TVIS’ TECHNOLOGY PROFICIENCY & IDENTIFICATION WITH A COMMUNITY OF PRACTICE

YUE-TING SIU

VALERIE MORASH UC BERKELEY

@TVI_ting #CSUN14

Background

TVI = Teacher of Students with Visual Impairments AT = Assistive technology ¨  Ting: 12 years’ experience as a TVI and background in

training TVIs how to use technology with students ¨  More tech use in general education

Students with VI must be prepared to work in digital environment.

¨  AT use Improved postsecondary outcomes, employment

¨  Concern: Bridge gaps between tech innovations and teacher adoption for classroom implementation

Tech Use in General Ed: A Snapshot

Classroom teachers

69%

53%

0% 25% 50% 75% 100%

2010

2000

94%

92%

0% 25% 50% 75% 100%

School

Home

Students 8-17 y.o. (2008)

Gray, L. & colleagues (2010); Interactive (2008); Smerdon & colleagues (2000).

Assistive Technology (AT) Use

Abner & Lahm (2002); Edwards & Lewis (1998); Kapperman et al. (2002); Kelly (2008, 2009, 2011)

31%

41%

40%

0% 25% 50% 75% 100%

Students with VI

TVIs (1998-2002)

(2000-2005)

(school)

(home)

A New Digital Divide

Technology development

and innovations

Student use and classroom

implementation

TVI = Gatekeeper of AT

Differentiated needs of TVIs

¨  Itinerant TVIs = travel between several school sites depending on where students are located

¨  Challenges of itinerant teaching: ¤ Teaching in isolation ¤ Lack of professional learning community ¤ Lack of access to relevant professional development (PD)

¨  Challenges of teaching with AT: ¤ Modification of mainstream tech to suit student needs ¤ Speed of innovation requires ongoing PD ¤ AT as a tool to learning, not an objective unto itself.

Each construct informs the other. Investigation of this relationship: ¨  Requires development of measurement tools ¨  Supports recommendations for practice

Community of Practice (CoP)

Consists of 3 dimensions: ¨  Domain of interest: Members of a CoP invest in a shared

collection of knowledge, goals, and purpose to their actions. These mutual interests inform their actions.

¨  Community: Members interact with one another by sharing ideas, posing questions, and responding to others’ issues. Members mutually respect the exchange of information.

¨  Practice: Members share the same “toolkit” comprised of tools, information, anecdotes, and resources. The community develops and maintains this body of knowledge, and leverages it to inform the domain of interest.

(Wenger, 1999)

AT Proficiency

Siu & Morash (in press) re-conceptualized Smith et al.’s (2009) competencies into 4 dimensions: ¨  Choosing: Ability to choose AT for a student ¨  Funding: Ability to secure funding for AT ¨  Personal capabilities: Ability to use/troubleshoot AT ¨  Teaching integration: Ability to use AT for a variety of

purposes

Abating the digital divide

¨  Build communities of practice to support teacher adoption and classroom implementation.

¨  Integrated responsibility of professional development AND technology developers

Students’ use of AT is the ultimate outcome measure!

Examples from the field:

For further contact

Ting Siu, TVI ¨  ysiu@berkeley.edu ¨  facebook.com/yuetingsiu ¨  twitter: TVI_ting

Val Morash ¨  valmo@berkeley.edu