Why does Devonport High School use assistive technologies?

• Students who have difficulty writing their thoughts using pen and paper are often able to communicate using the computer because they can see their ideas in legible print.

• Students with language or learning disabilities often have great thoughts but have difficulty getting them down on paper. Programs like WordQ suggest words to use and provide spoken feedback to help the user find mistakes.

As the school support teacher suggested:

‘If they never get to see or hear their own thinking then they will always be behind the eight ball. This is helping them to catch up and become competent learners in their own right.’

• The computer helps students with fine motor skills, hand-eye coordination and tracking skills.
• Students who are not easily motivated are often responsive to using the computer or some other device. The students appear to enjoy the interactive nature of the programs and find the work intrinsically rewarding.
• When students are able to record themselves reading – using free programs such as Audacity^®, PowerPoint^® and MP3 recorders – they become aware of the importance of clarity, articulation, inflection and volume and can make adjustments as necessary.
• Recording and saving students' voices is also a valuable means of gathering information for assessment.
• The ability of the word prediction software to save a list of commonly used words (word bank) by the user assists staff to reflect on the vocabulary used by students. Again, this is useful for assessment purposes and to guide students and reflect on learning tasks.