Educational Technology, Media, and Materials for Individuals With Disabilities Program—Stepping-Up Technology Implementation

Overview

<p><strong>Purpose of Program</strong><br>The purposes of the Educational Technology, Media, and Materials for Individuals with Disabilities Program are to (1) improve results for children with disabilities by promoting the development, demonstration, and use of technology; (2) support educational activities designed to be of educational value in the classroom for children with disabilities; (3) provide support for captioning and video description that is appropriate for use in the classroom; and (4) provide accessible educational materials to children with disabilities in a timely manner.</p> <p>The Department therefore intends to fund three cooperative agreements to</p> <ul> <li>(a) identify strategies needed to implement and integrate an existing technologybased tool or approach, based on at least promising evidence, into the provision of teacher in-service training; and</li> <li>(b) provide ongoing technology-based professional development and coaching for in-service trainers in the use of technology to, and understanding of how the technology may support teachers to, improve classroom and remote learning environment instruction and learning outcomes for children with disabilities in prekindergarten through grade 12 (PK–12) settings.</li> </ul> <p><strong>This competition includes one absolute priority</strong>: Providing Technology-Based Professional Development to Trainers of Special Education Teachers to Support Children with Disabilities.</p> <p>To be considered for funding under this priority, applicants, at a minimum, must meet the following programmatic requirements:</p> <ul> <li>(a) Build partnerships with LEAs, at least one of which is in a rural site 3 and that includes public and nonpublic schools, to support teacher in-service trainers in the understanding, use, and delivery of a technology-based tool or approach that will support teacher inservice training for instruction of children with disabilities in PK–12 instructional settings, including classrooms and remote learning environments;</li> <li>(b) Increase the capacity of teacher inservice trainers to effectively use and deliver a technology-based tool or approach 4 that supports teacher classroom and remote learning environment instruction and professional growth;</li> <li>(c) Develop an implementation package of products and resources that will help teacher in-service trainers to use a technology-based tool or approach; and</li> <li>(d) Evaluate whether the in-service training conducted using the technology-based tool or approach meets the project goals and target outcomes.</li> </ul>