Podcast Transcript

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[Introductory music] [Brendan] Hello, this is Brendan McDonnell. And welcome to another episode of
Teachers and Technology.

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[Brendan] Today, I am going to be interviewing Miss Hannah Russell, who is an SDS adviser for disabled
students.

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[Brendan] Everybody, please enjoy the following presentation.

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[Brendan] And after this interview, please enjoy the discussion of the educational topic of how
technology has personally helped

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[Brendan] me and improved my work in the classroom over the years that I have spent in school.

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[Brendan] And now we will begin the interview with Mrs. Hannah Russell. [Transition Music]

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[Brendan] So, yeah, what sorts of changes have you seen be made in technology over your...um...over
your career as an SDS adviser?

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[Mrs. Russell] Yeah, I think about a year before I became an adviser in Student Disability Services,

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[Mrs. Russell] we implemented the assistive technology software called Glean, which is a note taking
software.

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[Brendan] Oh yes, I remember that.

[Mrs, Russell] Yeah, that was about like a year before I got there.

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[Mrs. Russell] But that was a big shift for our office because we were not used to that yet.

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[Mrs. Russell] But it seems like now like that's the big company that a lot of SDS offices will use as like
note taking software.

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[Mrs. Russell] But slowly, there are some smaller brands that are coming out as well.
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[Mrs. Russell] So that's exciting. I think any time you have competition in the marketplace, it helps to
better the products.

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[Mrs. Russell] So, I think that's exciting. We also use a software called Kurzweil, and we just did a ...um....

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[Brendan] Oh yeah, that one's for keeping a...a sort of library of books on the iPad, right?

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[Mrs. Russell] Yeah. So it converts basically textbooks to audiobooks and

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[Mrs. Russell] we just did a survey, basically to find out what students like about Kurzweil and what they
don't like.

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[Mrs. Russell] And then we looked at some other products to see if other products would benefit
students more.

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[Mrs. Russell] So there are a lot of products out there that can convert text to speech.
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[Mrs. Russell] So I think that's really cool, too, that you don't have to have like a formal subscription with
Kurzweil or something.

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[Mrs. Russell] There's a lot of like extensions on Chrome web extension apps that students can
download on their own as well to just make it more accessible.

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[Mrs. Russell] So I think that's probably one of the biggest things that has grown from my perspective is
like just the availability

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[Mrs. Russell] of apps instead of like having to have full softwares or even full devices like you used to
have 10 years ago.

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[Brendan] Yeah. Oh, that's very interesting. Um, has

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[Brendan] Have these changes in a technology presented any difficulties for you?

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[Mrs. Russell] Hmm. Yeah, that's a good question.

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[Mrs. Russell] I think sometimes there's a learning curve with those technologies and softwares that
students might not be used to.

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[Mrs. Russell] So having to teach the software can be difficult sometimes for students, but ultimately it's
been a big benefit for students overall. [Transition music]

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[Brendan] Have, uh...have there been any other technologies besides Kurzweil or Glean, that you've
used to help disabled students?

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[Mrs. Russell] Yeah, let's think. I think like I was saying earlier, like the apps and things.

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[Mrs. Russell] There's a lot of apps that students use to like time management, keep track of things,
organization and whatnot.

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[Mrs. Russell] One is a website that I think has helped a lot of students.
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[Mrs. Russell] It's called tomato timer.

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[Mrs. Russell] Basically just kind of breaks out if you're going to have a twenty-five minute study session,
it will chunk it out to,you know, study for ten minutes,

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[Mrs. Russell] take a break for five minutes,

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[Mrs. Russell] study for another 10 minutes. And then maybe you take a long break for 10 minutes after
that [Timer sound], and then work for 10 minutes again.

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[Mrs. Russell] Small break, work, big break.

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[Mrs. Russell] So that really has helped some students as well, just to kind of chunk out their study time
and time management and things.

