Technology And The Diverse Learner

Specifically designed for the K-12 inclusive classroom, this timely handbook demonstrates how to easily and effectively capitalize on available technology.

Specifically designed for the K-12 inclusive classroom, this timely handbook demonstrates how to easily and effectively capitalize on available technology.

Designed specifically for teachers, this book addresses inclusion from a very broad perspective that covers special education, gifted, diversity, culture & gender, although the focus is upon special education.

In this book we outline an optimistic, aspirational and unashamedly ambitious agenda for schooling. We make cautious use of the concept of ‘future proofing’ to signal the commitment of the various authors to re-thinking the purposes, content and processes of schooling with a view to ensuring that all children, from all backgrounds are prepared by their education to make a positive contribution to the futures that are ahead of them. The book focuses on issues relating to technology and social justice to re-examine the traditional relationship between schools and technology, between schools and diverse learners, and between schools, children and knowledge. Drawing from examples from around the world, the book explores practical ways that diverse schools have worked to celebrate diverse understandings of what it means to be a learner, a citizen, a worker in these changed and changing times and the ways different technologies can support this agenda.

An invaluable resource for both practicing and pre-service teachers, this long-awaited book offers a fresh and much-needed point of view of how to "rethink" literacy and technology in today's diverse classrooms. Authored by some of the most respected researchers in the field today, Literacy, Technology, and Diversity reflects on the idea that great expectations are achievable through educational projects that foster academic growth, with classroom diversity and technology as catalysts for deeper learning, and that a narrow focus ongrade expectations yields superficial results. Arguing today's learning principles need to incorporate the core values of community learning, critical pedagogy, multilingualism, anti-racist education, high academic standards, and technological fluency, Cummins, Sayers and Brown provide a thought-provoking introduction into these learning principles that will inspire the life-long learning of students. Take a peek inside... Provides examples of projects, backed by research-based theories for their effective adaptation to help both pre-service and practicing teachers become more independent and creative in the ways they use technology. Gives useful suggestions on how to effectively integrate literacy and technology into the classroom. Presents Portraits (Case studies) of collaborative projects promoting literacy learning and often involving technology on such topics as: Cognition, Assessment, Community of Learning, and Tools and Resources in Section II (Chapters 5-9). Contains an appendix of short vignettes of exemplary projects that promote learning of standards-based expectations for academic achievement. Includes a complimentary CD-ROM of additional resources for teachers as well as updated portraits on exemplary projects.

The infusion of technology into curriculum influences the methods and techniques used to educate the student population. By integrating effective technology in education, teachers are provided with a better opportunity to adapt and enhance the learning experience for students from various backgrounds. Diverse Learning Opportunities Through Technology-Based Curriculum Design provides innovative insights into the development and advancement of online instruction and educational technology to engage students from diverse backgrounds. The content within this publication addresses academic performance, technology integration, and online learning. It is geared towards educators, educational software developers, instructional designers, and researchers, and it covers topics centered on the methods to adjust, adapt, and implant the newest technology into contemporary curriculum.

Multilingual students, multidialectal students, and students learning English as an additional language constitute a substantial and growing demographic in the United States. But these groups of students tend to receive unequal access to and inadequate instruction in Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics (STEAM), with their cultural and linguistic assets going largely unacknowledged and underutilized. The need for more information about quality STEAM education for culturally and linguistically diverse students is pressing. This book seeks to address this need, with chapters from asset-oriented researchers and practitioners whose work offers promising teaching and learning approaches in the STEAM subjects in K-16 education settings. Authors share innovative ways in which classroom teachers integrate disciplinary reading, writing, discussion, and language development with content knowledge development in STEAM subjects. Also shared are approaches for integrating indigenous epistemologies, culturally sustaining pedagogy, and students’ linguistic resources and life experiences into classroom teaching. The value of quality STEAM education for all students is an equity issue, a civics issue, and an economic issue. Our technologically-driven, scientifically-oriented, innovative society should be led by diverse people with diverse ways of approaching and being in the world. This book aims to make quality STEAM education a reality for all students, taking into account the many perspectives, bodies of knowledge, and skills they bring from a range of cultural and linguistic backgrounds, with the ultimate goal of strengthening the fields that will drive our society towards the future. There are three primary audiences for this book: teachers (both in-service and pre-service teachers), teacher educators (both pre-service preparation and professional learning); and applied researchers. Whatever their current or evolving role, readers are encouraged to use this book and the inquiry questions provided at the end of each chapter as a launching point for their own important work in achieving equity in STEAM education.

Digital Diversity: Youth, Equity, and Information Technology is about youth, schools, and the use of technology. Youth are instrumental in finding novel ways to access and use technology. They are directly affected by changes such as the proliferation of computers in schools and elsewhere, and the increasingly heavy use of the Internet for both information sharing and for communication. The contributors to this volume investigate how the resources provided by information and communication technology (ICT) are made available to different groups of young people (as defined by gender, race, rural location, Aboriginal status, street youth status) and how they do (or do not) develop facility and competence with this technology. How does access vary for these different groups of youth? Which young people develop facility with ICT? What impact has this technology had on their learning and their lives? These are among the issues examined. Youth from a wide variety of settings are included in the study, including Inuit youth in the high arctic. Rather than mandate how youth should/could better use technology (as much of the existing literature does) the contributors focus on how youth and educators are actually using technology. By paying attention to the routine use and understandings of ICTs by youth and those teaching youth, the book highlights the current gaps in policy and practice. It challenges assumptions around the often taken-for-granted links between technology, pedagogy, and educational outcomes for youth in order to highlight a range of important equity issues.