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.
A Study of the Changes Over Time in State Anxiety in a Computer-Assisted Instructional Program
The purposes of this study were to analyze (1) the changes over time in the state anxiety level of children in a computer-assisted program of reading instruction and in classroom reading instruction, (2) the changes in state anxiety patterns as related to gender, achievement level, and ethnicity, and (3) the difference in anxiety levels of the students while in computer-assisted reading instruction and classroom reading instruction.