Assistive Educational Technologies for Students with Disabilities - Assignment Example

Q1. Does the school you teach in use assistive technology for student with (Hearing Impairment, Visual impairments and Intellectual disabilities)? The purpose of question 1 was to determine whether the schools from which the sample of the participants in the study was obtained use assistive technologies to help learners with disabilities as regards the three disabilities. Out of the 66 educators who responded to this question, forty-seven of them answered ‘yes’, indicating that their institutions were using assistive technology. On the other hand, 15 of the participants said ‘no’, meaning that their schools were not using assistive technology. The remaining four participants responded by saying “somewhat” and also indicated that there was a lack of adequate equipment such as computers in their schools, which made them not use assistive technologies effectively. Thus, it can be seen that most (47 out of 66 or 71 percent) of the educators were of the view that their schools have deployed assistive technologies to be used to help children with disabilities as regards their special learning needs. On the other hand, 15 of 66 or slightly over 22 percent of the respondents were of the view that their schools were not using assistive technologies to help children with special learning needs. About 6 percent of the respondents (4 out 66) indicated that that their schools were somewhat using assistive technologies, as a result of the lack of adequate equipment to support effective use of assistive technology to help children with disabilities in their learning activities. Q3. What is your experience as a teacher using technology? The purpose of this question was to help the researcher understand the educators’ experiences as regards their use of assistive technologies in helping learners with special needs. The educators were asked to share their experiences concerning the experience and encounters that they have had (if any) with assistive technologies. The responses that were provided by the research participants (i.e. the educators) during the interviews conducted with them were transcribed for the purpose of analysing the same. Leximancer software was used to conduct a thematic analysis of the transcribed data. To identify themes in the data, all transcribed interview data pertaining to Question 3 were entered into the Leximancer software. The initial list of themes that were identified had 11 items: “computer”, “information”, “technology”, “easily”, “programs”, “communicating”, “time”, “available”, “useful”, “pictures” and “applications”. The researcher then deleted some items that were deemed not to be relevant to question three, thus leaving 8 themes. The eight themes were “computer”, “technology”, “iPad”, “information”, “communicating”, “pictures”, “useful” and “available”. Among the eight themes “computer” was the most dominant theme with 16 hits. In deed, looking at the responses given in regard to question 3, there are many mentions of the word “computer”, for instance “Using computer and laptop helps and facilitates communicating concepts very much, and helps in varying the means of presentation”; “Good experience Using assisting devices, computers and projectors”; and “Using computer and its educational programs and video to show educational programs.” This was followed by “technology”, “iPad” and “information”, all which had 9 hits. Again, the words “technology”, “iPad” and “information” can be seen in various statements made by the educators (and in some cases two of these words appear in the same statement), for instance: “Technology is useful in education and saves the teacher's effort”; “Technology supports education and facilitates communicating information to students”; “Using iPads and laptops”; “Technology contributed in communicating information to the impaired students fast and easily and keeping this information in the student's memory for the longest possible period of time”; and “It saves time and conveys information correctly”. The theme “communicating” followed with 5 hits. This was followed by “pictures”, “useful” and “available”, which had 4 hits each. The eight themes and the hits for each theme as produced by Leximancer are shown in Figure () below. Figure (): Leximancer analysis of themes and hits in the data for question 3 Leximancer was also used to produce a concept map based on the concepts identified in the interview data for question 3. When the concept map opened, the themes that were visible were “computer”, “technology”, “iPad”, “information”, “communicating”, “pictures”, “useful” and “available”. These concepts are shown in Figure () below. Figure (): Conceptual map for question 3 – experience of teacher as regards the use of technology Looking at Figure (), it can be seen that the labels for “computer” and “iPad” intersect. The same applies to the labels for “available” and “technology” as well as “information” and “communicating”. Given that the theme “computer” had the highest number of hits, the intersection of the labels for “computer” and “iPad” is an indication that most of the educators’ talk about iPad was related to the participants’ experience in relation to using computers. For instance, in one statement, a participant noted “Using computer programs, iPad applications and projectors to show videos which