Crystal Pullman's ePortfolio
ETEC 500 Artifact: Papers
Literature Review
This course was not as far out of my experience as other courses I took in the MET. As far as side trips go when you're on a roadtrip, this was more like a detour to a shopping mall than through the mountains to a hot spring (as I did during my BC roadtrip, which I completed with my father while taking this course).
The assignments in this course were fairly easy to complete, once I understood the point and requirements completely. I had taken a research course in my undergrad program, so I was already very familiar with many of the theories involved. While I had not reviewed studies before, nor proposed a study before, the assignments themselves were new and challenging, but not overwhelming.
I have chosen to include the final assignment for the course, which consisted of both a Research Proposal and Literature Review. Below you will find different formats for viewing this assignment.
Accessibility is clearly an issue that I see in education, and one that I feel it is extremely important to address. As I quote in the Research Proposal above, "3.3% of children aged 0 to 14, 10% of adults aged 15 to 64, 40% of seniors aged 65 to 74, and 53.3% of seniors 75 and older report having a disability (Statistics Canada, 2001). In the United States of America, 7.7% of people aged 21 to 64 (Erickson, Bjelland, & Bruyere, 2007) and 10% to 20% of post-secondary students in 2002 (Blair, Goldmann and Relton, 2004) are disabled" (Pullman, 2009).
Disabilities affect a significant portion of school-aged children, and while many teachers would prefer to ignore the issues, they are nevertheless required to try and do what's best for the student. As a result, teachers can become resentful of the extra work they are forced to put into their lessons so that these students can be accommodated.
My literature review looked at studies that have been conducted in the public school classroom to see what effect technology has for disabled students. Can technology help? Does it 'equalize education'? The literature review looks at these studies, the issues with them and the gaps in knowledge, and my resulting research proposal suggests a study that could look more in depth at the effect these technologies have to help fill in those gaps in knowledge.
References:
Blair, M. E., Goldmann, H., and Relton, J. (2004). Access to electronically-mediated education for students with disabilities: policy issues. NCDAE Discussion Paper for the National Summit on Disability & Distance Education. May. Retrieved November 30, 2008 from: http://ncdae.org/activities/papers/policy.htm
Erickson, William, Melissa Bjelland, and Susanne Bruyère. (2007) Disability Status Report: Disability Demographics and Statistics. Cornell University Rehabilitation Research & Training Center. Retrieved December 9, 2008 from: http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/edi/DisabilityStatistics/resources/
2007%20Status%20Report%20-%20FINAL.pdf
Pullman, C. Research Proposal. ETEC500, Winter 2009.
Statistics Canada Report. (2001). Prevalence of disability in Canada. Retrieved December, 11 from http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/89-577-x/4151361-eng.htm
