Do Technologies Meet the Needs of Students in Therapeutic Day Schools?
Abstract: Emerging technologies are spreading over the world with various impacts and dramatic changes on society and in our daily life. There are many factors affecting technology integration in schools and classrooms. The purpose of this study is to find out key elements related to technology implementation of educational and assistive technology in a special education therapeutic day school setting. The primary focus of the study is to examine if technology resources adequately support learning and teaching to meet the specific needs of students with disabilities in the therapeutic day schools. The participants will be composed of about 30 special education teachers in therapeutic day schools in five counties in a midwestern state. The data will be collected with the EdTech survey instrument including a set of context variables, a few demographic questions, and open-ended questions. The quantitative and qualitative data will be analyzed by descriptive analysis and coding techniques to learn about the technology implementation and contextual knowledge of a specific group in an alternate educational setting.