Transcript of Managing Technology for Inclusive Education | Dr. Primo G. Garcia

[Music] goodday for this session we'll be discussing managing technology for inclusive education they say that we now live in an Information Society Information Technology plays a central position in our production economy and Society at large information and communication Technologies now pervade our business and economy the government our society and culture and Even our education in recent years there have been calls to make sure that the benefits of information and communication Technologies reach the people and this is what we call e-inclusion e-inclusion means providing access to Information Society based products and services to all people including those with special needs or risk of exclusion it ensures that everyone is included in and gains from developments enabled by ICT it connotes the right to belong to the mainstream the concept of e-inclusion has been also applied in education inclusive education is the idea that all students are ensured with equal opportunities it means offering the same level of Education to all pupils irrespective of their varying abilities and possibilities now there are several reasons for exclusion first physical disabilities second cognitive disabilities third resource constraints and last gender now e-inclusion in education is also part of these efforts for inclusive education it refers to the idea that all students with no distinction have the right to benefit from ICT tools to the same extent irrespective of their disability or difficulties there are several factors in e- inclusion in education we have accessibility usability and availability accessibility refers to the degree to which a product like a device a service or environment can be used both from a physical and cognitive Viewpoint by as many people as possible now this is crucial to those who have learning and physical disabilities usability refers to the actual Clarity and ease of use of the tools how easy it is to use a particular technology this is crucial to people with different cultural backgrounds like those from rural or from Urban centers availability refers to the actual possibility of having one's own disposal e Tools in order to fulfill a certain educational activity or objective this is crucial to those who do not have the computers or Internet due to socio economic constraints addressing e inclusion in education can take on several levels first we have the macro level interventions first like in terms of policy in the 1990s there was a change in our policy in terms of the deregulation of the Telecom industry this lead to the entry of more telecom companies which led to the installation of more telephone lines and internet connections in the country we need more of these to ensure more internet availability in the country there are also different programs implemented by government and government agencies to promote digital literacy and also to provide infrastructure in terms of ICT equipment in different parts of the country and there are also Partnerships between different institutions along these lines and of course political will is very important to ensure that we are able to implement e inclusion in education to the fullest now for this session I will be focusing my discussion on E tools for inclusive education in the classroom now to address the problems of accessibility experienced by differently abled we have assistive Technologies for them assistive Technologies are products equipment and systems that enhance learning working and daily living for persons with disabilities now there are different types of assistive e Technologies depending on the disability like for people with sensory disability we have voice recognition programs screen readers screen enlargement applications talking book player and audio recorder and player for those with hearing problems we have close caption speech to text and headphone for cognitive disabilities we have picture schedule and calendar picture based instructions smartphone with adopted task lists schedules calendars audio recording and graphic organizers there are different examples of online assistive technologies that you can find on the web for text to speech we have read speaker and TTS reader for speech to text we have speech notes and dictation and examples of screen readers are Envy access and usability geek in most schools however the main problem is the lack of connectivity or ICT equipment in the classroom there are several strategies which we can use to address these ICT resource constraints first we can combine offline tools with online Technologies like we can share files using USB and you can also install a learning management system via landan or local area network rather than the internet we can also identify learning activities where online Technologies are essential like in the case of collaborative activities we could limit the online technology use to the research part topping resources outside the classroom is another approach we can make use of the library or the local internet cafes the teacher can also use simpler Technologies like using texting for student announcements and polls and using a website instead of a learning management system which requires technical maintenance we also need to address gender issues in the use of ICT in the classroom teachers should avoid gender stereotyp types in the use of ICT like assigning of programming roles to the males and the uh writing roles to the females in terms of the learning activities there should also fairness between the genders in terms of the frequency of the use of the icts available in the classroom and lastly we have to select gender sensitive digital resources for e-inclusive education to be effective our teachers need to develop these competencies first technical this refers to the ability of the teacher to select the appropriate e tools including Adaptive Technologies and also understand the affordances and limitations of those Technologies in terms of providing access second is methodological this refers to the ability of the teacher to make use of those resources of those tools in promoting active learning from this session we have learned that digital inclusion in education provides opportunities for everybody to participate in and benefit from the affordances of icts assistive Technologies can be used to address physical and cognitive barriers to inclusive education and there are strategies that can be adopted to address resource constraints in ICT and gender issues in exclusive education thank you n