Technology Innovations in Rural Special Education
Dr. Brittany Hott
About Dr. Brittany Hott
Dr. Brittany Hott is an associate director of the Institute for Community and Society Transformation (ICAST), director of the RISE Research Group, and professor of special education at the University of Oklahoma. She is a board certified behavior analyst with doctoral distinction (BCBA-D). Her work focuses on instructional methods for students with learning and behavioral disabilities and research methods for developing and validating school-based interventions within rural contexts. Her recent work appears in the Journal of Special Education, Behavior Modification, Behavior Analysis in Practice, and Learning Disability Quarterly. Along with colleagues, Dr. Hott has secured over 30 million dollars in external research and personnel preparation funding. She received an Elizabeth Farrel Presidential Citation from the Council for Exceptional Children in 2023 and received the American Council on Rural Special Education's Research and Evaluation Award in 2021. Dr. Hott is an active member of the special education community. She is the editor of Rural Special Education Quarterly and an associate editor of Intervention in School and Clinic.
The problem highlighted in this brief
Rural schools serve nearly 30% of U.S. students (National Center for Education Statistics [NCES], 2025), yet continue to be vastly underrepresented in special education research, limiting the development and dissemination of effective, evidence-based practices tailored to their unique contexts. Students with disabilities in rural areas face compounded challenges, including limited access to services and geographic isolation (Boswell & Crouch, 2024; Zablotsky et al., 2019), while educators often work without adequate support or professional development. Dr. Brittany Hott’s work addresses this critical gap by leveraging simple technologies and community-based relationships to deliver coaching, intervention, and research in ways that honor the strengths of rural schools and improve outcomes for students with learning and behavioral disabilities (Hott, 2025).
Why does this topic matter to teacher preparation?
Preparing teachers to serve in rural schools requires more than awareness of challenges: it demands strategies grounded in local strengths, human connection, and flexible technology use. Dr. Hott’s work illustrates that building teacher capacity through context-responsive coaching, practical technology, and relationship-driven support is key. Teacher preparation programs must go beyond tool training and emphasize critical evaluation, evidence-informed decisions, and community collaboration to ensure future educators are equipped to meet the complex needs of rural students with disabilities (Hott, 2025).
About This Brief
The brief begins with context on the background of rural special education, highlighting longstanding unequal access to services, evidence-based practices, and representation in research. Readers will learn how Dr. Hott’s work addresses these challenges by combining simple technologies with strong community partnerships to support instruction and behavioral interventions. The brief also shares how her team engages rural schools in meaningful research and coaching, and how teacher preparation programs can foster technology-enabled, relationship-driven approaches that respond to the realities and assets of rural communities.
Research and Practice Context
Technology Innovations in Rural Special Education
Dr. Brittany Hott’s research is grounded in the belief that rural schools are hubs of community strength, not deficit. Her work explores how technology-supported coaching and behavioral interventions can improve learning outcomes for students with disabilities in geographically isolated settings. Through a network of over 70 districts, her team partners with educators to co-design and test interventions that align with local values, leverage existing tools, and ultimately build sustainable, community-centered special education practices in rural schools.
The following are key insights shared by Dr. Brittany Hott on this research. The interview focused on seven questions about the technology innovations in rural special education.
Conversation with Dr. Brittany Hott
Q1: What challenges in rural education are you trying to address through your work, especially for students with disabilities?
Dr. Hott’s work addresses the limited access to behavioral support and professional development in rural schools, which particularly impacts students with disabilities. Recognizing that rural schools often serve as the center of community life, her team focuses on building technology-enhanced coaching models that are responsive to these local contexts. By training teachers to implement evidence-based practices through remote coaching, the goal is not only to support individual students but to uplift entire communities through stronger educator-student-family partnerships and sustained, schoolwide behavioral support systems.
Dr. Hott: “We’re developing an explicit coaching protocol… how can we leverage technology to provide coaching within rural contexts where we know that relationships and strong student and family partnerships are in place. Schools are really the community hub."
Q2: Can you share how technology can help address the challenges and support learning for all students?
Dr. Hott emphasized that technology doesn't need to be complex to be impactful; simple, accessible tools like Zoom, iPads, and hotspots can meaningfully support professional development and student outcomes in rural settings. Her approach centers on relationship-building first, using technology as a bridge to sustain coaching, intervention, and collaboration after initial face-to-face contact. This strategy respects the realities of rural infrastructure (e.g., limited broadband) while still ensuring that research-based practices are implemented and scaled across diverse schools. By rooting technology use in community strengths, the focus remains on making learning better for kids, not just adopting the newest tools.
Dr. Hott: “It’s not always fancy technology. We’ve got a hotspot and an iPad, and we’re able to watch classroom instruction and provide coaching. We’ve really been able to use simple technologies and use them to develop relationships in a meaningful way. It doesn’t have to be super high tech. It can be simple as a Zoom conversation or a telephone conversation.”
