How Did You Do That? Using technology to support students with complex learning needs

Examples of Practice across the UK From Supported Learning Programme Staff in Scottish FE Colleges Independent Specialist Colleges in England/Wales – KickStart and Innovation initiatives From Excellence Gateway From Moleshare (using mobile technology)

Stephen Shellard, Stephen Shellard, Lecturer for Supported Learning Programmes at Dumfries and Galloway College has been using free and portable technologies that feature on the EduApps suite. Stephen introduces some of the applications, discussing and demonstrating how he uses them in practice with his students.

John Archibald, Support for Learning Tutor at Cardonald College has been working with Web2 tools to develop literacy, communication and research skills. With his students he has created a Blog as an alternative to more traditional newsletters. John describes how he did this. Follow this link to listen to John or Follow this link to listen to John or

Melanie demonstrates how she uses DSpeech to listen to her work, in particular as a method of proofreading before submitting work. This helps because as an auditory learner it is easier to identify and correct her work. Balabolka and Orato are two other free and portable resources from:

Comic Life Glasgow School of Art library service use Comic Life to make their services more accessible to students. This resource might be a useful tool to use with learners. Find out more about how library staff went about this

Cumbernauld College have been using Logitech Webcams in their supported learning courses. Linda Aitcheson who is a supported Learning Lecturer and Colleen Hurran who is the Learning and Teaching Technologist discuss how they have been used and benefits for different student groups.

Oakwood Court College wanted to improve the communication and interaction of its students through the use of technology. The biggest challenge was to try and find a way of enabling some of its students with very specific learning needs to talk and communicate with staff and their families. Brynmor, who has autism found it difficult to speak without using a keyboard & verbal prompting from staff.

CelesteCeleste, who is diagnosed with selective mutism and chose not to speak. The primary aim was to investigate whether technology could help to improve the way students communicate and interact with staff, parents and friends.

Xbox Cumbernauld Students from supported programmes have enjoyed playing Xbox Adventures – which includes little adventures in the jungle, mountains, etc. and also Yoostar (in the movies) where the Kinect sucks you into movie clips and you act alongside famous actors. Your lines come up like a karaoke – only a small percentage of the students could read fast enough to say them on time, but they enjoyed doing the actions (Superman, Terminator, etc.)

The e-Portfolio system Mahara has been introduced to the Supported Learning Programmes at Barony College to enable student self-evaluation and reflection. Barony College

The project issued all 'Arts Award' Vocational studies learners with a solid state video recorder for evidence gathering purposes, this can be kept by the learner at all times and taken to all sessions. An enhanced video download, editing and storage facility has been provided to process the video that is taken.

In-Folio Supported by JISC TechDis, In-Folio is a uniquely accessible Open Source e-Portfolio that enables learners with disabilities or learning difficulties, to store and arrange multimedia content into simple online pages, record progress, demonstrate support needs or share valuable information during transition Look out for trials coming soon in Scottish Colleges! find out more by following this link Link to the In-Folio Blog A walk through ofa students In Folio portfolio Case Study: Henshaws College In-Folio

QR Codes Now and then you might come across QR codes on a poster or advert. These look like abstract cubist art but actually contain information, web links or other content. To access them you need a mobile phone with a built in camera and the free QR reader download. With improving resolutions on mobile phone cameras, QR codes could become significant in a short time. QR code linking to the Wikipedia page on QR Code

With the College moving into a new campus, the learning resources induction was a challenge to both staff and learners. Staff were very much learning about their new environment and had to impart this information to learners through induction. We chose to experiment with QR codes for information dissemination to make the induction evaluation process more interactive, and improve data collection efficiency.

Using QR Codes to Promote Independent Travel Learners at the National Star College often have difficulty getting around by bus if they can’t read and can’t remember very well (number of the right bus, number of stops to travel etc). The College puts travel help information in the form of QR codes onto relevant bus stops in town.

QR Code Generator - Find our more about QR codes in education from Carol Walker JISC RSC Scotland North & East. More information about QR Codes and how to create a QR code which will link to a website.

Creating animated gifs (graphic images) along by using a free tool called UnfreeZ and PowerPoint to promote independent living skills e.g. Timetables Travel training Health and Safety Sequences and, don’t forget…. FUN!

Information on using Unfreez Link to website with information

Xerte – Accessible Content Creator Watch a short video about Xerte - View a Xerte learning object -

RSC SW Scotland Case Studies Follow this link to view case studies from colleges across S & W of Scotland and

Excellence Gateway Case Studies can be viewed at:

Moleshare: Sharing good practice MoLeSHARE is a unique collaborative approach to encouraging, supporting, expanding and promoting mobile learning.

Excellence in Inclusivity What are others doing? Select case studies by learner need, technology used or name of institution

Teaching Students with Learning Disabilities

Over to you Q1: Do you have any interesting examples where you or your colleagues have used technology in interesting or innovative ways to support learners? OR Q2: Have you seen any interesting uses of technology to support learners over the last academic year that others might be interested in hearing about?