Introduction

This website will show the importance of using assistive technology (Dragon) when supporting children with dyslexia. It will also show why technology is important when it comes to educations. The website will explain what dyslexia and dragon is. It will also cover what the teacher perception of applying technology in the class room is and cover inclusion within the classroom.

Education and technology

Technology plays a strong part in children’s educations; it allows them to learn about the world through it. “Education is on the brink of being transformed through learning technologies; however, it has been on that brink for some decades now.” (Laurillard, 2008, p.1). When looking at technology and education we need to look at the social shaping of technology and how it is influenced by a range of social, cultural, political and economic factors. ‘Technology is about more than supporting traditional ways of learning. It provides new ways of engaging children; new shared resources for representing things differently and for scaffolding children’s thinking’ (Kaye, 2016, p.12). Children will learn from observing and are influenced by many different factors. Technology will allow children to engage in imaginative, active learning, offering instant feedback to children in different ways, motivate and encourage children to persist and take the next steps and it will provide resources for adults to use with children in their learning (Kaye, 2016, p.12). It will also allow children to gain a better understating of the world by using technologies to discover. Technology aids student expression. ‘Students can use much more than just pen and paper to express themselves or present what they have learned’ (Oak, 2018). It allows children to be expressive, this is because things such as PowerPoint presentations and animation software can be used to present information in an interactive way. This will aid children’s learning as they are doing it in a fun way, technology I very supporting when it comes to education as children can look things up as well and learn about their history. It will also allow teaching to be interactive with the children and will allow for different knowledge to be shared easily.

The Socio-cultural theory plays a big part in children development and learning when it comes to technology. The socio-cultural theory ‘looks at the important contributions that society makes to individual development. This theory stresses the interaction between developing people and the culture in which they live’ (Cherry, 2018). This shows that children acquire and master the tools of their situations and it shows the importance of family attitude, through guided interaction. This will drive the child’s experience, not the technology. Effective scaffolding and modelling of meaningful use of tools provides opportunities for children to develop their skills.

“Children incorporate technologies into their play experiences naturally, based on what they see in their lives around them – the way children have always done with traditional resources” (Arnott, 2008, Cited in Selwyn, 2011). This shows that children will incorporate different skills hen using technology, children will be able to learn from what they observe. This is supported by Lev Vygotsky, as he ‘believed strongly that community plays a central role in the process of “making meaning’ (McLeod, 2018). When it comes to technology and education, “Children’s familiarity with these form of devices, positions them as cultural tools within the children’s worlds” (Johnston & Highfield, 2017, p.63). Childhood is al technology based now as its setting them up for the wider world using technology. Vygotsky argued that, “Learning is a necessary and universal aspect of the process of developing culturally organized, specifically human psychological function”(McLeod, 2018).  This shows that social learning tends to precede development. Teacher needs to be careful when implementing technology into education, this is because teaching needs to feel independent on their own and not rely on the use of technology all the time.