| A computer animated learning environment, INFECTRON, was developed to teach learning disabled (LD) and non learning disabled (NLD) students a biology lesson, INFECTRON uses two different modalities, auditory (narration) and visual (animation), exposing students to dual information processing codes (verbal, spatial), allowing them the flexibility to use a learning style they prefer. INFECTRON teaches students how the body protects itself from invading germs. Students were presented the animation and oral narration concurrently, successively and compared to a control group. Subjects were 30 LD and 30 NLD in grades 7 and 8 attending a large comprehensive high school in Montreal. Measures included a pretest, posttest, reasoning tasks, and a retention test. Results indicated that students (LD and NLD) in the computer conditions (concurrent and successive) outperformed students (LD and NLD) in the control condition on the pre, post and reasoning tasks. No significant differences were found between students (LD and NLD) in the concurrent group and students (LD and NLD) in the successive group on the post test and reasoning tasks. No group differences were found between the LD and NLD students in the computer conditions. It was confirmed that INFECTRON benefits both LD students and NLD students, allowing LD students to perform at par with NLD students on these biology measures. |
