‘Tech help for specially-able’

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‘Tech help for specially-able’

Wednesday, 26 December 2018 | Rajshekhar Ratrey

Learning is for everyone and lack infrastructure should not be a barrier. Technology can help specially-abled students to compliment classroom learning, says RAJSHEKHAR RATREY

Around six lakh children with special needs, between the ages of 6 to 13 are out of school. This isn’t just a statistic, this is the result of an ancient assumption that still operates in the classroom; one approach fits all. Our infrastructure can’t facilitate the allocation of specialised teachers to every class. This has led such students to question their ability to learn in such an environment. But learning is for everyone and infrastructure should not be a barrier. That’s where technology can be used to compliment classroom learning.

Select the pace and space: In a classroom of 60, it’s hard for students with special needs to understand every concept. They may take time to learn, depending on their grasping power. Before they can start to break the concept down, the teacher has already moved on to the next one. Every student’s pace is different and technology provides for that uniqueness. Video lectures give students the power to pause a lecture, rewind it or even select the speed of the explanation. With e-learning apps available on any mobile device, students can choose to study in an environment that suits them best.

Adaptive learning: Adaptive learning, a feature that is transforming the way students learn, is embedded in most e-learning platforms. This can help specially-abled students, teachers and parents understand how much they have grasped. They are given a question, depending on their answer, they will be given another question of either a higher difficulty level or a lower difficulty level. The practice questions adapt to the student’s ability. This ensures constant assessment. This ensures there are no gaps in the student’s understanding.

Interactive and quality content: Technology has opened the doors to quality content and teachers. With a simple video conferencing, children can learn from experts, anywhere in the world. Ed-tech has bought content designed for specially-abled students to smartphones and computers. The use of animation in videos have made lectures interactive, rather than just instructive. Children can actually play with objects in 3D and see visual representations of a lecture in the form of videos, diagrams, graphs and images.

Help 24x7: Doubts are very bothersome and students need someone to solve them instantly. It becomes difficult for children with special needs to raise a doubt in front of people. Ed-tech is bringing them support around the clock! Students can ask their doubts on a chat platform and experts in that subject, will patiently explain the concept, until it's grasped. To make it easier for the students, they don't even have to type, they can simply send a picture! Now help is just a click away.

Better engagement with gamification: It can be challenging for a teacher to keep all the students engaged. It’s especially difficult to engage students with ADHD or other conditions. Gamification is making this task easier with badges, leaderboards and experience points.

Each time students complete a set of tasks, they are rewarded a badge for their performance, speed, accuracy, consistency and other factors. This is even making learning fun, increasing participation from students with a short attention span. Thus, leading to better engagement and participation.

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