Curriculum Delivery through Edutainment - Coursework Example

Curriculum delivery through "Edutainment" Introduction This paper will explore the meaning of autism while highlighting the intricacies of classroom instruction for autistic children and explaining the difference between high functioning and low functioning autism as conceptualized in the Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) literature. Moreover, this paper will explore the major problems ASD children commonly face in education while explaining the concept of "edutainment" by examining criticisms of the concept in articles and observations made by various authorities in the areas of education planning and provision; the strengths and weaknesses of edutainment will also be highlighted. Besides that, a special focus will be dedicated to how special needs education and curriculum delivery have changed and the use of ICT, particularly the Tablet (ipad) applications, their benefits and drawbacks of using apps in the classroom. Finally, this paper will highlight aspects learning, memory and engagement with autistic children focusing on children in the age group 10-13, who are at a higher risk of social exclusion (Buchanan, 2007). Defining Autism Autism is a multifarious neurological development disability that often manifests within the first three years of an individual’s life; autistic cases have limited social interaction, difficulty in communication, both spoken and unspoken, and may also present with restricted or repetitive tendencies. Autism impairs the brain function of information processing by prompting alterations in the manner in which cells and their synapses connect and organize in a way that is yet so clear and it is one of the three known critical autism spectrum disorders (ASD) (Church, 2010). Even though autism is strongly associated with genetics, there is little knowledge of the complex genetic basis of this disorder since it is not clear whether it is the unusual arrangements of usual genetic variants or the uncommon mutations that explain ASD. While factors that result to birth defects have been associated with autism in rare cases, there is no consensus on the link between autism and environmental factors such as heavy metals, pesticides as well as childhood vaccines (Zwaigenbaum, 2009). Genomic studies have recently propounded that individuals with ASD may be sharing genetic features with people that have bipolar disorder, clinical depression, schizophrenia, and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ASHD), and there is increased risk of autism with increase in both maternal and paternal age (Durkin et al., 2008). Autistic children, due to poor social and communication skills, are more likely to stick to doing a set of repetitive behaviours and may not be willing to change any aspect of their daily activities; since ASD is a broad spectrum disorder, individual cases of autism are more likely to present with completely different symptoms. Nearly 6-7 in every 1000 people all over the world have autism and the disability occurs frequently in boys than it does in girls (Myers, 2009). According to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), about 1.5% of children in the US alone had been diagnosed with autism by 2014, where autism ranks among the highest clinical diagnoses (Bhat, Landa & Galloway, 2011). Learning of ASD children Generally, to make learning easier for autistic children, numerous adjustments can be made to their learning environment to compensate for their social, communicative and sensory impairments; for instance, use of predictable routines such as timers and bells often assists this group with transitions. Autistic children also learn well through peer mentoring and frequent positive reinforcements and learning outcomes are even higher when they are guided in an environment that is uncluttered, away from distracting noises. Autistic children require intelligent modifications in their curriculum since, unlike their typical peers, autistic children need specialized help to learn effectively; for instance, auditory processing difficulties in learning can be compensated by use of visual supports such as pictures, symbols as well as written instructions. Autistic children learn well with visual stimuli since visuals serve as enduring cues of the instruction material; nonetheless, since autistic children are avid readers, their instruction can further be supported by written instructions, schedules, routines and rules, which can help them participate effectively in the classroom. Delivering stimulating instruction that presents adequate challenge is critical in addressing the attention difficulties of autistic children in the classroom since boredom is one of the crucial causes of distractibility for this group; similarly, distractibility due to self-stimulatory behaviour can be remedied by identifying and removing the distracting elements or changing the child’s seating arrangement in class. High and low functioning autism A distinction has often been made between low and high functioning autism; generally, this distinction tends to mark the level of functioning of the autistic person, that is, the level at which the person interacts with the world around them. Controversy surrounds the exact distinction of the two terms, particularly due to their perceived vagueness; nonetheless, the terms generally indicate the different levels of autistic individual’s capacity to be independent. Autistic’s level of functioning is often