Inclusive School Environments Reduce Labels of Being “Disabled” Causing Students to React Positively and Negatively to Their Classroom Environments

Different attributes to an Inclusive Learning Environments

Inclusive environments in today’s society give students with disabilities a place in the classroom, thus reducing the label of a child being called retarded or handicapped. These environments include placing students with special needs with other peers who do not have special needs. Inclusive environments allow children with disabilities to feel their contributions and ideas are well respected and valued equally in the classroom compared to their peers. Inclusive environments welcome the needs of all students’ disabilities and accept every child for who he or she is. A child is considered disabled by having impairments that are either physical or mental that prohibits them from reaching his or her full potential. Limitations that prevent children from being capable in society determine what type of disability a child has. 


The Adoption of Inclusive Environments Through the Passage of Legislation

Inclusive Environments started in 1975 with the passage of Education for All Handicapped Children Act, which guarantees that all students with disabilities recieve a free public education. This law mandates that all children receive a free and appropriate education regardless of their ability and to be included in least restrictive environments to educate students with a range of abilities. This law started inclusive environments in the classroom and led to the creation of Individualized Education Programs, IEP's, which are designed to meet the needs of a particular student in the classroom. From the creation of inclusive environments the 1990 Individuals with Disabilities Act was created to ensure inclusive environments were prevalent in the classroom and they set the restrictions of ages for students to be placed in inclusive environments. These laws helped create inclusive environments for students with disabilities in the classroom and are used to ensure the best possible benefits for children facing mental and physical impairments in school. 

 The Barriers that Prohibit Schools from Adopting Inclusive Environments

Inclusive environments are not possible in all schools due to barriers that prohibit students with disabilities to reach their full potential in the classroom. Students with disabilities move at a slower place than children without disabilities and when placed in inclusive environments a divide is made between the students. Teacher training and preparation is another problem because certain teachers aren't certified to teach students with disabilities. Teachers then have to change their curriculum and schedules to meet the needs of all students, which can change a teacher’s style of teaching. Keeping up the fast pace in the classroom is a barrier to some students who believe special education students will slow down their learning. There is also a negative social perception towards children who are disabled entering public schools because of their disabilities. Lisa Miller, Special Education Teacher through Montgomery County Infants and Toddlers, believes that there are certain barriers from teachers that prohibit schools from adopting inclusive environments in the classroom.

When teachers and administrators believe that a certain disability causes a student to not learn as fast or understand material, a negative stigma is placed upon that student. That attitude is portrayed throughout the whole year and places a barrier between the student and his or her education. Inaccessible schools also cause barriers that prohibit inclusive environments because of the needed accommodations for students with disabilities. Some schools do not have elevators or ramps to allow students transportation throughout the building. Some schools also lack resources to educate students with disabilities due to their lack of funding from the state and their minimal resources. Certain schools do not have the necessary resources to allow children with disabilities to be included in inclusive environments. 

Positive Impacts on Students Lives through Inclusive Environments

Inclusive learning environments create positive impacts on not only students with disabilities, but as well as students without disabilities. In the study, “The Impact of Social Interaction on Educational Outcomes for Learners with Emotional and Behavioral Disabilities” created in Virginia in 2012, a look into the impacts of inclusive environments is expressed. The effect of inclusion on academic achievement and social interaction persist on positive results. There was a positive correlation in the study between positive behavior support and academic achievement for students with disabilities.When students with disabilities have a chance to model peers work habits they have the ability to model them and recreate those habits to reflect on themselves.  Being in the classroom promotes social interaction and helps facilitate a feeling of acceptance and worthiness to all students. Lisa Miller, Special Education teacher through Montgomery County Infants and Toddlers, believes inclusive environments are beneficial for students with and without disabilities.

Students with disabilities who were placed in inclusive settings had slightly higher academic results than those not in inclusive settings. These environments foster achievement and success in the classroom among all students, not just students with disabilities. Also for students who had teacher-mediated intervention in the classroom prove to be more effective academic students which strengthened the whole classroom. A program called, The Circle of Friendship Program creates buddies; pairing students without disabilities with students with disabilities, instilling friendship and interaction among students of different abilities. These long lasting friendships prove effective in the classroom allowing students with disabilities to feel a connection to someone unlike themselves. Inclusive environments provide safety to all students ensuring them from harm or violence in the classroom. 

