Including All Students on the Internet

Chapter 11

Teaching With the Internet K-12: New Literacies for New Times

Internet equity maybe considered true at our school with the use of an Computer Lab but Internet equity and accessibility at home is another issue that is not in our control.

Most all of the special technologies web sites that I checked had items that were accessible but for a price. There were special visual devices to help the visually impaired, reading devises to help children with low reading abilities, and information regarding teaching the use of sign language.

The Jan Scaplen’s list and Linda Burkhart’s management sheet had lots of ideas for using one computer for a whole classroom. I like their ideas and thoughts.

Over the year, I’ve searched the Web for information on autism. There are thousands of sites to view. So I am certain that other disabilities have an equal number of excellent sites to view besides the ones listed in the text book.

The Special Education curriculum class, that I took a couple of years ago had us calculate the reading level of a textbook. I chose a Jr. High Biology book for eighth grade to discover what the actual reading level was. That text book that I evaluated was at the eleventh grade reading level. Was I surprised! So I really appreciated finding a web site for Readability Statistics and Reading Level Calculator site where a sample text can be typed in and it automatically finds the reading level for you.

I thought the Online Feeling games were excellent for autistic children who do not understand peoples facial expressions. It displayed different expressions and had the child guess which expression went with the face. Some of the expressions were happiness, anger, surprise, and disgust. At one site you could select all the facial parts to make an expression.

The Inclusive Education web site was helpful too and I used it for my Web Review.

Finally, now days we have many more “explosive” children in our schools that I have seen previously. So I welcomed this article on that topic and feel that I should publish this site for our whole school.

Chapter Eleven was very helpful in assisting all children to be able to use the internet including the Special Needs children with visual, hearing, and other disabilities. This Chapter had much to offer that all teachers can use.