COMBINING WEB BASED APPLICATIONS WITH MORE TRADITIONAL CURRICULUM

TO PRODUCE SELF-DIRECTED AND MOTIVATED LEARNERS

BY SHARON A. SHAFFERBGSU

Building Personal Learning Environments for Special

Needs Students

Why this Topic?

My research was spearheaded by personal experience. As an educator, I have watched students struggle with content, curriculum, delivery techniques of teachers, their ability, the level of the learning platform, comprehension difficulties, distraction and attention issues and so much more.?

Even more reasons to research

Personally, I have watched my niece who has multiple disabilities, physical, emotional and learning, as the gap between her ability and the expectations of the school widens. Now, she has entered middle school and all of the differences she has from the ‘normal’ student have become magnified exponentially. There are many things she can do, many things she is good at and many ways she can learn. Why has no one discovered her strengths and put them to use towards enabling her to be academically successful? She has been tested, repeatedly, and redundantly, to identify her weaknesses and her disabilities. Why not test her strengths and abilities?

Kelsey

Just another ‘tween’ doing what girls do!

My Hypothesis

If Personal Learning Environments can be created using multi-media resources for special needs students, then their learning will be more motivated and self-directed. The end result: higher achieving and academically successful students.

The BIG Questions

What is more personal the a Personal Learning Environment?

After all, isn’t that what an IEP (Individualized Education Plan) was designed to do?

Can such an environment be created that can be monitored and maintained by the educators serving these children?

Can these environments incorporate web or networked sources, along with text, video, audio, speech therapy, occupational therapy and so on, depending on the need of the child?

Can the curriculum be successfully mastered using a PLE?

The Big Questions--continued

Are special needs students capable of maneuvering around their own PLE, so that they are in charge of their learning?

What mix of media would be best for these students?

Research Says:

Kathie Nunley is an expert on brain-based research and she used her research to develop “layered curriculum”. This is a simple method for differentiating instruction in classrooms for all grade levels. Based on current brain-imaging information, Layered Curriculum is a fun and effective student-centered teaching method. This 3-layer model of differentiated instruction encourages complex thinking and holds students highly accountable for their learning.(Nunley, 1998 to present)

What is Layered Curriculum and How Does it Work?

The following is from Dr. Nunley’s website and is titled An Overview of Dr Kathie Nunley's Layered

Curriculum®“Today's teacher must teach to an overwhelming variety of students. Any high school class may have students who cannot read past a second grade level. These students are sitting

alongside others trying to prepare for next year's Advanced Placement class. There may be as many as five different native languages spoken and each student at a different level

of English proficiency. (continued)

Dr. Nunley Says:

“Several special education students are likely to be mainstreamed into the class. There are visual learners, auditory learners, tactile learners, and plain old reluctant learners. Sprinkled in are students with attention deficit disorder and hyperactivity. . .  I am expected to take this eclectic collection of human beings and teach them the curriculum laid out by the state. At first glance this appeared an impossible task, but over the last several years I have designed and created a workable method to differentiate my classroom. The result is a simple five step solution for differentiating your classroom. I call it Layered Curriculum®.”

“Layered Curriculum”

For this method, learning outcomes are translated into a “menu” of activities that stretch across Bloom’s Taxonomy and Marzano’s Learning Strategies. Tasks may be as simple a view a video clip and answer the corresponding questions. They may be as complex and creating a simulation to demonstrate what you have learned. The layers are labeled by the letter grade students hope to achieve: A, B,C with each layer offering several choices.

In a PLE?

I think the “menu” is a great device for use in a Personal Learning Environment. It gives choices and selections from different learning styles and teaching strategies based on the information to be learned.

Special needs students still need certain guidelines and directions so I think using Dr. Nunley’s ideas to create all or a part of the PLE would be sound practice.

Just In!

Another BGSU professor sent an article to our class and I was amazed at how much of the author’s research and theory mirrored my own. The article is from the Australasian Journal of Educational Technology and is titled “The networked student model for construction of personal learning environments: Balancing teacher control and student autonomy” by Wendy Drexler of the University of Florida.

Can she read my mind?

“Principles of networked learning, constructivism, and connectivism inform the design of a test case through which secondary students construct personal learning environments for the purpose of independent inquiry. Emerging web applications and open educational resources are integrated to support a Networked Student Model that promotes inquiry-based learning and digital literacy, empowers the learner, and offers flexibility as new technologies emerge. The Networked Student Model and a test case are described in detail along with implications and considerations for additional research. The article is meant to facilitate further discussion about K-12 student construction of personal learning environments and offer the practitioner a foundation on which to facilitate a networked learning experience. It seeks to determine how a teacher can scaffold a networked learning approach while providing a foundation on which students take more control of the learning process.” (Drexler, 2010)

This is the abstract from her article. After reading this, I was hungry to read on.

