[SENco-forum] SEN ICT training /support in mainstream

I think there is more as well the timing of courses.
  There is the difference between 'urgent' and 'important'.  (This is courtesy of Di Pardoe whose course I was on yesterday and who knows more about improving teaching and learning than anyone else I have met)  I know lots of things to do with INSET are important but are they ever urgent?
  If I am going to come out of school, I need to know that what I am doing is directly relevant to me.  Otherwise I won't do it.  So I might go on a course about IT and dyslexia if I know I have a pot of funding I can use to get pupils the right software and I have a way of allowing pupils access to it.  As it is, it's a waste of time when set against what I could achieve in school on that day or could do in an evening.
  Amanda
  Secondary SENCO
  Cornwall

  .

David Wilson <davidritchiewilson at btinternet.com> wrote:
  The timing of courses/conferences/exhibitions can be a major factor when it
comes to attendance figures. This year I was at BETT on Saturday, wearing
two "hats", MFL and SEN. MFL was very well represented, with four of the
five MFL presentations at BETT scheduled for the Saturday. SEN was a
relative disappointment, no SEN Fringe on that day, a downsized Special
Needs Village and a fraction of the SEN seminars delivered on each of the
other days. It would be good if courses were ALSO run at times when we don't
have to seek permission to be out of school. I'm not arguing for all courses
to be held at twilight, evening or weekend times, just for a modicum of
choice. What about more online courses/conferences too, fielded by "experts"
on particular ICT themes? This is something done regularly by English as a
foreign language online communities whose members are too widely dispersed
to be able to come together other than "virtually". I've been the "fielder"
on two of these when SEN was the topic and it was a great experience for
everybody, not least me, as I read about classroom experiences all over the
world. And it would be nice if we followed in this country what is common
practice in the States; a speaker will post his/her presentation PowerPoint
on the web so everybody can access it after the course/conference. And maybe
we should be building a SENCo Forum resource bank of ICT
activities/resources to which we can upload files, like the one on the TES
forum.

Just my pennysworth.

David Wilson
Harton Technology College, South Shiels
http://www.specialeducationalneeds.com/

Amanda
Secondary SENCO
Cornwall