29 October 2007

Carol Allen, Personalised Learning for ALL

Saturday

Carol Allen, 11:45, will discuss how the same teaching and learning strategies and methodologies employed to include students can be extended to support staff and voluntary helpers in order to facilitate their own inclusive learning.

Personalised learning has been a key feature of effective working practice within the SEN field for many years. This session will look at how the same teaching and learning strategies and methodologies employed to include students can be extended to support staff and voluntary helpers in order to facilitate their own inclusive learning empowered by the effective use of ICT and technology.

Val Brown, Creatively accessing the curriculum using ICT in a Special School.

Saturday
Val Brown, Woodlawn School, 10:45, offers practical strategies as she looks at the general work of the school from Early Years to KS4 encompassing developing the international dimension to an inclusive art lesson; from high tech to low tech.


Woodlawn School in North Tyneside is recognised for its work enabling pupils to access the curriculum using ICT. This seminar will look at the general work of the school from Early Years to KS4 encompassing developing the international dimension to an inclusive art lesson; from high tech to low tech.This seminar offers practical strategies that can be used by any member of staff and resources that could be equally used within mainstream schools as well as special schools.

Mrs. E.A. Draffan, Developing skills and capabilities for the use of gadgets and computers in teaching and learning environments.

Friday, Mrs. E.A. Draffan, will illustrate how some students with specific learning difficulties have developed strategies to make the best use of gadgets such as recorders, mobile phones and other handheld devices as well as computers to assist their study skills.

The use of assistive technologies will also be mentioned with hints and tips along the way.

Dr Steve Chinn, A Framework for Maths

Friday
Dr Steve Chinn, 10:45, will look at how maths can be taught to acknowledge learners’ skills and deficits and will also consider the key characteristics of good technological support.


The technology used to support maths learning can only be successful if the underlying maths structure is effective and built around the different ways that children learn. This seminar will look at how maths can be taught to acknowledge learners’ skills and deficits and will also consider the key characteristics of good technological support.

Professor John Munro, Learning to teach students who have reading and literacy learning difficulties

Associate Professor John Munro of Melbourne University, 11:45, will describe one approach to using educational technology to train teachers to teach students who have reading and literacy learning difficulties.

This seminar describes one approach to using educational technology to train teachers to teach students who have reading and literacy learning difficulties.
To successfully teach these students, teachers need to
• understand how readers read,
• identify the multiple causes of these difficulties
• assess and diagnose these difficulties
• use effective teaching procedures.

The approach uses educational technology procedures to teach these components. It simulate the processes involved in early word reading and shows how dyslexia is caused. Second, it shows various types of reading difficulty being diagnosed. Third it shows various teaching procedures being used in regular classrooms.

Judith Stansfield, Matching ICT tools to dyslexic needs

Thursday
Judith Stansfield, 10:45, will provide exemplification of how new and emerging technologies can be used to support dyslexic children and young people to gain access to the curriculum and help them become more independent learners.

Bob Black, Developing early reading skills to promote and develop spoken language

Wednesday

Bob Black, 13:00, will focus on children with Down syndrome and others with speech and language difficulties with the seminar demonstrating how teachers can use early years ICT to promote language and literacy skills. In essence the seminar will assist teachers in ‘teaching reading to teach talking‘.

For children with Down syndrome and others with speech and language difficulties the seminar will demonstrate how teachers can use early years ICT to promote language and literacy skills. In essence the seminar will assist teachers in ‘teaching reading to teach talking‘. The Link between reading and productive speech has been well researched and proven since Lesleys Duffen’s first paper and the work of the Downs Syndrome educational trust and others. Children with Downs syndrome in common with many other visual learners have a specific learning profile, not just a global delay