Keith C. McCormic, New England Adolescent Research Institute, Holyoke, MA
Apps and Video Games are Special Education

The NEA Foundation created its Challenge to Innovate (C2i) to discover innovative approaches in teaching and to enable educators to share and build on these ideas to improve student learning. Find out how C2i Mobile Project national awardee Keith McCormic is using mobile phone technology to change the way his students learn.

It is hard to believe that Keith McCormic fell into education and technology by accident. But, as a special education teacher, he says he often needs to find new ways to present complex learning tasks to students with varied learning styles and needs.

One innovative teaching approach that he thinks shows promise is augmented reality learning games, or ARLEG. By playing educational video games, students can blend a virtual experience with a first-hand, real-world one. “ARLEG frees students from the desk and helps to turn school work into the natural learning play that best fits human evolution,” he says. “This can promote good health and interpersonal interaction while incorporating and building on technology skills.”

Even teachers who aren’t tech savvy can make use of pre-built lessons, such as GeoTag scavenger hunts hosted by many museums and historical sites. For example, prior to a museum or field trip, educators or curators could mark locations with GPS “GeoTag” links and/or QR codes that are read by an ARLEG app. While exploring the site, students could find marked locations and learn more through multimedia information downloaded on a mobile phone.

Bringing technology to his special education students, many of whom come from impoverished backgrounds, is an accomplishment that McCormic says will make a difference. It will open them to new experiences and create those surprising “aha” moments that change lives and make teaching such a compelling and rewarding profession.