Posted by Craig Mill on the 12th January, 2021
If you have an interest in assistive technology and would like to update your professional development, CALL Scotland, in partnership with the University of Edinburgh School of Professional Learning, will be running the Inclusive Digital Technology (IDT) course in March 2021.
Now in its third year, the IDT course, pitched at SCQF Masters-level 11, is an online learning course which includes a mix of workshops, self study, and online teaching and learning.
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The course is set within a context of underpinning academic literacies, legislation and policy at national and local levels in relation to inclusive digital technologies and resources for pupils/students with additional support needs (ASN).
Inclusive Digital Technology (IDT) is used as an umbrella term to include a range of assistive technologies and resources to support pupils with additional support needs (ASN) including:
In the video below, Paul Nisbet, Director of CALL Scotland, gives a brief overview of the IDT course.
The course examines ​underpinning academic literacies in the field of inclusive digital technology, for example:
Teachers in primary and secondary school settings as well as educators in Further and Higher Education institutions or other settings who have a keen interest in learning about inclusive technology and pedagogy.
This year we also welcomed two students from Quatar's assistive technology center MADA giving a truly international feel to the course.
You will have an opportunity to carry out a small reflective practitioner-based research project, allowing you to engage in evidence-based teaching and learning.
You can view a selection of case studies from our first cohort of students, to get a flavour of the breadth and depth of the interesting and insightful topics, methods and outcomes that were covered. For example, 'technology to aid distance viewing', 'video as a means for promoting student voice and critical thinking' and 'the effect of text-to-speech software on promoting inclusion and improving reading comprehension and vocabulary'.
To read the case studies, visit the Inclusive Digital Technology section of the CALL website and scroll towards the bottom of the page.
We have received permission from the students to showcase their work - where appropriate names of schools, participants and authors have been anonymised.
The variety, range and quality of ​materials was excellent. The opportunity to hear from others who are working in this area.
The course content was excellent and also the extensive knowledge and experience of Craig and the Call Scotland team was very apparent. The opportunity to read so extensively and access to so many online resources. The overall course has had a very positive impact on the development of our service going forward.
Excellent content. Beneficial to be able to access such a wealth of resources via Edinburgh University Library and good to have a period of continued access to these resources after the submission date. Allowed me focussed time to critically reflect on aspects of my job. Great support from tutors throughout the course.
Educational research allows the teacher to become...
'researcher-practitioners rather than objects of academic researchers' (Hargreaves 2009).
(Hargreaves, D. (2009) Educational Research and Evidence-based Practice. Sage Publications, London.)
Educational research practitioners play an important part in evidence-based teaching and can advance the capability and capacity for enquiry and help to promote inclusive practice in the school.
This course is not about learning to use inclusive digital technologies!
There is an expectation you will have some knowledge and experience of using different assistive technologies and resources in the classroom to support pupils.
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