Unlocking Potential

Hartlepool CollegeShareIT Conference

Quick Wins:

Using Technology for Inclusion

Dr Simon Ball simon@techdis.ac.uk

Twitter: @simonjball

Second Life: Norinbath Rasmuson

www.techdis.ac.uk

Unlocking Potential

This presentation….

Can be downloaded from www.techdis.ac.uk/community

Login and navigate to the HE section and Simon’s Presentations - you can download from there and you will have all of the URLs as clickable links. Direct link: http://www.techdis.ac.uk/community/course/view.php?id=98

Download also the Zip files and Extract contents into same folder as you downloaded the PowerPoint. Playing the PPT in Slideshow mode will then open the linked files when clicked.

Unlocking Potential

Productivity

• We all want to be more efficient• We want the student experience to be more

valuable, interesting, and inclusive• We want to expand our horizons and be

more creative• But…

• Where do we get the time?• Where do we get the money?

Unlocking Potential

Part of the solution…

• There is no ‘magic bullet’• But technology can:

• Be easy to learn and use (i.e. small time investment),

• Be free (and/or Open Source),• Provide inclusion opportunities

• There is something every one of us can do, and if we all do that something, the result will be very powerful

Unlocking Potential

OASESwww.techdis.ac.uk/getOASES

• Online Accessibility Self Evaluation Service• Designed to take you through key elements of

your role in terms of accessibility, providing links to further information.

• When completed, you can benchmark your own practice against others in the sector.

• Surveys for: Senior Managers, Marketing, Staff Development, Learning Tech, Learning Resources, Learner Support, IT/Networks

Unlocking Potential

10 Handy resources for harnessing the power of free productivity tools in your

everyday practice

1. Accessibility Essentials www.techdis.ac.uk/accessibilityessentials 2. Teaching Inclusively www.techdis.ac.uk/getTeachingInclusively

3. Self Evaluation Toolkit www.techdis.ac.uk/getOASES

4. Senior Manager Inclusion Guidance www.techdis.ac.uk/getbriefings

5. Free Software www.techdis.ac.uk/getfreesoftware 6. Alternative Formats www.techdis.ac.uk/getaltformat

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

Unlocking Potential

Being accessible is about being canny – adopting these techniques into your daily

routine• Making better use of Word and PowerPoint

• Easier to navigate• Easier to read• Easier to transform• More engaging and user-friendly

• I can make my presentations • Easier to revise from – by using the Notes field• Suitable for mobiles • More interactive and collaborative

• Even PDFs can be accessiblewww.techdis.ac.uk/accessibilityessentials

Unlocking Potential

Everyone could be using these:

• Audacity: Audio recorder (NB remember to install ‘Lame’); Portable version available.

• Screentoaster.com: Screen capture; web-based tool; similar to Camstudio (which requires install)

• Dspeech: Automated audio of text; Portable version available; voices not great but finds others from PC

• Robobraille.com: Send a Word document off to britspeech@robobraille.com, get an MP3 back!

• Readthewords.com: Automated audio of text; much better voices (some ! E.g. Charles, Nina)

Unlocking Potential

Access Apps

• See www.techdis.ac.uk/getaccessapps• You can choose full package for a 2 GB memory

stick or smaller ‘Core’ version• Provides via a single menu of over 50 tools that

run from memory stick – so will run on any PC• Not Mac compatible but see

http://www.freesmug.org/portableapps and http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/portable-software-usb/

Unlocking Potential

Xerte: create Accessible Learning Objects – simply!

• Xerte: Generator of Accessible Learning Objects (a bit like Articulate, CourseGenie etc); Can be installed but better used via web – use our sandbox to play, and then install on your own server; find out more at www.techdis.ac.uk/getxerte (including ‘Creating your first object’ guide) and have a play in our sandpit www.techdisplayxerte.info

• Free tutorials 1pm last Friday of every month: www.techdis.ac.uk/getxertefriday

Unlocking Potential

QR Codes

• Generate a QR code freely on the web eg. http://qrcode.kaywa.com - print and stick anywhere

• Download and install free QR reading software to your phone • www.mobile-barcodes.com/qr-code-software/

• Two example uses: National Star College and Heriot-Watt University

Unlocking Potential

Travel text is read out by a text to speech application running on the phone

Unlocking Potential

HEAT2 mLearning Case Study – Heriot-Watt University

• Alasdair Thin – used mobile phone to stream context specific audio information to students with visual impairment• Used camera phone QR codes to push text files to

students’ mobiles, used TextAloud to convert this to audio. Moved on to using QR codes to access web url to download audio.

Unlocking Potential

It’s all about using the right tool for each context…

Simon Ball simon@techdis.ac.uk www.techdis.ac.uk 01904 717580

Unlocking Potential

Inspiration: Inclusive techniques others have implemented

• HEAT scheme• HE Staff (inc. HE in FE) awarded

technologies up to £2K (i.e. achievable projects) to uncover or develop an aspect of inclusive teaching.

• www.techdis.ac.uk/getheatscheme • Some examples you might want to

consider…

Unlocking Potential

HEAT example – Reflective Diaries

Hellawell and Priestley

(University of Bradford)

Dyslexic student used

handheld video recorder to

create mini documentaries

providing an opportunity for reflective learning.

These were edited and converted to a format

suitable for playing on PCs, and audio podcasts

produced, to be shared with future students.

Unlocking Potential

HEAT Example – Talking Tactile Tablet

• Chevins (Keele Univ.) helped a blind and a VI student to understand Transmission Electron Microscopy. Using a cartoon of a cutaway of the microscope he created a tactile diagram using swell paper. He then used the T3 to add audio commentaries to each part of the diagram, so when touched, a contextual audio file was enabled.

• Cassella (Derby Univ.)found these were used bymany students with visualor auditory learning style.

Unlocking Potential

HEAT2: Enabling Remote Activity (ERA): how remote fieldworking can be used to enable students with and without mobility problems to work together to

carry out fieldwork.

• Open University• Winner of Handheld

Learning Award• Mobility-impaired student

directs field work via mobile network to fellow students

• Connectivity and security issues when setting up networks between two different locations remote from main institution.

Unlocking Potential

HEAT2: Investigation of the potential for using PDAs to hold portfolio materials for Midwifery

students on placements

• Bangor University• PDAs for midwifery

students to carry their e-portfolios on

• Issues with signing off process

• PDA increased tech confidence and aided flexible learning

Unlocking Potential

HEAT3: What’s it worth? Equivalent assessment opportunities – Roehampton

University

• Began by offering alternate means of assessment to disabled students eg video or audio recordings in place of written work

• Raised issues of equivalence – how much footage equates to a 3000-word essay?

• Produced an ‘equivalence’ table of over 40 assessment types – further work being done to refine and expand the table.

Unlocking Potential

HEAT3: Using mobile devices and microblogging to analyse student use of learning spaces – 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.

Unlocking Potential

Undergraduate tweets

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Postgraduate tweets

Unlocking Potential

Other HEAT projects include:

• Evaluating e-book readers for marking student assignments

• Use of Mediascapes to enhance mobile-based field learning (urban education)

• Evaluating the use of mobile devices to support disabled students

• Over 80 projects in total• www.techdis.ac.uk/getheatscheme