Milbourne. Assistive Technology

No matter what the curriculum is students who are not good readers are going to struggle with reading and comprehension when taking test. A thought that crosses my mind is that we are testing their ability to recognize certain words and then they make educated guesses on what they see, even though they truly do not understand the context. Reading and comprehension is very important when trying to understand science. Discovery and exploration through laboratory work are two important concepts I believe are important in a science classroom. Laboratory work is often preformed by individual students or with partners that are required to read the laboratory manual before performing an experiment. There is a concern raised about laboratory safety when students are not capable of reading the manual to prevent accidents from occurring. I believe it is important for science teachers to develop strategies and instruction to identify and help bad readers. There are several technologies that can assist students with reading disabilities and many other types. One is the use of a computer when conducting labs. A computer could possibly read the laboratory manual to the student before he or she performs the lab, ultimately reducing the risk of an accident occurring. The computer could also enlarge text for students who have visual disabilities and offer help to physical disabilities by providing software where students can perform the lab on the computer with a click of a mouse versus having to pick up or move heavy or dangerous equipment.