support the lesson”. The same applies to the relationship between the words “available” and “technology” and “information” and “communicating”. For instance, one participant noted that technology is “Completely wonderful, special and comfortable. You can communicate information quickly and easily”. Q4. What difference do you think technology makes when it is used among student with (Hearing Impairment, Visual impairments and Intellectual disabilities) Saudi Arabia? The purpose of question 4 was to help the researcher understand how technology makes a difference in regard to learning when it is used by learners with disabilities. That is, the question sought help understand if educators think that the use of assistive technology when dealing with children disabilities makes a difference compared to when such learners are taught without any supporting assistive technology. In other words, the responses to this question are meant to show the perceived differences, in regard to children’s learning outcomes, that arise from using assistive technology, from the perspective of educators. From the responses, one can tell the benefits, if any, of using assistive technology to help learners who have any of the three disabilities that are the subject of this study. As with the other interview questions, the information that was obtained based on the interviews that were conducted with participants was transcribed in readiness for analysis. Also, thematic analysis was conducted using Leximancer to identify the main themes in the data and the hits associated with these themes, and to generate a concept map that could show the relative importance of the concepts in the data as well as the relationships that exist between these concepts. In the analysis, 6 themes were identified as follows: “information”, “attention”, “helps”, “time”, “facilitates”, and “develops”. Of these themes, “information” has the highest number of hits, at 16. “Information” appears to have the highest number of hits because of the idea that when educators use technology, they are able to pass information to students more easily or more clearly. This is seen in statements such as “It communicates information easily”; “It saves time and effort and communicates information easily”; and “It communicates information in a faster and clearer way”. “Information” was followed by “attention” with 14 hits and “helps”, which had 10 hits. This occurrence can be related to statements which suggested that technology helps to draw learners’ attention or that technology helps by making learning more interesting for students with disabilities. This is apparent in statements like: “It helps to research more and enjoy learning and reading”; “Highly attracting the students' attention and provoking their interactive abilities”; “It helps to communicate information easily”; and “It helps to research more and enjoy learning and reading”. The other themes that were identified were “time”, “facilitates” and “develops” with 7, 4 and 3 hits respectively. These themes are also indicative of how technology helps or facilitates the process of learning for learners with disabilities. The details of themes and hits pertaining to question 4 are illustrated in Figure (). Figure (): Leximancer analysis of themes and hits in the data for question 4 – the difference that educators think technology makes when it is used to help children with disabilities The interview data for question 4 was also entered into Leximancer to identify the key concepts in the text. The concepts that emerged are shown in Figure (). Figure (): Conceptual map for question 4 – the difference that educators believe technology makes when it is used in helping children with disabilities From Figure (), it can be seen that see that most of the talk by the participants about technology was centred on “attention”. More importantly, concepts such as ‘information”, “develops” and “helps” are closely linked, as shown by the intersection of the labels for these concepts. This suggests that in addition to mentioning how technology helps by drawing the attention of learners, the educators also talked about how technology helps them to pass information to learners or helps develop the learners’ abilities. Q5. Have you ever designed a program for student with (Hearing Impairment, Visual impairments and Intellectual disabilities) to improve their use of technology? What was it like? This question was meant to help the researcher understand whether the educators who participated in the study had designed any programme to help learners with disabilities improve their use of technology. The question was aimed at getting to know the experience of the educators for those who has designed or used an assistive programme. Out of the 67 educators who responded to the question of if they have ever designed a programme for a student with any of the three disabilities to help such students use technology in their learning activities, 61 of the participants responded with ‘no’ while only five responded in the affirmative. This implies that the majority of the educators had not designed any programmes to help children with disabilities in terms of how they are able to use the assistive technologies that are in place in their schools. The five educators who said ‘yes’, meaning that they had designed in kind of programme, also indicated the types of programme that they