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

Hello everyone

I said I would summarise the responses I received when I asked the question,
"Who is providing you with support in the field of ICT and Inclusion?"
Although very few teachers responded, their provision ranged from 'nothing
formal' through SENIT to LEAs with good systems in place.  More responses
came from those providing the support, describing the sort of support that
they provided and to whom.

I've ended up with more questions than answers.  Here are a few:

Is the LEA support inclusive enough to be appropriate to those working with
learners who have physical and/or sensory difficulties or perhaps profound
and/or complex learning difficulties?  Judith Stansfield asked the question
"Is the support for specialists and/or mainstream teachers and do they allow
people from outside the area or from independent schools to take part?" I'm
pretty long in the tooth now, and perhaps the inclusion movement has
resulted in a more inclusive attitude by the providers of training to
mainstream schools, but I remember having to work out for myself how I was
going to adapt the content of courses to the students I was working with.

Is the trend towards commercial suppliers providing separate information and
training on their particular products?   Clicker Days, Inclusive Days etc
are successful in providing opportunities, not only to learn about their
products, but also for the attendees to talk to fellow practitioners.  Where
else can practitioners (often isolated from others in similar situations)
meet?  I am a great believer in email forums such as SENIT but they are no
substitute to meeting face-to-face.  Becta used to put on conferences many
moons ago that provided just that.

Does the support go beyond access technology?  How can assistive technology
practitioners assess a student's access needs if they do not know what the
student is supposed to be accessing?  Finding a way of removing the physical
barriers to learning is only one part of the solution.

Sean O'Sullivan referred to the questions being asked by Adam Wait and John
Galloway and concluded that, ". 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?"

I know what has been most useful for me so far and that is the support of
fellow professionals working in the same field.  But as to the future... for
once this is something that I feel I should not comment on because I (like
many others in our field) am approaching retiring age.  It is up to
practising teachers to say what they want, as Sean has done.  If we don't
ask we won't get!

Thanks to everyone who responded,

Lesley Rahamin

Education Consultant