Running head: DIVERSITY AND TECHNOLOGY USE 1

Diversity and Technology Use: A Literature Review

Kyle Johnson

EDD8000

Advanced Studies in Education: Theory, Practice, and Purpose

Telephone: 678-477-2349

Email: kyle.johnson112991@gmail.com

Instructor: Dr. Behrooz Sabet

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Diversity and Technology Use: A Literature Review

Overview of Diversity Focus

Technology use is becoming an ever-popular means for teachers to deliver content in

classrooms across the United States. According to the US Department of Education, 48 states

currently support online learning opportunities that range from supplementing classroom

instruction on an occasional basis to enrolling students in full-time programs ("Use of

Technology in Teaching and Learning", 2018). When it comes to teaching and learning,

implementing technology can help differentiate learning for students in ways that have been

unprecedented in classrooms in the past fifteen years. However, with any change in the way

teachers are teaching and students are learning, there are bound to be limitations in the strategies

that are being used. For example, differentiation can be defined as “simply attending to the

learning needs of a particular student or small group of students rather than the more typical

pattern of teaching the class as though all individuals in it were basically alike” (Tomlinson &

Allan, 2000). With this method, it seems as though all students are being educated and given the

knowledge and twenty-first century skills they need to be successful. However, many students

with disabilities, namely visual, hearing, and other learning disabilities, are still not being served

in the classroom as effectively as they should be. Although technology affords these students

many opportunities that traditional schooling cannot, the jury is still out when it comes to

implementing technology use in the classroom to help bridge the gap with differentiated learning

and giving students a voice and choice when it comes to their own learning. By identifying the

strategies that are used to assist students with disabilities to better understand content material,

and also identify challenges they still face when learning, technology initiatives that are put in

place can be better implemented by taking these suggestions into consideration.

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Diversity Issue Related to Specialization

In today’s classrooms, one will see technology being used in one form or another,

whether it is supplementing the learning being done in the classroom through an interactive

formative assessment game, to giving students the opportunity to explore their own learning

through various Webquests and interactive Powerpoints. For many students with disabilities that

receive services under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), learning with

technology alone cannot help bridge the gap in their understanding of content material, which

many teachers are beginning to use for those students serving in an inclusive setting. In the

United States, approximately 13% of the students aged 2 to 21 are receiving some type of service

under IDEA (NCES Fast Facts Tool). Students that have a learning disability do not necessarily

make them unable to learn. Many students with Autism are highly intelligent. However, these

children may have difficulty with reading, writing, spelling, or have visual or hearing problems.

The term “disability” has developed a stigma that has caused children who need alternative

forms of teaching to be overlooked and placed in classrooms in hopes that they will learn with

their peers. Although technology has helped many students develop the skills they need to be

successful, it is imperative to ensure that students who already struggle with learning are not

being left behind as technology becomes a mainstay in classrooms across the nation. This

literature review aims to address the actions that need to be taken for teachers to utilize these

technologies effectively in order for students with disabilities to have an equitable education.

Additionally, this literature review will also make known the challenges that still exist when

technology is introduced in both general education, and fully inclusive classrooms.

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Review of the Literature

The heart of any educator should be to help prepare students for their next phase in life,

whether it be to attend a four-year university, technical school, or a full-time job. With the

strategies being employed in classrooms today that challenge students’ thinking and their

perceptions of the world around them, teachers are equipping students with the twenty-first skills

needed to be successful as they continue on life’s journey. The implementation of technology in

the classroom is helping prepare students for the digital age in which we live. Students with

disabilities face this same future. Without the same skill set that is afforded to other students

when it comes to technology, students who struggle with learning will not be able to be given the

freedom and independence needed to be functioning adults in society. In order for these skills to

be attained, researchers have given best practices, along with precautions, to ensure students with

learning disabilities are given the proper education they need to live an independent life.

Strategies That Work

Digital Literacy is an integral aspect of twenty-first century learning. Not only are

students learning how to use technology, they are using it to find information. Cihak, et al.

(2015) state, “The educational literature uses the term ‘21st century literacy’ to describe this

phenomena, applying to “the ability to read and interpret media (text, sound, images), to

reproduce data and images through digital manipulation, and to evaluate and apply new

knowledge gained from digital environments” (Cihak, D. F., Wright, R., Smith, C. C.,

McMahon, D., & Kraiss, K., pg. 156). Cihak, et al. argue that, with the proper instruction,

namely systematic instruction that gives explicit details to help students know exactly what steps

to take to send emails, access cloud storage, and managing bookmarks on search engine, students

with learning disabilities can be successful in gaining twenty-first century skills. This is in direct
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correlation with Marino, et al., in which they state 1 to 5 hour professional development sessions

was given to teachers to assist them in their comfortability with the educational games that were

going to be administered (pg. 92). For technology to be used successfully in the classroom,

especially for fully inclusive classrooms, the proper professional development sessions need to

be given to ensure teachers are trained on how to give explicit instructions to students when they

begin to use these tools to learn. Technology cannot only help students prepare for life outside of

school, but it can help make learning more fun and equitable for students with disabilities.

It has been proven that when harnessed successfully, technology can make learning in the

classroom more interactive and fun for students, regardless of their ability or disability. For many

science classes, the terminology and organization of labs proves to be too difficult for many

students with learning disabilities. For example, students with disabilities may not understand the

explicit steps needed to carry out the handling of bacteria when looking at it under a microscope.

Additionally, words such as “hypothesis” and “independent variable” may be too complex for

them to understand strictly by word of mouth. By implementing Universal Design Principles in

educational video games, they “…can increase knowledge transfer between virtual and

classroom learning. In addition, the games [promote] collaborative learning and engagement”

(Marino, M. T., Gotch, C. M., Israel, M., Vasquez, E., Basham, J. D., & Becht, K. 2014, pg. 97).