has designed. These programmes vary among the five educators and can also be seen to have been designed based on the kind of need that each educator was faced with. Specifically, the one of the five educators (P1) responded as follows: I got Jeddah Prize 2015. I prepared a vocalization course and I am working on it to make the textbook visual. From P1’s response, it can be noted that the educator came up with a vocalisation course and was still working on the course to make a textbook that could be visualised based on the visualisation concept. And for designing the programme, the educator had received the Jeddah Prize in 2015. Another educator, P2, responded to the same question as follows: Yes / sign language. There was progress in which students participated. P2’s response suggests that the educator had designed a program that would help learners in regard to sign language. Such a program could be targeted at help children who have hearing impairments or any other disabilities that could have negatively affected their hearing ability. The third research participant (P3) on the other hand noted that she had designed an Arabic version of the Braille Board as noted below: Yes. Arabic version of Braille Board. Also, I received a patent of invention with teamwork. It was applied on blind teachers with success, but there was no sponsor. The response given by educator P3 indicated that this educator’s programme was aimed at helping children with visual impairments to read using a Braille Board of the Arabic version. The response also goes further to show that the programme was patented and was also used by blind teachers successfully even though there was no sponsor to support the programme. Another educator, P4, indicated that she had used an augmented reality program, which was an incredible experience and produced motivating results for both teachers and students. Educator P4’s response was as follows: Yes. Using an augmented reality program was a fantastic experience with motivating results for the teacher and the students. P4’s response, however, does not indicate whether the educator actually designed the “reality program” that was mentioned in the statement. Finally, the fifth educator, P5, while agreeing that she had designed a programme to help children with disabilities in their learning process, also noted that she used a visual-based programme that was aimed at helping children who rely on vision only not only in learning but also in testing the learners. The response was as follows: Yes. We supervised teamwork of teachers for communication using a program in the student's pads who are mentally paralysed (visual). It is a visual-based program by which students can be tested relying on vision only and the device articulates the answer. Also, we used a touch-based program with the mute students, which is helpful in choosing food, colours, etc. As a principal, it is great. I noticed that the student can communicate her idea and feeling through it. The response given by educator P5 also did not indicate whether the educator had designed the programme personally or was just using the programme. Q6. How is technology used towards enhancing learning for students with (Hearing Impairment, Visual impairments and Intellectual disabilities) disability in Saudi Arabia? Question 6 was meant to provide an understanding of how technology is used by educators to enhance learning for students with disabilities. In other words, using this research question, the researcher sought to understand how educators in Saudi Arabia use technology as a way of enhancing the learning process of children with hearing impairments, children with visual impairments, and those with intellectual disabilities. As was done for the other interview questions, the interview data that was obtained for question 6 was transcribed in order to have it in a format that could be analysed. The data was then entered into Leximancer for purposes of analysing it thematically and generating concepts relating to the data. From the thematic analysis, the following themes were noted: “programs”, “practice”, “information”, “devices”, “reinforcement”, and “explanation”. Among these themes, “programs” was the most dominant these with 19 hits. It was followed by “practice” with 9 hits. “Information” and “devices” were the next themes with 6 hits each. The last two themes in regard to the number of hits were “reinforcement” with 4 hits and “explanation” with 2 hits. These details are illustrated in Figure () below. Figure (): Leximancer analysis of themes and hits in the data for question 6 – How technology is used towards enhancing learning for students with disabilities The high number of hits for the theme “programs” suggests that the educators who took part in the research frequently mentioned programs as one of tools that they use to help children with disabilities. On the concept map (Figure ()), the “programs” label has the hottest colour and lies close to the “practice” label, which had the second highest number of hits. The “programs” label is also intersected by other labels including that for “information” and “reinforcement”. This means that the two concepts (“information” and “reinforcement”) were mentioned alongside or in relation to “programs”. Figure (): Conceptual map for question 6 – How technology is used towards enhancing learning for students with disabilities Looking