ccie.ucf.edu · Web viewDr. Chapman: Good evening everyone and welcome to our live broadcast of...

This transcript was exported on Nov 06, 2020 - view latest version here .

Dr. Chapman: Good evening everyone and welcome to our live broadcast of Teach Today, Q&A sponsored by the Toni Jennings Exceptional Education Institute, located at the University of Central Florida. We are broadcasting live over Facebook and YouTube. I am your moderator, Dr. DeShawn Chapman. I am the education programs manager at the Parramore Education and Innovation District, in the center for higher education and innovation at the University of Central Florida. Last week, our topic was engagement through technology. We had so many great questions from our audience and informative and innovative responses from our panelists. If you didn't get a chance to see last week's broadcast, I highly recommend you take some time to view it. You can watch it on our YouTube channel or our Facebook page. And of course you can always email, email us at [email protected] and we will make sure you have a recording of the broadcast.

Tonight's topic is accessibility in an online environment. The panelists who I will introduce momentarily, we'll discuss pre-submitted questions. However, if you have a question, please type it into the comments on YouTube or Facebook and we will make every attempt to address it tonight. If we don't get to your question, we would like you to have an opportunity to get an answer through email. You can add your email to the chat or connect with us at [email protected]. As for answered questions tonight, please be aware that the responses are the panelists views and do not necessarily represent the views of the Toni Jennings Exceptional Education Institute.

So let's introduce our panelists. We are very fortunate to have an extraordinary group with us this evening. Dr. Howorth is an assistant professor of special education and program coordination for the special education graduate program and the school of learning and teaching. Part of the University of Maine college of education and human development. Her research interests include social skills and social coaching of individuals with autism and the use of emerging technology such as virtual reality and augmented reality to support behavioral, academic and skills instruction for individuals with disabilities. She's a board certified behavior analyst and has more than 20 years of experience in special education. Welcome.

Dr. Ting Siu is a teacher of students with visual impairments and assistant professor in the program for visual impairments in the department of special education at San Francisco State University. Dr. Ting's area of interest and work span the following areas, role of communities of practice to support itinerate teachers professional development, development of educational practices and technology that support multimedia assessability, teacher adoption and technology, including professional use assessment and implementation with students. Welcome Dr. Ting Siu.

Dr. Don McMahon is an assistant professor of special education technology at Washington State. His research experience includes work on universal design for learning, assistant technology, augmented reality, virtual reality, wearable

Teach Today Q&A _Accessibility in an Online Envi... (Completed 11/06/20)Transcript by Rev.com

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devices, mobile devices, mobile learning and instructional technology. His research examines how technology can create a more inclusive future for students and adults with disabilities.

Dr. Kaitlin Bundock is assistant professor of special education and rehabilitation at Utah State University. She's a former teacher of special education and high school math, mathematics. And her research and teaching focus on effective instruction and intervention for students struggling in math, as well as behavioral interventions and supports at the secondary level. Thank you panelists for being here this evening and thank you everyone who's watching on YouTube and Facebook. As I stated previously and what you definitely heard from the panelists bios, is that tonight's topic is assessability in an online environment. We would like to invite our audience to ask questions through the chat and comment section, which we will be monitoring and do our best to provide an answer. So let's dig right into our questions. We hear the terms, assessable technology and assistive technology. Panelists, can you help us understand the difference between the two?

Dr. Howorth: [crosstalk]. [inaudible]. Go ahead, Don. I'll go after you.

Dr. McMahon: All right. Um, yeah, thanks. Uh, again thanks everyone for having me. Um, to me when I kind of think about those terms accessible technology, I think that's a broader kind of larger umbrella term like universal design for, related to kind of universal design for learning of trying to make sure that we're reducing barriers. And to me, the term assistive technology is a very specific word as a legal definition of a assistive device means, any item, piece of equipment, product or system, whether acquired commercially off the shelf, modified, customized that is used to increase, maintain or improve the functional capabilities of a child or adult with disabilities.

And so I kind of think of it in terms of, if I was using an accessibility feature to improve text, um, broadly for everyone, that's probably more in the range of accessible technology. If I'm specifically working with a student with disability, with a disability and I say, I'd like for you to use this text-to-speech tool to help you. I think that's crossing a little bit more into the definitive line of assistive technology. And then also ideally assistive technology has special education... I mean, assistive technology services connected to it. But I think that's kind of broadly one of the areas where I think a lot of districts are struggling because it's getting harder and harder to find a full-time 80 professional in a lot of the districts I work with.

Dr. Chapman: Thank you. Does anyone want to add to that definition?

Dr. Howorth: I'll, I'll jump in. Um, I think that there is a lot of overlap between the two. Um, generally when I think of accessible technology, I think of, um, technology that allows access to an education. Um, and when I think of assistive technology, similar to what Don, um, noted, I think of it as more of a personalized approach.


