JUSTIFING THE FINANCES OF AT
In today’s declining economy learning institutions are agonizing over justifying the budgets dealt out over every aspect of the learning environment. Not only are learning institutions looking to cut back in the academic realm, but also athletics as well as administration. One key discussion is over assistive technology. As defined by the Wikipedia website, “Assistive technology (AT) is a generic term that includes assistive, adaptive, and rehabilitative devices for people with disabilities and includes the process used in selecting, locating, and using them”. (Wikipedia, 2009) With nearly all of these schools looking to save money how do we justify spending the money on assistive technology used only by a small demographic?
To start, public learning institutions are required by law to provided proper education to students with disabilities. “In 1975 Congress passed Public Law 94-142, The Education for All Handicapped Children Act (EHA), to ensure equal access by children with disabilities”. (Sergi & O’Meara, 2009) Therefore, public institutions are required by law to provide equal learning to all students disabled or not. “In 1986, Public Law 99-457 reauthorized the EHA changing the name to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)”. (Sergi & O’Meara, 2009) Most recently, “school districts are required to do more than just ensure the availability of needed assistive technology”. (Sergi & O’Meara, 2009) Basically learning institutions are required to provide assistive technology to students with disabilities, making this a priority as it pertains to the learning environment and the learning process.
To justify the spending for assistive technology, we must look at our goals. If our goal is to educate without boundaries, then we must do whatever is necessary to achieve these goals. As stated by Diane Curtis from the edutopia website, “The goal… is to design whatever plan is necessary to allow the students to achieve their potential”. (2005) Therefore, we cannot set financial limits in our goal to educate. Furthermore, assistive technology is a tool for educators and students with disabilities to reach these goals. “AT doesn’t cure or eliminate learning difficulties, but it can help your child reach her potential because it allows her to capitalize on her strengths and bypass areas of difficulty”. (Stanberry, 2006) The role of assistive technology to assist students with disabilities cannot be bound by financial restraints. In order for learning institutions to facilitate the proper learning environment for students with disabilities to reach and obtain goals, the institution cannot be bound financially. Basically when it comes to assistive technology for students with disabilities, money is no object.
Assitive technology (n.d.). Retrieved January 31, 2009, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assistive_technology
Curtis, D. (2005, ). Disabled Bodies, Able Minds: Giving Voice, Movement, and Independence to the Physically Challenged . Retrieved January 1, 2009, from http://www.edutopia.org/assistivetechnology
Sergi, T. S., & O'Meara, P. H. (n.d.). Guidelines for Assistive Technology. Retrieved January 31, 2009, from http://www.birth23.org/Publications/assistivetech.pdf
Stanberry, K., & Raskind, M. (2006, ). Assistive Technology for Kids With Learning Disabilities - An Overview. Retrieved January 1, 2009, from http://www.greatschools.net/cgi-bin/showarticle/2286

The teaching and learning environment in the traditional classroom is changing at an exponential rate. From my own experience, the traditional text and lecture environment has evolved in many helpful and intriguing ways. I can remember when I attended High School that the classroom was dominated by lectures, texts, overhead projectors, and blackboards. I myself was engaged, but only to a certain extent. Computers and technology were few and far between with only a limited use through the traditional computer lab or library. In the four years that I attended High School I can’t even remember a single computer in one of my classes. I feel that I had one advantage during these years; I had a computer at home. Although my use was limited, my mother always felt that computers were the future of the working world.
I attended some college out of High School and then decided to enter the working world. Over the years I found computers and technology having a direct impact in my profession. It seemed as if e-mail and texting were taking the place of the day to day interactions between consumer and company. The traditional phone call or handshake agreement was being replaced by a digital conversation, thus making the process more efficient and accurate along with a digital record. This in turn noticeably cut down the errors and miscommunication. I currently coach varsity football and can’t begin to express how computers have changed the world I knew into the tech driven society we now live in. One example of this is as simple as game film. In the past, a coach was responsible for breaking down the film and relaying the feedback to the players in a traditional environment. All 53 players would sit in a room with one T.V. and the coach would review game film and try to correct or improve a player or team objectives. This method has greatly changed in my 10 years of coaching. We now have the ability to reach every single player and educate in many different ways. With the use of technology we can now breakdown film to suit each individual player. We can send each player home with a dvd that has been broken down with the intent to educate the individual player. The dvd contains just what we want the player to see, allows us to give feedback, a provides the player the opportunity to take responsibility to review the film in his own environment as a one on one teaching tool.
Technology, in my opinion, is becoming the greatest asset for a teacher in creating the ideal teaching environment. The teacher can now facilitate a productive environment that reaches all of the students, rather than a certain demographic. Technology can assist the teacher in the day to day activities such as grading, monitoring the student, assessing the learning comprehension, and involving individual students. Technology can also provide a bridge for parents to communicate with the teacher and keep abreast on current activities, relations, and student progression that can replace the simple “progress report” that are usually sent home with the student in hopes that it reaches the parent. Technology can also “improve student achievement, efficiency, productivity, and decision making” as stated in the article “Why Technology in Schools” from the EdTechActionNetwork website. Overall, technology is a part of our daily personal and professional lives and must be integrated into our learning environment to help educate and prepare our youth for the world.
EdTechActionNetwork. "Why Technology in Schools." EdTechAtionNetwork. 24 Jan. 2009 .