H860 Reading Difficulties

Week 12

Reading Difficulties Meet Science &

Technology

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Today’s session

1. Technology2. Break3. Wrap-up4. (Neuroscience)

Technology: what are we talking about?

• Technology 1. Human innovation in action that involves the generation of knowledge and processes to develop systems that solve problems and extend human capabilities. 2. The innovation, change, or modification of the natural environment to satisfy perceived human needs and wants. 

• Educational technology –

Using multimedia technologies or audiovisual aids as a tool to enhance the teaching and learning process.

Current Possibilities: A vignette

• Technology gives and takes:

+providing a vehicle for creating, sharing, recording, and searching more and more data every day

+providing the basis for “smart tools” to help us process and make sense of this flood of data

- providing far more data and information than we can possibly handle

- Creates onus on us as designers of learning environments and learning experiences, to create these computational tools and, perhaps more importantly, to help learners acquire the cognitive tools needed to turn data and information into useful knowledge

Technology

1. Technology as information media2. Technology as a tool

Technology as an information media

• Advantages:

1. Versatile – can display content in many formatshttp://www.dcal.ucl.ac.uk/index.html

Technology as an information media

• Advantages: digital media is flexible

1. Versatile – can display content in many formatshttp://www.dcal.ucl.ac.uk/index.html

2. Transformable – size, loudness, text-to-speechhttp://www.bdadyslexia.org.uk/

Technology as an information media

• Advantages: digital media is flexible

1. Versatile – can display content in many formatshttp://www.dcal.ucl.ac.uk/index.html

2. Transformable – size, loudness, text-to-speechhttp://www.bdadyslexia.org.uk/

3. Can be marked

Technology as an information media

Advantages: digital media is

1. Versatile – can display content in many formatshttp://www.dcal.ucl.ac.uk/index.html

2. Transformable – size, loudness, text-to-speechhttp://www.bdadyslexia.org.uk/

3. Can be marked4. Can be networked

http://www.cast.org/teachingeverystudent/ideas/tes/chapter3_9.cfm#network

Technology as an information media

• Disadvantages?

• Gives a LOT of information to navigate• Reading from a scrolling screen disrupts

the ability to form coherent representation of written ‘whole’ and adds a significant memory load

• Bite-size information may impact opportunities to develop higher-level comprehension skills

• Students in Mrs. Bard’s 6th grade classroom have been working on fractions problems for homework. They’re using the Connected Math curriculum, but their classroom is also using handheld computers to do their work. The handhelds are great because students can keep nearly all of their homework on the device for nearly all subjects (some projects, like dioramas and posters, are still best done by hand). As the students file into the classroom in the morning, they point their handhelds at a receiver on the teacher’s computer. The handheld automatically transmits their homework answers to the computer, and does some quick background computation to prepare a report for the teacher. (As a bonus, the computer also takes attendance based on the students “beaming,” which is transmitted to the office automatically.) While students are reading current events on their handhelds (sent from the teacher’s computer when they turned in their homework), Mrs. Bard’s computer shows a report on the screen about which problems everyone got correct, and which problems multiple students got wrong.

• Students in Mrs. Bard’s 6th grade classroom have been working on fractions problems for homework. They’re using the Connected Math curriculum, but their classroom is also using handheld computers to do their work. The handhelds are great because students can keep nearly all of their homework on the device for nearly all subjects (some projects, like dioramas and posters, are still best done by hand).

Can be programmed inflexibly!

• Nothing replaces a strong curriculum• Depends on access to computers• Need time to get experience (e.g.

Endnote!)• Google is not an answer machine

• Tim Shanahan’s view…

Technology as a Tool

• From Fishman to reality!

• Software programs for basic reading skills:Lexia, Fast ForWord, Read 180

• Software for teachers to support reading:Book Builder http://bookbuilder.cast.org/

• Software for literacy-support skills:BrainCogs, Earobics, Inspiration

Claims:• ELLs, Students with Special Needs, High School

and Middle School Students • Skills on computer translate to reading

achievement and motivationResearch:

• Historically research-based, not research-proven

• Internal research (Scholastic, 2006) concludes efficacy in multiple environments

• Recent research by Hartry, Fitzgerald, and Porter (2008) shows that Read 180 is successful as supplementary literacy instruction

My Roles: School-based Literacy CoachDistrict-based Literacy CoachStaff Developer

District-wide Implementation:More than 10 schools with at least 4 classrooms outfitted with equipment (approximately $60,000 per school)District spent over $5 millionDistrict Literacy and Technology coaches deployed for two months to “fix” implementation

Technical Issues and Professional Development:

3 professional development sessions provided by consultantsFew school staff capable of technical support

Common Concerns

Multiple Vendors/Actors:Schools could choose Mac or PCVenders pointed to each other for issues (Scholastic vs. Apple vs. IBM)Who is responsible schools or district?

Implementation:Dosage (Frequency of Use)Using the data to plan instructionTeacher’s uses/misuse of software components

Implications for reading difficulties

1. Technology as information media2. Technology as a tool

Pros we came up with in class

• Technology can buffer students from the emotional impact of direct teacher feedback (though direct teacher feedback could also be powerful in a positive way)

• Technology can offer a more private means to practice skills a student might struggle with

• Technology supported by a ‘technology coach’ type model could ensure it is used in optimal ways

Cons we came up with in class

• Using computers as a time-filler/means to feel a student is getting extra input does not always work (also talked about emerging evidence that using computers for ‘skill & drill’ produces much lower learning outcomes than the ‘means to an end’ way technology is used in the Fishman vignette)

• Software may not be adaptive enough and is often one-size-fits-all

More views on technology

• http://www.mff.org/publications/publications.taf?page=269

Break

A few more words about neuroscience

• What can neuroscience currently tell us?

Neuroscience & Typical Reading Summary

Effects of phonological intervention

Temple et al., 2003

• Dyslexic children 8-12 years of age

• 100 minutes per day for 28 days of…

• Some normalization of left hemisphere processing as

well as recruitment of extra, predominantly right

hemisphere areas

Event-related potentials

• Can use ERPs youngershow neural differencesfrom birth between kidswith and without genetic risk of dyslexia

How imaging can inform models of reading

• Provides measure of cognitive function that might not be detectable from behavioral tests

• Fuller description of the neural and cognitive processes underlying behavioral effects

• Provides a qualitatively different sources of empirical validation

• Sheds light on the differences between typical reading and processes in dyslexia