To Tech or Not to Tech... That is not a question anymore.

Necessary for some, good for all.

I've had a great teaching career. I've had my own classes and for the past 7 years have been lucky enough to help out in classes from K-12... even got to teach a few university instructors along the way.

Nothing, however, rings more true than the statement above. Necessary for some, good for all became the mantra of the IT4 Learning Team at the District School Board of Niagara. Special Education focused tools such as Word Q and Read & Write were good for everyone. There was always a tool that could be of some use to students, whether they were in Grade 1 or Grade 12. Training a classroom of students how to use the text to speech feedback meant that the student that needed it to read didn't look any different than the students who could use it to improve their writing skills... 

The flipside also applies when integrating technology into a class for the purpose of being assistive. Tools like Office, Google Docs, Video Creation Tools, etc. are then tools for a regular streamed classroom. They, again, are tools for everyone. Just because the label assistive technology is applied to specific software, does not mean that all of the other available software can't be assistive. 

All of our students need to belong. All of our students need an outlet for creativity. All of our students need to be treated fairly. Maybe the statement "necessary for some, good for all" shouldn't be just a statement. It should be an ideal. It should be the norm... or maybe it should just be abolished and replaced by "necessary for all." Maybe this is what needs to be said to abolish the notion that our special needs students are any different than any other student.