Andrew I Hashey and Skip Stahl (2014) Making Online Learning Accessible for Students With Disabilities
TEACHING Exceptional Children, vol.46, No.5, pp.70-78
In this Article they discuss the ability for children to attend school using an on-line curriculum for students with learning disabilites. I feel this type of schooling would not be conducive for students with moderate to severe learning disabilities. Currently, 31 states offer statewide full time virtual schools, enrolling an estimated 275,000 students(Watson,Murin, Vashaw, Gemin, & Rapp, 2012). For online classes to be successful depends on the teacher and materials choosen. The educator must be aware of all the accessibilites that are needed for their students, for example, if you have a hearing impaired student does the software offer a device for that child to learn? Although, this may sound like a great alternative for some students, to me seems like a real disadvantage. When you are hands on teaching you are able to make the appropiate adjustments and accomadations for your students daily, weekly, or monthly. I feel the barrier is too high for this virtual learning for students with LD and does not seem practical for most. Today's education is moving in the direction of universal design for learning with audio, video, smart boards, computers, i pads etc... I prefer having the accessibility to converse with a student face to face. I feel this article was useful to me as it has offered a lot of resources, websites, and educational tools that I made need to use in the future.
Lori,
ReplyDeleteI feel the same way about the online format of classes. In most cases in online classes I find it hard to get the feedback and help I need. Students that have a learning disability and require more help than I do will probably struggle more in this format. The classroom is and will always be the best environment of learning there is.
What an interesting article. It is so important to think about accessibility issues. This is a concerning problem for colleges right now. Many schools are implementing online classes and programs, and disability offices are becoming overwhelmed by the amount of resources that are needed. Schools need to be very intentional about making sure their materials are accessible.
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