Charting a New Course for Diverse Learners as They Engage in Digital Reading, Viewing, Listening, and Composing

Bridget Dalton, Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST)

Session Abstract

Although we know that reading, viewing, listening, and composing are essential to learning with and through digital technologies, they are often addressed superficially, without attention to the underlying knowledge, skills, strategies, and habits of mind required for success. Further, the reading is not always connected to the composing, making it even more difficult for struggling readers to make the necessary connections. Drawing on several years of research in middle grade classrooms, we will share strategies, lessons, and examples of student work illustrating how technology can support students' in all aspects of literacy, and also engage them as learners.Participants will have the opportunity to try out a new, free, bookbuilder tool developed at CAST that includes pedagogical agents who provide models and thinkalouds to support comprehension.

Speaker Biography

Bridget Dalton is Chief Officer of Literacy & Technology at CAST(www.cast.org), a non-profit research and development organization located outside of Boston, MA. With Co-Prinicipal Investigators Catherine Snow of Harvard University and Patrick Proctor of Boston College, she is conducting an Institute of Education Sciences funded study of the role of vocabulary and comprehension strategies support in universally designed multimedia texts. Previously, she was an associate professor at the University of Guam and Director of the College of Education Literacy Lab. She has published articles in peer-reviewed journals such as the Journal of Learning Disabilities, the Journal of Special Education Technology, Learning Disabilities Research and Practice, Cognition and Instruction, International Journal of Educational Research, Reading and Writing Quarterly, and The Reading Teacher. She also served as Co-Editor of the International Reading Association's peer-reviewed electronic journal, Reading Online (www.readingonline.org).

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