Professor Michael Krezmien, director of the Center for Youth Engagement, received a multi-year grant from the Apple Community Education Initiative to support the education of incarcerated youth. The project aims to use iOS technology (think: iPads) to reform juvenile corrections education. Krezmien and his team contend that tablet technology can individualize the form and function of instruction in ways that maximize the potential of incarcerated learners to attain their GED.

Krezmien and his team will create an immersive iPad-based learning environment through a collaborative co-design process.

“This technology could have a profound impact on learning, performance, and 21st century career readiness for marginalized learners in the most restrictive and challenging learning environments,” said Krezmien, who has completed other studies focusing on technology and incarcerated youth as part of a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant titled Project RAISE.

Adrienne Wallace and Celine Mudahakana, two doctoral students in the Special Education program, are members of Krezmien’s research team. For Wallace, research like this exemplifies a broader, more inclusive understanding of the special education field as a whole.

“Special education is really any type of education outside of your average 30 kids in a classroom, where your teacher gives information and you practice it on your worksheet,” she said. “Let’s be sure to include students incarcerated in that category.”

In incarceration facilities, student learning faces a number of constraints unheard of in the public school system. Teachers are unable to communicate with students’ families; have no ability to illustrate concepts using YouTube clips, Internet links, and other digital resources; and have no access to after-school programs. They can’t even send a student home with a pencil set, Wallace explained, if they notice a student enjoys drawing.

Wallace is also interested in the “transition moment” that takes place when formerly incarcerated youth reintegrate into the classroom. Educators at large—even special educators—are often not equipped to help students work through the trauma of imprisonment, she says.

Mudahakana shares Wallace’s perspective on special education methods. She says that she is looking forward to treating incarcerated youth as partners in their education when the team begins its work in the incarceration facilities.

“We’re co-creating the curriculum together,” she said. “We all have different strengths and areas. How do you give what the student needs, so they can be successful?”

“In special education, students are often pushed to the side. That’s a disservice. They’re not getting the tools to be empowered. For me, that’s where the passion comes in. I want to make sure they get their power.”
—Celine Mudahakana , Special Education PhD

This story was originally published by the College of Education.