judged from the scores on particular IQ tests or developmental level at a given time; generally, autistic individuals who are perceived to be functioning at advanced cognitive levels (usually with an IQ that is higher than 70) compared to other autistic cases. Low functioning refers to the autistics of an IQ below 70, and mostly they are non-verbal or severely autistic in that their sensory-motor skills, and performance of daily living skills is largely unexplored (Jasmin, 2009); high functioning autistics are deemed not to exhibit certain behaviours associated with autism such as self-injury and aggression. Unlike low functioning autistic cases, high functioning autistic children can perform nearly 95% of the tasks that ordinary people do, only that they have a unique perspective of the world that requires understanding. Autistic educational challenges Autism affects the manner in which people think, learn and experience the world around them and autistic children share common difficulties in five key areas namely communication, social interaction, repetitive behaviour, sensory processing as well as information processing (Willis, 2012), which undermine their ability to learn like normal learners. Awareness of the unique ways in which autism impacts on children’s lives at home, in school and in the wider community enables the right approach of support to be applied in helping children with this condition. It is widely acknowledged that autistic children often develop at different rates and may follow a different developmental pattern altogether; the core deficits that define autism often undermine the development of essential skills that are required for effective learning. Autistic children have some common learning characteristics including attention difficulties, auditory processing impairments, knowledge transfer inability, imitation inability, and event sequencing difficulties; additionally, autistic children have irregular patterns of strengths and weaknesses, they are poor at planning and organization, and they hardly understand time concepts or make transitions. Educational Entertainment Educational entertainment, commonly known as edutainment, refers to the sort of entertainment content that can be leveraged for instructional purposes due to its educational value (Egenfeldt-Nielsen, 2007); edutainment can be traced back to ancient histories where it existed in the form of parables and fables, which were used to promote social change. The Oxford dictionary describes edutainment as computer games, television programmes, or other material that is targeted both for its educational as well as entertainment value; the term and concept of edutainment has existed for a couple of decades now since it was first introduced in the popular media in the 1980s by blending its two constituent words education and entertainment. Edutainment is regarded as a hybrid sort of instruction that greatly relies on visual material, designed in narrative or game-like formats; edutainment is aimed to attract and sustain the attention of learners since it effectively engages their emotions through its vivid multi-coloured illustrations. Edutainment is not a new idea in the history of education science since over the years, numerous philosophers and teachers have advocated for the concepts of joyful learning or illustrative learning methods that make instruction more pleasant to the learners. J.A. Komensky, a Czech educator associated with the idea of “school as play,” advocated for playful instruction by making play a significant part of his teachings. Edutainment is a broad focus area that could be characterized by multiple structure activities that are less strict in their structures and are indirectly linked with the rules and ideas of any particular game. Edutainment has become a buzzword today, particularly given the prevalent focus on interactive pedagogy and the pervasive assertion that learning should be fun for outcomes to be optimized (Deliyannis, Giannakoulopoulos & Varlamis, 2011). The concept of edutainment suggests learning materials that are overtly entertaining but inherently contain educational messages for students; edutainment software often makes explicit educational claims that express their benefits in developing learners’ skills besides invoking learners’ concentration during instruction through the suggestion that learning too can be enjoyable and fun. Edutainment has been hailed for its profound potential to enhance learning since through network resources, learners are able to participate in individualized instruction; through individualized learning, learners are able to identify and learn concepts and content that is concomitant to their unique needs. Edutainment greatly enriches learning experiences since it combines text, sound, graphics, and animations yielding enduring cues due to its multiple stimuli; it has been argued that edutainment software encourages students to explore topics broadly due to its rich, interesting and highly engaging learning experiences. Besides its great educational gains, edutainment has major weaknesses and perhaps the greatest of them all is that the term edutainment nuances the distorted view that education is a bitter experience that needs to be sugar-coated with entertainment to be palatable. Edutainment has largely been faulted for equating learning with fun, thus somehow underpinning the attitude that since learning should be fun, if learners are not enjoying themselves then they are not learning. This kind of