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Um, so there is a framework, um, the set framework that I think is used often in matching students' needs with a technology tool that will help their specific disability required accommodations.

So I think if you're looking through and doing more of an individualized matching, that it's more of an assistive technology. Uh, lately, oh, sorry.

Dr. Chapman: We have another panelist. (laughs).

Dr. Howorth: It's my dog. Um, lately I've heard the term ex uh, access being bandied about a lot, uh, particularly in this remote slash hybrid learning setting. Um, in higher eds, sometimes making courses accessible, um, is kind of used interchangeably with, uh, making it just available online, right? And so just because something is up there, um, online, you know, in the cloud, it doesn't mean that everybody is able to access it, right? So I think looking more closely about, um, texts, uh, readers and making sure that our, the format of how we put things online, whether it's in K-12 or higher ed, or even in the general, uh, you know, social media. If something could be tagged it really doesn't require that much, um, uh, technological knowledge to tag the text so that a screen reader is able to read it, right? So making it accessible for those who use assistive technology but also accessible to people universally helps everybody.

Dr. Chapman: Thank you both. So I'm eager to learn about some of the available resources and I think our audience probably is too. So what are some of the best solutions, um, selected or how are the best solutions selected for students? So what are they? Sure, jump right in.

Dr. Bundock: Yeah, I'll jump in with just one thing that, uh, I think is important to keep in mind when we're selecting any specific technology or resource for students is planning with that individual in mind. Um, and really thinking about what's the environment that we're working to provide access to? Um, what barriers are posed or challenges are posed? And really starting with that at the beginning of our planning. Um, thinking about what are the strengths that the individual brings to it and what are the needs that they have in relationship to that environment. And then, um, being able to dig into and investigate different resources with those things in mind. Um, so that was the one thing I wanted to just bring up early on in this conversation so that we know that, you know, there's not any one resource that's going to be an exact fit for any particular individual. Um, it's very important to think about that, the individualized components.

Dr. Chapman: That's true.

Dr. Siu: Um, and just to add on, I think, uh, we could actually bring the two questions together here because, um, if you think from, uh, the infrastructure level of selecting resources, I think having accessibility and a procurement policy is very important. Um, this is a little bit more prevalent in higher ed, where certain


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colleges or universities who have accessibility in their procurement language will say, well, we will only purchase technology that is accessible. And by having accessible technology, that means that, um, the broadest range of students who use assistive technology, so technology that's specific to a disability need, um, can then fully use all that technology. Um, this is an area where I think school districts have a lot of work to do and a lot of learning and education, um, so that we can ensure that curricula, online learning, apps and products that are adopted in the K-12 level are actually accessible for all students.

Dr. Chapman: Your answer really brings me to our next question. We know that, um, many school districts are teaching online or some type of hybrid form. So let's talk about teaching online a little bit. How can teachers ensure that their class materials are assessable?

Dr. McMahon: Planning.

Dr. Howorth: Yeah. I think that's the million dollar question right now. Um, I really do. I think that a lot of the existing tools on, um, the learning management systems that schools are using, have embedded accessibility features. Um, and Don and I have presented on this together. Uh, you know, Google Classroom has lots of embedded accessibility features. Um, uh, even, you know, Schoology all the, you know, Brightspace, all those different learning management systems, but it's knowing and educating yourself as to how to use them. Um, just for example, um, today I've been trying to figure out how to live caption a presentation that I'm doing on Friday, uh, with some colleagues without having to pay $150 an hour for cart captioning. (laughs).

Dr. Chapman: Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Dr. Howorth: No, we're, we're just trying to do it sort of on the fly. Um, and we've been testing out an app called Otter AI, but for some reason it wasn't working at a PC it was working on a Mac, you know, just playing. I think, um, given the remote and the hybrid demands of the current pandemic situation, faculty and teachers haven't really had time to play around and learn, that, that's been more of an urgency. And I think you, you do need to really to be aware of all the things that are out there, you do have to kind of play with them and allow yourself some time to figure it out.

Dr. McMahon: I think building in that time for staff and for students to actually use technology, I think there has been uh, a lot of expectation of, all right we bought everybody a Chromebook and we're mailing it to your homes and that's gonna solve the problem. And, you know, in the world's best example of failed technology implementation, you know, I think the LA Unified School District, you know, send everyone home with iPads on a Monday and try to get all the iPads back on a Friday after like a week of sheer chaos.


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They never taught anyone how to use accessibility features. They never taught anyone about restrictions. They never taught teachers how to use the device. They just exploded it out there and, um, you know, it's kind of the poster child of failed technology implementation. I think most districts have done better than that as we've... Especially in round two of distance learning that many of us are going through. Um, but it's, you know, part of that is, you know, you really have to have time to like, have students play with these features. Um, my daughter this morning was learning how to use, um, speech to text. She doesn't have a disability, but she... That was part of, uh, her assignment was to get to use Google Docs and practice using speech to text, uh, to get your ideas down on writing a story. Which I thought was an incredible example of universal design for learning. And I'm so excited to see it. So...

