We spend most of the time in class talking about how technology can help regular learners, but there will probably come a time when you will have a disabled student of some sort in your class, whether that disability is physical or even a learning disability. There are many kinds of technology that assist the disabled to do many of the things we take for granted. These are often called "assistive technologies." I heard about one such technology today. It's called a Nouse, and it's like a computer mouse but is steered by your nose and eyelids. This is of course very useful for people who can't use their hands. There are other technologies too, and I even heard about an email program for special needs students, who normally can't type or sometimes read. In this program, they select pictures--kind of like emoticons -- to express what they are feeling at the moment, and they push a button to email these pictures to another person. I had another student last semester who created a simple learning game using PowerPoint that teaches letters to severely mentally handicapped students.
About students with learning disabilities. I have a hunch, but I'd need to do some research to see if this has been tested, that students with ADD or ADHD difficulties might do better with technology assignments than regular assignments. I have had some personal difficulties with my attention span and I've found that having a laptop with me in class gives me something to do with my hands ... and I actually learn a lot more from my professors. I used to sleep in almost all of my classes, and teachers probably thought I was being disrespectful, but I couldn't help it. Now I work on my laptop, and it helps me stay awake and listen better.
I won't talk much about assistive technology in this class because we're more focused on other things. But you should be aware of the possibilities and if you ever have a student with special needs, there might be a way some kind of technology could help you teach that student.
