Innovation Profile 042

ICT provides for special needs

ICT dramatically changes learning opportunities at the level of the individual, as well as for the classroom and the school. We all have special learning needs, some people of course much more than others.

ICT helps individual problems to be overcome. It can enable specific skills and elements of learning to be tackled individually. Do not ignore the ICT-for-learning developments emerging from the 'special needs' community. They may have much relevance for us all.

The special needs and disability communities using ICT illustrate the extent to which it is possible to analyse the specific skills and knowledge that learners must gain to perform tasks demanded of them. You can see a wide range of educational software devised to aid learning of very specific tasks if you go to http://www.granadalearning.com/school and click 'special needs'. Learning content, that works well for those having difficulty learning, can often also extend the understanding of good learners.

Learners are sometimes expected by their teachers to grasp several skills, or a sequence of knowledge steps, at once. If students fail to learn some element of an overall piece of learning, extending and building on their learning becomes very difficult. They may even have to un-learn things they have understood wrongly.

ICT learning content is becoming available that can much reduce this problem. From sources such as Granada Learning teachers can select content that tackles specific learning difficulties that their students have. Much of this software can also be used autonomously by the student. They can get feedback which tells them what they have misunderstood. They can explore the correct ideas and ways to develop or extend their skills.

This reflects a very important trend. Young people moving into the world of work will find an increasing need for 'just in time learning'. Using learning content to identify and to resolve specific gaps in their learning will be a vital skill.

It is also good to see that Granada Learning have a section of their website dedicated to use of their content at home. Students at home have much more time to find and overcome their learning difficulties and this is where they will do much of their learning to learn autonomously.

The Granada Learning Group Profile on our web site will give you an overview of the company.

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If you know of examples of innovative use of ICT-for-learning that others would be interested in, please email innovations@eep-edu.org

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