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Independent
Research Shows WYNN
is a Must-Have Tool for Students
During the 2000-2001
school year, teachers and students throughout Washington State
participated in the Learning Disabilities and Technology
project, a Technology Literacy Challenge Fund grant funded through
the state's Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction. The grant
provided each participating classroom with a variety of computer
hardware and software. To meet grant requirements, administrators
of this project were required to report on the process and outcomes
using the given equipment. The grant evaluator chosen was RMC Research
Corporation.
As an adjunct
to this study, RMC Research conducted additional research on the
use of WYNN within these classrooms. The goal was to capture
the experiences of known WYNN users to learn more about the use
of the software, its strengths, and how it can be improved. Research
was gathered by telephone interviews, completed surveys, and classroom
observations.
18 Districts
Included in Study
The Learning
Disabilities and Technology grant involved 22 elementary and middle
school classrooms in 19 schools, in 18 districts throughout
the state of Washington. Each funded classroom identified approximately
10 learning disabled students receiving training in the use of
the technology. As peer-tutoring is recognized as a positive
and motivating
learning experience, the students with learning disabilities
used technology to mentor regular education students.
WYNN was one
of ten different software tools utilized during this study. Teachers
were able to make the final decision about
which
software tools to use in their classroom based on factors such
as:
- the needs of the specific students
- their own interests and comfort levels
- the amount of time they had to learn and prepare to use each component
- the technical problems they encountered using the technology.
Throughout the
study, WYNN was widely used by participating teachers and students.
The following exhibit summarizes the distribution of WYNN users during this
research. Exhibit 1
Did you or your students use WYNN?
Ease-of-Use is Deciding Factor for Success
The survey asked
the respondents to list the software programs they would choose
if they could keep only 3 of the provided
programs. More respondents listed
WYNN than any other software program, making WYNN the software of choice
for 91% of
the participants.
For those students
who found success with WYNN, versatility and ease-of-use proved
to be the deciding factor. Individual students used WYNN for different
purposes,
depending on their preferences, needs, and other tools available. The
following exhibit shows the different activities for which students
used
WYNN.
Exhibit
2
For what activities do your students use WYNN? 
"
I think (WYNN is) a perfect piece to go with learning disabled kids . . . (It)
gives them the feedback that, 'Yeah, I can be smart in class because now I can
hear what this is. I can keep up with you guys'," one participating
teacher commented.
Information
about the "Learning
and Disabilities Technology Project" at
the SETC website.
This is the
first in a series of summary research results. For an electronic
copy of this research, please contact
Freedom Scientific's
Learning
Systems Group at wynn at freedomscientific.com Back
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