As technology continues to change the skills needed to navigate the 21st century, schools are being challenged to promote technology supported learning; integrate technology-based assessments; and ensure that both teachers and students are literate in information computer technologies. In the coming year the NCSeT Research Team at Ohio State University will examine the effects of guided notes and ClickSpeak screen reader software on academic achievement of a sophomore class of students with disabilities enrolled in an English resource room.
The Effects of Guided Notes and Assistive Technology on the
Academic Performance of High School Students with Disabilities
Abstract
As technology continues to change the skills needed to navigate the 21st century, schools are being challenged to promote technology supported learning; integrate technology-based assessments; and ensure that both teachers and students are literate in information computer technologies (IT) (U.S. Department of Education, 2005). Assistive technology (AT) has been shown to help users develop key skills and use technology to its fullest.
According to Anderson-Inman & Horney (2007), translational eText support provides a one-to-one equivalent version that is more accessible for the reader. The ClickSpeak screen reader technology is a translational eText support. When applied to eText, guided notes (GN) are a notational support to enable the student to attend to essential content by recording key facts, concepts and relationships among concepts. The 2007-08 study compared the effects of GN and text-to-speech software (ClickSpeak) on the academic performance of six students with disabilities who required intensive reading interventions according to the AIMSweb Maze Reading assessment. The results suggested that: (1) The GN intervention appeared more effective than the ClickSpeak intervention in terms of gain scores. (2) The ClickSpeak appeared slightly more effective than GN in terms of reading comprehension scores. (3) Within subjects, undifferentiated effects of the ClickSpeak or GN interventions on academic achievement were found in three students, but for two students using only the GN intervention resulted in better academic achievement. (4) Four of the six students showed better academic performance in at least one intervention, two students’ results were inconsistent.
This proposed single subject research study will examine the effects of guided notes and ClickSpeak screen reader software on academic achievement of a sophomore class of students with disabilities enrolled in an English resource room. The following research questions are proposed for the 2008-09 study:
1. What effect will GN have on achievement for strategic readers?
2. What effect will GN have on achievement for intensive readers?
3. What effect will the addition of a ClickSpeak screenreader have on achievement for intensive readers?
4. What effect will the addition of a ClickSpeak screenreader have on achievement for strategic readers?
5. To what extent will teachers find each intervention condition acceptable?
6. To what extent will students find each intervention condition acceptable?
7. As a measure of generalization, to what extent will students use the AT and EnvisionIT skills in other settings or other adaptations?
A multiple baseline across participants design with a nested reversal design will be used to measure the effects of guided notes and guided notes with the addition of ClickSpeak on students’ achievement within EnvisionIT. This modified design was determined to be the best experimental design to answer the stated research questions and provide the most powerful analysis without the disadvantage of having to withdraw an established effective intervention.