Negative Impacts on Students Lives through Inclusive Environments 

Basic Concepts Summer Camp for kids with disabilities 

Even though inclusive learning environments are often seen as positive, they generally have negative affects on children in the classroom. Inclusive environments allow all children of different abilities to be in the same classroom. However this can be seen as a negative by certain behaviors and outbreaks that cause disruptions in the classroom. It can take away the learning from students without disabilities provoking them to be more distracted and frustrated. For students with disabilities there will be a need for competition to feel they are smart enough to be in a mainstream classroom causing stress and anxiety for those particular students. 

Class sizes in inclusive environments are much bigger which can take away from the one-on-one attention students with disabilities are used to receiving, causing them to not have enough time to review concepts. Regular education students will always see students with disabilities as different, resulting in these students continuing to be labeled,  and feeling uncomfortable.  Students without disabilities will feel their learning is being harmed by other students Even though IDEA and Education for All Handicapped Children has been passed, there is always going to be a divide between regular students and students with disabilities, tension in the classroom. 

Spread the Word to End the Word: Reducing the Label

To help reduce the power of labeling a campaign has been started called Spread the Word to End the Word to get rid of the use of the R-word.The R-word, for many of you who don't know, is retarded and in today's society it serves the purpose of seeing someone as handicapped and/or disabled causing them to be ridiculed. This campaign asks all of its members to pledge to end the word. This campaign wants to get the R-word removed from legislation because it is offensive, hurtful and derogatory. Stand up and make a change today to help reduce the power of labeling by pledging to end the word. By starting this pledge the benefits of inclusive environments will be used as reducing the labels of children who are disabled. Inclusive environments can impact all students differently depending on their ability, even though they can be seen as negative their is always a positive which is to reduce the power of labeling students with disabilities.

listen to ‘Final Blog Post’ on Audioboo

How do inclusive school environments reduce labels of being “disabled” and how do all students respond to this environment?

Introduction:

• Explain what inclusive environments are and their impact on society. The definition of inclusive environments is the placements of students with special needs with peers who don't have special needs.
• Explain what classifies somebody in 2013 as being disabled. In 2013 one is considered disabled by having an impairment either physical or mental that prohibits them for substantial activity

The Adoption of Inclusive Environments:

1. 1975 Education for All Handicapped Children Act (guarantees all students with disabilities receive a public education) 
2. 1990 Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (creation of least restrictive environments) 
3. Roncker vs. Walter case

The Barriers the Prohibit schools from Adopting Inclusive Environments:

1. Students with disabilities move at a slower pace than children without disabilities 
2. Social perceptions towards children who are disabled entering public schools 
3. Inaccessible schools to accommodate students with disabilities

Interview with Lisa Miller: 

1. What are the barriers preventing more schools from adopting inclusive environments?
2. What are the benefits of inclusive environments?
3. What is your personal opinion of inclusive environments affect on today's society?

Impacts on Student's lives from Inclusive Environments:

1. Positive (person first language, increased social interaction and achievement)
2. Negative (ridicule, exclusion from activities, accessibility) 
3. Impact on students without disabilities 

Conclusion:

• Spread the Word to End the Word 
• There are pros and cons to inclusive environments

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Audio Summary

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The Anonymous Users of Freenet are Impacting our Society, Politics, and the Economy for the Better and Worse

Peer-to-Peer networks are decentralized networks in which peers interact by receiving or posting information online. There are many P2P networks today, one of them being Freenet, a file sharing site that allows people to publish or view any information worldwide.

Freenet encompasses three main goals for its users. “It offers uncensorable dissemination of controversial information; it has efficient distribution on high bandwidth content and is known as a universal personal publishing site”. It is an open source system in which volunteers work on developing and improving its function daily.  Even though this sort of free site gives total control to its users to publish any information there are both negative and positive impacts to society, politics and the economy.

Freedom of Speech Through P2P Networks:

By being a user of Freenet, you are allowing your information published to be viewed around the world to strangers. If someone puts up something you do not like or view as offensive it will come down eventually but not right away. If something persists as popular on the site, it will stay up because of its frequent hits. Since Freenet protects freedom of speech by enabling anonymous and uncensorable publication of material it is very hard to track the author of a particular post. That being said, Freenet has valuable impacts on our society. It encourages responsible and social behavior, through people posting better quality information since the information can be viewed worldwide. This type of file sharing allows anyone to communicate freely with ideas and to produce free content over the web. With the fast pace development of technology, file sharing allows anyone to publish anything in the network at any time, speeding up society. 

