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How to decide on specific technology
How do you select technology that will support your learning? How do you evaluate and decide between similar options? Use this checklist to evaluate and select any technology or software.
- Consider your individual preferences
- What are your strengths, weakness and learning style preferences?
- Allow yourself time to evaluate the technology and its benefits or weaknesses for your use.
- Match the tasks with the specific technology
- How effective is the technology compared to alternative strategies of using no technology?
- How easy is the technology to use or learn, and how long does it take to learn?
- How comfortable do you feel with the technology?
- To what extent does the technology allow you degrees of independence?
- Who can you call upon for trouble shooting and getting help?
- What resources can you draw upon?
- Consider the specifics of the technology
- How effective is the technology for your purpose?
- How reliable is the product over time?
- What system requirements or upgrades will you need?
- How compatible is the product with other technologies?
- How easy is the technology to learn?
- How easy is it to install, set-up and use the technology?
- Is technical support available and easy for you to access? Is it face-to-face, by phone or online? Is it available 24x7? Is the technical support free or do you have to pay?
- How portable is the technology?
- What is the quality of documentation (paper, on disk, audio...)?
- Consider cost. Are there cheaper or open source free software alternatives such as the Tucows
site? Can you get cheaper student or staff prices or special licences? Who is responsible for buying the software? Can you get any assistance or training from the Disability Liaison Unit? - Consider the context of technology use
- Do you have sufficient space to use and house the technology?
- Are you fixed to one location? For example, if you're using speech recognition software then you will probably need a noise free location in which to dictate.
- How compatible is the technology with other devices and software?
- Where and how can you access technical support? And what does it cost?
Adapted from Bryant and Bryant (2002), Raskind (1998, p. 263), and Raskind and Scott (1993).
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