QUESTION: Teaching basic technology skills to kids w/ disabilities?

[Andrea Brown]

I'm looking for any information out there about teaching basic technology skills to kids with disabilities.  Specifically, we're thinking about the skills you might use in a basic office setting - typing, internet, email, etc.  I'm hoping to write a curriculum for our upper high school students, and I'm looking for a jumping off point: research, another school doing the same sort of thing, anything would be helpful. 

Thanks!

[Ryan Goble]

Andrea, this is a GREAT question - you might also copy and paste this discussion post into the New Media and Tech group's discussion forum as those people are tech experts and there are like 150 people in that group!

Thanks for joining the discussions!

Ryan:)

[Jeremy Brown]

Check out http://teknimedia.com/html/cls.html.

[Jeremy Brown]

I would also recommend Thomson's "Growing With Technology" curriculum. Here's the curriculum's companion site:
http://www.growing.course.com/.

[Ynez Peterson]

Andrea any new ideas on this post?  What type of kids are you planning this project?  I too am trying to teach basic computer skills but my students use AT devices as physical limitations are our biggest hurdle.  here are some free typing sites that I found at Technology Integration in Education:

http://www.technologyintegrationineducation.com/profiles/blogs/week...

[Andrea Brown]

@Ynez - Its actually something I'm coming back to as we have recently begun working on getting a mobile lab or dedicated computer lab.  Our students are, for the most part, Autistic students with accompanying behavior problems.  We've gotten a typing program for all our students, but haven't made much further headway with this - I'd still be very interested in more ideas!

[Andrea Brown]

Just thought I'd update with a few resources that I've found - still looking for resources to teach Office, email, etc, but I have found a few things to use for social networking/social media:

Social Safety - the focus is really on Cyberbullying, but there's some related info on talking to strangers online, choosing a social network, and creating a safe profile.

BeSeen - this app simulates a social network in a school, and the user has to make good choices - i.e. what status do you post, how to respond to other people's status, etc.