Q3: How have you integrated technology-based learning into your teacher preparation program?
Dr. Hott integrates technology-based learning by embedding critical thinking and evidence-based decision-making into her teacher preparation program. Rather than starting with a tech tool and building instruction around it, she encourages future educators to begin with a clear understanding of student and community needs, and then determine what technologies can best support those goals. Through guided activities and practice scenarios, teacher candidates learn how to evaluate whether tools are truly evidence-based and context-appropriate. This process empowers future teachers not just to use technology, but to adapt it thoughtfully and responsibly in diverse rural settings.
Dr. Hott: “We’ve really tried to talk about meaningful technology integration… figure out your kids’ needs and your teachers’ needs, and the technology comes afterwards to meet those needs. We’re also teaching, where do you go when you don’t know, and how do you process?”
Q4: What strategies do you see as most effective for preparing teachers to use technology in a rural education context?
Dr. Hott highlights that the most effective strategy for preparing teachers to use technology in rural education is to prioritize human connection and community knowledge. Rather than assuming that a technology tool will work in all contexts, educators must critically assess whether the tool aligns with the unique needs and culture of their local community. Her example of a misaligned example in a curriculum illustrates how interventions can fail when they don't reflect rural realities. Preparation programs should teach educators to approach technology with flexibility, cultural awareness, and data-informed reflection, always starting from a strengths-based understanding of the students and families they serve.
Dr. Hott: “It’s the human connection and the strengths. If we operate from a strengths-based model versus a deficit-based model, we’re going to make better decisions for kids. I think the most effective strategy is to know your community, know who you’re serving, know the children, and know their needs.”
Q5: What gaps and opportunities do you see for future research, and what are some questions we might be asking?
Dr. Hott emphasized that rural communities are severely underrepresented in education research, particularly in randomized controlled trials (RCTs), which are essential for determining what works and for whom. Despite the fact that 20% of U.S. students attend rural schools, only a small fraction of federally funded studies include them. She highlighted replication research as a major opportunity, especially in adapting and testing interventions across rural settings in areas like reading, math, and behavior. To address barriers such as distance and cost, she urged researchers to leverage technology creatively and design studies that respect and reflect the contextual realities of rural schools.
Dr. Hott: “So few RCTs are completed in rural localities. If we can design well and know that we’re going to have to leverage technology and be creative, replication is the biggest opportunity right now, I think.”
Q6: What else should teacher preparation programs consider moving forward?
Q7: What resources, tools, or networks would you recommend for rural educators who want to explore technology innovations?
Dr. Hott encourages teacher preparation programs to intentionally engage with rural schools as sites for practicum placements, research, and collaboration. Despite the logistical challenges posed by distance, rural schools offer rich, community-centered environments where teacher candidates can gain valuable experience. She advocates for using technology creatively, for example, to supervise and support student teachers remotely, and building sustainable partnerships with rural districts. These partnerships not only benefit teacher candidates and universities but also enhance capacity and innovation in rural schools, making them a vital part of inclusive teacher education.
Dr. Hott recommends several practical and scholarly resources for rural educators interested in deepening their understanding of technology and special education. These include the American Council on Rural Special Education (ACRES), a national organization focused specifically on rural special education, and a forthcoming two-part special issue in Rural Special Education Quarterly that addresses research methods and dissemination strategies in rural contexts. Perhaps most importantly, she emphasizes the value of direct community engagement, encouraging educators and researchers to reach out to local districts, ask what support is needed, and build relationships that can evolve into sustained collaborations for research and professional development.
If you are interested in learning more, please read the Special Issue: Technology and Rural Special Education Research of the Journal of Special Education Technology that Dr. Hott participated in as a guest editor.
Resources and References
Boswell, E. K., & Crouch, E. (2024). Brief report: Rural–urban differences in disability prevalence, healthcare services utilization, and participation in special education. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1007/ s10803-024-06434-y
Hott, B. L. (2025). Technology and rural special education research: Challenges and opportunities. Journal of Special Education Technology, 40(2), 131–137. https://doi.org/10.1177/01626434251326314
National Center for Educational Statistics. (2025). Education demographic and geographic estimates. National Center for Educational Statistics.
Zablotsky, B., Black, L. I., Maenner, M. J., Schieve, L. A., Danielson, M. L., Bitsko, R. H., Blumberg, S. J., Kogan, M. D., & Boyle, C. A. (2019). Prevalence and trends of developmental disabilities among children in the United States: 2009–2017. Pediatrics, 144(4), e20190811–e20190821. https://doi.org/10. 1542/peds.2019-0811
Suggested Citation
Seung, Y., Hott, B. L., & the CIDDL Team. (2025). Technology Innovations in Rural Special Education. The Center for Innovation, Design, and Digital Learning.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.