After reading. . .

Dr. Drexler uses secondary students in her case study however, she has two models included that are very telling “The Networked Teacher” (Couros, 2008), and “The Networked Student” (Drexler, 2010).

Other parts of her work will benefit my research as well. She does an excellent job of setting up a routine and schedule for the PLE in the school environment; something I haven’t seen previously.

The Networked Student

The Networked Teacher (Couros, 2008)

The Special Needs Side

There is abundant research on special needs students and how to teach them, curriculum models, learning theories and more. My survey of the information leads me to the conclusion that, the more individualized, the more one-on-one time, yet inclusion in the general population, the more successful the students.

Internet resources for educators teaching students with special needs

by K. WALSH on JULY 20, 2009

YouTube Video by K.Walsh

http://www.emergingedtech.com/wp/wp-content/themes/thesis_18/custom/rotator/EET_YouTubeChannel.jpg

K.Walsh started a Wiki on the Emerging Ed Tech website (http://www.emergingedtech.com/):”This week I begin a series of posts focused on web based tools and resources for educators who work with students with special needs.” (Walsh, 2009)

Focus of Posts

On this page, he discusses which areas of special needs he will focus on. Then describes what he feels are the characteristics and needs of ADHD/ADD students

This was a catalyst for me to narrow my topic, also. “Special Needs” is very broad and covers severe to mild disabilities. I will have to narrow my topic to a more specific label, if you will. That is how I came to choose to work with my niece.

Web Based Resources

The next section of Walsh’s post explores technology, specifically web-based tools for ADHD/ADD students. Here is one of the sites he suggests:

http://www.time4learning.com/ADD.shtml: This site’s approach to learning “offers children a refreshing change from sitting in a classroom or at a table reading textbooks. In a home setting where school bells, background noise and other distractions don’t exist, students can work through the learning system without pressure. The program lets them go at their own pace, repeating the lessons as needed. This approach gives students a feeling of independence and sense of ownership over their progress, which is a great motivator and confidence builder. Exercises are shorter than classroom lectures, so kids with ADHD can take breaks more often … and come back to the material refreshed”

Other Sources

Walsh also recommends other types of resources such as forums/discussion groups and online communities for educators.

His is a weekly blog to which I have subscribed. This particular topic is archived and from 2009. However, the Emerging Ed Tech website is a plethora of resources for my topic and many others.

From Here

In order to show the basis for my research and to give sufficient background support, I feel starting with the research on Brain Based Learning will show why and how traditional instructional methods are becoming less effective. Marzano offers great advice and insight as well for tailoring education to a differentiated setting.

Then some background on special needs students and, well, their special needs. Briefly, how these needs are being serviced currently.

And Then. . .

Then, what does research show about personal learning environments in the educational setting: how are they used and what are the results.

I would then like to explore and actually create a PLE or possibly a few to see how they would service special needs students.

More then. . .

Then, what does research show about personal learning environments in the educational setting: how are they used and what are the results.

I would then like to explore and actually create a PLE or possibly a few to see how they would service special needs students.

References

Attwell, G. (2007). Personal learning environments - the future of eLearning? eLearning Papers, 2. http://www.elearningeuropa.info/out/?doc_id=9758&rsr_id=11561

Couros, A. (2008). What does the network mean to you? Open thinking, 25 February. [verified 8 May 2010] http://educationaltechnology.ca/couros/799

Drexler,W. (2010). The networked student model for construction of personal learning environments: Balancing teacher control and student autonomy. Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, 26(3), 369-385. http://www.ascilite.org.au/ajet/ajet26/drexler.html

References; p2

Nunley, Kathie Dr. (1998 to present).Dr. Kathie Nunley's Layered Curriculum Web Site for Educators. Retrieved from www.help4teachers.com.

Siemens, G. (2004). Connectivism: A learning theory for the digital age. elearnspace, 12 December. [verified 8 May 2010]. Retrieved from

 http://www.elearnspace.org/Articles/connectivism.htm

Walsh, K. (July20, 2009). Internet resources for educators teaching students with special needs. Retrieved from

http://www.emergingedtech.com/2009/07/internet-resources-for-teaching-students-with-special-needs/