iPads and their use in classrooms to support diverse learners

1. IPADS AND
SPECIAL
NEEDS
LEARNING

2. IPADS TO SUPPORT
DIVERSE LEARNERS
• Accessibility features built into the
iPad provide all students the ability
to access the curriculum, collaborate
with peers and express their
understandings with digital tools that
best meet their learning needs.
• Enhances independence

3. IPADS IN THE SPECIAL
NEEDS CLASSROOM
• Lightweight, portable,
• Simplicity of use
• Relatively inexpensive
• Reduce need for multiple devices
• Built in accessibility: zoom, VoiceOver
etc
• More tools being developed to assist
with access: switches, adaptive
styluses

4. WHY IS THE IPAD USEFUL FOR
SPECIAL NEEDS STUDENTS
• Instant interactivity and feedback ( audio and
video)
• Speaking and listening to audio versions of
books or use accessibility functions of iPad to
have it read aloud
• Writing - pages, keynote, make iBooks for the
iBook library (Scribble press)
• Express understanding - annotate images,
make short videos
• Just in time support using screen casting Apps
like Educreations, Show me, Explain everything

5. THE IPAD AND ESL
Apps can be used to support activities that may
otherwise be difficult for ESL students to understand.
• Intervention
• Enrichment
• Assistive
• Digital literacy
• Reading
• Organizing resources

6. HOW
• Record themselves reading aloud - iPro recorder,
Talking Tom, email to teacher for feedback
• Translation apps
• Dictionary apps to access key words or clarify
difficult ideas
• iBooks app to define words, search, make notes
• Create picture stories (Felt board, I tell a story)
• Visual - images, specific apps, Qwiki,
Videolicious, Picle

7. APPS
• Social skills:
• Motivate verbal expression: voice
changer plus, talking series
• Text to speech: Verbally, or
speech to text - dragon dictation
social skill
• Articulation: Small talk
builder
phonemes, iPad video, iReverse
speech
• Language comprehension: • Organizers,
Sentence maker, Sentence
builder visual
• Life skills: functional skills system
samplers

8. What do
special
needs
students
say about
the iPad
http://atclassroom.blogspot.com.au/2011/01/computers-vs-ipads-in-special-education.html

9. Where to
find useful
Apps for
Special
Needs
students

10. Integra