SETT Framework

What stood out to me the most in these videos was how you are supposed to finally think about the Tools at the end of the SETT Framework.  I imagine that this idea of waiting to actually think about the big thing until you have discussed the 1) student, 2) environment, and 3) tasks is a very important thing to recognize in Special Education.  Too often in America, I feel we just want to get something done, we put the emphasis on quantity, rather of quality.  And the SETT Framework takes that idea and twirls it on its head by making us recognize that we have to do three steps before we can talk about tools.

We first need to talk about the student, what are the students strengths, but also what are the students needs?  I really liked what Joy Zabala said with the "Collaboration is key in the SETT Framework" and how "There is no 'I' in SETT."  Her reasoning for this collaboration is something that, again, emphasizes quality of the Assistive Technology (AT), as compared to quantity.  It does this by slowing the IEP team down to recognize that they have to make the decision for AT themselves, they can't have a person who knows a lot about AT come in and implement AT for a student, they have to do it. 

She uses another really good example where she talks about how the student is not the only thing that is talked about during the Student aspect of SETT.  With the student comes the environment, what can the other students do that the student who they are meeting about can't do?  What does the student need to do?  And it may come up that in one classroom, the student does not raise their hand before answering a question, and in another classroom, the student waits until their name is called before answering.  Zabala talks about how it is important to recognize "Why is there that difference in the students behavior?  How can we change the environment of the classroom where he is not raising his hand in order to foster raising his hand?"

So, a good question is: How will this information affect my future teaching?  I think that knowing the SETT framework will really help me recognize that I need to focus on the quality of the IEP meeting and AT that I implement for students.  I should not just throw a technology at a student and then leave and hope that it will work because it is required in an IEP to have AT considered.  I will do what is requiring for my AT class, I will get the baseline data to see how the student does before I implement the AT, then get more data once I have implemented the AT.  If the numbers go up and I feel that the intervention is working, then I will give them the AT.  But I will not just throw a technology at them and hope it works, because that probably hurts a student more than not have AT.