Converging E-learning Technologies from Diverging Perspectives: Assistive and Educational Technology
In this cooperative inquiry, the authors examined the overlapping boundaries that are emerging between assistive technologies (AT) and instructional technologies (IT) in the context of new and ever-more powerful digital tools for learning and instruction. Similarities were revealed in disciplinary perspectives on definitions, adoption and use, research objectives, and growing emphases on human motivation and agency. Institutional barriers remain in bridging gaps, but potential processes and projects for developing new communities of practice are identified.
A Comprehensive Approach to RTI: Embedding Universal Design for Learning and Technology
Response to intervention (RtI) provides tiered levels of supports to all students and allows for increasingly more intensive and individualized instruction. Similarly, universal design for learning (UDL) addresses needs of students by proactively planning for instructional, environmental, and technology supports to allow all students to effectively access and engage in instruction. Although these two frameworks are widely accepted as structures for supporting students with diverse learning needs, the relationship between them has not been adequately developed. This article describes how an ecological RtI framework that integrates scientifically based instructional strategies, proactive instructional design, and purposeful technology use can provide a more seamless support system for all students.
The Postsecondary School Attendance and Completion Rates of High School Graduates With Learning Disabilities
This study examined the postsecondary education status of 1985 and 1990 high school graduates from three large school districts in the northwestern United States. Each cohort included all of the graduates with learning disabilities (LD) and a stratified random sample without disabilities from the same graduating class. Interviews conducted with the graduate or with another informant during the 5 consecutive years 1991 through 1995 generated data regarding their postsecondary education status. Because of the 5-year difference in graduation years (1985 vs. 1990), these data allowed us to examine the postsecondary school attendance and completion rates of these youth during the first 10 years following high school. Findings indicated that graduates with LD were significantly less likely to have attended any form of postsecondary school and were less likely to have graduated from postsecondary programs throughout the first 10 years following high school. An analysis of the employment rates and earnings of the...