up a portfolio over the years.
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18. CONCLUSION
• Assistive technology is an ever growing necessity in our
classrooms. Providing students with opportunities to use these
tools is essential. Beyond that, they need to be effective and
easy for our students to use. Free is not always better, but if
we have the opportunity to provide a quality product to assist
our students, it should always be taken advantage of.
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19. CONCLUSION
• Differentiation is consistently thrown around in education, it is
a buzz word of sorts. We have clearly defined what
differentiation is. Each of the three examples provides the
teacher the ability to individualize the educational process from
a variety of approaches (formative assessment to
lesson/activity structure). This gives teachers a concrete
foundation to begin using differentiation and to move into the
many other options that exist.
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20. REFERENCES/RESOURCES
• Stroh, M. (2017, November 28). Assistive Technology for Special Education Students.
Disability Rights Washington. Retrieved June 7, 2022, from
https://www.disabilityrightswa.org/publications/assistive-technology-special-education-
students/
• Sparks, S. D. (2015, January 28). Differentiated Instruction: A Primer. EducationWeek.
Retrieved June 7, 2022, from https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/differentiated-
instruction-a-primer/2015/01
• Martin, J. (n.d.). Free online assistive technology tools to help with reading, writing, and
math. Understood. Retrieved June 7, 2022, from
https://www.understood.org/en/articles/free-assistive-technology-tools-on-the-web
• Main, P. (n.d.). Differentiation Strategies: A Teacher's Guide. Structural Learning. Retrieved
June 7, 2022, from https://www.structural-learning.com/post/differentiation-strategies-
a-teachers-guide
• Main, P. (n.d.). Differentiation Strategies: A Teacher's Guide. Structural Learning. Retrieved
June 7, 2022, from https://www.structural-learning.com/post/differentiation-strategies-
a-teachers-guide 20

21. ABOUT THE AUTHOR
• I received my Bachelor of Science Education from Ohio State University in
2018.
• I’m certified in physical science and chemistry education grades 7-12.
• I teach 10th and 11th grade chemistry and 9th grade physical science at Euclid
High School.
• I just completed my 4th year teaching.
• I enjoy interacting with my students and coaching baseball.
• I want students to feel comfortable and confident in school.
• This summer I will be working for the Cleveland Museum of Natural History
summer camps.
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