Podcast with Dr. Bridget Dalton
Designing technology to support comprehension among monolingual and bilingual students
Research focus is on the design and study of digital literacy tools and eBooks to improve diverse students' comprehension and engagement.
ICON
Her interest are in helping struggling readers and the role technology has in supporting students so everyone is succeeding and learning with text.
Middle school student with a large percentage of struggling readers, they used Hatchet and found they had good results but they were still struggling with the vocabulary.
ESL's needed more support, so they expanded their support including translation of the text as well as all instructional support in spanish.
Kids that were using this method growth and performance for bilingual was comparable but they were noticing that it didn't excelearate the students learning.
They were happy though because it help level the playing field for the bilingual students.
For Teachers
- Strategic Readings
- Reading for understanding
- Building support for language and vocabulary growth.
Look beyond the basic presentation of the book for more educational support.
Teachers should also be cautious about any extra bells and whistles as they can be distracting. Dr. Dalton has found that if the animations, sounds and learning support are consistent with intended learning goals in can improve comprehension and improve engagement.
They have found that Students are eager to learn this way.
Parents
One of their biggest misconceptions is that their children aren't developing as a reader with these devices.
Students actually benefit from listening to text from digital devices. Like improving their language, vocabulary and comprehension
Principles
When principles also need to offer teachers adequate time with the technology and resources before expecting huge turn arounds with them.
Teachers realize that they need to differentiate their instruction for their students and know that they can succeed at this with technology integration. They just want proper training with them.