December 20, 2011 | 
Author 
iPads for pupils with special needs
The iPad is a great tool for business, but recently I have been exploring what an iPad can do for pupils with special needs and wondering how this device, and its huge range of Apps, can be applied.
With many years of experience as a qualified Occupational Therapist, specialising in rehabilitation of both adults and children following accidents, my thoughts take me back to how we utilised a wide range of everyday activities and adapted them to address individual rehabilitation programmes. For someone with a physical injury we would place activities on a wall, high table or floor to encourage the patient to reach, bend, balance, stretch or increase strength /stamina. We would choose activities to encourage hand-hand and hand-eye coordination, to improve grip, dexterity or adapt to new ways of doing things. For those with acquired brain injury we could find any amount of activities to increase memory, concentration, communication, behaviour, attention etc. These were sometimes all very ‘Blue Peter’ in look and feel, but effective never-the-less.
We did jump on the band-wagon with BBC computers when they first came out but the time and effort needed to set up a patient in the correct position, with the right software, was sometimes way out of proportion to the benefits derived from using this new technology.
Thank goodness for the iPad! It has such potential to engage, motivate, distract and is a great tool to assist teaching and learning in the classroom as well as at home. I do cringe when I see the price of some specialised Apps for children with special needs but quite possibly the Apps are still cheaper than alternative devices such as communication tools. Not only can the content be useful but also the physical placing of the device to encourage or motivate users to stand, balance, stretch, flex or bend etc. can work well.
Search the internet and you will find a lot of anecdotal evidence from parents and teachers that iPads can aid learning etc. It may not be a useful or appropriate device for everyone, but if we think creatively, as we used to do, we can find huge potential for children with special needs.
Click here to view a guide to Special Need / Educational Apps.
Posted in iPads, Pupils, schools, teaching and learning, Tools | 
Tags: iPads, learning disability, physical disability, Primary Schools, Pupils, Secondary schools, Special needs | 
No Comments »
Survey Tools.
There are so many tools that are free to use on the Web that you could utilise a good range of these to deliver an eLearning or blended learning programme without the use of a Virtual 
Learning Environment (VLE). Blogs, Wikis, Voice Thread, Google Docs, FaceBook Groups, LinkedIn, Twitter etc. are all used by forward thinking eLearning Tutors and Lecturers who don’t want to be confined by the VLE provided by their organisation.
Of course, combining these free tools to deliver learning over the web is not without its challenges. One significant challenge is that of the level of personal organisation required to manage a range of tools found in a number of different places on the Web. Working with course students in Moodle, for example, enables all the instructions, discussions, activities, resources and submissions to be found in one place. As long as you are happy to work within the confines of one environment and accept the restrictions then this is a good solution for many people and organisations.
Sometimes eTutors choose to allow learners to make use of preferred online tools during certain activities e.g. collaborative assignments. Sometimes eTutors may feel that there is something that is more fit-for-purpose outside the VLE and draw on free tools to promote an aspect of learning within the course. This can be seen as good practice and can help to motivate and engage students and embed learning.
This week I have been searching for free online survey tools, of which there are many. These can be used for formative assessment, surveying opinions, feedback and evaluation etc. They can capture one piece of information or many pieces and can range from informal to formal. Of course you need skills to develop surveys and questionnaires in practice but if you have these, or you want to practice, the tools are freely available. You can invite people to complete your survey by email or through a link in a website.
Why not check out some of these:
- http://www.zoomerang.com/
- http://booroo.com
- http://www.surveymonkey.com
- http://freeonlinesurveys.com/
- http://www.smart-survey.co.uk/
- http://www.surveypirate.com/
Take part in our very short example of an online survey
Bad news for Adult Learners – Niace survey 2011
NIACE’s annual survey of current and recent adult participation in learning is bad news for anyone over the age of 25 trying to improve their prospects through learning, especially men, older people, the least skilled and those outside the labour market. Read more….
Investment in our future!
Over 10% of primary schools spend less than £10 on ICT for each pupil. Read more….
What is our future going to look like if we are not investing in future working skills and knowledge?
Find out what the Birmingham eLearning Foundation is doing to support equal access for all pupils in Birmingham.
Paint it in words – Wordle
What a great way to illustrate a text and visibly show the main words used regularly – more words are used bigger they are in the graphic image. This one below is the home page of the Virtual Transition Programme which regularly runs across Birmingham and focuses on helping cildren move from primary to secondary schools. Find out more at www.bgfl.org/transition
Try creating your own at http://www.wordle.net
Virtual Transition 2010
Six in ten businesses use social media
Six in ten small businesses use social media to market their goods and services.
‘That’s the result of the December Business Matters poll, in which 50 per cent of 99 respondents said they used social media as a matter of course, and a further 13 per cent of you said you use social media occasionally.’
Read more at the HSBC site
Social networking sites are a very good way of getting your brand out there, making new links and drawing in new prospects. But don’t go for overkill! There is nothing worse than being bombarded by too many messages on twitter or facebook and by doing this you are likely to get people to block you than follow you.
100 top tools for learning – 2010
What can you say in 140 characters?
The answer is probably quite a lot!
In a survey of learning professionals around the world Twitter was identified as the number one learning tool for the second year on the run. Like it or love it – this micro blogging tool has far more uses than we give it credit for. Yes……. it can be irritating when people
Read more at the Centre for Learning & Performance Technologies
constantly post useless comments about what time they got out of bed or what debauched things they got up to the night before, but it is a great tool for sharing knowledge, links, insights, photos, deadlines for learning activities and hints and tips to learners. While lots of tweets are public – they don’t need to be so you can set up groups to include your learners, clients, users or people who are like-minded.
The list of 100 top learning tools can be found here. http://www.c4lpt.co.uk/recommended/top100-2010.html
Check it out – there may be some surprises and some interesting finds.
Posted in eLearning, Social Networking, Tools | Tags: eLearning tool, social networking, twitter | No Comments »
- Learning Tech 2012 Conference News January 27, 2012
- Come Read our DevLearn11 Reaction Piece November 17, 2011
- eLearning Thought Leaders: Mark Lassoff November 12, 2011
Launch of new website
We have just launched our new website and we hope you like the new fomat.
Please do get in touch with us if anything is missing or you want to give us some feedback.
We would love to hear from you.