Dr. Chapman: So play and plan. Any other suggestions, particularly in math?

Dr. Bundock: I think... So I'll, I'll speak to it real quick, um, as well. I think one thing that I found valuable with teaching my mathematics methods courses for pre-service teachers, um, that went, you know, just like everyone else flipped to be, um, online only, uh, in the spring. Um, one thing that I found really helpful was providing information and content in multiple means. So I would, we use Canvas as, uh, our learning system. And what I would do is video record myself, just giving an overview of what that week's content was. Um, and then I would also have that written in another spot and I would also have it in a word document so that it could be downloaded. So, um, even though it seems like more work to like double dip and all of these areas, I did get feedback from my students that said that it really was beneficial and helped them, um, move through the content in a way that, um, made sense for them.

I think that, that would be really helpful. I think, uh, also for working with middle schoolers or high schoolers. Because everybody, you know, learns in different ways and being able to hit play on a video and then also be reading that description at the same time, uh, it can be really helpful for anyone regardless of whether or not they have a disability. Um, so there'll be some of the, the recommendations that I would have to, um, try to save yourself time with having what you post to be, what you say in your video as well, just 'cause I'm they're aligned and you're not doing as much export as well.

Dr. McMahon: Kind of related to that, you know, remember I love this idea, you know, present having, um, multiple means of representation presented consistently through out these online assignments. You've got the world, one of the world's best document cameras. If you've got a smartphone that you can plug right into Zoom, if you're teaching on Zoom. And then you've got a document camera and if I'm good at explaining it on paper, which I am not, so we'll leave that part to Kaitlin. But, um, and then let, I can explain the assignment that way. Or if it's an app that I'm using to, like a graphing calculator app, I could record, a screen recording on my iPad of that. Meant to share. Hey, here's how you solve this problem in the cal, in your graphing calculator, could miss.


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Dr. Chapman: What a fantastic idea.

Dr. Siu: Yeah. I think, uh, a lot of it, uh, a big resource that we need in order to support multi-modal access to information, is having some sort of support for alternate media. So in a lot of colleges and universities have alternate media specialists that help professors put things in different types of formats, making sure that everything is readable in different ways. Um, I would also love to see K-12, um, have, uh, your positions for all media specialists. I think teachers need that kind of support too.

Dr. Howorth: You, you had specifically asked about math...


Dr. Howorth: ... um, and I didn't want to leave that ignored. Um, I have, uh, shared with you, um, Dr. Chapman, the, uh, virtual, um, manipulative resource, uh, for the National Library of Virtual Manipulatives.

Dr. Chapman: Okay.

Dr. Howorth: And that is an amazing resource to share with teachers who are trying to demonstrate mathematical concepts without having their little bears and, you know, counting cubes right in front of their, their students. Um, it's an awesome research, uh, resource.

Dr. Bundock: Yeah. As someone who absolutely loves being able to show students visual models, especially for higher level math content, I think it's a great resource. And, um, there are more that are becoming available too. There's other variations of virtual manipulatives that, um... So I recommend just browsing depending on what math concepts you're working with. You might have some websites that have, uh, a better fit for what you're looking for too. And then on top of that as well, um, if you have videos of you drawing, kind of combining that, um, document camera idea, um, that's another really nice way to demonstrate, um, diagram approaches, um, on top of having the virtual manipulatives to try and simulate a little bit of what you do to students in person.

Dr. Siu: Yeah. I also wanted to share some work from a small company that I consult with called Nonscriptum. Um, they're actually doing some pretty innovates, innovative stuff with, um, Tactile Media and 3D printing. So, um, kind of innovating how you can teach kids calculus and algebra and geometry with 3D manipulatives. Which I think, um, make that content more accessible for blind students, but also makes it more engaging for every student in the classroom.

Dr. Chapman: So I am going to, um, I love where this conversation is going around some of your favorite resources for teachers, and I do want to continue that conversation. Um, but I also want to interject a question from one of our


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viewers who says, I teach students with special needs, many struggle with reading and spelling. So speech to text on cell phones is a major life skill that she pushes in the classroom.

Dr. McMahon: Yeah. Um, that's, uh, definitely one of my passions that is that we teach the built-in accessibility features of the iOS operating system for iPhones or iPads. Android has strong ones as well. And that, that covers pretty much everyone who isn't on the flip phone still and thankfully that's, that's going away. Um, one of the things that, uh, when I was in my PhD program at the University of Tennessee, I worked for the future program, which is a post-secondary education program for students with intellectual disabilities at the university. And as we were teaching the class, as we were teaching them, um, we had a class called digital literacy. And one of the things that we found was, that, that wasn't on our radar in 2011. Being able to send and receive a text message, is in an employment skill.

