Abstract

Mobile technology can help personalize instruction and enhance generic and specific learning skills for students with special educational needs. This study examines the effects of a technology intervention strategy on the attention/concentration and spelling skills. Participants were students with permanent and temporary educational needs attending secondary schools in Chile. A pretest-posttest experimental design with a control group was adopted. 73 students participated, under three conditions: a) control group, with a printed guide-based strategy and without the use of technology, b) an experimental group with a computer-based strategy, and c) an experimental group with an iPad-based strategy. Analysis of variance was used to compare the means of the three groups. The results show that the iPad-based strategy obtained significant differences compared to the other conditions. It is concluded that iPad mobile technology can improve both the generic attention/concentration skills and the specific spelling skills in students with special educational needs.