If we could pool the collective sweat beads of the student populations who have recently finished their Leaving and Junior Certs, we'd surely have our first Olympic-sized swimming pool, with or without ministerial funding.
For some, preparation for the dreaded Leaving and Junior Certificates consisted of months of diligent labour, others relied on last minute cramming. And for others, its breadth is a whole lot wider, encompassing everything from voluminous reading, to technical overhauls of PCs, last-minute reviews of voice recognition files, or simply the collection of miles of audiotape, readied for the interminable hours of dictation which will supplement handwriting while the clock ticks each three-hour paper away.
Students with disabilities are no longer limited to the standard pen and paper when it comes to participating in their education. Or at least, they should no longer be so constrained, assuming that their school has some knowledge of what assistive technologies are out there to support them. Tom Daly, a secondary school teacher from Boherbue Comprehensive in Cork, is a teacher with more than a smidgin of knowledge of how Assistive Technology @ can level the playing pitch for students with disabilities in mainstream schools. Over the past four years, he has managed no less than three projects related to IT in education.
Daly's brainchild, the SOLAS SIP project, piloted a regional system of Assistive Technology provision and support in Cork and Kerry from June 1999 to June 2001. It was funded by the Department of Education and Science through the Schools IT2000 initiative, and specifically through the Schools Integration Project (SIP) of the National Centre for Technology in Education (NCTE). SIP projects are intended to help determine models of good practice for the use of information and communication technology across the Irish education system. "I suppose one of the most basic things we learn at school is how to read and write," Tom Daly suggests, by way of introduction to the raison d'Ωtre of the SIP project. "Some students with disabilities have basic problems with those fundamental tasks and the technology can enable them to access reading and writing more easily. What we're talking about first and foremost is functional
literacy." Technology is re-shaping how teachers view the student's acquisition of the three R's, Daly suggests. "Our concept of literacy needs to change with the emerging technology", he insists. "Literacy can have different forms now. The physical mechanics of writing and communication are no longer strictly necessary so we need to consider alternative forms of literacy such as digital literacy, and how they can fit into the curriculum. We also have to begin thinking about a rigorous system of teaching this form of literacy to those students with disabilities who will be dependent on it."
Despite the plethora of AT now on the market, from screen-readers to voice recognition software, alternative keyboards and mice, and Microsoft's own built-in Accessibility features (available on all Windows Operating Systems), AT is still the province of the few. Awareness of how AT can benefit students in accessing their education is still at a low ebb, as Tom Daly admits.
"We have no statistics on AT use in schools", he says, "and the mainstreaming trend has resulted in students who in the past might have attended specialist schools, now attending their local school. Many local schools don't have a tradition of, or expertise, or insight into how to meet the needs of these pupils. The support structures in the education system are gradually on a catch-up curve so that's where this project came in."
The SIP project's aim was to act outside of existing systems and practices, and to test alternative ways in which students with disabilities could potentially access the curriculum.
While the Department does currently provide funding for AT, the SOLAS SIP project was concerned with finding how the technologies can be best fitted into the practicalities of school life. Special provision for examinations (including additional time, use of a scribe, use of a tape recorder, or voice recognition software/PC use) is available to students with disabilities, but this hardly addresses their ongoing needs throughout the academic year.
"The idea of a student's education being tailored to suit their particular abilities and needs is a more long term process", Daly offers, "and finding ways of accrediting and evaluating that within the system will also take time."
So what has Tom Daly he identified as key to the student's successful use of AT in the classroom and at home? "At the end of the day, decisions are best made in the school with teachers having a very strong role", he says. Sometimes there may be a large gap between what technology might work in theory and what will work in a particular classroom. "What this project aimed to do was not to be narrowly prescriptive about what technology a teacher should use with a pupil; rather, in the classroom, we looked at the child and the system and a range of possible options. Then, in discussion with the teacher, a decision would be made about what would work in that particular situation, with the teacher, and special needs assistant playing a major role in supporting that pupil in using the technology."
Daly is quick to highlight the fact that students' technology needs will change over time, and that ongoing support is the key to success. "The emphasis must move from an outside expert body, to give teachers a central role in the decision-making", he insists.
"They should have ownership and responsibility, and shouldn't be mere dependents in the process. It has to be a solution that works for the student and for the school, and of course, teachers need to be supported in this regard."
Enabling Technologies, a guide to the use of AT in education, is published by the SOLAS/SIP Project with support from the National Development Plan, the Department of Education and Science, the Southwest Regional Authority and the National Centre for Technology in Education. www.enabletech.ie
slong@irish-times.ie