I.

Case Study

As a teacher at Erasmus Middle School (located in a rural county of an Eastern seaboard state)
you have been identified by the school principal as an expert on the application of educational
technology. A new student has been transferred to Erasmus and he has been diagnosed with both
Attention Deficit Disorder and Dyslexia. The principal explains your role is to serve as a
consultant to the school on this matter. The principal would like you to do the following:

1. Make recommendation for hardware and software for the student.

Answer: Given that this student has multiple disabilities and his ability to focus and read inside
the classroom I am recommending multiple platforms to support his learning. The first being the
assistance of an iPad. The iPad will serve as the hardware device that the student will use to
engage in the multiple software designed to support a student with his needs. The interface is the
easiest to work with and the app store has a plethora of downloadable materials. An app that will
aid the students' success is going to be Amazon Audible. This app will provide text-to-speech
assistance for the materials that the student is required to read in his English classes. Learning
Ally is an app subscription that the student can also use for reading resources. “It produces and
maintains a library of over 80,000 accessible audiobooks for people who cannot effectively read
standard print because of visual impairment, dyslexia, or other disabilities”. With this
subscription multiple students can also benefit from this technology. To assist the student in
other classrooms, I would recommend the app Natural Reader. This app allows teachers to
upload assignments to the platform for the student. Natural Reader is able to read webpages,
documents, and eBooks aloud to you with our quality, natural-sounding voices. This will help
the student across all content areas. I would also like to recommend SnapType for written work.
Most students with these disabilities also have trouble completing written assignments.
“SnapType helps students keep up with their peers in class even when their penmanship holds
them back”. Students can easily complete school worksheets with the help of an iPad or tablet.
There are also products such as MathPad or Math Talk which will help the student with this
subject. These electronic worksheets enable students to organize and work through problems on
a computer screen. Numbers that appear on screen can be read aloud with text-to-speech. Lasty,
this student could also benefit from talking calculator applications such as Able Data. This
application has built-in text-to-speech software as well. This reads aloud each number, symbol,
or operation key a student presses, as well as the answer. “The aural feedback lets a student with
ADHD know whether he pressed the right keys and verifies the answer before he transfers it to
paper”.

2. Give advice to the student's key academic faculty (English, Math, Social Studies and
Science) on general integration in their classrooms for this student and hardware.

Answer: Teachers must make sure they’ve had training on how to successfully use each
application the student will interact with for their class. Teachers should use this technology to
its fullest capabilities and plan with this student in mind. Since most assignments and readings
can be uploaded or downloaded onto the students iPad the work will be that of the entire class.
Unless the teacher sees fit there shouldn't have to be any discrepancies with the assignments
given to this student. When integrating this tool inside of the classroom, teachers should treat it
as another learning resource for the student. Do not draw unnecessary attention to the device.
However, casually remind the student that his assignments which are the same as other
classmates can be found on their iPad. The learning engagement and expectation should always
be the same as the other students.

3. Make a recommendation to the principal where the school might be able to find funding
for this project.

Answer: If the school does not have the funds to purchase these tools for the student they may
want to look into funding sites such as Donor’s Choose, etc. There may also be community
groups willing to help fund or support such initiatives inside of the school. The school should
also consider looking into state funding resources that they may be eligible to receive. The
principal or grant writer can also consider requesting grants for the additional funds that the
school will need to acquire this technology.