Using Technology toMeet the Needs

of Diverse Learners

Donna Murray

DifferentiatedInstruction

“ is a model of instruction that revolves around the belief that students learn in many different ways.”

Taking in information (Content)

Making sense of information (Process)

Expressing what students learn (Product)

Provides multiple options for:

http://www.wested.org/cs/tdl/view/tdl_topic/1

Digital Text

Text stored as strings of characters

Flexible and versatile

Search

Rearrange

Read aloud

Customize

Digital Text

Who does it help?Students who

…have trouble reading standard print from books.

…need additional info or supports placed near the text.

…could benefit interacting with text.

Other free digital texts

http://delicious.com/murraygirl/ebooks

Audio

Text to speech

Read by computer on command

Pre-reading support

Access advanced materials

Reading and listening together

Read selected words/phrases

Text to speech

Support comprehension

Students improve editing and proofreading

Rewarding and motivating

Text to speech

Who does it help?Students who…

…struggle with task of composing grammatically correct sentences.

…could benefit from hearing omissions or inaccuracies in their work.

…could benefit from auditory input to support reading.

Text to speech

http://delicious.com/murraygirl/texttospeech

Listen Tool

Text to speech

Free texts with audio support

Enhanced Text

Text with images, sounds, charts, definitions, background information, questions.

Enhanced Text

Who does it help?

Students who…

…have difficulties comprehending or organizing information.

…are ESL/ELL.

…students who need more context.

Enhanced Text

Software

Support research-based strategies

highlighting, scaffolding, summarizing

Software

Who does it help?

Students who…

…struggle with writing.

…need more time for editing and revision.

…have trouble with spelling and grammar.

Microsoft Word

Adjust text appearanceAdjust grammar checkerHighlight textOutliningInsert text boxes/graphicsDetermine readability of textAutoSummarizeThesaurus & DictionaryFind synonyms to match reading level

Visual

Nonlinguistic representations

Clip art

Streaming video

Digital photos

Graphic organizers

Visual

Who does it help?

Students who…

…benefit from seeing relationships between information

…having visual representation to help clarify and organize information

Visualhttp://delicious.com/murraygirl/graphicorganizers

http://delicious.com/murraygirl/videos

Curricular Supports

Web and digital tools that support flexibility for differentiation.

Curricular Supports

Assistive Technology

http://delicious.com/murraygirl/assistivetechnology

Board Maker templates

Text to speech tools

Assistive technology matrix

Additional Tools

Professional Development Resources

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License.

For more information, visit http://creativecommons.org .

Credit info: Donna Murray, Instructional Technology Specialistmurraydo at hickoryschools.net

Duffie, J (2008). Using Technology To Support Diverse Learners. Retrieved October 4, 2008, from WestEd Web site: http://www.wested.org/cs/tdl/download/lib/2590/TechSupDL6-7-07.ppt?x-r=pcfile_d