My main plan is to become a special education teacher and I understand that there will be required equipment that I will need to help the students succeed. In the special education department I will be faced with students who have different needs. Some of the student’s disability include dyslexia which is considered to be a learning disability where written language, reading and spelling is affected; other students might be autistic in which one of the characteristics is the student has major communication problems. Some other students might have problems with speech and that prevents them from communicating with others. While surfing the web, I found important information on technology that has helped others in a classroom setting and I think would assist a variety in my future classroom. A system operated completely by the eyes, Kurzweil 3000 which is a system that reads to the student, and some other devices that will benefit the student is the information I will share.
Eyetracking Technology is an eye-contolled computer device for communication purposes. It allows the user to be hand-free and be able to communicate just by the movement of his/her eyes. According to an article I read online, it has been sold around the world primarily as an assistive device for people with disabilities. It turns the eye movements into typing. With this type of device, a person can do with their eyes what they would otherwise do with their hands. According to the information I found, all a person does is look at the control keys on the monitor, the person who is using it can play games, go online, send e-mails, etc. It is a very powerful tool in my opinion for people with physical disabilities. You can go online and check more information on prizing; it can be found at: http://www.eyegaze.com/content/sales-and-distribution .
Kurzweil is another site I found information on assistive technology. It is a software that helps students who are struggling with reading, writing and study skills. It is designed for anybody who falls in the mentioned categories. What it does is it reads outloud the words in a book, or whatever the student types. I read that it would be good for English learners and for students with special needs. As I was browsing the internet, I found successful stories of people who are using the Kurzweil 3000. I found a story on a student who has cerebral palsy and used Kurzweil 3000 and his reading improved dramatically and he became interested in reading. After a while of using this product, the student was able to sound out words when at first he couldn’t do it. So, word recognition is part of it. The mother of this child reported: “People know Kurzweil 3000 as a tool for able-bodied students with reading difficulties. I want them to know that it’s also an excellent solution for students with disabilities.” I will highly recommend anybody with reading struggling to search more information on this type of assistive technology.
A pen scanner is another device that any of my future students could use. It is used in place of a highlighter. What happens when using this device is whenever the user is reading a book for example and has problems remembering what the information read is, the person can just highlight what the key points are and the information will be stored in the pen scanner. If the student has problems remembering what the information is, what they can do is while reading any important text, they can just highlight what the key points and after it has been scanned, it will store and transfer your printed text as well as smaller images to your computer. Online I found the following description: “It is ideal for taking notes or scanning text for students that use a text reader. Many of the newer pen scanners also have synthetic voice and read the scanned text. Many teachers claim that the use of the scanner pens aids children with dyslexia.” I highly recommend anybody who knows someone who suffers from dyslexia to purchase a pen scanner and give it as a gift.
As I mentioned before, there is assistive technology available for people with special needs. Eyetraking technology, Kurzweil 3000, and a pen scanner are available to help students or people facing special needs such as dyslexia, reading struggling, and/or physical disabilities.
Eyetracking Technology is an eye-contolled computer device for communication purposes. It allows the user to be hand-free and be able to communicate just by the movement of his/her eyes. According to an article I read online, it has been sold around the world primarily as an assistive device for people with disabilities. It turns the eye movements into typing. With this type of device, a person can do with their eyes what they would otherwise do with their hands. According to the information I found, all a person does is look at the control keys on the monitor, the person who is using it can play games, go online, send e-mails, etc. It is a very powerful tool in my opinion for people with physical disabilities. You can go online and check more information on prizing; it can be found at: http://www.eyegaze.com/content/sales-and-distribution .
Kurzweil is another site I found information on assistive technology. It is a software that helps students who are struggling with reading, writing and study skills. It is designed for anybody who falls in the mentioned categories. What it does is it reads outloud the words in a book, or whatever the student types. I read that it would be good for English learners and for students with special needs. As I was browsing the internet, I found successful stories of people who are using the Kurzweil 3000. I found a story on a student who has cerebral palsy and used Kurzweil 3000 and his reading improved dramatically and he became interested in reading. After a while of using this product, the student was able to sound out words when at first he couldn’t do it. So, word recognition is part of it. The mother of this child reported: “People know Kurzweil 3000 as a tool for able-bodied students with reading difficulties. I want them to know that it’s also an excellent solution for students with disabilities.” I will highly recommend anybody with reading struggling to search more information on this type of assistive technology.
A pen scanner is another device that any of my future students could use. It is used in place of a highlighter. What happens when using this device is whenever the user is reading a book for example and has problems remembering what the information read is, the person can just highlight what the key points are and the information will be stored in the pen scanner. If the student has problems remembering what the information is, what they can do is while reading any important text, they can just highlight what the key points and after it has been scanned, it will store and transfer your printed text as well as smaller images to your computer. Online I found the following description: “It is ideal for taking notes or scanning text for students that use a text reader. Many of the newer pen scanners also have synthetic voice and read the scanned text. Many teachers claim that the use of the scanner pens aids children with dyslexia.” I highly recommend anybody who knows someone who suffers from dyslexia to purchase a pen scanner and give it as a gift.
As I mentioned before, there is assistive technology available for people with special needs. Eyetraking technology, Kurzweil 3000, and a pen scanner are available to help students or people facing special needs such as dyslexia, reading struggling, and/or physical disabilities.
