March 2008 — eLearning
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Finding Their Voice
Via an online debate program that models the use of technology to foster collaboration, special needs students are discovering a thing some doubted they had-potential.
Look to your teammates for answers. What do you think?
Why do you think that?
THESE ARE THE behind-the-scenes counsels of Cara Coffina, the social studies literacy coach for New York City's Special Education District 75, imploring her teams of students as they engage each other in the district's spirited annual debate competition.
This is no ordinary debate, however, conducted in no ordinary debate setting. The debates match teams of mostly middle school special education students and are held virtually via Elluminate Live!, a real-time online classroom environment designed for multiperson dialogue and collaboration. To broadcast the debates, District 75 works with Elluminate partner LearningTimes, a producer of web-based conferences and events. Elluminate's virtual classroom platform comes complete with interactive tools such as an electronic whiteboard, a chat function, and video, allowing for synchronous communication between users.
According to Jonathan Finkelstein, founder and executive producer of LearningTimes, his organization delivers a range of e-learning services to New York City schools. "In the case of this program," he says, "we collaborated with District 75 on the design and logistics of the student program, and then brought our Elluminate resources to the table to host the actual online debates."
The online competition was launched in the 2005-2006 school year. Eight debate teams competed that first year; the following year 19 teams representing 13 schools participated, with slightly more participation this year. That expansion necessitated the partnering of experienced teachers with those who were new to the project and the online platform. In some cases, Coffina, who coordinates the program, also helps train teachers to set up the technology.
District 75 encompasses more than 350 school sites across the five New York City boroughs. So a traditional face-to-face debate program would be impossible because of the travel time, making the online approach so vital. Although the participating special needs students face various learning challenges, as well as emotional and behavioral issues, they take on serious subjects that strike close to home, such as cell phone usage in schools, and reach nationally and globally, such as immigration and the Iraq war. The debate judges are all volunteers, and many are K-12 or higher education professionals. The competition culminates in a face-to-face debate in June, where the District 75 debate champion is crowned.
