e-gazing in action 2007 - Thinkpiece Questions

TechDis response

Teaching and learning – more inclusive; more universal?

Professor John Hattie’s work on influences on student learning identified several
factors that correlated very significantly with improved student performance.
Many of these high-value-added strategies are difficult and time consuming for
traditional teaching approaches but lend themselves to blended learning. For
example, effective use of technology allows
• direct, rapid, diagnostic feedback to be given
• all learners to have access to the best available resources in the institution
(or even the world..)
• able learners to progress at a faster pace
• a range of resources to suit different learning preferences and needs
• collaborative work to be managed effectively

From Hatties research, each of the above is associated with a benefit roughly
equivalent to a 1 to 2 grade leap at GCSE…yet for too long, the use of
IT/eLearning has been didactic and convergent, focussing on teaching resources
rather than learning experiences.

But in the most creative institutions – often using minimal training with existing
software/hardware - highly effective learning can take place giving the students
divergent, creative and collaborative tasks that develop subject skills, learning
skills, IT skills and teamwork skills. Many young people have richer technological
environments at home than they do in their places of learning. Many of them are
skilled at informal learning, using the Internet for everything from downloading
music to comparing best value for a music player or printing directions for a visit.
This doesn’t undermine the need for effective formal education; if anything it
makes it more urgent and important.

Increasingly learner needs will be based around access and skills – the ability to
get to information and to use it critically and effectively. The historical model of
education has often been about transmitting knowledge from experts to
recipients with the recipients trusting everything they are told. This is no longer
appropriate when Google is the answer to any question. Learners need to be
able to analyse, critique and synthesise and this implies active learning
experiences. The old model of education was also very exclusive – information
transmitted by text and examined by writing. A new model is rapidly emerging
where knowledge is available to anyone with an Internet connection; information
can be presented in many media and assessments are possible in a wide range
of ways. Education can become truly inclusive and therefore truly universal.
The role of leaders in synthesising trends
Moving focus from a distant utopian future to just beyond the present, three
major trends in current education policies include
• increasingly sophisticated technical infrastructures,
• the personalisation of learning
• the inclusiveness of learning – particularly for disabled learners

Leaders in educational institutions need to recognise the synergies between

these three and to capitalise on their investments – both the capital investments
(kit, connectivity and software) and the quality investments of staff training.
Traditional teaching and learning resources tend to be inaccessible to many
learners. Whiteboards are wiped at the end of lessons, books and photocopies
are inflexible and overhead transparencies cannot be personalised to individual
need or pace. By contrast, digital resources are very flexible and can be:
• Available for download at anytime or place.
• Reformatted in terms of font size, type and colour combinations.
• Converted to audio by appropriate, often free, software.
• Converted to alternative outputs – for example Braille or DAISY.
• Presented in alternative contexts (for example, interactive whiteboards,
Microsoft® PowerPoint or interactive quizzes) to create a range of active
learning experiences.

Each of the options above represents a distinctive accessibility benefit, both for
disabled and nondisabled learners, supporting both the accessibility and
personalisation agendas. e-Learning resources tend to be much more accessible
than the paper-based alternatives that they replace, but more significant still is
the potential of technology to transform pedagogy by adding to the teacher’s
toolkit a suite of new approaches. With minimal training using existing software
teachers can
• construct handouts with built-in interactive navigation
• include audio in handouts or activities; including audio clips from the
learners.
• Involve learners in creating diagrams and images with contextualised pop-
up explanations
• provide differentiated information for learners of different ability and
involve the learners in recommending alternative links
By investing further in technology – even if only in modest kit (MP3 recorders,
Mindmapping software, screen capture software), many new approaches can be
added to the teacher’s existing repertoire.

Critical to the process is quality staff development using appropriate training

materials. TechDis has already provided TechDis Staff Packs and the
Accessibility Essentials series to every FE institution in the UK. These
resources have been highly commended for their pragmatic, learner centred
approach which highlights the accessibility benefits of good practice to all
learners, not just those with disabilities. These resources are also available
online at http://www.techdis.ac.uk/staffpacks and
http://www.techdis.ac.uk/accessibilityessentials respectively.

Accessibility as a lever for quality

One of the most significant challenges for leaders is changing academic cultures.
Many teachers are reluctant to change their practices, especially if they see no
problem with the current attainment levels of their learners. Many academics
have limited skills and confidence with technology, prefering to stick to the safety
of traditional methods, despite the fact that technology could offer benefits to
themselves, their colleagues and their students.

For subject based teaching staff, it is relatively easy to hide behind the defences
of subject expertise. Phrases such as “technology isn’t appropriate for the
teaching of my subject” are heard in most institutions at some time or another,
yet for every teacher making such a claim there are others in other institutions
using technology to push new boundaries in the same subject. Accessibility may
provide a useful neutral ground to introduce technology into teaching.
Accessibility is one of the few initiatives in teaching that will not go away because
it has the weight of legislation behind it. It is illegal for a teacher to discriminate
against a disabled learner by failing to make reasonable adjustments. So what
are reasonable adjustments? It was noted above that simply making resources
available in a digital format confers many benefits of flexibility and adaptability.
This is a significant first step to making a reasonable adjustment and may be
considerably better for both the teacher and the student than alternative
adjustments. Using simple guidelines like the TechDis Accessibility Essentials
series, a staff developer can help subject specialists explore ways of meeting
their legal obligations through the use of technology, without undermining the
“subject expertise” of the teacher. The subject teacher can propose alternative
ways of providing alternative resources and experiences but technology usually
looks to be an attractive option when the alternatives are considered….

One of the real benefits of technology in meeting the accessibility agenda is that
accessibility is relevant to all learners, not just disabled learners. Colleges
seeking to support disabled learners by providing customisation on their learning
platforms find most learners taking advantage of the features. Peter Symonds
College provides customisation options for their Intranet; 60% of the students
personalise their set up. Dumfries and Galloway College even created a very
plain screenreader-friendly style amongst their options - 21 people used it; far
more than the number of screen reader users in the college. For a fuller
exploration of the benefits of technology in meeting the needs of disabled
learners and contributing to mainstream quality processes, see the TechDis
Senior Manager Briefing series at www.techdis.ac.uk/getbriefings .
Managing changing expectations
There is no doubt that the Disability Discrimination Act along with the Disability
Equality Duty are raising the aspirations of disabled people and encouraging
learners to disclose disabilities. Pilot research by the Learning and Skills Network
shows that where a college developed good practice in encouraging disclosure
the number of learners disclosing disabilities increased between 50 and 100%. It
is simply not sustainable to provide discrete additional learning support for ever
increasing numbers of disabled learners. It is both more cost effective and more
ethically sound to provide an inclusive learning environment which minimises the
dufficulties experienced by disabled learners, allowing additional support to be
targetted to where needs are more complex and demanding.

One of the most exciting promises of technology in relation to supporting learners

is that it can minimise dependency. Learners - both disabled and non-disabled -
can be more independent, take more responsibility for their own learning and rely
less on traditional support structures because technology can give them access
to more information in more formats, can encourage their active participation in
creative learning experiences, can provide peer support, motivation and
immediate feedback. Most significantly, if staff are effectively trained, technology
is the single factor that can most rapidly reduce barriers to learning.

Alistair McNaught, Senior Advisor for Further Education,

JISC TechDis service Jan 07

54 Word summary:
Technology removes barriers for learners. It enables staff staff to provide new
resources and new learning experiences. It provides for formative feedback,
alternative routeways and differentiated resources. Fundamentally, technology
can make the curriculum more accessible to more learners, reducing the barriers
of disability and in the process improving the learning experience for all learners.