12 | JADE
HELEN MILLWARD
to obstruct or prevent students from using smartphones, MP3 players, iPads, and handheld or mobile computers in classsrooms’( Kilfoye, 2013:54), embracing the use of technology within the classroom could aid both student understanding and acceptance of diverse learning environments. Barnett( 2006:3) suggests there is a‘ need to develop trust within diverse groups, so that students can learn from each other’ s’ differences’. For instance, while not only useful for individual students, technology as a translation tool is also highly applicable to groups of students and teaching practitioners. If several students of a shared Mother tongue have issues with a phrase or word, the ability of one student to use a translation tool to find the problematic term and share meaning in a more accessible format has the potential to benefit the understanding of multiple students. In addition, teaching practitioners may also benefit from the implementation of this practice through a reassurance that students have a satisfactory understanding of the concept in question. As such, learning can be viewed as both an individual and social concept, with students sharing information they may have had difficulty with, with their peers.
Medical and social models of disability
The issue of using technology as a translation tool can be linked to both the medical model of disability and the social model of disability. The use of a translation tool to aid understanding can be seen as an individual concern for students; however social interaction with peers through discussion of difficult linguistic terms could have wider benefits for student understanding.
The medical model of disability suggests that the problems of an individual are theirs alone and not a concern for others; articulated by Kinrade( 2015:26)‘ as identifying and relating to disabled people in terms of their impairments’ with‘ an unbending hostility to medical interventions, even those that seek to prevent or cure impairments’( 2015:26). For example, with an international student having difficulty understanding the meaning of a word, the fault would lie with that student, rather than a lack of support and clarity given by another.
In contrast, the social model of disability states that society is disabling individuals by designing everything for the masses, or as Kinrade suggests,‘ that disability results not from impairment but is attributable to the physical, attitudinal and communication barriers created by society or, perhaps more accurately, which society fails to dismantle or change’( 2015:26). Using the example given above, the fault would lie with society for not ensuring that the necessary