TY - JOUR
T1 - Project ACCESS
T2 - Field Testing an Assistive Technology Toolkit for Students with Mild Disabilities
AU - Puckett, Kathleen S.
N1 - Funding Information:
Special education faculty must collaborate with colleagues from general education in technology integration efforts. Colleges of Education and Special Education departments rarely have all the resources necessary to purchase instructional and assistive technology software and train its use to prospective teachers. The modest funding provided by Project ACCESS enabled the college to acquire technology for on-going teacher training and give ready access to assistive and instructional technology tools to a small group of special educators. Further collaboration with the principals of Project IMPACT (Implementing Partnerships Across the Curriculum with Technology), a PT3 implementation grant funded by the U.S. Department of Education, provided guidance in developing the structure of project funding and activities using the Essential Conditions for Technology Integration from the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE, 2002; Vannata & O’Bannon, 2002). Although Project ACCESS was time limited and reached a relatively small group of participants, the following conditions were considered when developing the training component: (a) a shared vision through proactive leadership and an assortment of technologies, (b) access to current technology, (c) building a base for skilled educators, (d) professional development, (e) technical assistance, (f) content standards and curriculum, (g) student-centered teaching, (h) assessment, (i) community support, and (j) support policies and incentives. In addition to the ISTE essential conditions, the work of others who monitor changes in teacher behavior when using technology were useful in forming the basis for Project ACCESS training (Handler, 1992; Wetzel, 1993; Sprague, Kopfman, & Dorsey, 1998, Roblyer, 2003, Edyburn & Gardner, 1999).
Funding Information:
This article describes a project that was designed to operationalize the concept of an assistive technology toolkit for students with mild disabilities. The basic purpose of this project was to provide teachers with a basic set of software and equipment that would support access to general curriculum materials and standards for students with mild disabilities and to field-test its training and use with special education teachers. A grant provided by the Tennessee Higher Education Commission Title II Teacher Quality Enhancement program provided initial funding for materials and training (Project ACCESS: Accessing Curriculum Content For Special Education Students, Puckett, 2002). Data were collected to describe the experience of training and exploratory use of the assistive technology toolkit among special education teachers of students with mild disabilities.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2004 Technology and Media Division of the Council for Exceptional Children.
PY - 2004/3/1
Y1 - 2004/3/1
N2 - The Project ACCESS toolkit includes strategies, software programs, and equipment used to access general education curriculum standards for K-8 students with mild disabilities. This article describes the contents of the toolkit and the results of field-testing with thirty-one special education teachers. The toolkit is promoted as a proactive strategy that gives ready access to essential tools that promote access to general curriculum standards and exploratory use of assistive technology.
AB - The Project ACCESS toolkit includes strategies, software programs, and equipment used to access general education curriculum standards for K-8 students with mild disabilities. This article describes the contents of the toolkit and the results of field-testing with thirty-one special education teachers. The toolkit is promoted as a proactive strategy that gives ready access to essential tools that promote access to general curriculum standards and exploratory use of assistive technology.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=26844455598&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=26844455598&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/016264340401900201
DO - 10.1177/016264340401900201
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:26844455598
SN - 0162-6434
VL - 19
SP - 5
EP - 17
JO - Journal of Special Education Technology
JF - Journal of Special Education Technology
IS - 2
ER -