Family Focused Learning: A Model for Learning from Children with Disabilities and Their Families via Technologies for Voice
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Keywords
Video Conferencing, family focus, learning communities
Abstract
In this paper, we describe a collaborative multidisciplinary model for faculty and students learning about culture and children with disabilities and their families in Pacific Island contexts. The model, Family Focused Learning, incorporates aspects of case-based and problem-based learning within the context of “consumer” and “professional” partnerships (Ratliffe, Stodden, & Robinson, 2000; Robinson, 1999). Children with disabilities and their families share the daily challenges and successes of their lives with graduate students and faculty at the University of Hawai‘i, via video letters, video mapping, cultural brokering and satellite videoconferencing. To illustrate this process, we present the story of “Tomasi,” a child with cerebral palsy in American Samoa, a US territory. Tomasi and his family are “given voice” and act as teachers for an interdisciplinary team of faculty and students from public health, social work, physical therapy, speech pathology, nursing, special education, nutrition, medicine, political science and law.
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James Skouge, Assistant Professor in Special Education, University of Hawai‘i
James Skouge is an Assistant Professor in Special Education at the University of Hawai‘i. His interests include distance education, multimedia and assistive technologies to support persons with disabilities throughout the Pacific Basin.
Marie Iding, Associate Professor in the Department of Educational Psychology, University of Hawai‘i
Marie Iding is an Associate Professor in the Department of Educational Psychology at the University of Hawai‘i. She enjoys teaching courses in learning to pre-service and in-service teachers and others in Hawai‘i, American Samoa, and Chuuk. Her research interests include learning from multimedia and the Web.
Katherine Ratliffe, Assistant Professor in Educational Psychology, University of Hawai‘i
Katherine Ratliffe is an Assistant Professor in Educational Psychology at the University of Hawai‘i. She teaches in American Samoa and Micronesia. Her research interests include learning and development in exceptional students, culturally diverse educational environments, and family influences on learning and development.
Martha M. Guinan, Program Specialist, Center on Disability Studies, University of Hawai‘i
Martha M. Guinan is a Program Specialist for the Center on Disability Studies at the University of Hawai‘i providing family supports to persons with disabilities and their families. She has long held an interest in empowering technology, including giving voice through video. She is a candidate in the doctoral program in Special Education.