Dr. Howorth: Yeah.

Dr. McMahon: You are more employable if your... There is a reason... My boss texts me, you know, that's gonna be true for many people now. My boss wanted to give me a cell phone call. I don't wanna get a voicemail from my boss. When that happens it's annoying. I don't want to get a voicemail from my parents anymore either. I would, mom just text me please. But, um, so you know, those were of those things that, have a changing, uh, landscape. And I, I think you'd make a great point. I think it's an incredible, critical life skill that we've kind of snickered out a little bit. Oh, you're texting on your... You're communicating.

Dr. Howorth: Yeah. Yeah. I, I have a very good friend of mine who lives in Connecticut. Um, Harvey Hubbell, he, he directed the movie Dyslexia. Uh, and I don't know if many of you are, uh, uh, know of him, but whenever he communicates, whether it's through email, text messages, anything, he's always just talking into his phone. And he looks a little bit like, um, he's lost his mind when you see him walking around. But he'll write a screenplay just walking around and talking on his phone. Um, and I think it's an absolutely acceptable thing to ask our students to create essays, you know.

If you're being asked to evaluate somebody's ability to construct a thought and, and written word, I think for a lot of our students with disabilities, it challenges us as teachers to think of how they might also represent that knowledge, whether it be through, you know, either talking through text to speech or even, um, story-boarding and movie creation, you know. It, re, it requires the same skills of theme, you know, details, general ideas, you know, beginning, middle, end, um, the same dynamics that you would need in an essay. There's even, um, you know, tense, you know, past tense, future tense, you know, in, in the creation of movies. So I, I really think that that's another venue you could look at as well.


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Dr. Chapman: I think a lot of the resources you all have shared provides students a greater opportunity to really show what they know. And for teachers to hone in on exactly what they are trying to assess and not get kind of distracted by the other mechanics that students might not be as proficient at. Um, so let's talk about augmented and virtual reality for a second. So they're gaining popularity in education. What are some of the barriers and solutions to access to these things for our students with disabilities?

Dr. McMahon: I definitely can go. Um, so with, as we kinda keep these two kind of technology separate in our head, you know. I think one of the things that's important to remember is, um, yeah, you know, um, with VR, you're looking at devices that, you know, you're going to put on your head. And so obviously I'm probably going to be more stationary and, you know, with AR tools, I have the option to have a little bit more of mobility. I think AR is probably a little bit more classroom ready right now. All you need is an iPad or a mobile device that you can use for lots of different things.

And, you know, you can do AR work and explore the solar system or look around and see different animals in your classrooms. And I get to see the teacher still as a student and I can see the AR tool that is happening right there in the classroom. And then, um, with VR tools, you know, I'm sitting here with this thing on my head, obviously, um, you know, I'm not going to be walking around the classroom hopefully. If I am, I'm probably gonna make a mess of your classroom.

Um, and so, you know. But one of the exciting things about both of these technologies is, you know, these were things that cost, you know, uh, VR, when I first started doing VR research, that was a, you know, $3,000 proposition. And, you know, this arrived yesterday and it's $299 kind of classroom ready, pretty easy to use. And so, you know, I think that's one of the exciting things about the cost is gonna become a much lower barrier. And, and our post-secondary education program here at Washington state, we're going to be deploying VR headsets to provide social experiences for our students to give them something to do in their post-secondary education program. Other than just sitting there, Zooming in the room right now while we're not on campus.

And so we'd have these meetups and VR where we having these social experiences. And we're going to then start working on that on kind of social skills and working on job interviews and VR, since we can't do them, face-to-face currently as a safety limitation. So I think there are some... The barriers are getting lower, which is great. And, um, but you know, still cost. And then teacher time, building in time and training for teachers to learn these devices. The next big one.

Dr. Chapman: I heard you mentioned, you know, teaching socially emotional skills, and I'm also thinking how they can help in supporting life skill development as well.


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Dr. Howorth: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Yap. I, I think that if you practice in a virtual reality environment, um, it's a little bit, more socially safe, right?

Dr. Chapman: That's right. Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Dr. Howorth: So you can afford to make mistakes and try again, you know, kind of like, uh, uh, just press reset. (laughs). Um, but I, but I also think one of the barriers to this, just like any other use of technology and education is going to be preparing teachers on how to use it, you know. Um, I am constantly surprised how many teachers, like Don said earlier are just not aware of the built-in accessibility features on their own devices, let alone what they could be using to support their students. So I think what, that will have to be a bridge that we have to cross when it comes to virtual reality and augmented reality as well. Another major challenge I see with augmented, argumentative reality, augmented really is, um, the rapid change in the industry.

