Early Childhood Special Education and Assistive Technology Blog

By: Laura Kazmierczak , EC-SEAT scholar As part of my ongoing professional development, I provided the teachers, faculty, and staff of a public preschool program serving children with and without disabilities with a workshop on how to evaluate educational apps and websites for use with students in the classroom. Each attendee was given the evaluation rubric I had created based on chosen criteria. The criteria was chosen and compiled based on my research, reading, and online webinar attendance—each applicable to the success of student learning and positive outcomes. The evaluation rubric provides a comprehensive set of criteria to be used when considering apps and websites for education. During my workshop I was able to walk through the rubric and demonstrate how to utilize the tool for evaluating apps usefulness or scaffolding required etc. The listed criteria and prompting questions allow users to quickly use and evaluate apps. The documents transferability enables me to share my tool...

By: Carrie Portrie, M.Ed The article, " Assistive Technology: Resource Roundup :  Discover websites, blog posts, articles, and videos related to understanding, selecting, and assessing assistive technology" was originally posted in 2013 and updated early November 2016 on Edutopia . It provides a thoughtful listing of assistive technology (AT) websites, resources and videos. While exploring the different links, a couple resources stood out to me. Both are from Tech Matrix.  Tech Matrix Website Description of Tech Matrix Website Resources Tech Matrix   a project funded by the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs  and developed by the  National Center for Technology Innovation at the American Institute of Research. On this site you can search for assistive and educational technologies based on content area (e.g., math, literacy), grade level (including all children birth to transition out of highschool), and Individ...

By: Katie McKay , EC-SEAT Project Scholar In early education, literacy is one of the main goals with significant school instruction time spent on reading skills. Within reading instruction there are five domains: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. All areas work together to create a strong reader according to a study done by the National Reading Panel, which means all of these areas need to be practiced (Armbruster, Lehr, & Osborne, 2006). Below you will find an explanation of each area. Using PBS Kids online games to support early literacy Parents and teachers alike who are looking for an easy way to engage their students in learning about reading often look to apps and websites. Not all literacy and reading apps or online games are created equally however. One source that is renowned for quality children's programming and resources is PBS Kids. The University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg School for Communication releas...