News Jisc TechDis is part of the In-Folio implementation team which was awarded the Learning Technology Team of the Year Award at the 2011 Association of Learning Technology Annual Conference (ALT-C) dinner. In-Folio is an e-portfolio system that enables learners, particularly those with disabilities or learning difficulties, to record and present their achievements and abilities. The open source, accessible, simple interface allows learners to store, arrange and organise multimedia content in simple online pages. The team commissioned development of In-Folio on behalf of the Independent Specialist Colleges (ISCs) after lengthy sector consultations and trials of existing e-portfolios revealed that none were suitable for their learners. One of the reasons the judging panel selected In-Folio was ‘the exemplary way in which the distributed team, involving a university, a JISC service, and four independent specialist colleges, approached the project’.
The 35 Best Web 2.0 Classroom Tools Chosen By You 100 Web 2.0 Tools Every Teacher Should Know About 44.24K Views 0 Likes We're always trying to figure out the best tools for teachers, trends in the education technology industry, and generally doing our darnedest to bring you new and exciting ways to enhance the classroom. 20 Free and Fun Ways To Curate Web Content 23.98K Views 0 Likes What's the best way to organize it all into at least some reasonable manner? It’s Time To Crowdsource Your School’s Social Media Policy 12.53K Views 0 Likes Every school has a different policy when it comes to social media. News JISC Techdis welcomes the publication of the Ofsted report Progression post-16 for learners with learning difficulties and/or disabilities. Sal Cooke, Director of JISC Techdis, says “I am both pleased and relieved that this report addresses the positive benefits of post-16 provision, as this was noticeably absent from the SEN and Disability Green paper issued in March this year”. Sal Cooke concurs with most of the report findings and recommendations. However, the report does not make comparisons between types of provider, other than to note that there is insufficient access to work based learning. The recommendations for providers are helpful and give clear pointers to colleges on what constitutes best practice.
Education, Race and the Internet: Digital Divide or Racial Ravine? Historically torn by racial and ethnic differences, Americans were supposed to benefit from the democratizing power of Internet technology. The Internet has been touted as the cure-all for every social ill imaginable, a new millennium development with the potential to broaden access to education, voting, and medical care—and in doing so, create a new avenue toward democracy. On the whole, that has not been the case. The utopian visionaries who watched too many Star Trek episodes in their youth forgot one important thing: In our world, profit often takes precedence over democratic dreams. The Digital Divide Nothing shows this more than the “digital divide” between the haves and the have-nots in the United States—a divide that often falls along racial lines, with poorer Americans, usually non-whites, having less access to adequate Internet services and, therefore, less ability to participate in the new opportunities presented by the Internet. The Real Issue The Comparison What’s Being Done
Assistive Technology Using an iPad as an alternative to an interactive whiteboard With more and more schools (and teachers) getting iPads, I’m increasingly being asked how a teacher can hook up their iPad to their interactive whiteboard. There are several ways to use your iPad. The first is as a way to control your computer, and the other two involve connecting your computer directly to the projector, removing the IWB from the equation. None of these methods let you connect your iPad to your IWB. 1. I’ve written about Splashtop Remote in the past. The way the Splashtop app works is that when you connect to the PC, the PC’s screen is mirrored on your iPad’s screen. Control of the computer isn’t perfect. The Splashtop app is only £1.49 on the UK app store, and the client software is free, so it’s not an expensive gamble. 2. A simple way to display the contents of your iPad screen to a class is to buy a VGA adaptor and connect the iPad directly to a projector in exactly the same way you’d connect a laptop. 3. Other Links Have you tried any of these?
Free Online Switch Activities - Updated Updated 11/09/2015 This is an update of the post listing online switch activities for learners with multiple or significant special needs. The activities listed are chosen because they can be used with switches, they are simple and they are enjoyable. Cause and Effect (and Press to Play): Single Switch Scanning/Timed Single Switch Response (sites may include some cause and effect games as well): Two Switches (unless otherwise noted you must click in the area of the game and then use tab and enter to play): Chrome Apps and Extensions iPad Apps Note: using the Puffin Browser app makes many switch accessible websites work on the iPad! Subscription Sites with Free Trials Busy Things is a switch accessible site for young children out of the UK. *Those sites with a star have multiple activities to try out!
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