Sean J. Smith

Increasing Access to Teacher Preparation: The Effectiveness of Traditional Instructional Methods in an Online Learning Environment:

Distance education via the World Wide Web is currently being examined as a method to provide special and general education instruction in teacher preparation programs. The purpose of this study was to compare the effectiveness of traditional instructional methods in an online learning environment. Results of this study revealed that overall there were no significant differences between learning under the two conditions. That is, student academic outcomes were the same when instruction was delivered in a traditional classroom or through an online learning environment. Some advantage was found to online discussions in contrast to face-to-face discussions. Traditional instructional methods, such as those used in this study, produce similar academic outcomes when delivered through online learning environments. The implications of these results for teacher preparation practice are discussed.

e-Learning: A Programmatic Research Construct for the Future

The Internet and its applications in education and industry have significantly influenced how we teach and learn. This has all occurred as a consequence of emerging technologies and the demands for online instruction by consumers. In the midst of this environment of rapid growth, a new form of pedagogy has emerged. However, much of it is not the result of research. This paper addresses the need for a conceptual approach to researching, e-learning instructional design and the technologies employed as a basis for e-learning. A programmatic research construct is offered as a structure for building a conceptual model. Three categories of variables are considered in building the construct. They include outcome, in situ, and independent variables. The intent of the paper is to engage researchers and developers in a process of further defining the variables and translating them into research questions that might serve as guidelines in building the literature base for the pedagogy of online instruction.

Technology Use by Students with Intellectual Disabilities: An Overview

Technology is a prevalent feature of educational environments today. Unfortunately, in too many cases students with intellectual disabilities do not have access to or are not able to use such technologies. This article overviews the literature pertaining to the use of technology by students with intellectual disabilities, examines characteristics of this population that impact technology use, and provides a review of the literature pertaining to technology use by students with intellectual disabilities across several functional domain areas.

Response to Intervention and Evidence-Based Practices: Where Does Technology Fit?.

Advancements in technology-based solutions for students with learning disabilities (LD) offer tremendous opportunities to enhance learning as well as meaningful access to the general education curriculum for this group of students. This article examines technology integration within the context of response to intervention (RTI). At the forefront of special education reform, RTI is reshaping special education practice. This article seeks to connect RTI components (e.g., evidence-based practice) with technology-based solutions in order to further ways in which technology tools can be incorporated into the lives of students with LD. Three effective practices (graphic organizers, written instruction, explicit instruction) are examined. For each area, we briefly describe the approach, examine the evidence behind the approach, and discuss technology-based tools that embed these effective features.

The Efficacy of Technology Use by People with Intellectual Disability: A Single-Subject Design Meta-Analysis

It is generally assumed that when technology is designed with the principles of universal design in mind, people with intellectual disability will also benefit. However, there is no research concerning the degree to which technology use is impacted by the presence or absence of universal design features. To address this and to examine the degree to which people with intellectual disability benefit from technology, we conducted a meta-analysis of single subject design studies that implemented technology with a person with intellectual disability. We found that most of the technology use evaluations with people with intellectual disability have been with a relatively limited number of technology types and do not include universal design features. The need for research on the impact of specific types of universal design features is discussed.

Technology Use and People with Mental Retardation

Publisher Summary This chapter provides a comprehensive examination of the use of technology by people with mental retardation with the intent to provide a framework within which to consider the benefits of technology use by this population. The chapter examines the potential benefit of technology use for people with mental retardation. Technology has the potential to improve the quality of life for people with mental retardation and their families. Indeed, a functional definition of mental retardation provides a compelling role for technology to mitigate the adverse impact of a persons cognitive impairments on school, work, and community functioning. The chapter aims to identify what is known about technology used by people with mental retardation, within a framework that emphasizes cognitive abilities that are important to all people and that must be considered when designing Technology. The chapter provides a limited exploration of user characteristics of people with mental retardation that influences technology use, and technology design features that can address those user characteristics. The chapter concludes with a comprehensive review on the literature pertaining to technology use by people with mental retardation.

Faculty Members Infusing Technology Across Teacher Education: A Mentorship Model

To support the integration of technology in the K-12 special education classroom, teacher preparation programs must infuse technology across existing special education curricula. Teacher preparation programs have been blamed for not modeling effective technology use in teacher preparation curricula. This study examined the effectiveness of a mentorship training program that employed special education graduate students to assist faculty members with their technology infusion efforts. Results suggest that one-on-one multiple session training supported by special education graduate students (with limited technology expertise) can support integration efforts. Implications for supporting faculty technology infusion are discussed.

Technology Integration Through Collaborative Cohorts: Preparing Future Teachers to Use Technology

Although technology is increasingly being considered an instructional tool for students with disabilities, effective integration of technology into the preK—12 classroom for students with disabilities has been limited. The purpose of this article is to provide an overview of a technology cohort model that seeks to enhance teacher use of technology through a collaborative learning model. By creating an environment where teacher educators, preservice teacher education students, and preK—12 teachers can learn together, changes can occur in how technology is effectively applied to the instruction of students with disabilities.

Graduate Students Mentors for Technology Success.

Current efforts to integrate technology across teacher education, particularly special education, preparation programs are contingent upon preparing teacher education faculty members to integrate the use of technology into the teacher education curriculum. In this article, I describe the evaluation of an innovative faculty technology-training program that utilized special education graduate students as technology mentors. Feedback from pre-post interviews and weekly online journal submissions on the part of graduate student mentors was collected to assess the impact of this program. The results of this mentorship training model illustrate several distinctive outcomes: an increase in faculty technology integration, an increase in graduate student technology use, and an increase in mentoring relationships between the graduate students and faculty members.

The Online Academy formative evaluation approach to evaluating online instruction

The Online Academy (HO29K73002) was funded by the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) to develop online instructional modules in the content areas of reading, positive behavior support, and technology across the curriculum. Targeted to preservice teacher education programs in institutions of higher education (IHE), to date, the modules have been adopted for implementation by 162 institutions. A requirement of the funding agency was that the content of the modules be research based. A total of 75 lessons in 22 online modules and an authoring software tool were developed. Each module is approximately equivalent to a one-semester credit course. This paper describes the formative evaluation processes that were employed in creating the instructional design, design and production processes, content development, usability and navigational features of the modules, and the national implementation process.