iPod Helps Special-Needs Students Make the Grade
Profiles in Success: Louisa-Muscatine Elementary School
Letts, IA — On test days, Louisa-Muscatine third-grader Samantha used to have a pretty tough time. A Special Education student, she needed the services of an onsite paraprofessional to read the questions aloud to her, in an entirely different classroom. Now Samantha can grab an iPod, put on her headphones, scroll through the menu to find her test, and get to work. By listening to the test questions as she sees them on the iPod screen and on her paper, Samantha and several of the school’s other students with special needs are beginning to work more independently. At the same time they’ve increased their self-esteem, and have found a way to join the mainstream of education.
Located in rural eastern Iowa, Louisa-Muscatine (L-M) Elementary School serves over 500 students from four different towns and cities. In the past several years, the school district has invested more than $70,000 annually in its technology infrastructure. With the October 2005 announcement of the iPod with video capabilities, L-M Principal Scott Grimes and his staff glimpsed the potential to connect with learning-challenged students in exciting new ways.
“We had applied for a state grant for technology, and were brainstorming ideas for using podcasts and our new wireless network,” Grimes recalls. “While talking to the folks at Apple about things we could do with the new iPod, we realized we could use them to read tests to our Special Ed kids. It was definitely a timing thing, where the idea and the technology came together simultaneously.”
Next Page: Visual, Audio Prompts Make Learning Connections