attitude towards learning does great harm to learners since it eventually trivializes instruction by equating learning to a mere fun activity rather than a serious. To optimize the possibilities of edutainment and computer-assisted instruction, critics have pointed at the need to focus beyond the mere packaging of special effects that make computers superficially engaging. Merely adding entertainment value to instruction is not motivating enough for learners since they may only be interested in the games rather than learning itself; matter of fact, it has been argued that edutainment undermines the most essential learning skills such as selective attention, which is required for one to focus on learning outcomes by avoiding distraction. Changes to special needs education and curriculum delivery There has been major shifts in the special needs education and curriculum delivery in the country, despite years of neglect by public policy (Croll & Moses, 2000), which place learners at the core of planning while making teachers more accountable for the learning outcomes achieved by their learners. The Children and Families bill outlines a new approach to special needs education provision and curriculum delivery, which directly empowers the learners, and their families to be directly involved in decisions regarding the kind of support offered (Cook, 2014). The argument goes that since parents know their children better than anyone else, they can give more accurate insights on the progress of their children, which can be leveraged in policy making at the schools. Consulting parents will enable schools to work out the exact learning needs of each learner until they reach their 16th birthday, after which it is expected that the learners’ views will automatically override their parents’, which implies that they shall be consulted on what they want to learn. Besides that, the new rules also replace special education needs (SEN) statements and learning difficulty assessments (LDAs) with education health and care (EHC) plans that will focus on children and young adults below 25 years of age. A single school-based category for children that have been identified as needing additional expert support has replaced the traditional intervention schemes that were used to track progress and schools are now expected to set out interventions and the anticipated outcomes for learners while reviewing their progress on a termly basis. The changes also allow learners and their parents benefiting from an EHC plan to hold a personal budget to access the identified support while holding the teachers responsible for the progress of all the learners, including those that are supported by specialists (Cook, 2014). Teachers are obligated to ensure curriculum delivery for the SEN learners is effective since they are to be assessed and judged based on how well this group performs; the implication is that teachers must be competent not only in identifying, but also in supporting learners with special needs as education practitioner-led interventions often enhance outcomes (Hutchinson & Clegg, 2011). The new approach to the special education provision and curriculum delivery incorporates health and care needs of the SEN learners with their educational needs; the new system of special education provision and curriculum delivery has been hailed as a welcome strategy that has the potential of enhancing support for SEN learners. Giving the SEN learners and their parents’ great control and choice of the nature of assistance and support provided has greatly revolutionized special education and curriculum delivery for the SEN learners since it leads to optimized outcomes for the group. In that case, the long awaited reforms in the special needs education area are finally at hand and parents of children with learning disabilities can now breathe a sigh of relief given that the serious failing in the previous SEN system have been addressed effectively by the new provisions outlined by the government in the Children and Families Act. Application of ICTs in SEN Instruction Remarkable innovations in the delivery of education have been witnessed in the current information age, which has enabled the integration of text, sound, graphics, as well as video into a single multimedia document. The different applications of information communication technologies that have emerged present new opportunities in the area of education and training (Illingworth, 2012); new ICT-based methods and forms of education have completely transformed the education system the world over. With the current debate on equitable approaches to meeting the needs of all learners, the concepts of inclusive or exclusive education have dominated the special education practice (Razali, Toran, Kamaralzaman, Salleh & Yasin, 2013). The use of ICTs in SEN provision presents new opportunities for participation and inclusion not only in the culture, but also in the curriculum and society of learning centres. Technology has been fronted as a potential equalizer that can be leveraged to effectively make up for learning differences in the classroom environment; in that respect, ICTs in the SEN provision can help create the conditions for equal participation of all learners in the instruction curriculum. A wide range of devices can be leveraged to support instruction of SEN learners; basically, most SEN learners have difficulty organizing their studies as well as their learning and this can be mediated effectively using ICTs (Williams, Jamali & Nicholas, 