It was also noted in the Marino, et al. article that the students scored higher on the video game

assessments than they did on pencil and paper assessments. According to Hasselbring, T. S., &

Candyce H. Williams Glaser. (2000), “The technology provides a tool for students with

disabilities to express themselves, and an opportunity for them to showcase unique abilities and

talents that generally are not revealed in traditional school assignments” (pg. 109). By giving

students with disabilities voice and choice, they can accomplish the same tasks as their peers,
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with the independence to express their ideas in the way they see fit. As technology continues to

evolve, it will be important for teachers to stay current on the latest tools to help their students

with disabilities be successful.

As technology becomes more readily available to students and teachers, it is becoming

imperative for teachers to use the tools that they feel would most benefit their students in relation

to their current teaching practices. According to King-Sears, M. E., Swanson, C., & Mainzer, L.

(2011), the authors give four strategies, named TECH, that guide teachers in how to utilize

technology effectively in the classroom. They suggest, “1. Target the students’ needs and the

learning outcome. 2. Examine the technology choices, then decide what to use. 3. Create

opportunities to integrate technology with other instructional activities. 4. Handle the

implementation and monitor the impact on students’ learning” (pg. 570). With these steps in

mind, the authors suggest that teachers will be able to sift through all of the tech tools and choose

the ones that best fit their students with particular disabilities. Even with all of the tools that

continue to be developed to assist teachers and students, there are still challenges that schools

face when providing equitable access to students with disabilities.

Challenges They Still Face

Although strategies are being used to help students with disabilities gain the digital

knowledge they need to be successful in society, there is still a lack of strategies to help these

students with the skills they need to live independently with technology. For example, taking

pictures on a smartphone has become common practice for everyone. However, many dread the

notification that informs the user that their storage is full. For those that use cloud-based storage,

organizational skills are needed to upload and delete the proper pictures to be retained. For

students, these same organizational skills are needed in remembering passwords to sites being
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used to learn content in the classroom. Cihak, et al. argue, “Despite the increased importance of

functional digital literacy, the current research is limited on teaching specific functional digital

literacy skills to students with ID. Specifically, no research has been conducted on teaching

high school students with ID functional digital literacy skills, namely: (a) receiving and sending

emails, (b) managing social bookmarks, and (c) accessing documents through a cloud storage

service” (pg. 158). With Cihak’s et al. argument, although he found that the students could learn

how to send emails and communicate with peers, he failed to factor in how a hardware update to

a computer program or system update would impact the systematic instruction that the teachers

employed to help the students learn the steps needed during the research process. Not only are

there cognitive challenges when implementing technology, but there are visual limitations as

well.

For the vision-impaired, the struggle to learn is amplified due to the amount of teachers

that use visual aides to supplement their teaching. In the Marino, et al. article, the authors suggest

that interactive and educational video games serve as a means to excite students when learning

specific content material. However, the authors fail to address how students with visual

impairments are given accommodations when engaging in the activities. To help circumvent this

limitation, Taylor, (2016), suggests “Digital text displayed on a screen can be converted to

speech (i.e., screen readers), mechanically reproduced as braille characters on a specialized

keyboard (i.e., refreshable braille display), and enlarged to an accessible size (i.e., screen

magnifier)” (pg. 122). By pre-screening technology tools that have these items in place to ensure

all students can learn, teachers can help make sure that no student is discriminated against.
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Conclusion

As technology evolves in the coming years, teachers are going to be given a myriad of

tools to implement in their teaching practices to help give all students an equitable education. As

King-Sears, et al. states, “As Web 2.0 tools continue to evolve and become universally available,

students with disabilities will benefit from the common practice of multimodal learning and

responding, lessening the reliance on more conventional ‘assistive technologies’ to foster

literacy” (pg. 577). As these tools are developed, it will be imperative for the strategies listed

above to be taken into consideration, especially professional development that supports the

proper use of these tools to ensure the most can be gained from these tools to help students with

disabilities gain the twenty-first century skills they need to be functioning and independent adults

in society.
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References

Cihak, D. F., Wright, R., Smith, C. C., McMahon, D., & Kraiss, K. (2015). Incorporating

functional digital literacy skills as part of the curriculum for high school students with

intellectual disability. Education and Training in Autism and Developmental

Disabilities, 50(2), 155-171.

Hasselbring, T. S., & Candyce H. Williams Glaser. (2000). Use of computer technology to help

students with special needs. The Future of Children, 10(2), 102-122.

doi:10.2307/1602691

King-Sears, M. E., Swanson, C., & Mainzer, L. (2011). TECHnology and literacy for

adolescents with disabilities.  Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 54(8), 569-578.

doi:10.1598/JAAL.54.8.2

Marino, M. T., Gotch, C. M., Israel, M., Vasquez, E., Basham, J. D., & Becht, K. (2014). UDL

in the middle school science classroom: Can video games and alternative text heighten

engagement and learning for students with learning disabilities? Learning Disability

Quarterly, 37(2), 87-99. doi:10.1177/0731948713503963

Taylor, M. A. (2016). Improving accessibility for students with visual disabilities in the

technology-rich classroom. PS: Political Science & Politics, 49(1), 122-127.

doi:10.1017/S1049096515001134

The NCES Fast Facts Tool (National Center for Education Statistics). (n.d.). Retrieved from

https://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=64

Tomlinson, C. A., & Allan, S. D. (2000). Leadership for Differentiating Schools & Classrooms.

Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD).

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Use of Technology in Teaching and Learning. (2018). Retrieved from https://www.ed.gov/oii-

news/use-technology-teaching-and-learning