Compulsory reading:
UNESCO IITE (2011): INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY (ICT) IN EDUCATION FOR PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES Practice Review – Executive Summary
INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY (ICT) IN EDUCATION FOR PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES
The UNESCO Institute for Information
Technologies in Education (UNESCO IITE) and the European Agency for Development
in Special Needs Education agreed in 2010 to collaborate on a joint project to
develop a Review of Innovative Practice – a report presenting concrete examples
of practice of the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) with
people with disabilities in different educational contexts and settings.
The goal was to highlight the different
possibilities and potential benefits of applying ICT in varied and potentially
innovative ways in very different global educational contexts and settings for
people with disabilities.
The aims of
this Practice Review therefore are to use the collected examples in order to:
-Highlight a
range of different purposes for using ICT in education for people with
disabilities;
-Identify
possible key messages for policy and practice in this area.
1. ICTs to
promote equity in educational opportunities
2. Access to appropriate ICTs
3. Training of educational staff
4. Promotion of ICT research and development
5. Data collection and monitoring
An examination of all the information within the Practice Review leads to a number of key messages that may further inform the three strands of action identified within the UNESCO-IITE work programme on ‘ICTs in education for persons with disabilities: education policy, capacity building and best practices’:
3. Training of educational staff
4. Promotion of ICT research and development
5. Data collection and monitoring
An examination of all the information within the Practice Review leads to a number of key messages that may further inform the three strands of action identified within the UNESCO-IITE work programme on ‘ICTs in education for persons with disabilities: education policy, capacity building and best practices’:
Increasing access to ICT infrastructure – ICT can be an invaluable tool in the
education of people with disabilities and so increasing access to ICT
infrastructure remains a target. The main purpose of providing ICT in education
for people with disabilities must be kept in mind, and that is promoting both
educational inclusion and wider social/societal inclusion. The ultimate goal of
increasing access to ICTs that support learning must be increasing the short
and long-term life chances and quality of life of people with disabilities.
This concept applies to the design and
development of new ICT tools, but it is also a concept that must underpin the
pedagogy of using ICT in education for people with disabilities. Teaching and
learning approaches should also be as far as possible accessible to all people
– this is an underpinning principle of inclusive education – at all stages of
lifelong learning.
Several of the key messages here describe
principles for effective education of learners with disabilities that are
applicable across all of the elements of policy and practice that combine within
an inclusive education approach. It can be argued that there are two main
implications of this:
1. There is the need for policy makers and
practitioners to not only share their experiences within their specific
disciplines, but also ensure key messages are disseminated with professionals
from other disciplines. In parallel to this, professionals need to be open to
looking to these other disciplines for information and inspiration and using
key messages as inspiration for their own work.
2. There is a need for more
interdisciplinary investigations to be conducted in order to identify and
disseminate key cross-sectoral messages that underpin the education of people
with disabilities generally.
Recommended reading:
UNESCO IITE (2006): Role of Information
and Communication Technologies in Special Needs Education. In: ICT’s in Education for People with Special Needs. Specialized Training
Course. Unit 1.2. 23-30.
ROLE OF INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION
TECHNOLOGIES IN SPECIAL NEEDS EDUCATION
Changes in the Educational System in
Information Age
The current period of social development is
characterized by the mounting role of information and knowledge which are
becoming the main factors of the progress and prosperity of society. The
development of Information Society is having a growing impact on every
aspect of people’s lives. Information technology becomes more and more
accessible in daily life. It changes our society bringing a new cultural
environment where information is present in every field. Not only the form of
working or doing business is altering radically, but the ways of studying,
accessing skills and knowledge, and interacting with other people as well.
Adaptation is possible only when based on a sound
understanding of ICT concepts. The issue of ICT literacy is actively developed
in the modern society. Many countries now regard understanding of ICTs,
mastering of the basic skills as well as concepts of ICTs as
a part of the core education, alongside with reading,
writing, and calculating.
Today we can see a lot of new ICT-based methods and
forms of education. For many years educational institutions have been elaborating
the educational content, structure, and methods to meet the demands of
Industrial Age. The vision of education has now shifted to address the needs of
Information Age. Now, teaching and learning are becoming more independent from
specific physical locations, the number of resources available to students
outside the classroom has increased dramatically and the locus of control to
initiate educational encounters has now passed to the learner. The learner
begins the process on ‘any time – any place’ basis.
Equal Opportunities for All: Digital
Inclusion of People with SEN
Speedy development of Information Age brings
possibilities and dangers to people with special needs. Whilst it can be very
empowering, providing for a chance to be involved in the society otherwise
inaccessible to the disabled, it can also create new threatening barriers
excluding them even more. Those who have unequal access to information run the
risk of losing some of the most basic rights. If the technology is inaccessible
to the disabled, or the principal information is processed in such a way that
some groups of people with special needs are excluded from its access,
Information Society will finally turn out to be a threat for such people.