2006). ICTs offer numerous software packages or applications that can be used by SEN learners to plan and organize their studies; for instance, the concept mapping software known as inspiration can be used to track what learners have gained and to prepare the teachings for later revision. The use of hand-held computers such as tablet or iPad applications has greatly enhanced classroom participation for the SEN learners since these tools have enabled this group of learners to stay organized. Tablet or iPad applications reduce anxiety that SEN learners often have regarding knowing what they need to do or losing papers since they are portable and can be carried around; besides that, tablet or iPad technologies provide social support since they enable SEN learners to share programs amongst themselves and to send information to their friends. Applications for spelling and grammar checkers are readily available to help students with writing problems to counter-check their work for errors before presentation; tablet PCs can also be used as text recording devices when students have a slow handwriting that results to illegible text, which cannot be used for later revision. Applications of network technology such as bulletin boards, e-mail as well as chat rooms are often used to encourage communication amongst groups of learners and their equalizing effect originates from the fact that learners choose what to reveal about themselves. In these networked communications, learners are neither defined by disability or SEN nor barred to participate due to SEN. Hand-held communication devices such as tablets can be leveraged to engender social support for SEN learners under the guidance of the teacher; online chat rooms have a great equalizing effect that makes them invaluable educational resources for some pupils with SEN. However, computer assisted instruction (CAI) has been confirmed to be insufficient for supporting SEN pupils as a standalone application, there are numerous individualized learning programs that have been devised to support learners with special education needs (Williams, 2005). For example, a recent application in the design of CAI for SEN pupils has incorporated strategy instruction techniques, which are aimed to instruct the problem-solving strategies that are necessary for finishing a task. Microsoft Excel can be utilized to teach SEN pupils to monitor their academic performance and this self-evaluation of the social and academic performance has been associated with great outcomes for the entire group; an additional component of self-graphing further enhances the effectiveness of self-evaluation on tablet PCs. There are more enhanced, user-friendly application packages that can support SEN learners to easily record and graph clear representations of their progress thereby optimizing outcomes for the learners while enhancing efficient tie use by the teacher. Benefits and drawbacks of applications There are numerous benefits of using applications in the classroom, which makes them ideal especially for the SEN learners; generally, the tablet PC offers nearly all the advantages of using the notebook PC while adding new capabilities. For instance, the instructor can draw on the presentation using a stylus and since it can both be used in landscape and portrait modes, the tablet PC is ideal for displaying different formats of material for the learners. IPad applications also provide for immediate feedback while facilitating participation of the entire class since they promote real-time communication and transmission of material between the students and the learners thereby saving time unlike exchanging stacks of papers (Cook, 2014). Numerous applications that support electronic quizzes, submissions and supervision yield great efficiency in the assessment and analysis of academic processes thereby giving quick feedback on performance. Applications have also simplified the collection and retention of material such as homework and class assignments while enabling electronic reading and annotating of sources; precisely, there is an application for nearly anything that comes to mind, and this makes instruction much simpler and easier for the SEN learners. Besides the benefits of classroom apps, numerous drawbacks have also been cited with regards to their efficiency in classroom instruction; for instance, there is no ideal workflow solution in the use of applications, thus, since all aspects of teaching are yet to be incorporated, one must use different apps for a multitude tasks and this creates even more work than the conventional receiving of paper copies. Additionally, the efficiency of applications in classroom instruction heavily depends on the quality of the WI-FI connection, thus, a slow or disconnected Wi-Fi server totally ruins the lesson as nothing can be done without a strong signal in the classroom. The distraction factor is yet another critical challenge for app utility in class as learners might easily switch to games, messages, as well as unauthorized apps while they ought to be focusing on the lesson in progress to grasp the concepts inherent in the content being delivered by the teacher. iPads could also be overwhelming since there are many app options that could be used and varied educational approaches that could be taken, which eventually undermines their utility; ineptness in navigation of the digital world could be a major barrier to the efficient use of these applications, and more so if the user is not familiar with the numerous