A recent Marin Independent Journal report revealed that special education students at Venetia Valley Elementary School in California are using iPads in the classroom to stimulate communication.
Mason McClellan, a 6-year-old student, has trouble speaking his thoughts, according to the news source. The iPad helps bridge this communication gap and allows McClellan to point to objects, helping others understand what he is thinking.
"Mason thinks a lot and understands a lot," McClellan's teacher Kate Mansour told the news provider. "But without the iPad, it would just be your best guess as to what he wanted."
One of the exercises McClellan participated in with Mansour involved locating a picture of a computer and typing the word on the iPad.
Rather than use traditional teaching tools, technology, such as a tablet, an interactive whiteboard or a
DLP projector, can also be a valuable educational resource to help students learn in new ways.
Marin Independent Journal's Rob Rodgers said that the interaction between McClellan and Mansour may have never happened without the use of the iPad. Before, the conversation between the two would have required "boxes full of laminated, printed images to find the pictures they needed to communicate."
