PART 1. I plan to determine the effectiveness/ineffectiveness of SMART Board technology in the classroom among children with autism. The focus of the study will be an examination of what new and emerging technologies have to offer in terms of increasing learning comprehension in the classroom. The educational context will be autistic learners in the elementary classroom. The problem to be studied is the need for and benefits of special, targeted technologies, specifically the SMART Board in a classroom for autistic children, and ways that the SMART Board can be used effectively with autistic children.
Although computer technologies have been widely touted as a beneficial adjunct to the regular elementary classroom, their use in the classroom geared toward autistic children has not been explored sufficiently. Kimball and Smith (2007) recommended in general that computer software be used with the autistic, but there are a variety of explicit technologies being developed that could each have a significant and specific impact on the elementary classroom of autistic students (Goodwin, 2008, p. 125). While autistic students are "highly interested and motivated by computers," many of the instructional programs developed to implement the various computer-related applications "fail to generalize to novel environments" (Goodwin, 2008, p. 126).
The potential for emerging technologies to provide "innovative, individualized interventions" is great (Goodwin, 2008, p. 126). Such technologies can reduce the cost of treating autistic children (Goodwin, 2008, p. 126), and SMART Board technology in particular serves to provide a better delivery method that is more effective for learners in small groups than the traditional PC, which has too limited a screen size (Mechling, Gast, & Krupa, 2007, p. 1869). The SMART Board's interactive touch screen and better visibility enable students to participate more easily and re
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