You know, there was a tool that dad and I loved to use at our research. It had... A lot of people were publishing with it called HP reveal also known as Aurasma. And then the business or the company that just decided, um, that wasn't worth their investment. They were not going to, con- you know, keep that up anymore. So now you have researchers that are thinking, okay, now what, like, who's gonna, who's gonna step into that spot in the industry. So if you had a teacher who was using that tool to support a student with a disability and it just disappeared. It's like all of a sudden having, you know, a chair pulled out from underneath them. So I think that's a big challenge too. Is just, you know, kind of making the advocacy efforts to have companies maintain these things. Or at least, um, give us the copyright, you know, so we can use it for educational purposes (laughs) and not have to go back to our computer science departments and redo it. (laughs).

Dr. Chapman: So let's drill down a little bit deeper and talk about the school context. So our audience will represent educators from rural, suburban and urban schools, each representing a different local contexts. So let's consider educators who work in communities that experience economic disinvestment or limited access to some of the resources that we've talked about, but also to food, transportation, you know, and, and consider the other social conditions that challenge students opportunity to learn. So how have the resources, um, and the ideas that you all have shared in the conversation so far, how do they speak to those teachers who are working with students with limited access and resources?

Dr. Howorth: Well, I'm coming to you for Maine, which believe it or not as the most rural and the poorest state in the nation. Uh, which was a surprise to me when I moved here from Buffalo, New York. Um, I thought what, it's even more rural than Alaska and everybody here is like, yeah, even more rural than Alaska. So we have a lot of people who are in situations like you just described. And almost every family has a cell phone, um, remarkably. Whether they have running


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water or, or, um, you know, sanitation in their home, they might be living in, in an RV or worse. Uh, they all have a cell phone.

So we have done a lot of work with very young children, particularly with autism, my colleague, Debra, Rex Ellis and I. Where we, um, have worked with families to provide, um, naturalistic interventions, where we coach the families on how to work with their very young children and teach them how to play with their children and get joint attention, um, just through their cell phone. Whether it's FaceTime or, um, it's not even really bug in here. It's just like prop up the phone so we can see you playing with your child.

It will prompt you through how to do it. So, so even those type of, um, tools are avail-available, um, almost everywhere in the U.S. Um, but the struggle, again, like I said, is professional development teaching those interventionists, how to do that, you know. So they don't spend some of our interventionists that we were working with before we did that Telehealth intervention for families, might see two families in a 13 hour day. 'Cause they had to drive that far, you know, from one household to the other. Um, so just teaching them how to use that and rather than, um, you know, spinning their wheels, literally.

Dr. McMahon: You know, like when, uh, Sarah and I do day long professional development, the session's called current and emerging technologies. And so in the morning, we s- s- spend a little bit more time on basics of assessability features teaching with interactive whiteboard apps and, you know, turning your iPad into a document camera, kind of fundamental basics. Projecting your iPad wirelessly so you can still walk around the classroom and have proximity control and things like that. And as much as we kind of think those are kind of standard things, like that's probably some of the audience's favorite part of the day. And then in the afternoon, we dive into AR and VR tools for education and kind of emerging tools. But there's a point in the day where, you know, we talk about things like Bookshare and Learning Ally. And these have been around, I, I'll let the other presenters say how long they've been around, but like a long decades of this resource been arou-, that's around of free tech, you know, accessible, um, textbooks that are, you know, freely available for a large portion of our students with disabilities.

I personally think it should be absolutely all students with disabilities, but I'm not making federal policy. And, uh, but you know, that professional development piece of letting people know what's out there, even if you're not an educator that works particularly with that population, it's helpful for you to know that. Because you will come across someone that you can, you know, spread the news to. Um, I did this with a AAC tool, um, that I taught my mom to use 'cause she was working, um, in outreach in a nursing home.

And she helped people there who didn't, had lost the ability to have, uh, you know, to speak. And we're suddenly we're able using yes, no boards to communicate. Well, that's a pretty awful way to communicate 'cause you can


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only answer a question that you're asked. And so, uh, it changed the culture of that nursing home. But it wasn't in my core area of work that I do. And so, you know, that, sharing what you know, with other people and knowing what's out there in terms of assistive technology and accessible technologies, I think is kind of an important thing for us all to take on.

Dr. Bundock: We will speak also just to the current context in terms of virtual learning for a lot of different places. And every part of the country is in kind of a different status at the moment in terms of who's doing online versus hybrid versus in-person. But, um, I think one thing that's helpful to consider that I know my university considered being in, uh, more of a Southwest area is, um, difference in access that, um, some of our students had for some of the students that live on reservation land, um, which tends to have really few, um, resources, not universally, of course, but, um, for a lot of the reservation lands, it's new to others. A lack of access to running water, internet, of course, and then also power even sometimes depending. Um, and some of the solutions that we found as a university to open up access for not only our students at the university but also their students in the local schools was, creating hotspots in various locations.

