Web 2.0 Tools:  Engaging Special Needs Students to Learn Functional Life Skills

1. The purpose of my action research project is to seek out new teaching tools that will engage my students as they learn everyday functional life skills and to give parents the tools needed to guide them through the hard decisions they must make as their special needs child grows into an adult.
2. I began by asking what would happen if all of our parents were able to have a clear understanding of what the transition process involves when it comes to their student. That would mean specific issues: 1. Funding –  federal, state, local.including social security benefits  2. Guardianship 3. Trust Funds 4. Housing – Group homes, apartments. 5. Employment – competitive employment, sheltered, training in STEP program. If parents were equipped with that information how would my school district respond better to support each of these families. What positive changes can be made in to help the transition process run smooth and become more of a priority. Could it bring about a full-time staff position of a Transition Coordinator. This person would make sure that our parents would know all of the necessary information. I also thought about the skills that I have been teaching my students and what different types of media can be introduced. Introducing Web 2.0 Tools to teach functional life skills will engage my students and give them new ways to express what they have learned. I clearly thought these points through, but I did not take into consideration the parents commitment to respond to computer based surveys. It turned out the commitment level came down to socioeconomic status. Parents that owned computers or had access to them answered the surveys in a timely matter. This clearly indicated there was a need to change my focus and not include my parents in the manner described above. That is not to say the information will not be shared, but it will not be as part of this action research project. My focus will be what types of functional life skills can be taught using Web 2.0 Tools, video, games, and a functional Learning Management System (LMS).
3. I hope to demonstrate how I am improving my practice, as well as how I can contribute to the body of literature by polling the parents of my students  to find out what transitional information they know and, what information they wish to know. I hope to demonstrate that through the use of different forms of media and technology, my students will improve their functional life skills vocabulary, interpersonal reflections via an online journal, collaborative group work, and creative word expression. Parents will feel more comfortable with the functional life skills their students are learning, by participating in a collaborative Learning Management System (LMS) set up as an online classroom.