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educational technology

Why Educational Publishers are Part of the Solution to the Reading Challenge

“The greatest enemy of progress is the illusion of knowledge.” John Young, Astronaut Several years ago, I was working as a contractor in the educational publishing industry. The scope of one of our contracts was to build curricula for a few disciplines so the publisher could assess whether to pursue publishing in those particular academic areas and, if so, determine their strategy. We listed the required and elective courses for the discipline, specific areas of study, course objectives, and major textbooks and course materials used for each class. We commented accordingly on enrollments, trends, and areas for improvement. One of the disciplines we worked on was education. While we were putting together courses and books for the certification and degree programs in special education, reading, and literacy, it never occurred to me to hunt for the few textbooks that include a science-based approach to reading, or to recommend that graduates need at least a basic understanding of the foundations of reading. I didn’t know then about the five pillars of reading: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension. How would I have known? We Can’t Change What We Don’t Know Is Broken That phrase is repeated regularly in connection with teacher training in the science of reading, and it applies to publishers as well. Publishers can’t change what they don’t… | Read More »Why Educational Publishers are Part of the Solution to the Reading Challenge

Publishers Keep an Eye on Content so All Learners Can Succeed: Accessibility

Educational publishers are important stakeholders in the educational landscape, but you don’t hear much about them, and rarely do you hear what they are doing right. One area where publishers are doing a lot right is accessibility. Accessibility is usually considered within the context of assistive technology, but it’s actually way more than that. Accessibility is a broad term that carries a lot of meaning—ranging from technical requirements for web content to less physical functions such as developing or producing content in a way that enables the purpose of the material to transfer to all learners. Making content accessible to all learners goes hand in hand with assistive technology since the material must be written in a way that the technology can make sense of the content. It’s very confusing to hear a caption for a photo read as part of a story, instead of listening to a description of what the image is.  Sound familiar? As I learned years ago in publishing, content is king or queen! Like Reece’s Peanut Butter Cup, Accessible content and assistive technology go great together. Both have the same educational goals: to ensure that all students have access to the same material, and can work with the content the way they need to learn. Who wants to spend time guessing at what’s in a… | Read More »Publishers Keep an Eye on Content so All Learners Can Succeed: Accessibility

Why Kids with Dyslexia Need Specialized Schools to Thrive: An Interview with Kevin Pendergast, Head of School at The Kildonan School

“Your child should attend a school specific to language disabilities or consider the home-schooling option.”  Families like ours receive this type of recommendation all the time, and it is a life-changer. Perhaps you work full-time, or you know that you and your kid are not a good fit for a home-school scenario. You may not have ever thought about a specialized school or considered the logistical and cost factors. Your child has not been progressing in a typical school environment, and you know they are smart, so the recommendation is not a shock. It’s merely a wake-up call for a reality you were not ready to face. That was our story. To get our daughter the reading services she needed, last April we drove to The Kildonan School in Amenia, New York, to learn whether our daughter would be a fit. As previous blogs have described, our daughter attended the summer camp, Camp Dunnabeck, for six weeks, and made unprecedented progress. For kids with reading issues who have not demonstrated improvement in a traditional school system, private schools for language issues are the difference between thriving versus not finishing high school or graduating with limited choices. For this post, I am proudly interviewing Kevin Pendergast, esq., who is Head of School at The Kildonan School. What are the major differentiating… | Read More »Why Kids with Dyslexia Need Specialized Schools to Thrive: An Interview with Kevin Pendergast, Head of School at The Kildonan School