So, um, they would actually, for some of the school districts that were in more of those rural areas that served a lot of the reservation lands, um, they would even park a school bus in a specific location that would serve as a hotspot. That then, um, students and their families could go to and kind of do class in their cars. It's not ideal of course, but it still provided some access. Um, and then along these same lines as well, I found that we're providing options for students to have, um, asynchronous or not live, um, participation. It's a really nice way to open up access 'cause you can't necessarily rely on the student being able to access the internet at that specific time for when your class is offered. So I know not all districts or schools are allowing for that much flexibility with what they're giving teachers, um, the, the choice to do there.

But if you are a teacher in a place where you are provided with choice about whether they are doing like self paced, um, material versus live material, I highly encourage you to create options for them to engage in a self-paced way. So that then they can, um, have a little bit more flexibility with when they access internet. Um, and also when they're able to access even parental or other, um, support for their home, either from siblings too.

Dr. Siu: Yeah. And I think by extension, if we, um, have options for students to learn asynchronously, we have to make sure the learning media is also available asynchronously. So it might be the difference between choosing an app that will allow a student to download things to their device so that they can access it when they're not on the internet versus apps where they are, it requires you to be on the internet to use. I would definitely be favoring apps, you know, so we can get my Bookshare books offline. And maybe just have a way to download it when I'm at the hotspot. But then, um, play with it not requiring internet.


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Dr. Bundock: And the same thing for assignments. I think especially like if you have assignments where they're just supposed to be connected to the internet the whole time versus downloading a document and then being able to complete it. Um, I think the download option and then being able to complete it provides them way more, um, access to the content.

Dr. Chapman: I think the last few comments really, um, segue into my next topic, which is engagement and motivation. So I wanna know if you have suggestions for keeping students motivated to learn using their tech, and use their technology?

Dr. Siu: I feel like this is something that teachers are being really challenged with now that we're in the rest rural context. And I feel like it almost requires a philosophical change, in what does it mean to teach? It's like teaching is not about making the students follow rules and, you know, sitting and having a teacher talk at you for hours at a time. But, um, you know, this remote teaching is challenging people to figure out what's going to motivate students. And I think meaningful learning is self directed learning. So, um, maybe, you know, finding ways to, for the instructor to release that power back to the students, to have the students find their own power and voice in the classroom.

Dr. Howorth: Yeah. I think that's really an important thing, uh, to, to focus on self-motivation and knowing your students. You know, taking time to figure out what it is they love, what it is they're passionate about and pulling that into whatever content you're trying to teach. Um, and making it fun for them, you know, in whatever way possible. Um, but I think you have to start with what their interests are, um, and trying to see what you can do to peak that interest, is first and foremost.

Dr. McMahon: The more open-ended right now that we can make assignments. I think that's one of the differences I'm seeing, like, um, in schools that I talked to. And then also I'm, you know, a part-time teacher of my daughter when she gets stuck on her at emergency, at home learning assignments as well. And the difference in what I'm seeing between what happened in the spring, where, you know, not being harsh or critical to my daughter's school district, I think they do a great job and her teachers. But I mean, it was a big seismic shift that was happening for them. And, you know, everything honestly was more prescriptive initially. All of those initial assignments were like do X and then do part this and this and this and this and this. And then you will have this completed thing that will look like this thing.

And, you know, my daughter would bring that to me and she goes, mine doesn't look like the thing. I'm like, ah, [inaudible] you're done. I think we-

Dr. Howorth: That's okay. (laughs).

Dr. McMahon: Yeah. You know, I supposed to end up with, you know, this number, but I didn't, I'm like you didn't, let's figure out what we did. I know. And now, uh, I'm seeing a broader range of types of assignments. I'm seeing things that are more, you


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know, write a story about something that you're interested in. Here are some primers that you want to get started. But your story does need to have, you know, the beginning, middle and end, and he's, you know, has some structure in there. But you know, it's, you know, from a behavior background, you know, I'm going to give you three choices, I'm happy with all three choices. You just pick which one of these three choices you want.

Dr. Howorth: Right.

Dr. McMahon: All the choice you want of these three. And I think that we're seeing more assignments like that. And so that helps a lot with engagement, I believe.

Dr. Bundock: Yeah. I will say also, I think it's important to assess the reason for the lack of engagement, if you're experiencing a lack of engagement. Because it might go directly back to some of what we were talking about before. It might be that the student looks like they're not engaged because they don't know how to engage. They don't know how to actually use, um, the materials that you're providing them, whether that you want them to use. And then also, um, so I think there's that point in terms of, are they able to access it in that way, just technologically. And then also, are they able to access it content-wise or are they lost in terms of what you're trying to get them to do? Um, regardless of whether you'd be in person or, um, at a distance.