capabilities offered by the new unique features. Another critical drawback in the use of applications is that they are not capable of handling all the tasks a traditional computer would be capable of doing, and it may be in fact much easier to create documents using the computer keyboard and mouse than it ever could be using the app tools (Cook, 2014). Furthermore, iPads require charging, which implies that a student risks losing access to their learning material in case of power mishaps unlike books, which do not require charging as often declared by book enthusiasts. It is also unfortunate that while there are so many textbook resources available for download over the internet, there are really few textbooks to match the number, thus, a vast majority of the online book resources are surrogates that are yet to be published hence cannot measure up to the quality and standard of actual published books. Aspects learning, memory and engagement with autistic children Autism is a broad spectrum disorder, which implies that one-size-fits all approach to learning is highly inappropriate in the instruction of the group, particularly in primary school cases for children aged between 10-13 years. Individualized planning is essential for service provision across all aspects of individual services and records of every child’s individual profile of strengths, support needs as well as response to intervention are invaluable documents that can be leveraged in the planning of education for the SEN pupils. There are four major curriculum competency areas from which content for the SEN children is derived; firstly, SEN learners present with elevated levels of atypical sensory responses, thus, programs for this group focus on identifying, assessing and remedying sensory challenges that affect educational outcomes for the group. Effective support for the group is offered in form of occupational therapy and several strategies such as environmental modification, visually supported learning, as well as enhancing sensory stimuli tolerance alongside other activities linked to sensory stimuli. The second curriculum area focused is the atypical social development, which affects SEN learners in primary school across the spectrum; careful assessment of individual learners’ needs and transactional supports is essential in customizing support in aspects such as recognition and expression of emotions and sharing attention. Learning programs also target to enhance early interactions, play, peer interaction, perspective taking as well as self-control through a range of interventions including play, peer support, cognitive strategies, as well as social skills groups. The third critical curriculum area for the SEN learners aged between 10-13 years is communication, which is characterized by atypical semantics; teaching staff adjust their communication styles through behavioural interventions that facilitate social and communicative abilities of SEN pupils such allowing adequate time for the pupils to process information and to use clear, focused language (Sowden, Perkins & Clegg, 2011). The fourth aspect of the SEN curriculum covers learning and behaviour in recognition that learners with special education needs often follow uneven patterns of cognitive development; while displaying relative strengths in visual processing and rote memory skills, SEN learners between the ages of 10-13 years are more likely to experience difficulties in engaging in goal-directed behaviours. Learning approaches focus on developing supportive and structured learning environments such as allowing children to take part in activities that are built around their areas of interest and strengths, to enhance trust while facilitating positive learning outcomes. Autistic children often have poor memory for complex information, not only in words, but also in picture forms since they lack a cognitive capacity to organize several components of information (Smith, 1994). Similarly, children with autism have also been found to have a poor working memory for spatial information or figuring out later the location of things once they are out of sight (Williams, Goldstein, Carpenter & Minshew, 2005). Memory in autistic children is organized differently from their typical peers due to variations in the formation of brain connections with the frontal cortex; usually, the brain of autistic children is not capable of automatically identifying and storing important information that is crucial for effective communication, social interactions, as well as problem solving (Kaweski, 2011). In that respect, children with autism are always overwhelmed by complex information in nearly every day experiences due to memory problems and they are more likely to be unorganized, misplace assignments or forget assignment tasks among other behavioural effects. In the engagement with SEN learners between the age of 10-13 years, verbal instructions and unfamiliar materials often lead to profound confusion that accentuates anxiety and failure of the learners, thus, work systems that provide visual information and organization for SEN leaners enhance task behaviour and productivity effectively (Hume & Reynolds, 2010). Use of reinforcement and motivating strategies encourage learners to acquire new information and given that most children with autism spectrum disorders have an extremely limited set of interests, these can be utilized effectively as tools to capture the learners’ attention and to teach in a more meaningful manner, while rewarding positive