Positive Impact of File Sharing on Independent Labels:

Freenet allows for any media content to be posted, but is nearly impossible to trace the author of the content. Independent media labels see this a way to reach users, even if money is not produced. Brady Lahr, president of Kufala Recordings, is one of the few to argue that file sharing plays an important role in society. Independent booksellers and artist are trying to release their names to society even if that means not making profit off of it. The main goal of independent artist is to introduce their music to Americans, and with little fame it is hard for them to be on ITunes. Being accessible through file sharing gives upcoming artist a chance to go big, even if they are just starting out small.  On the other hand president of MetaMachine Inc. keeps his distance from file sharing because he has no idea who the users are, their preferences, or where they are from. He does not see a point in file sharing if no profit is being made and you do not know who is listening to your music. 

The downfall of using Freenet:

As Americans living in 2013, anything with the word “free” grabs Americans attention, but is it really free when there are drawbacks. If Freenet were a software you had to purchase, would you still be using it for the same reasons? File sharing, such as Freenet exemplifies huge online trafficking where users distribute information daily. No one is making money off of Freenet because none of the information is being sold; it is free to all users. In an average month over 240 million files were downloaded from P2P services such as Freenet, however the millions downloading these files are most likely doing it illegally. Economically a huge loss has arisen in the music industry because of illegally sharing songs between users, creating record low sales of CDs. There has been a huge drop in sales of CDs, almost 6 billion in just a few years. Record companies are not getting paid through their music being shared online, so there is a decrease in income for the Record Companies.

Through file sharing sites such as Freenet there have been negative and positive impacts on society. Freenet efficiently stores and distributes information on a global scale, reaching many Americans around the world. Politically some companies stray away from file sharing sites because copyright laws force them to keep their distance. Economically there has been a decline in music sales because of illegal music downloads. Since there is no way to track authors, file sharing can be seen as unsafe because you’ll never track the person posting inappropriate pictures online. In the end Freenet gives members of the public a printing press, a chance to express information freely worldwide.

The Diamondback Whether Viewed Online or on Paper has Different Appearances and Layouts but Delivers the Same Content

Online newspapers or printed ones, the debate is still continuing today over which version Americans prefer. University of Maryland produces its own newspaper called The Diamondback, which is available to students online or on paper. Even though there is only ONE Diamondback, the audience views different features online that aren’t accessible on paper.

A simple difference is the date. The online version displays the date differently than on paper by including the weekday. Another difference is that the headlines in the online version seem to be more wordy and longer than the short, precise headlines in the printed version. The font is also different, online there is a consistent large bold font that accompanies every story. The printed version is not consistent with their font; some headlines are bold, larger, or different colored.

Ads between the online version and printed version vary to a great extent. Online the ads appear at the top of the web page and on the right hand side, you will not see the same ad more than once. The ads are colorful and constantly changing. The printed version contains about 20 ads that are separated into different categories such as a food and drink guide, services, apartments, automotive and classified. The online version also has a photo galley that isn’t available in the printed version.

Like a typical printed newspaper, The Diamondback has its major stories on the front page for the viewers to see. The online version has 2 more stories than the printed version, however they both contain 13 identical stories. The stories contain the same amount of words however the layout tricks readers into believing the versions differ in length. The spacing of the online version allows the stories to be on 1 page, while the printed version separates the stories between 2 pages.

Content is a definitive similarity between both versions of The Diamondback even though they differ in layout and form there is the same information. Each story is written by the same author and has the same words and content online and on paper. The paper version appeals more to the audience because holding a text in your own hands and being able to view an entire page instead of having to scroll down an article is much easier to the reader. Also before 1992 most studies revealed people “read slower, less accurately and less comprehensively on screen than on paper”.

A study done in January of 2013, by Anne Mangen took 72 10^th grade students, divided in half, into two groups with the same piece of 1,500 word text, one group receiving the text in PDF form online and the other on paper. After reading the text students were given a test to see how much information they retained and the results proved the students who read the text online didn’t retain as much information than on paper.The feeling of holding a text we read seems more appealing than we actually think.