So, uh, I think largely the way to do that is through having a really, uh, frequent communication. Um, and even if you're not getting a lot back, um, continuing to reach out and reach out in different ways, um, so that you can get a sense of why is the student not engaging, um, and not jumping immediately to thinking that it's a lack of motivation. And recognizing that there's things to check on, to make sure that they're even able to, to tap into the, the materials and the activities that you're providing them with.

Dr. Howorth: I think it's also important to just realize also we're in the middle of a global pandemic right now. And I know we probably hear this a million times a day, but like, really think about how that affects your students, their families and giving them a little bit of a break is not the end of the world, right? Like being very purposeful in choosing what you're going to require them to do. And what is optional. You know, what is the meaningful bits and what are the bits that you could probably let slide a little bit?


Dr. McMahon: Yeah. The, you know, one of my fallbacks is with my daughter, if we're having she's having a bad day or, you know, the online learning is not working, I'm like, let's just read, let's just leave it at that. Like, you know, let's pick up one of your favorite books and let's read and that's going to be our goal for the day. Especially early on when things weren't going well in the spring, I was like, you know what, reading class today is going to be, uh, you know, reading your


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favorite book for an hour and I'll, I'm going to sit here with you and we're going to get through it. And math is going to be, we're going to make some food in the kitchen, you know?

And, um, but you know, going back to kind of Kaitlin's point, you know, that idea of we're all being impacted and, you know, I've got students that are helping to like raise twins in their household. Um, they're helping to, uh, take care of parents that are sick. And, you know, you've seen, you know, we're all, you know, and their house holding, you know, they're probably filling multiple roles and not just being the student, uh, as their parents might be essential workers, uh, who are still able to work or their parents who are actively looking for employment. So, um, lots of challenges for all of us and, and across the board.

Dr. Chapman: Let's shift a little bit to talk about, um, kindergarten and younger students, um, what options might be available to them.

Dr. Howorth: Get outside as much as possible (laughs) and play. You know, uh, don't, don't pin yourself in front of the computer. You know, I think there's lots of activities that teachers can list, particularly if you're in a hybrid or a remote situation, um, for, for students to do activities that are more play-based.

Dr. McMahon: And let's say you're in a situation where, you know, it's great if you have a large backyard. If you're in a more urban area, independent play in the backyard might be a little bit more of a challenge, you know. So, uh, or any rainy day, you know, and so, um, one of the things that I've been excited to see is, um, and I swear all of my examples will not be from my third grader, but-

Dr. Howorth: We love it. keep them coming. Parents are watching.

Dr. McMahon: Um, she's, um, she's has friends in the neighborhood and friends across the country that she plays roadblocks with. And they, you know, play these, uh, kind of computer games. It's really designed for kids. And there's some structure there and, uh, I feel relatively safe with that. She'll be on like FaceTime or, uh, that kid, Facebook messenger kids, uh, and be able to see her friend. And then, you know, they talk about what they're doing and running around in this communal space together.

And, um, you know, we lived across the street from a park where we could always go outside and play, uh, and play on playground equipment together. And now the playground equipment has, you know, tape around it. So, um, you know, this is at least a Bible alternative and, uh, it has definitely improved spelling and writing as she writes in the chat.

Dr. Howorth: Yeah.

Dr. McMahon: So, um, it's one, I think of it in terms of a lot, like, um, our first question and comment about teaching the texting skill and accessibility skills on phones. Like,


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you know, I think as a educator in 2008, I was like, that's texting. That's not like real, like writing and reading. It's real writing and reading. I'm, I'm fine with her typing in a chat it's practice. I think it's generalizable, eventually.

Dr. Chapman: Anyone else like to share about options for students kindergarten or younger?

Dr. Howorth: Are you talk, are you asking about options specifically for remote and hybrid or?

Dr. Chapman: Um, for assistive technology? So I'm really a more broader way to approach the question is what age, um, should service providers and parents start exploring assistive technology and within that, you know, what are some options that they should consider?

Dr. McMahon: That's a good question.

Dr. Howorth: That's a great question. Yeah. I think that, um, as soon as possible, uh, particularly if the child has any sort of communication delay, I think, um, because it has been shown time and time again, that behavior is a way of communicating if they cannot verbally communicate. And oftentimes students who don't have a means of communication will be kind of labeled as problem behavior kids, right? But really they just need a way to communicate.

So I think assistive technology in particular is key for that. Um, and almost, I'm pretty sure I have to double check on this, but every state has some sort of federally funded assistive technology center that should have loaner devices available to all teachers. So, or, or families for that matter. If they, they might have to go through their part, uh, CIDA service provider, whoever that is in your state, um, to, to try to get some sort of match. So I think you could even start as early as, you know, 18 months, two years old, it doesn't even have to wait until kindergarten.

