Assistive Technology in Education


What Educators Need to Know About Assistive Tech Tools: Q&A with Texthelp CEO

Texthelp CEO Martin McKay dives into the growing need for assistive technology, explaining what such features schools should look for when choosing learning platforms, and how accessibility tech tools help all learners — not just the one student in five with a language-based disability.

PresenceLearning and Highlights Partner on Therapy Content for Children With Special Needs

Online student therapy provider PresenceLearning announced this week it is expanding its library of content for children with special needs, thanks to a new partnership with kids’ magazine Highlights.

NWEA: Certain Groups Lose More Ground When School is Out, Illustrating Importance of Summer Programs

An NWEA study of current research examining K–8 student progress during a typical school year and over the summer reveals that historically underserved groups suffer most when school is out for summer break, emphasizing the importance of summer learning programs in overcoming inequitable achievement gaps, the nonprofit said in a news release.

Largest Online Learning Consortium in PA to Use StrongMind for Digital Curriculum

The largest K–12 online learning consortium in Pennsylvania, the Capital Area Online Learning Association, has selected StrongMind to provide standards-aligned digital courses for the 10,000-plus public school students enrolled with CAOLA, StrongMind said in a news release.

A Road Map to Helping Young Students with Dyslexia Succeed

At least 40 states have passed legislation mandating how teachers deal with dyslexia in the classroom, yet misconceptions about dyslexia linger even among educators. NWEA research scientist Tiffany Peltier offers a road map for educators to help students with word-level reading difficulties in the early grades, as well as how to help students identified with dyslexia as they progress through school.

6 Ways to Get Families Engaged in Reading Fluency Growth

Research shows that family engagement is vital to improving student outcomes, so here are six ways educators can strengthen the school-to-family connection by helping caregivers emphasize reading fluency — with actionable ideas for families to help their students develop stronger fluency skills at home.

Deadline is March 31 to Enter MIT Solve Challenge Calling for Tech Solutions to Re-Engage Learners

The submission deadline is March 31, 2022, for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Solve Challenge calling for technology-enabled solutions that help re-engage and meet the holistic needs of underserved learners ages 5 to 18 so they may thrive and succeed.

Five Keys to Ensuring Student Equity in Online Learning

Online learning can be an important tool for advancing student equity by bringing instructional opportunities to students that didn’t exist for them before. However, as we’ve seen during the pandemic, online instruction can sometimes widen equity gaps if the circumstances aren’t favorable. For online learning to support student equity, here are five critical elements that must be in place.

Apple Launches New Learning Coach Program and Features for Educators

Apple today announced the launch of its new Apple Learning Coach professional learning program for educators who coach teachers, to help them get the most out of Apple technology and boost student engagement in the process.

Google Invites Classroom Users to Join Beta for 'Practice Sets,' with Auto-Grading, Instant Student Feedback, and More

Google for Education today launched the beta sign-up for its new Practice Sets feature in Google Classroom, which gives students hints for solving problems and immediate feedback on their answers — and can turn teaching content into interactive assignments and automatically grade responses, Google said in a blog post.