2008 Tech in the Works Awardees

Congratulations to the 2008 NCTI Technology in the Works Awardees!

Five outstanding teams of researchers and vendors have been selected to examine the impact of innovative assistive technologies for students with special needs. Each $15,000 award required matching funds and required teams to conduct and report rapid research. This year’s winners represented a wide spectrum of research interests from instant messaging on augmentative communication devices to speech-enabled calculators for algebra students with learning disabilities.

NCTI sponsors this annual competition to contribute research on the impact of AT for learning as well as to foster collaboration between researchers and vendors in the field. Findings from each team were presented at the 2008 Technology Innovators conference in Washington, DC, November 20-21 at The Madison hotel.

2008 Awardees

Developing Fraction Sense

Awarded to: John Laskarzewski, co-founder, Spotlight on Learning (vendor); Laura Susi, co-founder, Spotlight on Learning; and Dave Edyburn, professor, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (researcher)

Project Description: Schools across the country are paying more attention to students’ achievement in mathematics, not only for AYP scores, but as part of a renewed focus on 21st century skills and STEM education. Fractions have proven a persistent stumbling block for children and teachers alike. This study of Fraction Sense shows that thoughtfully designed technology can create an effective learning approach for children and their teachers. This award shows how collaborative research can overcome the realities of implementation challenges.

Efficacy of a Computer-Assisted Teaching Program for Children with Autism in a School Setting

Awarded to: Christina Whalen, TeachTown (vendor); Jennifer Symon, California State University, Los Angeles (researcher); and Connie Kasari, University of California, Los Angeles (researcher)

Project Description: The number of children with autism in the U.S. school system has grown exponentially over the last decade. The growth of this population has far outpaced the number of trained clinicians available to help them, their educators, and their families. TeachTown Basics offers a way to deliver and coordinate therapeutic services in a fun, interactive interface. This award shows how collaborative research based on solid relationships can sustain a challenging study in one of the nation’s largest and most diverse school districts, Los Angeles Unified.

Exploring Accessible Computer Algebra System for Secondary Students with a Learning Disability or Visual Impairment

Awarded to: Emily Bouck, assistant professor of Special Education, Purdue University (researcher); Waseem Sheikh, research software developer, gh, LLC (vendor); and Dave Schleppenbach, president, gh, LLC (vendor)

Math is a core language of STEM education. Students who are blind or have low vision have been at a disadvantage with few tools designed for their needs. With the growing prevalence of math mark-up language, MathML, assistive technology researchers knew that a speech-interactive calculator would fill a need and be able to take advantage of new digital content. This research project developed an on-screen calculator that shows real promise as a compensatory tool, but even more importantly, as a learning tool.

Point-and-Chat

Awarded to: Ben Slotznick, president, Point-and-Read (vendor); Dave Hershberger, president, Saltillo (vendor); and Jeff Higginbotham, associate professor, State University of New York at Buffalo (researcher)

This study investigated how to turn AAC platforms into instant messaging (IM) devices. IM is becoming more important as a communication venue of choice to youth than face-to-face conversations or the ‘old technology’ of telephone interaction, used even more than email by adolescents. In the team’s grant proposal, they argued that this emerging emphasis on text-based messaging had the potential danger to further exclude youth with communication disorders from natural human communications that are so critical to their ongoing development. What they found was a critical need for chat specific vocabularies.

Supported Video Project: Making Video Content Accessible to All

Awarded to: Donna Horn, director, Universal Access to Media department, CaptionMax (vendor) and Lynne Anderson-Inman, director, National Center for Supported eText, University of Oregon (researcher)

Project Description: DVD technology offers a whole new level of possible support to make video content not only accessible but educational. This study of expanded captions explored how educational content could be delivered in sync with high quality science content video and offer various supports such as vocabulary definitions, labeled illustrations, and concept maps to support students’ understanding of the visual content. Working with deaf and hard of hearing students, the study team investigated how students interacted with the expanded captions and identified future research directions. This award broke new research and development ground in a cross-over application with broad commercial possibilities.