2000 Conference Proceedings

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Ohio’s Software Solutions for Students with Diverse Learning Needs Project

Jeff McCormick, ORCLISH

Bob Keller, Don Johnston, Inc.

In the state of Ohio, local school districts are increasing their efforts to provide students with successful literacy experiences and to provide modifications and accommodations that enable all students to share and succeed in these experiences. Ohio educators realize the importance of engaging students in a variety of reading and writing activities in order to reach high levels of proficiency.

With the birth of technology and computer based learning, reading and writing instruction has taken on a multisensory format as students are able to integrate their own personal learning style with individualized activities.

Talking word processing programs literally let text "speak" to the student. Highlighting word by word provides a direct correlation between spoken and written word.
Modifications of font, text size, and color contrasts make reading materials visually motivating and accessible to students of all ability levels.
Built in talking dictionaries enhance vocabulary development.
Spell checkers encourage letter-sound learning.
Importing graphics support student writing.
Auditory feedback helps increase writing independence and proof reading efficiency.
Interfacing the word processing program with word prediction techniques further promotes phonemic awareness and sentence composition as students compose their thoughts into written forms.
Students begin to write more and for longer periods of time.

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Project Description

This statewide initiative, funded by the Ohio Schoolnet Commission, provides educational technology agencies; special education regional resource centers; the state schools for the blind and deaf; k-12 public school districts; the joint vocational school districts; and boards of mental retardation and developmental disabilities who serve k-12 public school students with training, training materials, and software to meet individual learning needs. The Special Education Regional Resource Centers (SERRCs) and the Educational Technology Agencies will collaborate to provide literacy training as well as training on Co:Writer and Write:OutLoud developed by Don Johnston, Inc. to their service areas. Districts and agencies that attend the training will receive a free copy of the software programs to use with students in their districts.

The statewide training effort began in August of 1999 using training materials developed by the partners. In addition, a procedure for additional purchases of software at reduced rates will be implemented. The partners for this grant are ORCLISH; the Ohio Schoolnet Commission; the Ohio Department of Education, Division of Special Education; the sixteen SERRCs; the eight Educational Technology Agencies; and Don Johnston, Inc.

The ‘Literacy Software for Students with Diverse Learning Needs’ project exemplifies Ohio’s commitment to provide a successful learning opportunity for all children. The end result: students in the state of Ohio will increase their literacy proficiency and educational success!

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