Rose Racicot is an Occupational Therapist (OT) and Assistive Technology Specialist with 35 years of experience. She has recently retired from roles at Kent and Bellevue School Districts but continues to work part-time for the Special Education Technology Center (SETC) at Central Washington University.
SETC provides training, an assistive technology lending library, and consultation services to help connect parents and educators with appropriate assistive technology to support preschool through 12th-grade students with disabilities.
Challenge:
“My personal goal was to see these frustrated, discouraged kids become more confident in their ability to produce written work.”
As an Occupational Therapist, Rose often received referrals for students who were frustrated, discouraged, and exhibited behavioral challenges. She believed these behaviors were often the result of an inability to express themselves or effectively communicate.
She was looking for a learning tool that would help students:
- overcome their writing barriers,
- remove obstacles hindering self-expression, and
- promote their independence in the classroom.
Rose knew that the right assistive technology tool would eliminate the behaviors that stemmed from discouragement and help kids who were shutting down in the classroom. Ideally, this solution would have the potential to be a valuable resource for the entire class, not a single student.
Solution:
The Kent School District’s adoption of a 1:1 device model marked a pivotal moment. Clicker was part of a software package that was installed on every student laptop. “I was introduced to it by a general education tech specialist and realized this is what special education students need,” said Rose.
“I knew it would help meet learning goals because if you had content you wanted the whole class to access, you could create supports at different levels and introduce it to everyone. Clicker gives you a vehicle to differentiate the same content for all students very quickly and easily.”
Clicker emerged as a powerful engagement tool that effectively addressed the learning barriers students faced. It gave students the freedom to select the supports they needed, which increased their independence and confidence in the classroom.
Outcomes:
“Once students were given the tools, they understood what they wanted to say. Paper and pencil just weren’t the tools to do it. By the end, they showed a significant gain in their ability to compose with sentence length, choice of words, and more. They could perform so much better.”
The impact of Clicker was so profound that it inspired Rose to complete a study that explored Clicker’s effect on students’ written productivity. She found that through the consistent use of Clicker, students were able to complete class assignments that they were previously incapable of accomplishing.
With Clicker’s built-in accessibility, students who couldn’t previously focus on a writing task for two minutes were regularly spending 30 minutes on their writing activities. The use of Clicker:
- boosted student motivation,
- improved their self-confidence, and
- increased inclusivity by eliminating the need to separate special education students from the general education classroom.
Rose recounted an anecdote about a fourth-grade student with significant disabilities whose class was completing an “All About Me” assignment: “Using Clicker, we made a book and inserted pictures and words. He used his switches to navigate the book and read it to the whole class on the big screen.”
Clicker’s implementation as a whole class tool was instrumental in making students with disabilities feel included and confident in their abilities as writers. It encouraged students to work together, share ideas, and become models for each other.
“I’ve watched the transformation of so many elementary kids through the use of Clicker… I’ve been on a mission since then to help educators see this tool as a way to give students who don’t have those supports a way to be successful. The accessibility is built-in. To this day there is not a comparable tool.”
Additional benefits:
Collaboration was a driving force behind Clicker’s success. In Bellevue School District, Rose and a colleague were able to create in-depth Clicker-related professional development for district-wide initiatives. They were able to record basic overview webinars that staff could access on demand and then dive deeper into more specific training like:
- Clicker Books,
- Writing Sentences with Clicker, and
- Early Learning with Clicker.
“These were strategies that created a robust support system, keeping it framed in an inclusive environment is when it’s going to be most successful at a district level. Showing classroom implementation, general education and special education collaboration, practice lessons, and more, are key.”
Currently, Rose and a SETC colleague, Barb Lark, are teaming up on a new project called “Coffee with Clicker” via Zoom. By leveraging their network of AT Coordinators in nearby school districts, they hope to share the benefits of Clicker with many other educators.
Interested in seeing Clicker in action? Schedule a free consultation with us now to unlock more equitable learning opportunities for all students.