I knew going into this article that I was going to be very pleased with the purpose of it. That assumption was confirmed once I read the above quote written by Leslie Broun. This article focuses on students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and the writing process. As we've discussed at length, the writing process is an extremely complicated, layered process that include so many different places where a person could struggle. For people with ASD, one particular part of the process that proves to be difficult is putting pencil-to-paper. The hand-eye coordination required can make the task quite daunting, and often ends up with the student putting more time & effort into forming their letters properly than putting their thoughts onto paper. The snowball effect is that a student may begin to write less and less, as the process becomes more draining.
Allowing students to have whatever technology they need is incredibly important. Nowadays, where technology is so prevalent in our everyday lives, it still seems as though some educators are leery to bring it into their classrooms. As mentioned in the article, some say that it puts them at an advantage if one student has a computer and the rest do not. However, as Leslie mentions, not all students need a computer to complete a task. Technology is there to give people what they need. It allows us all to be on a level playing field, and give us all a chance to express ourselves. All one needs to do is look at the samples provided in the paper from Julia to see the difference that technology can make.
I really enjoyed this article, and think it is one that should be shared with all educators currently in a classroom!
This was my favourite article to read. I related to it completely and could link it to my personal experience. How is it possible with all the technology that exists kids are still forced to write, even though they can't!
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