Transcript Dyslexia and the Use of Assistive Technology

Mobile Learning: Telling Tales
Upwardly Mobile: the use of mobile
technologies to maximise inclusion
Dr Simon Ball [email protected]
www.techdis.ac.uk
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What is JISC TechDis?
• JISC advisory service (HE and FE) providing
advice and guidance on inclusive use of
technology.
• Working at policy level, institutional strategy level,
and practitioner level.
• Much advice and guidance available for
practitioners to improve practice (see next slide)
but now we have reached a stage where we need
management and policy to further enable inclusive
use of technology
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10 Handy resources for practitioners to
enhance inclusive use of technology
1. JISC TechDis Community site www.techdis.ac.uk/community
2. Accessibility Essentials www.techdis.ac.uk/accessibilityessentials
3. Teaching Inclusively www.techdis.ac.uk/getTeachingInclusively
4. Free Software www.techdis.ac.uk/getfreesoftware
5. Access Apps www.techdis.ac.uk/getaccessapps
6. Assistive Technologies www.techdis.ac.uk/getATreport
7. Case Studies (HEAT scheme) www.techdis.ac.uk/getheatscheme
8. Getting started: Mobile Learning www.techdis.ac.uk/upwardlymobile
9. Creating Accessible Learning Objects: www.techdis.ac.uk/getxerte
10. Web2.0 Evaluation Tool www.techdis.ac.uk/getweb2access
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Inclusion with Mobile Technologies
• The one technology almost all students have, know how to
use, and have adapted to suit their needs or requirements.
• 6 benefits of m-Learning (taken from JISC guide to Effective
Practice with e-Learning)
• Connectivity – access available on a global scale.
• Flexibility – learning can take place any time, any place.
• Interactivity – assessment can be immediate.
• Collaboration – learning beyond the classroom.
• Extended opportunities – reinforce and extend learning.
• Motivation – can make learning fun.
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Adding value through software support
• Any assistive technology benefit is more portable
so the support available to the learner is
available more places and more times.
• Mobile technologies are generally cheaper than
PCs and laptops so more likely to be affordable.
• Mobile technologies are private and personal in
use and have none of the student self-image
problems that may be associated with traditional
assistive technologies.
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Some of the tools available
• Recording tools – sound, images, text (inc.
handwriting recognition)
• Planning tools / organisers
• Reading tools
• Writing tools (inc. spellcheckers)
• Communication tools (eg SMS for deaf users)
• Reference tools – bringing the classroom or
library into a different context
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Upwardly Mobile
www.techdis.ac.uk/upwardlymobile
• Inclusive m-Learning inc. Inclusion
benefits and challenges and
supporting disabled learners.
• Creating mobile content inc. tutorcreated and learner-created
• Distributing mobile content inc.
methods and sample scenarios
• Where to next? Inc. QR codes
and Xerte
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Using Mobile GPS at Dilston College
Alistair Guthrie
Some students had difficulty making the link between
the two- dimensional abstract symbols on a map and
the ‘real life’ landmark/feature they represented.
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Global Position Systems (GPS)
Initial Benefits
The immediate cause and effect (relating to the
user’s movements) helped make clear the
relationship between them and the icon,
representing them, on the screen.
Once this was
established users
could then see
where they were on
the map.
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It assisted the students in
understanding directional
instruction, students could
see what a right turn or left
turn etc looked like.
Distance covered became more
apparent
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Having their mistakes/actions made
clear to them, on the screen, students
started to self-direct when problem
solving.
Simultaneously approaching the
symbols on the screen and the actual
landmark they represented helped to
make clear their relationship.
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There is opportunity for
students to review their work
later.
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Independent Travel
Learners at the
National Star College
often have difficulty
getting around by bus
if they can’t read and
can’t remember very
well (number of the
right bus, number of
stops to travel etc)
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QR Codes
The College puts travel help
information in the form of QR
codes onto relevant bus stops
in town.
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Travel Information
Travel text is read
out by a text to
speech application
running on the
phone.
Result – A happy
and confident
traveler
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LSN m-Learning projects
www.techdis.ac.uk/index.php?p=9_5_33
• Examples include:
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Podcasting for ESOL students
Using podcasts to deliver and assess maths and IT
Interactive materials to teach fractions
Digital dictation
Using SMS for support and administration
• Also MoLeNET www.molenet.org.uk
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HEAT mLearning Case Studies 1
• Teesside – analysed Flash learning objects to
repurpose for delivery on iPod or Creative Zen.
• Main finding was need to change pedagogical
structure of learning objects to suit less interactive
mobile environment.
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HEAT2 mLearning Case Studies 2
• Heriot-Watt – use of a mobile phone to stream
context specific audio information to students with
visual impairment
• Used camera phone barcodes to push text files to
students’ mobiles, used TextAloud to convert this to
audio
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HEAT mLearning Case Studies 3
• London Met. University used Mediascapes to
overlay historical information onto present
day urban landscapes. Link to clip.
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HEAT mLearning Case Studies 4
University of Leicester
Two groups of students (UG
and PG) used the iPod
touches for a period of 4
weeks each.
Asked to microblog about
where they were and what
they were doing, to
increase understanding of
student use of learning
spaces.
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Undergraduate tweets
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Postgraduate tweets
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So…how can you do it yourself?
Explore the resource:
• www.techdis.ac.uk/upwardlymobile
• It provides background and pedagogical
underpinning, links to relevant software
(almost entirely free!), sample scenarios in
which you might use each aspect of
mLearning, How To guides for each step and
even some sample materials to play with.
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