Dr. McMahon: Yep. You know, I think it's, I've viewed it as kind of like a two part question, like for a student with a disability, I wouldn't hesitate to put like an iPad with Proloquo2Go. I would do guided access, so they couldn't go to anywhere other than Proloquo2Go. And, you know, let's work on yes and no at juice and start working on these early like communication skills. Um, you know, and I think that's perfectly reasonable.

The other part of this is, you know, at which point, you know, would you want to start teaching online to, with children in kindergarten and doling out Chromebooks? I think that would be fine. I think what I don't want to see is like kindergarteners spending eight hours a day on Zoom classes, like, because kindergarten was eight hours before. They're, it's, it's not a one-to-one Hey, we provided eight hours of school. Now we need to provide eight hours of school over Zoom. Uh, Uh, that, that's too much Zoom.


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I mean, that I'm experiencing too much Zoom when I imagine everyone else here is as well. (laughs). So I understand that it's, doesn't need to be a one-to-one correspondence for that type of thing. Hey, these are, this is our morning check-in, these are the 10 things I'd like to try to do during the day. We'll do one afternoon check-in if you're want to. Stuff like that might be a, and I'm sure someone can find a scientific way of going that out, but I'm positive it's not one-to-one.

Dr. Siu: And I think beyond students who need technology for affinitive and alternative communication, I like to think about, uh, which students who might need assisted technology to take the computer based, standardized testing.

Dr. Chapman: Oh yes.

Dr. Siu: so, you know, California, we start, computer-based standardized testing in third grade, which means you really have maybe two years to scale up students, digital literacy and technology skills. So I think if you anticipate having a student or, you know, for parents in the audience a child, who's going to need any sort of a ideal assisted technology for testing, you need to start at least two years back. So students can play with how does information look or sound or feel, and then play with the different features at different devices. And, um, this is where having just access technology, having those built-in accessibility features on mainstream things like smartphones, you can easily turn that on and like kids play with it, you know, as early as kindergarten or even preschool before more quote unquote formal assisted technology instruction.

Dr. Chapman: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Thank you. I want to provide, um, a few takeaways, some last takeaways for our audience. So what is something that either educators or parents can do in their classrooms or at home tomorrow? Go ahead.

Dr. McMahon: I think the thing about what you like to use, you know. Um, I use Siri to make appointments when, um, need to make an appointment. I use Siri to you're some type of digital assistant. So one of the things, you know, senior, my daughter comes downstairs and ask, "Hey, how do I spell this?" I'm like, "Have you considered asking Siri how to spell this?" And teaching her to ask Siri how to spell something dramatically, improve the ability of her mom and I to get work done through out the rest of the day and taught her a valuable independence skills. So look at, look around at some of the tools that you might like to use. They might also be the things that are wo-, that might be really good things to introduce to your students.

Dr. Chapman: I love that, anyone else?

Dr. Siu: For me, I think, uh, if you're considering u- using a new learning app, or if your school is talking about adopting new online curriculum or software, ask the question, is this accessible for all students?


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Dr. Howorth: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Excellent.

Dr. Bundock: Yeah, I would say especially, um, during these times I know that teachers have a lot on their plates. So, um, what I would recommend if you're feeling overwhelmed with, where do you go from this, there are so many different directions that you could go. Don't feel like you have to reinvent everything that you're doing, especially all at once. Um, and maybe just pick one thing that you wanna try out for a week. Get your feet under you with it, and then gradually build on to that because, um, I know you all are doing-

Dr. Chapman: Yeah, that's great advice considering how overwhelmed I've heard that teachers are at this time.

Dr. Howorth: It's exhausting. Particularly if you are not used to using all of these tech tools previously, you know. We have teachers that have been teaching for 20, 30 years that may not necessarily ever use any Google Classroom, you know, before, believe it or not. And now they're trying to figure out, okay, how does this all work?

Dr. Chapman: Right.

Dr. McMahon: That ability to just find a few tools. I love Kaitlin's point about just finding a few tools. Like probably many of us, one of our favorite tools in our physical classroom, might've been an interactive whiteboard. I use an interactive whiteboard app on my iPad and walk around with it wireless, but like, you can get lots of little interactive whiteboard apps and screen record yourself. If that was a useful tool for you, make sure that you can replicate that useful tool somehow in your online teaching.

Dr. Howorth: Right. Even if it's just sharing your screen and doodling, you know, practice playing Pictionary with your students.

Dr. Chapman: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Well, as we wrap up this conversation, I just wanna thank our panelists so much for your time and expertise. Um, thank you to all of our audience who participated by submitting questions and comments. Um, if we were unable to address your specific question, please send it to [email protected], and we will do our best to find answers for you. Also follow us on Facebook and Twitter and feel free to ask questions there. And last join us next week for another live Q&A session. The topic will be behavior management. So thank you again, panelists. Thank you audience, and have a great evening.

Dr. Howorth: Thank you.

Dr. Siu: Thank you.

Dr. Howorth: Yeah. Thank you.


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