that interview data, it is true that the word “programs” was mentioned alongside some of these concepts by various interview participants. Some examples include the following: “ Through reinforcement programs that exist in social media”; “By providing the students with exciting and suitable scientific programs”; “Through connecting classroom curriculum with effective programs to communicate information in the easiest ways and also activating non-curricular activities to discover the students' potentials”; and “Through reinforcement programs that exist in social media”. These statements show that educators use various programs to pass information to learners with disabilities and to promote positive reinforcement among students. The fact that “practice” was also mentioned frequently as shown by the hotness of the colour of this concept in the concept map also indicates that educators use technology to promote practising of various concepts by the learners with disabilities. This is reflected in various statements including “By involving students in the lesson design and making them practice it during the lesson” and “Empirical practice is better than the theoretical one because it elevates enthusiasm and attracts attention”. Q7 What is the role of technology and its influences on the learning of student with (Hearing Impairment, Visual impairments and Intellectual disabilities) disability in Saudi Arabian schools? The purpose of question 7 was to determine the role of technology and how technology influences the learning of students with any of the three kinds of disabilities that are highlighted in this study. In other words, this question was meant to help the researcher understand what role technology plays when it is used to help children with disabilities in their learning activities. The question was also meant to determine the ways in which technology influences the learning of students who have any of the three disabilities. The data that was obtained through interviews with the participants was transcribed in readiness for analysis. The data was then fed into Leximancer for thematic analysis and for purposes of generating a concept map to identify the concepts in the data. For the thematic analysis, the following themes with their respective hits were identified: “information” (30 hits); “positive” (12 hits); “helps” (7 hits); “facilitates” (5 hits); “level” (4 hits); “abilities”, “different”, “attention” (3 hits each); and “knowledge (2 hits). These themes and their hits are illustrated in Figure (). Figure (): Leximancer analysis of themes and hits in the data for question 6 – the role of technology and its influences on the learning of students with disabilities. Based on Figure (), it can be seen that the theme that was mentioned most by the educators who took part in the research was “information” and was followed by “positive” and “helps” in that order. From the interview responses, it can be seen that there were many mentions of the word “information”, suggesting that technology helps in the dissemination of information to children and also influences the way the children learn. This can be seen from the following examples of responses of the educators: “Overcoming many difficulties, saving time and effort, and communicating the information easily” and “Its role is very important since it saves time and effort and makes information easy to be communicated”. As well, several educators mentioned that technology influences learners with disabilities as well as their teachers in a “positive” way as shown by responses such as “It plays a positive and effective role”; “It has a positive role on students that it enriches their information and makes them deal with technology in a better way”; and “It is useful and has a positive effect on the student and the teacher alike”. These findings are corroborated in the concept map derived from the same data (Figure ()). Figure (): Conceptual map for question 6 – the role of technology and its impact on the learning of students with disabilities From Figure (), it can be seen that the “information” was the most dominant concept given that the label for this concept has the hottest colour. Also, the “information” label is closely intersected by the label for the “positive” concept, which is the second concept in regard to the hotness of the colour of the label. This means that most of the talk by the educators was centred on how technology changes the learning process as well as the learners with respect to how information is passed. Q8 What are the challenges faced by your school in the implementation and/or use of technology for the learning of students with the aforementioned disabilities in Saudi Arabia? The aim of question 8 was to find out from the educators, the challenges that their schools face in the process of implementing or using technology to help children with any of the three kinds of disabilities (i.e. hearing impairments, visual impairments and intellectual disabilities). That is, through this question, the researcher sought to determine the challenges that schools in Saudi Arabia face in their efforts to use technology to help meet the needs of children with disabilities, from the perspective of the educators who were interviewed. The interview data was transcribed and entered into Leximancer for thematic and analysis and to identify the main concepts in the data. For