[senit] Who is providing you with support in the field of ICT and Inclusion?

Hello everyone

Here in Oxfordshire we have a programme of ICT inset that is almost  
without exception mainstream. The team do a good job of supporting  
mainstream schools but have very little that is targeted at special  
schools. The only course I recall seeing was Clicker, and that was  
not at the access and scanning level, just at using it to support  
literacy. Chrissie or others may have a different perspective on it  
which would be useful to hear.
Our ICT Adviser retired at Christmas, and I'm not even sure that  
she's been replaced at the moment. Most of the funding seems to flow  
from govt into schemes like the Hands-on Support, but having  
allocated time is of no great use if the person allocated doesn't  
know much about your specialist setting and uses the visits more as  
their own inset than for developing skills and knowledge in you and  
your staff.

That's not to say they have ignored us, and we were very pleased  
about 2 years ago to be invited to showcase our students' work at the  
Secondary ICT coordinators' conference.

Then again, I'm not sure we were getting anything in place of all of  
that from Becta either. We did have some visits which were very  
encouraging about our work, and I recall being involved in hosting an  
online discussion via Becta, but I didn't feel that my colleagues or  
I were actually getting training. Even the CAP scheme was  
frustrating; one child at school got support, the 2nd one was just  
left out as the scheme closed.

Perhaps what we need to be looking for is a blend of the various  
themes coming out through recent postings. Adam Waits from Abilitynet  
has asked us for suggestions about accessibility issues to guide  
questions for suppliers; John Galloway has been seeking views on what  
we all feel would constitute a suitable learning platform for our  
pupils; and Lesley has been asking what we are all getting in terms  
of support from agencies such as LAs. I'd say this is another area in  
which we could fruitfully ask ourselves to not only record what we  
have had so far, but more importantly, what do we want and need?

For myself I'd want a mixture of:
Practical training on software of my choice, visit and/or remote (see  
Atomic Learning)
Online community (sort of like SENIT), with added face-to-face  
opportunities on local and national scale
Training or access to information about aspects of special needs I  
may not work with often
Assessment support on software and tools to provide access for  
individual pupils, visit or remote (via webcam - cheers Adam)
Celebration and encouragement for work we do with our pupils, local  
and national
Future thinking to draw my attention to new and projected  
developments with a few ideas for use

I'm sure everybody can come up with a whole raft of ideas. Is there a  
role for NAACE here if the govt remain at a distance?

Sean O'Sullivan
sean.frankwise at easynet.co.uk
Deputy Headteacher
Frank Wise School, Banbury
http://www.frankwise.oxon.sch.uk

http://www.parkroadict.co.uk

On 15 Jan 2007, at 09:46, Lesley Rahamin wrote:

> Hello everyone
>
> As many of you will know, Becta organised a meeting last Friday to  
> report on the effects of the changes made to their Inclusion  
> Support Team.
>
> My question to you all is this - who is providing you with support  
> in the field of ICT and Inclusion?
>
> Lesley Rahamin
> Education Consultant