Moreover, the digital divide, on its own, will further intensify social exclusion.
There is a growing awareness that people with
disabilities have the right to expect the same standard of service and access
as every other member of the society. However, disabled people must overcome
additional obstacles before they enjoy the information, services,
entertainment, and social interaction offered by the ICTs to the full.
Information has become a social necessity and a
fundamental aspect of human rights, and we cannot allow any group to be
excluded from it. Therefore, we have to find ways to integrate these people
into the current information and technological space. We have just started to
explore and put into practice the potential of ICTs to support independent living
and learning by persons with special needs. This potential exploited can lead
to very important consequences for the equality of life of the disabled. In
this connection, understanding of the barriers to learning faced by those who
have SEN, is imperative if we aim to improve accessibility.
Identification of Barriers to Learning for
Students with SEN
Barriers to learning refer to a situation in which
certain functional limitations caused by different impairments become a
significant obstacle to educational progress.
People with special educational needs may have a
combination of impairments (multiple impairments). It is common when whatever
is the ground for one impairment, it causes others. This is particularly true
where a disease or trauma is severe, or when age is the cause of impairments.
The Role of ICTs in SNE
ICT application is very important as it plays an
essential role in providing high quality education for students with
disabilities. ICTs have been introduced into the teaching-learning process in
order to improve quality, support
curricular changes and new learning experiences. In this way it is possible to
meet the specific learning needs of different learner groups, including
students with disabilities. Though specific applications of ICTs are extremely diverse
and varied, they may be grouped into the following main categories:
• Compensation uses: That is the use of new
technologies as a technical assistance that allows students with special needs
to take active part in the process of interaction and communication.
• Didactic uses: ICTs used as a learning tool have
prompted a new dimension of education and launched the transformation of the educational
approaches. ICT application brings a variety of new teaching and assessment
strategies for students with different educational needs.
• Communication uses: Technologies can mediate
communication with people having disabilities (often referred to as Alternative
and Augmentative Communication). Assistive devices and software to meet the
needs of students with definite communication difficulties are specific
to every disability.
Supporting
Inclusive Education through ICT Implementation
Inclusive education
presents an opportunity for students with special needs to attend mainstream
classrooms with their age-group peers. To realize this we need to provide for
the relevant conditions of overcoming the barriers to the learning process.
Particularly speaking, these conditions are attained via the facilitation of
ICT infrastructure for SNE, integration of ICTs into SNE curriculum and
training of ICT specialists in SNE.
Promoting ICT infrastructure
for SNE is necessary in order to provide for the appropriate conditions of
teaching and learning in the SNE context.
The key ways in which ICTs can
support educational opportunities for people with SEN are as follows:
• Identifying the
preliminary level of personal development (experiences and skills), that is to
say the starting point of a student;
• Assisting in personal
development by shaping new skills or updating existing ones;
• Improving the access to
information;
• Overcoming geographical
or social isolation via communication support and networks;
• Improving the
image/perception of an area by enhancing motivation and awareness regarding the
ICT benefits in SNE.
It is also important to
recognize that with ICTs alone we cannot solve all problems. The second step
requires the willingness of educators to develop innovative teaching methods or
to change and adopt the existing approaches to accommodate new concepts of
special needs education and modern technologies.
Benefits of ICT
Use in Education for People with SEN
General ICT benefits:
• Enables greater learner
autonomy;
• Unlocks hidden potential
for those with communication difficulties;
• Enables students to
demonstrate achievement in ways which might not be possible with traditional
methods;
• Enables tasks to be
tailored to suit individual skills and abilities.
ICT benefits for students:
• Computers can improve
independent access for students to education (Moore and Taylor, 2000; Waddell,
2000);
• Students with special
educational needs are able to accomplish tasks working at their own pace (ACE
Centre Advisory Trust, 1999);
• Visually impaired
students using the internet can access information alongside their sighted
peers (Waddell, 2000);
• Students with profound
and multiple learning difficulties can communicate more easily (Detheridge,
1997);
• Students using voice
communication aids gain confidence and social credibility at school and in
their communities (Worth, 2001);
• Increased ICT confidence
amongst students motivates them to use the Internet at home for schoolwork and
leisure interests (Waddell, 2000).
ICT benefits for teachers,
non−teaching staff:
• Reduces isolation for
teachers working in special educational needs by enabling them to communicate electronically
with colleagues.
0 comentarios:
Publicar un comentario