the thematic analysis, the following themes were identified: “training”, “devices”, “available”, “financial”, “use”, “budget”, “tools”, “maintenance”, and “capabilities”. These themes, together with hits for each theme, are shown in Figure (). In the figure “training” is the theme with the highest number of hits (17), followed by “devices” with 14 hits and “available” and “financial” with 12 hits each. The theme “use” follows with 11 hits. Figure (): Leximancer analysis of themes and hits in the data for question 6 – the challenges faced by schools in the implementation and/or use of technology for the learning of students with disabilities From Figure (), it can be seen that “training” was the most mentioned theme followed closely by “devices”, “available” and “financial”. Looking at the interview information, one can note that lack of training or adequate training, high cost of devices, devices/technologies not being available and financial constraints are some of the issues that were identified by the educators as the challenges that schools face in their efforts to implement the use of technology to support the learning of children with disabilities. This is apparent in statements such as “I think that the most important point is the insufficient monetary liquidity, constant training on this technology by teachers; “Internet unavailability; lack of programs, applications, educational games and smart boards, and applications-driven curricula”; and “Insufficient technology and lack of training”. Similarly, in the concept map for the question 8 data (Figure ()), the most dominant concepts are “financial” and “training”, meaning that the research participants mentioned lack of adequate training and limited financial resources as some of the challenges that their schools face in their attempts to implement the use of technology to help children with disabilities. Figure (): Conceptual map for question 8 – challenges that schools face in the implementation and/or use of technology for the learning of students with disabilities Q9: How do you think the challenges can be overcome? This question was meant to gauge how the educators who participated in the study believed the problems that their schools face in their efforts to provide and use technology to support the learning needs of children with disabilities can be addressed. In other words, through this question, the researcher sought to understand what the educators think are the solutions to the challenges that their schools face in their effort to implement the use of technology in helping children with disabilities. The interview data for question 9 were transcribed and analysed using Leximancer to identify the themes and concepts in the data. As regards the thematic analysis that was conducted, the following themes were identified: “modern”, “teachers”, “maintenance”, “budget”, “ministry”, and “support”. Among these themes, “modern” had the highest number of hits (23), followed by “teachers” (21). Other themes had generally low number s of hits as follows: “maintenance” – 7 hits; “budget” – 7 hits; “ministry” – 6 hits; and “support” – 5 hits. These themes and their respective hits are shown in Figure (). Figure (): Leximancer analysis of themes and hits in the data for question 9 – teachers’ views on how the challenges that schools face as regards the use of technology to support children with disabilities can be addressed The fact that the themes that had the highest number of hits were “modern” and “teachers” shows that the educators who were interviewed mostly talked about these two themes. This observation is supported by various statements from the interview data. For instance, some of the statements that included the word “modern” are: “Boosting the institute with modern technology and monetary liquidity”; “Equipping classrooms with modern technology”; and “Developing school programs and providing schools with modern technology”. On the other hand, some of the statements that included the word “teachers” are as follows: “By making use of the experiences of the other countries, training teachers on modern technology and sufficing them to the students and training students on how to use them”; “Sufficing a special budget, preparing a suitable place, and training teachers to use them”; and “The ministry should put forth plans and programs, training teachers and supply technological devices”. These results suggest that much of the talk by the interviewed educators was focused on issues such as providing modern technology and training teachers so that they can be able to use these technologies to support children with disabilities in their learning activities. These findings are also confirmed in the concept map for the same data (Figure ()), which shows the concept “modern” with the hottest colour label followed by “teachers”. Figure (): Conceptual map for question 9 – teachers’ perceptions on how the challenges that schools face in regard to the use of technology to support children with disabilities can be overcome From Figure (), it can be noted that the concepts “modern” and “teachers” are also closely linked with others such as “providing”, “devices” and “budget”, which indicates that the interviewees talked about providing things like devices and budgets to help address the challenges that schools face as regards dealing with the needs of children with disabilities. Read More