The potential of ICT for meeting SEN

Technology can ser for many people with disabilities as a kind cognitive prosthesis to overcome or compensate for differences among learners. This idea has important implications for learners with disabilities and special educational needs because it suggests that technology can help create the conditions for equal opportunity to learn and equal access to the curriculum for all.

The appeal of technology as an equalizer for learners with special educational needs is borne out in the many materials that have been developed to address special educational needs. Professional magazines and trade shows offer a dazzling array of devices and programs covering all areas of the curriculum and all types of learning difficulties. For example, the offical magazine of the UK's National Association for special Educational Needs contains an ICT guide as a regular feature. This feature explores a range of issues from reviews of programs to the skills that teaching assistants need to support learners. It covers all types of learning with tehnology for all kinds of learners. Similarly, the American Journal of Special Education Technology reports on research on the use of technology in the field of special educational needs. 

The plethora of available information and the range of topics covered under the heading information and comunications technology and SEN can be daunting. In the pressurized world of teaching, there is little opportunity to think critically about what is available or how it should be used. In a review of the instructional effectiveness of technology for pupils with SEN, Woodward et al. (2001) examined the research on software curriculum designed specifically for pupils with such needs. They identified a number of design variables thought to affect academic outcomes for pupils with SEN, such as the quantity and type of feedback, practice, strategy instruction, assessment and motivation. Woodward et al. found that there are no simple answers to the question of effectiveness: 'simply because a program or approach has been validated by research does not necessarily mean it will be used as intended in practice'.

Means (1994) argues that the application of ICT, the ways in which teachers use it, must start with the teacher and the kind of learning they want to foster. She categorizes ICT by the ways in which it is used in teaching. From her perspective, ICT can be used to tutor or to explore; it can be applied as a tool and it can be used to communicate. In the field of special education, ICT is also used for assessment and management purposes.

Valoration: technology is a useful tool for those people who have learning disabilities. It provides different types of materials to better develop those special educational needs.  


Source: https://books.google.es/books?hl=es&lr=&id=BY7lAAAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=ICT+tools+in+specific+educational+needs&ots=PUT3NgEmgr&sig=ZMqarVnecaxwzupkX1xqmOP58V4#v=onepage&q=ICT%20tools%20in%20specific%20educational%20needs&f=false