outcomes. Autistic children are more likely to engage in repetitive activities without even the slightest interest in whatever is happening around them; for instance, they may append hours on end tapping two sticks together and may resist any attempts to engage them in other activities in their immediate environments. Intervention education to autistic children before the age of four greatly enhances their chances at learning new skills and capacity to adapt to new environments (Ouellette-Kuntz et al., 2009); for instance, identifying the children’s obsessions and designing activities around these obsessions can greatly enhance engagement with autistic children. Autistic children must also be allowed to stop the activities at will and when engaging the autistic children in activities, one must react to their actions and behaviour to encourage socially appropriate behaviours in them. One must also introduce one activity at a time to minimize anxiety that is often involved in removing the children from their comfort zones of their routinized behaviours or activities; while encouraging the child to explore different activities does eventually encourage the learners to develop new skills, one must also pay attention on what the child enjoys and does not enjoy doing. Conclusion Ultimately, autism has been conceptualized as a complex neurological development disorder often diagnosed in individuals before their third birthday, leading to critical impairments in the vital areas of human growth such as social interaction, communication, sensory processing, as well as information processing. The ASD has a prevalence of nearly 1-2 in every 1000 people the world over and boys are generally four times more likely to be diagnosed with autism than girls are. The pervasive social, communicative and sensory impairments linked with autism generally inhibits effective learning for the group and to support the education of autistic children, several adjustments can be made to their learning environments. The prevalent learning challenges experienced by autistic children include attention difficulties, auditory processing impairments, knowledge transfer inability, imitation inability, as well as event sequencing difficulties. Whereas autistic children are more likely to have irregular patterns of strengths and weaknesses, they are also poor at planning and organization, and they find it difficult to comprehend time concepts or make transitions from one activity to another. Predictable routines such as timers and bells are necessary in reducing the profound anxiety and frustration that autistic children often associate with transitions between tasks thereby preferring to stick to routinized tasks. Peer mentoring and frequent positive reinforcements in uncluttered environments away from distracting noises are often brilliant strategies of engaging with autistic children while visual supports in form of pictures, symbols and written instructions are effective in compensating for auditory processing difficulties in learning. Visual stimuli achieve greater impacts on autistic children since visuals give enduring cues of the instruction material, unlike the traditional rote learning techniques that autistic children often find overwhelming and are uncomfortable with. High and low functioning autism distinction marks the level of functioning of the autistic person since different autistic people often interact with their environments around them at different levels of functioning. While high functioning autistic individuals are thought to have an IQ that is higher than 70, low functioning autistic individuals are believed to have an IQ below 70. Due to its communication, social interaction, repetitive behaviour, sensory processing as well as information processing impairments, autism affects the manner in which people think, learn and experience the world around them, thereby greatly impeding the learning capacity of autistic children. Edutainment leads to enriched learning experiences because it combines text, sound, graphics, and animations, which give multiple stimuli and the numerous edutainment software applications available encourage students to explore topics broadly due to their rich, interesting and highly engaging learning experiences. Information communication technology applications present new opportunities in the area of education and training by inspiring alternative new ICT-based methods and forms of education for the SEN learners. In that respect, ICTs have the incredible potential of equalizing participation and gains from instruction curriculum and can be leveraged to effectively make up for the learning differences in the classroom environment. Precisely, ICTs can help create the conditions for equal participation of all learners in the instruction curriculum in the provision of SEN for autistic children aged between ten and thirteen years. References Ouellette-Kuntz, H., Coo H., Lam M., Yu C. T., Breitenbach, M. M., et al. (2009). Age at diagnosis of autism spectrum disorders in four regions of canada. Canadian Journal of Public Health, 100(4), 268-73. Durkin, M. S., Maenner, M. J., Newschaffer, C. J., Li-Ching, L., Cunniff, C. M., et al. (2008). Advanced parental age and the risk of autism spectrum disorder. American Journal of Epidemiology, 168(11), 1268-76.  Zwaigenbaum, L. (2009). Autism AND immunization. Family Health, 25, 27-27, 29.  Church, B. A., Krauss, M. S., Lopata, C., Toomey, J. A., Thomeer, M. 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