You Need
Using Inclusive Software with your Interactive Whiteboard
Keith Riley-Gledhill of Sir Charles Parsons School shares his ideas
It is exactly a year since
I was lucky enough to win a SmartBoard, projector and installation in a
competition. At that time I had only seen an interactive whiteboard in use
during a staff training session. Its ability to read handwritten notes was
magical but it seemed to me that the board was really just a gigantic switch
and I was immediately thinking of those students with gross movements but who
were unable to use a mouse.
Until a year ago lessons had begun with us crowding around a 15 inch monitor as software was demonstrated. Life is much better now as we have a 60 inch SmartBoard and students can not only watch but more importantly interact with the software.
This is great
but it is not the most important benefit of the SmartBoard. I made a couple of
programs for those students with gross movements, so that they were able to
make choices. A student who could touch the image of a CD on the board could
play the CD, balloons floating
across the screen could be popped. This was perhaps the first time these
students had been able to make a meaningful choice on the computer.
At lunchtime I
run a computer club in the ICT suite. Students with PMLD/SLD use either switch
access or the SmartBoard. A tremendous benefit of the SmartBoard has been the
way in which it encourages students to interact with each other as well as the
board. We have the excellent IT
Mouse Skills software from Inclusive Technology. This is a delightful
program for developing all of the basic mouse skills and is just as valuable on
the SmartBoard because students who cannot use a mouse can develop the same
skills on the SmartBoard.
One of the early difficulties experienced by our wheelchair users, and students unable to raise their arms high, was in reaching the top part of the board. This encouraged students to interact with each other. All students want to touch the board and because students often have to share computers during computer club we have able-bodied students sharing the board with "the board user". The rule is that able-bodied students are responsible for action at the top of the board while "the board user" has charge of the lower part. This has enabled "the board user" and friend to use software such a Ziko World and simple jigsaw programs.
The excellent early number program "Making Sense With Numbers" has also been very popular as a computer club activity. Students interact to take turns to activate the board and collaborate to work out answers. They are learning that only one person can touch at a time so different methods of turn taking have been used for different activities.
There are
several noisy painting programs on the market.
My Noisy Colouring Book is one
of the best and it was while using this that we gave students a drumstick so
that they could reach higher parts of the board. Not surprisingly we are not
the only people to have thought of that one. The colours for this program are
up on the right hand side of the screen so students collaborate. One student
chooses colours while the other decides where to put them.
We have also found that students interact using simple software like Touch. The student able to stand is responsible for touching the high shapes but also helps teach the other student to touch the other shapes.
Even in a school like ours with firm beliefs in inclusive education it is very easy for the less able students to become somewhat isolated. The SmartBoard has brought more students with complex needs into computer club and has certainly helped to involve them in meaningful ways with all other students.
The
SmartBoard has been such a valuable piece of equipment that we have already
bought four more boards. All are permanent fixtures and improve the quality of
teaching and learning by increasing visibility and providing a means of
interaction within a lesson. It is, however, the access that the SmartBoard has
provided for a small group of students that is, perhaps, its most valuable
feature.
Keith Riley-Gledhill
Advanced Skills Teacher, Sir
Charles Parsons School
Sir Charles Parsons School is a special school for boys and girls who have severe and profound and multiple learning difficulties. Sir Charles Parsons is situated in the east end of the city of Newcastle Upon Tyne. The school had approximately 130 students on roll at the beginning of the 2002/3 academic year.