This document discusses how digital technology and assistive technology can be used to customize learning and support student diversity in the classroom. It provides examples of how teachers can use technology to differentiate instruction, assess student learning through games and simulations, and support students with disabilities or learning challenges through built-in accessibility features and assistive devices. The document also discusses strategies for supporting diverse social, intellectual, metacognitive, and cultural needs through a student-centered approach that fosters collaboration, critical thinking, and community.

1. CUSTOMIZING
LEARNING
AND DIVERSITY
K E L S E Y F R E Y
E I M 5 0 4
“Several studies show that when teachers incorporate [assistive technology] with proper training,
students have the opportunity to be as successful as regular education students” (Moore, 2017).

2. DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY AND
DIFFERENTIATION
• Technology can be used to support and differentiate content and for collecting
student data.
– Setting learning goals
– Taking action by providing learning activities
– Assessing student progress to monitor and evaluate student growth
• As a teacher, you will need to know your students’ abilities, interests, learning styles
and preferences to be able to know what to differentiate. This can be referred to as
students’ learning profile.

3. DIFFERENTIATION VS. UNIVERSAL
DESIGN FOR LEARNING
• Differentiated instruction purposefully accommodates the needs of students by
providing them with different content, strategies, and ways to express their learning.
• Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is an approach to learning where teachers
remove all barriers to learning by being flexible in the materials, methods, and
assessments.
• CAST (Center for Applied Special Technologies) has developed UDL principles to
influence learning.
– Provide multiple means of representation (highlighting, colors, sizes, fonts, labels & arrows
on charts and diagrams, etc).
– Provide multiple means of action and expression (provide different opportunities to
skills with differing levels of support and ongoing feedback).
– Provide multiple means for engagement (offering choice in types of media and tools

4. ASSESSING STUDENT LEARNING
• As a teacher, you can use the following to assess student learning:
– Games
– Simulations
– Animations
– Manipulations
• Digital technologies can be used in Tier 1, II, or III, but play a vital role for students
who need additional support and individualized instruction.

5. ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGY
• Assistive Technology is any item, piece of equipment, or product system used to help
individuals’ functional capabilities.
• It is not the device or technology itself that makes it assistive technology. Instead, it is
how it is used to support an individual.
• Students with 504 or IEPs may be prescribed assistive technology to be successful.
• Assistive technology can range anywhere from low-tech to high-tech or anywhere in
between.
• Examples of assistive technology:
– Item- pencil grip
– Piece of Equipment- portable word processor
– Product System- voice-recognition software

6. ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGY
• Many computers have built in assistive technology:
– StickyKeys
– MouseKeys
– RepeatKeys
– SlowKeys
– Zoom (MAC) / Magnifier (Windows)
– Display Adjustment
– VoiceOver (MAC) / Narrator (Windows)

7. DIVERSE SOCIAL NEEDS IN THE
CLASSROOM
• A student-centered classroom that values risk-taking, trust, and open communication
helps to support community.
• Culture of collaboration helps to support diverse social needs. The following help
foster these needs:
– Teacher modeling
– Questioning
– Quality responding
– Discussion with peers
– Reflective journaling

8. DIVERSE INTELLECTUAL ENGAGEMENT
& METACOGNITIVE NEEDS
• Strategies to support intellectual engagement:
– Make thinking visible
– Reinforce learning goals
– Encourage curiosity
– Help students make connections between claims and evidences, questions and
information, and project design and learning goals
• Strategies to support metacognitive needs:
– Ongoing opportunities for students to articulate learning
– Alternate hands on work with reflective work
– Students regulate own learning (set their own goals, monitor those goals, and adjust next
steps to ensure achievement of goals).

9. UNDERSTANDING COMMUNICATION
PATTERNS ACROSS DIFFERENT CULTURES
• Conventions of storytelling
– Some students may not have a clear beginning, middle, and end to their story
• Directness in communicating
– Some students’ communication may be indirect
• When to speak and when to listen
– Some students’ cultures value listening and speaking selectively
• When and how children should speak
– Students from different cultures may be encouraged to speak from a personal perspective
instead of “only speak when spoken to”
• Speaking to an adult
– Some students may question adults as this is praised in different cultures as being a “free
thinker”

10. HOW TO HELP STUDENTS DEVELOP
CULTURAL UNDERSTANDING
• Help to build community among diverse learners by collaborating, listening,
speaking, expressing thoughts and ideas, and respecting others’ perspectives.
• Students can:
– Create short presentations/movies to share their personal and family history
– Create digital story
– Create a photo story by scanning in pictures into presentation
– Respond to surveys

11. REFERENCES
Cennamo, K., Ross, J., and Ertmer, P. (2014). Technology integration for meaningful classroom use: a
standards- based approach. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.
Moore, L. (2017). Meeting the academic needs of assistive technology for special education
students: Teacher perceptions. Dissertation Abstracts International Section A, 78, 10.
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