Taylor Hanes
FastFlash will provide an Evidence-Based Intervention to students without the need of an intervention administrator. FastFlash is specifically designed to serve students with cognitive and sensory impairments. Research supports that students with a special education category of Specific Learning Disability (SLD) or Intellectual Disability (ID) benefit from Evidence Based Interventions implemented regularly. Often, teachers are held responsible for implementing interventions, collecting data, as well as educating the general education classroom. This is an extremely difficult and at times, impossible job to complete. The purpose of FastFlash is to provide students with the Evidence Based Intervention, Incremental Rehearsal, through an interactive application. Many Evidence Based Interventions have simple instructions; however, time and staff availability are limitations from students receiving invention. FastFlash will implement the intervention and progress monitor through data collection. Progress monitoring will be conducted by collecting student performance data and then graphing the data onto a grid. Teachers will no longer have to a paper chart for every student to record data. Instead, every student will have a digital chart that will be accessed by the teacher and other support staff. The idea for FastFlash was created through combining 2 different areas of research which include, Evidence Based Interventions and best practices for technology. Evidence Based Interventions, specifically Incremental Rehearsal, can be used to build early reading skills for students with disabilities. One study measured letter sound fluency in kindergarten students using Incremental Rehearsal. The study found that Incremental Rehearsal was successful in improving student letter-sound knowledge when used on a computer (Volpe et al. 2011). Technology in the schools is a controversial topic, however technology is constantly reforming the school setting. Technology has the power to benefit students and educational staff when used with best practice. Best practice with technology in the schools consists of protecting sensitive information with security measures such as passwords and encryption (Harrison & Thomas, 2011). FastFlash will use a student identification numbers as usernames so that performance is confidential. In addition, any appropriate encryption and data security will be practiced.