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[Brendan] All right. That's about all the questions that I had for you for this interview.

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[Brendan] So thank you very much.

[Mrs. Russell] Yeah, thank you. [Transition Music]

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[Brendan] I really enjoyed my conversation with Miss Hannah Russell.

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[Brendan] It is very interesting to hear about how she and her team evaluate technology to help
students with disabilities.

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[Brendan] I was very excited to learn that the number of electronic apps that students with disabilities
can use is growing.

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[Brendan] And now here's the part of the podcast where I will be sharing some of my personal insights

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[Brendan] into how technology has personally helped me and improved my work in the classroom
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[Brendan] over the years that I have spent in school. [Transition music]

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[Brendan] First was the ability to use an electronic device for my school studies. In fifth grade one-to-
one devices were not a thing.

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[Brendan] But my school allowed me to get one and use it to dictate my homework.

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[Brendan] I had a very long term paper due on a foreign country and handwritten

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[Brendan] it was probably about 50 pages long.

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[Brendan] But by being able to dictate it into software, it allowed me to complete this paper faster than
it would have taken me to write it.

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[Brendan] Second was the ability for the teacher to provide me with digital class notes.
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[Brendan] It was a great day when my teachers began to share class notes electronically with me. As I
progressed through school,

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[Brendan] the need to take large amounts of notes in each class became more of a challenge and my
physical handwriting

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[Brendan] just could not keep up. So when teachers were able to share notes in PowerPoints before the
class lectures,

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[Brendan] I was able to follow along with the class more closely and was able to take much fewer notes.

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[Brendan] Third was the invention of the LiveScribe app. In later grades, I used an application on my iPad
called LiveScribe.

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[Brendan] This app allowed me to use an accompanying pen and to write down notes in my LiveScribe
journal
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[Brendan] which would be transferred over to an app from the journal so that I would have all the notes
that I had written down,

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[Brendan] also automatically available digitally on my iPad.

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[Brendan] And lastly, was the widespread uses of learning management systems.

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[Brendan] For example, we use Canvas here at Butler. This has made it much easier for me to keep track
of and submit my homework on time

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[Brendan] because my preferred method of homework and test taking is doing so digitally.

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[Brendan] The learning management systems allow me an easy way to submit my digital documents
without having to take the time to print them off.

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[Brendan] These tools have been amazingly helpful to me, and I do agree with the authors, Garreth
Tigwell and Kristen Shinohara of the article

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[Brendan] "Why Getting More People with Disabilities Developing Technology is Good for Everyone".

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[Brendan] When they put forth that all of these technologies have helped non-disabled people, too, by
making them more streamlined

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[Brendan] in how they have been designed and through making them more user friendly for both
students and teachers as well.

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[Brendan] I was lucky that in fifth grade that I was able to use a technology device in the classroom to
help me take notes and do my homework with.

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[Brendan] Whereas, nowadays most students are using their own devices to take notes and to turn in
their homework with.

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[Brendan] Also, when I used LiveScribe, it was the only pen that was available to take notes and do my
homework with digitally.
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[Brendan] And now every iPad comes with its very own digital Apple Pencil, which is capable of doing
the same thing, but for all students,

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[Brendan] now, whether they have a disability or not. In these, and many other ways, technology has
not only helps students with disabilities,

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[Brendan] but has also helped all able bodied students as well, too. [Transition Music]

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[Brendan] I hope that you have enjoyed learning about how technology has impacted Mrs. Hannah
Russell's job as an adviser for students with disabilities.

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[Brendan] I enjoyed sharing with you how technology has enabled me to progress in my schooling.

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[Brendan] And finally, I hope that you see the value put forth by the authors, Tigwell and Shinohara

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[Brendan] and their belief that getting more people with disabilities involved with developing
technologies is good for everybody.

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[Brendan] Thank you for listening to this episode of Teachers and Technology. I hope to see you again in
the next episode. [Transition music]