COntent-Area-Literacy via Networked Notetaking for Exceptional Children and Teachers
Project CONNECT addresses three national concerns relevant to the education of students with disabilities and the use of technology to enhance literacy. First, there is a need to improve the content-area-literacy of students with disabilities in secondary level mainstream classrooms. Second, there is a specific need to enhance the content-area-literacy of these students by facilitating the translation of classroom dialogue into written language. And third, there is a need to expand our understanding of the ways that computer technology can foster content-area-literacy for disabled students unable to translate classroom dialogue into written text effectively.
Project CONNECT is a comprehensive, three-year endeavor to research the benefits of synchronous notetaking strategies using portable laptop computers and a wireless network. Participating students will be selected from three populations for whom notetaking in regular content area classes is often difficult, if not impossible: students with learning disabilities, students with severe hearing impairments, and students with severe upper extremity dysfunction. All participating students will be provided with Macintosh PowerBooks for regular class notetaking and will be assisted by trained notetakers using the same equipment. Their laptop computers will be linked wirelessly using a program called Grouper ®(by Digital Ocean) and together they will create notes from class presentations and discussions using the synchronous writing software called Aspects ®(by Group Logic). Of particular interest in the proposed research will be (a) uncovering the specific notetaking strategies most appropriate for different types of students, (b) determining effective ways for students to manipulate and use the notes for studying outside of class, and (c) exploring ways to increase students' independence and personal responsibility for the notetaking process.
Project CONNECT is designed to achieve six major objectives. The objectives are to: (a) adopt and test a computer-based system for providing portable, synchronous, and wireless notetaking assistance to students with disabilities; (b) identify the types of networked notetaking strategies most appropriate for specific types of students; (c) research the short-term effects of networked notetaking strategies on students' content-area-literacy and academic achievement in regular classes; (d) research the long-term effects of networked notetaking strategies on students' content-area-literacy, academic achievement and psycho-social development; (e) research the extent to which environmental factors affect and are affected by the use of networked notetaking strategies; and (f) disseminate results of this research in ways that maximize the impact of this innovation on the education of students with disabilities.