Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Halinda Stepping Up: Lessons for Todays Child


The classroom is a changing place. Gone are the days of "chalk and talk", alone, as lesson delivery. Long gone. Well provisioned classrooms are places where students can step up the front of the classroom and learn actively ... interactively. If you step into a classroom where the teacher and student have an IWB you have just as much chance of seeing students using technology as staff. The interactive nature of IWBs means the classroom can be decentred, students are not passive empty vessals for filling up with teacher wisdom but active learners, action researchers. Learning by interacting with learning materials.

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Mixing Technologies


Augmenting student interactions with whiteboards by switch, felt-ended drum sticks and communication software can be valuable ways to further enhance access to learning material in the Special School setting or support unit. We have been trialling software that reads website out loud when students highlight text. The software can convert audio and does so with an Australian accent !