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Tracy Gray Tracy Gray Director, NCTI Director, Center for Implementing Technology in Education Managing Research Scientist , American Institutes for Research Tracy Gray is the director of National Center for Technology Innovation and a managing research scientist at AIR. Tracy is a nationally recognized expert in education and technology and has led numerous projects in the United States and internationally, examining the impact of technology on educational achievement. In addition, she has published and lectured widely on issues related to the integration of emerging technologies into the classroom and after-school programs. She recently published The Gateway to Student Success in Mathematics and Science for Microsoft and Teacher Learning Online: Improving the Teaching of Mathematics Through Better Professional Development for the U.S. Department of Education. Before working at AIR, Tracy was vice president for youth services at the Morino Institute and was responsible for the design and implementation of the Youth Development Collaborative (YDC) pilot. That effort sought to understand the complexities of integrating technology into schools and community-based organizations. Under Gray's leadership, the lessons learned from the YDC led to the development of the YouthLearn Guide: A Creative Approach to Working With Youth and Technology and the YouthLearn Web site. Those award-winning tools serve as resources for teachers and staff interested in using technology to enhance educational programs for children. Tracy also served as the first deputy executive director and chief operating officer for the Corporation for National Service (CNS). As part of the leadership team, she helped launch AmeriCorps, which enabled more than 50,000 members working in more than 1,000 programs to serve communities throughout the United States. Tracy holds Ph.D. and M.A. degrees in education and psychology from Stanford University and received an A.B. in psychology from the University of California, Riverside. She holds a California secondary teaching credential and is bilingual in English and Spanish.

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Technology and Its Role In Increasing High School Success

Question 2:Can you provide concrete examples in how schools and districts are using learning and assistive technologies to help students with disabilities succeed on the high school level?

The changing need of our society has increased the call for assistive technologies in educating all students. The benefits of these technologies have been profound for students with disabilities. Teachers are now able to deliver an accessible curriculum for special education students within general education classrooms, allowing all students to receive an appropriate and relevant education and necessary supports.

Assistive Technology can increase a student’s self-reliance, sense of independence and overall success with working independently.  Schools and districts are using assistive technologies to help students with disabilities in a variety of content areas including math, reading, writing, listening, and memorization/organization. Students who struggle with listening may benefit from the paper-based computer pen. This technology assists students by recording and linking audio to what a person writes using the pen and special paper; it enables the user to take notes while simultaneously recording someone (e.g., a teacher) speaking. The user can later listen to any section of his notes by touching the pen to his corresponding handwriting or diagrams. Over the past twenty years, math teachers and practitioners have used electronic math worksheets to help all students connect to their content. These are software programs that can help a user organize, align, and work through math problems on a computer screen. Numbers that appear onscreen can also be read aloud via a speech synthesize and this may be helpful to students who have trouble aligning math problems with pencil and paper. As literacy continues to be a problem for high school students across the country, there are several assistive technologies specifically designed to help in this area. Audio books allow users to listen to text and are available in a variety of formats, such as audiocassettes, CDs, and MP3 downloads. Special playback units allow users to search and bookmark pages and chapters. There is also Optical Character Recognition (OCR) which is another form of technology which lets users scan printed material into a computer or handheld unit and the scanned text is then read aloud via a speech synthesis/screen reading system. OCR is available as stand-alone units, computer software, and as portable, pocket-sized devices.

An additional resource for educators and families to find assistive technologies for students with special needs is the TechMatrix (www.techmatrix.org ). The TechMatrix is a powerful online tool developed by the National Center for Technology Innovation and the Center for Implementing Technology in Education funded by NEC Foundation of America and U.S. Department of Education that provides users the opportunity to create an individualized search of over250 products andgenerate a detailed report.

The TechMatrix offers users the ability to customize a detailed search of products and to generate a tailored report within seconds. Searching the database can be conducted by four distinct topic areas including mathematics, reading, writing, and assistive technology devices and programs; by learning supports; by technology features; and/or directly by product name.

References

Moving Towards Solutions: Assistive Technology for All Students (NCTI, 2006)

Assistive Technology Tools: Reading (Marshall Raskind &Kristin Stanberry)

TechMatrix (www.techmatrix.org)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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