Some readers would disagree and say online is more appealing because of the new features and search tools however looking at a computer screen can be mentally exhausting. Online web pages make it harder for readers to remember what they read because our brains can’t retain information that fast. Even though paper sources are being outdated and people think they belong in the archaic time period, paper is much more appealing to readers. The content is the same online and on paper however good old paper and flipping the pages back and forth is a favorable option. 

Scientific American

Addiction to the Media Enhances American Lives Allowing them the Ability to be Connected to the Digital World that Surrounds them

An addiction can be interpreted many different ways depending on the object a person is addicted too or the amount of time a person manipulates that object. Many people put a negative connotation to the word “addiction” because it is usually referred to with smoking, drinking, abuse or other aggressive behaviors, however there is a positive side to addiction. An addiction comes from the constant use of revolving your life around a certain object or behavior that you cannot seem to live without. The Internet and technology can be seen as both a negative and positive addiction, however I feel the Internet empowers people and can be seen as a positive addiction.

            Now in the 21^st century it is possible to be addicted to media, however it does not ruin your life like many Americans believe, media enhances lives. I think it is possible to be addicted to the media because everything now days are connected to some form of digital media and our lives revolve around checking our emails and catching up on daily news events. Every morning I cannot get out of bed without checking my instagram, Facebook, twitter and email, I have to make sure I know what is going on in my friend’s lives and around the world. I use my computer in almost every single class to take notes because of the advances to Microsoft word allowing me to highlight, bold and underline certain phrases that are important to that particular class. The advances to the Internet and technology enhance my life because I am able to do things at a quicker pace and because I am OCD I am able to organize my life so much easier with my computer. Even though I am highly addicted to the media, I have learned when it is appropriate to use it and when it is not, it is all about the timing.

            In classrooms and at home I do believe rules should be placed on when it is appropriate to use electronics because many Americans are addicted to it and do not know how to live without it. In my house at family dinners cell phones are not allowed to be at the table because my parents view it as disrespectful. Also in the classrooms I think teachers should be able to create an app that blocks students from browsing the Internet because it can be distracting and cause students to not pay attention. The use of my computer in class helps me proficiently more than taking notes because I am able to have different layouts and color coordination to keep myself organized on which notes I should value more than others. I have downloaded a blocker on my Internet that is time based so when I enter a class I turn it on so that I will not be tempted to click Safari and simply browse Facebook since I am bored. Just like the app Nearpod used in our class, Professor Yaros has the capability to have students access slides on their own personal computer, keeping them focused and attentive. My computer helps enhance my learning, and I do not think it is distracting. The addiction to the media is a very hard concept to understand because it really depends on the person and the way a person uses their media to their own benefit. 

The Drive for Violence Through the Playing of Video Games

Brutal, blood filled, mass murdering, highly interactive video games will have a greater affect on mass media users than a medium such a television. Video games that have now been created during the 21^st century are extremely used by children and teens and sufficiently impact their daily life experiences. Although the affects of video games can be positive, it has also been shown that the daily playing of violent video games can be greatly negative. In a study described in the book, Converging Media, psychologist Albert Bandura researched how children exposed to television violence were more likely to repeat behaviors they saw. The Bobo Doll studies by Bandura proved that when children watched violent events on television, where the violent person was rewarded they were more likely to punch a Bobo doll than children who watched the violent events where the violent person was punished. This study helps prove that the highly interactive violent video games such as “Call of Duty”, “Killzone 3” or “Battlefield 3” negatively affect the aggression of media users. Children find video games increasingly engaging, being one with the killer, motivating, and rewarding, where in the end winning by killing off all of the games enemies. Interactive video games where the media user is intrigued and engaged with the massacre can lead to repetitive behaviors of aggression. Even though some of the outrageous violence can be unrealistic the thousands of teens playing “Call of Duty” thrive over beating out there friends by seeing the blood and veins squirt out of each game character. In an articled called “The Effects of Video Games on Children: What Parents Need to Know” by Douglas Gentile, the positive and negative attributes of video games are discussed to parents. Gentile describes how video games over time are becoming more apparent in households and more violent for teens to use. The risk factors of video games include aggression, poor academic performance, health problems and need for violence. Gentile makes a claim that “practice does make perfect” where video games affect children’s arousal which correlates with the books claim that negative imitated actions are repeated in teens. Media users, mainly teens and children are exceedingly anticipated to repeat what they view, now with video games created teens can actively be involved to express their violent actions. 

The Effects of Video Games on Children: What Parents Need to Know