8-week course - Technology to Support Literacy for Learners with Complex Needs

About the course

This is an online 8-week course with live workshops on Thursdays from 4.00 - 5.30 pm delivered by the CALL Scotland team and guest speakers from TeachUsToo. This course would suit anyone involved with supporting children and young people with complex learning needs within a specialist provision, mainstream or special school.

Participants will be asked to reflect on what literacy should look like for children and young people with Complex Learning Needs. And in doing so, explore technology tools and strategies that support the development of emergent literacy skills for pupils with complex access and learning challenges. Participants will explore alternative access to reading and writing for learners who use eye gaze, switches and touch and learn about relevant hardware, software and apps for Windows, iPads and Chromebook devices. Participants will be expected to actively engage with the online workshops through discussions and reflective questions.

There is an expectation that participants will contribute to the online workshops through discussions and reflective questions as well as completing a reflective literacy skills and technology audit. The audit is an online tool, to be completed in advance of the start of the course.

The structure of the course will be as follows:

Week 1 (24th April): An introduction to literacy & complex needs
Week 2 (1st May): An introduction to Assistive Technology and Alternative Access
Week 3 (8th May): Technology to support Writing
Week 4 (15th May): Technology to support Shared Reading
Week 5 (22nd May): Technology to support Independent Reading
Week 6 (5th June): Technology to support Alphabetic and Phonological Awareness
Week 7 (12th June): 'Wow!' Tools
Week 8 (19th June): Putting it into practice, where next?

You can expect...

12 hours of online learning
Weekly further reading and information
Weekly Q&A sessions
Access to a bank of ideas and ready-made resources

Also...

This is an ideal course to undertake as part of practitioner enquiry and will support you in making changes to your teaching practice and ultimately improving the learner experience.

Course details

Starts 24th April, 2025.
8-week course (Thu 24 Apr - 12 Jun 2025).
4:00pm - 5:30pm (UK time zone).
£360 per individual.

Course tutors

Claire Harrison, the Assistive Technology and Complex Needs teacher at CALL Scotland will be your course tutor along with other members of the CALL Scotland team - who all have many years of experience in supporting children and young people with additional support needs.

How to connect

Our live sessions are delivered using Microsoft Teams and we provide full joining instructions. There are a maximum of 25 participants so everyone can have an interactive collegiate learning experience.

Further questions

Please do not hesitate to get in touch if you have any questions before signing up: claire.harrison@ed.ac.uk

Aims of the course

Develop an understanding of Assistive Technology and how it can be used to teach reading and writing to children and young people with complex learning needs.

Extend and enhance your knowledge of best practices.

Consider and engage with frameworks and assessments to utilise appropriate technologies to meet different learning and access needs.

Increase your confidence when working with technology to enable curricular access.

Connect and share with other educational professionals.

Learning Outcomes

Identify a range of assistive technologies, resources and strategies to support the development of reading and writing skills for children and young people with complex learning needs.

Explore the latest research and thinking about creating inclusive literacy classrooms.

Apply practical assistive technology skills within your setting to facilitate new opportunities for your learners.

Create a personalised literacy & technology map to help you plan and put what you've learned into practice.

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Technology to Support Literacy for Learners with Complex Needs

What you'll get