ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGY BLOG | INVENTIONS FOR PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES

For the past couple of months I have been actively engaged working on the INCLUDE Grant which focuses on improving math instruction and math achievement in grades 5-7. The school districts that won the competitive grants were able to purchase computers, interactive whiteboards, software, as well as extensive training in Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and its implementation in the classroom. All of the districts that I have worked with have also had professional development from math educators with extensive classroom experience. I have the opportunity to work with the teachers on UDL Theory and practice in the classroom as well as teaching them how to use scan and read technologies as required by the grant. While I was training last week with my colleague Roz, she showed me the Draggable Math site which really blew me away. It is incredible to think of all the fantastic websites that allow students to show us what they know which was once the province of commercial software. The Draggable Math website lets students solve addition, subtraction, multiplication and division problems by dragging numbers from the side panel to the worksheet grid. Students are able to show all of their work as if they did it with pencil and paper. When I first saw the application on the web site it reminded me of Mathpad from Intellitools. Draggable Math is a wonderful web site for students who have poor fine motor control and need to work on their computation skills. Draggable Math allows students to show all of their work as if they were solving it with pencil and paper. Take a look at the site and I'm sure you will be as impressed as I was when I was introduced to it. Enjoy!