Danielle Volpe is using technology in nearly every one of her lesson plans, and her students love it! A special education teacher at The Forum School for the past five years, Danielle teaches some of the youngest learners. She uses a Clear Touch board – a large interactive computer panel that encourages game-based learning.

“I like to present whole group lessons on the board. By swiping, drawing and writing on top of lessons, students interact directly with the content I am teaching them. It promotes collaboration and team work,” she said.

Danielle also uses iPads for a range of lessons, including short writing assignments. One of her students listens to educational songs to help him sequence letters, days of the week, months of the year, and identify the seasons and weather.

“Educational technology is a fun, engaging, and encouraging way for my students to learn. It allows me to easily differentiate lessons to meet each student’s individual needs and goals,” she said.

It also opens new doors.

7 year-old Jacob has been at The Forum School for less than a year and is already making great strides. Using Proloquo2Go, an iPad app, he can now respond to academic tasks, such as matching colors, letters and numbers, identifying and sequencing letters and numbers, and spelling his name and sight words. The app is also helping him communicate his wants, needs, and thoughts and to have conversations.

Vicki Ofmani, Supervisor of Instruction stated, “We have seen this time and time again with our students who use augmentative devices to facilitate communication. It is wonderful!”

“This technology has really made a difference, academically, socially, and behaviorally. Instead of getting frustrated, students can navigate through different buttons and folders to let us know when they want food or drinks, to go for a walk, or want to request activities,” said Danielle.