Here are the 2 articles relating
to my topic of Adult
Education and
Disabilities:
This article is about a young man
named Raymond who has Duchenne
Muscular Dystrophy (DMD). This is a
degenerative muscle disease.
Raymond was very gifted in middle
school but the school wouldn't
advance him, so his family moved
and at his new school, his counsellor
saw how gifted he was and advanced
him. He finished high school at
age 14 and he finished University
at 18. This article speaks to the issues he faced with accessibility and
transportation at university. It also
speaks to how important it was for
Raymond to have an advocate help
him navigate the systems at school,
and arrange contingencies for him
as he went along.
This article has a premise that
students with learning disabilities tend
to learn better in the on-line
environment. It notes that educational
institutions are not doing enough
to prepare instructors to meet the
needs of these students with
learning disabilities. The type of learning
disabilities referred to in this
article include dyslexia, expressive
language disorder, reading
processing disability and Attention Deficit
Disorder (ADD). One challenge
identified is that not all of these
students disclose.This article
provides tips for instructors in supporting students with learning
disabilities, such as making special accommodations and open and constant
communication.
Three reflections that address
each of these three Guiding questions.
a. New insights:
The article on Raymond provided me insights into the variety of
roles of an educator. I have
learned that the role of an educator is not so much about imparting
knowledge, which is very limiting, but rather
facilitating learning and gaining
understanding into how that student
learns best. The instructor that
Raymond had in his middle school years would not advance him to the next
level, judging Raymond by his
physical limitations and not by his
intellectual abilities and strengths.
An instructor's role therefore, is
to see a student as a student first and
their disability second. Another
insight I had was how Raymond succeeded at university largely because he had a
father who became a full time advocate and "expediter". A role
for an educator is to grasp how important the role of an advocate can be for a
student with a disability, and to meet the advocate and include them in
communication as much as possible.
In my exploration of
characteristics of adult learners, I learned that
Raymond displayed several
characteristics of an adult learner; he had
issues and problems that were
barriers to his learning and he found
solutions such as having his father
help him get around campus. He
also helped to connect his fellow
students together.
“Ray is very dedicated to
mathematics and is 100 percent devoted to
all of his academics,” says John
Ryan, a professor of mathematics in
the J. William Fulbright College of
Arts and Sciences at the University
of Arkansas and Raymond’s doctoral
adviser in mathematics. “I'm very impressed by his abilities. I have
given him some very challenging
things to do, and he’s always
proven that he’s up to the challenge. He is one of the top students we've
had".
Ryan says another thing that has
impressed him about Raymond is his
sense of leadership. “Although he
is the youngest one in the group, he
has been sending emails to the
other three Ph.D. students, encouraging
them to meet and interact and talk
about the work that they’re doing,”
he says. “It’s brilliant.” (A Life
Full of Learning, 2014).
In Teaching students with Learning
Disabilities in the On-line
Classroom by Rob Kelly (2010), I learned that
there are advantages to
the on-line environment for some
students with Learning disabilities.
Some of the learning disabilities
discussed in this article include
dyslexia, expressive language
disorder, reading processing disability,
and attention deficit disorder.
This article pointed out how there are
times when a student with a
learning disability finds the on-line
environment a relief as it hides a
disability that may be obvious in a
classroom environment.
In
terms of another example of a role of the educator, may be to
learn how to access how these
students are doing, by keeping up with
communication, and gauging by the
answers of the students if they
have a learning disability and how
to best support them.
Another insight I had was how an
instructor's role can be to match
students with learning disabilities
with a suitable peer.
Also, in terms of use of technology
with the students, the instructor's
role can be to learn a wide range
of assistive technologies, or at least
know where to refer a student with
a learning disability with in the
institution.
b. Trends:
Trends that I am aware of in
my field of Adults with Disabilities, is
around advances in technology for
augmented communication and is
Accessibility.
and Alternate Communication
(ACC). For example, I work with a
young adult who attends a post
secondary institution. She is non-verbal
and has severe Cerebral Palsy, and
she has recently been provided the
opportunity to use a communication
device called "EyeGaze". Here is a
It is essentially a computer
that is mounted on her mobile wheelchair.
When she gazes on a pre-programmed
statement or letter, the computer
detects what she gazes on and then
it speaks the words. She has a
support worker beside her when she
is in class and the school has made
accommodations so that she can
attend. This amazing technology has
made it possible for this young
woman to attend post secondary
education and to feel like she is
contributing like everyone else.
The use of Kindle's and I Pad's are
increasing as well, for those with a
range of disabilities.
As for accessibility, trends that I
am witnessing are around the
awareness of how much more we can
do to make spaces more
accessible to people with mobility
challenges. For example, the local
high school has put new railings in
for a young adult who has visual
impairment. Ramps, and railings in
bathrooms are also seen more in
educational institutions.
I am preparing to address
these trends by putting time and effort
into researching advances made in
this area. When I am in an
educational setting, I can prepare
by asking the instructors and
administrators, how they are
accommodating adult learners with
cognitive and physical
disabilities. As an instructor, I can prepare by
learning what accommodations are
needed for my students and find
ways to support their learning.
Lastly, I can prepare by
continuing to challenge my own thinking
and beliefs around what it means to
have a disability, and be aware of any judgements or assumptions I may have
that could negatively
influence my own instructing.
c. Web-Conference:
Reflect on the
Web-Conference experience. How was it? What was
one thing I learned about from my learning
partner?
The Web conference was a very positive
learning experience. The format of "teaching" the other what we had
learned from our articles was excellent practice and we both appreciated the
opportunity to discuss and share using Skype. My learning partner was engaged
in the Web conference, by asking questions and offering feedback and finding
parallels in his learning. For example, we both discovered that we were both
using the technology in our work that we were learning about, such as Skype,
White boards, and social media.
One thing I learned from my learning
partner was that his work requires him to personalize his instructing to each
student and their respective needs. Adult learners come with full lives and
schedules and needs, and he finds that he can't teach generically. I realized
that that is an important aspect to instructing adults, regardless of what is
being taught.
