Virtual Schooling:
Virtual/online schooling is an increasing trend for many public schooling options. It is done online, with a teacher or someone qualified to help "guide" the student through the online curriculum. This is an essential part to online schooling being successful. As a future Special education teacher, I worry that this curriculum will becoming challenging to help those students who have not yet been diagnosed, become diagnosed. But, that being said, that may be a good thing because the student becomes more "virtual" and you do not see them always in person. This could eliminate the bias that the teacher has towards their beliefs versus the behavior of the student. Groups of students that wouldn't benefit from this would be those students who have trouble concentrating, such as students with ADHD. There would need to be a monitoring system in place.
Interactive Whiteboards:
Interactive whiteboards is something that is also trending in the classroom. I have found this to be used in almost every classroom that I have worked with in my placements, and I have to say, I agree with Lisa Neilson and her article about why interactive whiteboards are dumb. I have found that to be true in all of my classrooms. They are just such a timely process to run. It takes sometimes close to five minutes for the board to load, and then once they load it does not always work! You have to make sure that you have board lined up so the writing on the board is consistent with your movements. As a future special education teacher, I do not think I would use this in my classroom. Transitions are hard enough for these students, let alone taking the time to have the technology work.
Hi Kailee,
ReplyDeleteInteresting take on virtual schooling. I never considered how it could impact children's diagnosis of having special needs. Do you think if virtual schooling becomes the norm rather than the exception the government will develop screenings that all children must participate in to test for disabilities? It would be costly but perhaps necessary.
I have not done much research on virtual schooling, but I feel like we as special educators would run into problems with LRE. Isn't it restricting to limit a child's education to the digital world, or is that a liberating choice families should be allowed to make? All of the supports and accommodations we have learned in our classes to ensure FAPE require a teacher to be present with the student as he or she is learning. If virtual schooling becomes more popular I think we are going to have to rewrite or redefine aspects of IDEA. It is almost like this will add another teaching certification to the mix: general educators, special educators, and online educators. I predict that in ten years online education will be a degree option for future teachers.
That is a really good question. I am not sure how they would screen for such thing if the student's are expected to just use a computer to complete a task. I would find that to be rather costly, like you said, and kind of a waste of time given that there is already an effective alternative option. I also agree with you on your second point. Giving a student essentially a "guide" rather than a teacher, would just throw out FAPE all together. Students with disabilities are given other options for schooling because of their needs and if virtual schooling becomes popular, than it may either increase or decrease the special education population. What do you think?
DeleteI think it will decrease the amount of kids who are labeled, but I think the same number of kids will struggle "in school." I feel like kids are referred much more frequently for observed behaviors (either social or "seeing" them struggle to understand something) than actual scores at first. If we take away the observations, we take away to social and behavior cues that often indicate disabilities. You know, instead of a disability label, these kids will have a number label. Not "that special ed student," but rather "the 60% students."
DeleteWhat an interesting thought Taren. I think not having the teacher observation or even for that fact, bias, may be somewhat of a benefit to those looking for a "straight-forward" diagnosis. I guess I had never thought about part of it. I agree they would probably be labeled under a percentage if that were to happen.
DeleteIn completely online schools (also called cybercharters), FAPE usually cannot be met. Thus, they almost intentionally exclude special education students. This is also common in other non-public institutions (charters, etc.). In turn, they often tout their success rates over traditional public schools, but, unlike those schools, they can cherry-pick students.
DeleteHi Kailee!
ReplyDeleteI also wrote about interactive whiteboards, however, I took a bit of a different stance on their use in special education classrooms. I have never experienced an interactive whiteboard being used in my placement, or really anywhere. I have had one or two professors at GVSU who have tried to use them, but not very often. I never really thought about the time it might take for the boards to load, I was focusing more on the educator's knowledge of how the board works and their ability to efficiently use it in the classroom.
Assuming that all things technical with the board run smoothly and that the teacher is able to efficiently use it, I think that interactive whiteboards could be a great tool in the classroom! I like the idea of having students come up to the board and manipulating/moving things. I am all about hands-on experience and I feel like an interactive whiteboard is another tool that can be used to add this to the classroom.
However, I completely see where you are coming from and agree that it would be a waste of time if everyone was constantly waiting for things to load on the whiteboard. Or if your movements kept messing up what you were trying to do (I have seen this happen in some of my classes at GVSU).
Sam,
ReplyDeleteI agree with you about that, I have just found them, in my experiences so far, to not be that effective. I saw one time where we used them to write on a google map and that worked. It was nice for the students to be engaged in that, but then again it could have just of easily worked on a projector. I guess the money spent on them is what gets me because I have not really seen them work with interactive tools so far. I would love to see someone use them effectively, but I haven't yet, so that is where I am weary. However, I do agree with you that if used in the proper manner, they can be really helpful!
Kailee, I loved your insight into virtual schooling. I think that the points you made make me feel even more torn on the idea! At first I was totally agreeing in your worry about it and students struggling. There are so many things that would need to be in place for virtual schooling to be successful for all students, but especially students with special needs. The fact that the virtual schooling allows a student to receive unbiased teaching and escape ridicule from peers in some cases pulled on my heart strings, but was definitely true. I can think of some of my students in my placement right now who would love nothing more than to be enrolled in virtual schooling. I think that we generally agree in IWB, they just aren't being used effectively. I really appreciated your virtual schooling comments, thanks for enlightening me and making me feel so very torn!
ReplyDeleteMegan, I totally agree with you on your idea of using virtual schooling for certain students. I think that it is something that could be of benefit. I just worry, much like other parts of education that it would be overused. For example, a student with an emotional impairment due to anxiety, may decide that they want virtual schooling simply for the escape from having to social. In the "real world", the student would not benefit from virtual schooling. There would have to be some type of observation, in my opinion, for it work as a tool to a student's advantage. Don't get me wrong, I have heard great things about virtual school, but for special education, I do not think it is the greatest of ideas. But, that is just me. I hope this kind of helped!
ReplyDeleteWhat I do not understand is how schools made the leap from organic schools all the way to online schools in one swoop. Shouldn't there be research first about hybrid courses for students that then led to online schools? I could see hybrid classes work ok for students with disabilities if someone checks in on them very frequently and delivers new information in person. Information or expanding on the basic information could be done online. What do you three think?
ReplyDeleteHybrid classes (or blended, depending on your definition) imply time both online and face-to-face. This is a logistical issue. Namely, HOW DO YOU TRANSPORT THE KIDS? You can't have students entering and leaving a high school at random for a host of reasons, and busing schedules would be a nightmare. Thus, jump straight to online and they stay at home. If they're just taking one online class, then they can stay at school in the media center or other defined location for that hour.
Delete