Making a Difference

Part 1—Making a Difference |
Meeting diverse learning needs with differentiated instruction
Leveraging Technology
Contents of this chapter
Planning for instruction
Enhancing instruction
Speech
Printed 
text
Images
Motivating and engaging students
Offering choice
Ensuring accessibility
Creating student engaement
Building student understanding
Displaying 
information
Creating 
fl
exible groupings
Scaffolding instruction
Choosing assistive technologies
Tools to support reading and writing
Tools to support mathematics
Tools to support communication
6

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Chapter 6–Leveraging Technology
“We should differentiate instruction when doing so would be the best 
means to solve a problem. 
We should use technology in education when doing so would be the best 
means to solve a problem.”
– Amy Benjamin in 
Differentiated Instruction Using Technology: A Guide for Middle and 
High School
(2005) p. 9.
I
n today’s classrooms, a wide range of technologies are creating new options 
for differentiated instruction and for the inclusion of students with disabilities. 
Technology can assist teachers in providing support, choice and 
fl
exibility to 
students. It also can directly support the learning of individual students with wide 
differences in their abilities to see, hear, speak, move, read, write, understand 
English, attend, organize, engage and remember. 
In other words, there are numerous ways that technology in the classroom can be 
leveraged to address diverse learning needs. To do this ef
fi
ciently and effectively 
requires careful selection, purposeful planning and thoughtful implementation. 
Not all technology is equally useful, for individual students or for educational 
purposes in general. Effective technology aligns with principles of universal 
design for learning (UDL) and provides multiple means of:
representation
• 
—gives learners various ways of acquiring information and 
knowledge
engagement
• 
—taps into learners’ interests, offers appropriate challenges 
and increases motivation
 
expression
• 
—provides learners with alternatives for demonstrating what 
they know.
This chapter provides information on planning for and using technology as part 
of a differentiated instruction approach. It offers strategies and ideas for using 
technology to enhance instruction, motivate and engage students, offer choice, 
ensure accessibility, create 
fl
exible groupings and scaffold instruction. Finally, 
recognizing that some students will need specialized technologies, this chapter 
provides guidelines for choosing assistive technologies for speci
fi
c learning 
needs.