Reading results can affect future prison statistics
Using technology successfully in K-3 classrooms can change the lives of many children Dr. Bridget Dalton, of Vanderbilt University, presented to a large audience of key educators at the Florida Education Technology Conference. There was an audible gasp from the audience when Dr. Dalton introduced her presentation with a slide of a prison cell. Several states, she said, project the number of prison beds they will need in the future on the basis of reading results achieved by third and fourth grade students. Dr. Dalton’s point was that unless we change the course of education—the things that happen in today’s classrooms—we will never change the lives of many children. She emphasized the urgency of finding solutions to the problem—the obvious one being that children must read and achieve by eight.
Dr Dalton emphasized that using technology successfully in K-3 classrooms had to be part of the solution. In today’s world, technology does provide access for all—the Internet and cell phone being just two examples. Dr. Dalton offered Rose and Meyer’s universal design for learning principles to guide the selection and use of educational technology: Provide multiple means of representation (multimedia, digital, printed texts); provide multiple means of expression (using technology successfully, as even young children do); and provide multiple means of engagement (embedding supports with multimedia tools and texts, as well as more traditional ways of engaging students). Good teachers DO make a difference!
Then Dr. Dalton provided some of the tools for achieving success. She talked about the power of retelling using multimedia and her research with web-based tools developed at CAST (Center for Applied Special Technology). She also spoke about the need for a comprehensive reading program for K–3 students, singling out a new reading program called AWARD Reading—a comprehensive literacy program combining print with technology. AWARD Reading, she said, embraced the ideals of “universal design” and had a 21st century take on skills. Research results showed that it did make a difference to the literacy learning of first grade students, including struggling readers and bilingual students. These students were on their way to reading and achieving by Grade 3, achievement that would lead to success and not to being a statistic that influenced the number of prisons to be built.
There was no doubt her audience agreed.
For further information, contact Judy Stevenson or Ed Gregory AWARD Publishing Ltd Phone: 212-246-0405
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