How do special educators use the Internet as a resource for enriching curriculum content?

Question

How do special educators use the Internet as a resource for enriching curriculum content?

Answer 1

Excellent suggestions above.  Just be sure to use instructional practices proven through scientifically-based research.  You can gauge this by reading the statistics sections of the articles you find.  In addition to a statistically significant result, look for study participants characteristically similar to the child or children with whom you plan to use the strategy.  (For example, an instructional method tested on urban middle school students with dyslexia, if that is what you teach.)

Alternatively and additionally, be sure to keep on-going data on your students so that you can prove the efficacy of your instructional method.  If the parents or administrators question your use of the instructional methods you find, you must support the use with properly taken data.

Answer 2

There are an infinite number of websites devoted to making things better for teachers. ERIC is an educational website and you can find any kind of lesson you would ever dream to teach, broken down by ability.

Dr. Mac's Amazing Behavior Management Page is a fabulous website for teachers who need information about behavior. For more sophisticated users, there is the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis. Behavior is important to curriculum because you can't get your lesson across when kids are misbehaving.

I often "shop" for online innovative and "hands on" science and social studies lessons because reading in the content areas is very difficult for many lower level kids, but they love to DO things like dissect hearts and make topo maps of clay.

In addition, I look for "age adjusted" simplified reading books which take into account the child's age as well as their reading level and are of high interest.

Another site that I use for getting visuals, is a site called, Do2learn. It gives visual sequences of anything that you can think of and more. Using visuals with children with learning disabilities is crucial to their development and learning.

Answer 3

The Internet provides virtual experiences for kids with little background knowledge.  They are fascinated with finding images of whatever we are learning about, and much more attentive to instruction. My students use laptops for producing written work.  They are learning how to use word processing software and are very motivated to do their work when using computers.

This week, for instance, we are listening to an audiotape of the Odyssey.  While it is difficult to understand, they can go to various websites and find enrichment activities, images, summaries and explanations of the content.  They are producing character collages using an internet search of images and character descriptions.  I would never have imagined Homer would be appropriate for special education students until I found the support of the Internet.

Answer 4

I work with students with EH/ED and spend a lot of time on the Internet to find materials to use with the students to "spruce up" the mandatory standards to be covered.  I have found many sites that have interactive lessons that the students love and they are covering the standards along with enjoying the learning process.

Answer 5

Just like any other info. Look up things needed or of interest: information on the topic, free curriculum guides provided online, ask questions at this website...