Quick reminder: What is DigitALL?
The project aims to provide guidance and training for primary to secondary school teachers in adapting digital content for their students with specific needs. Many teachers and schools try to offer inclusive solutions to their students, but digital content and distance learning require new adaptations and skills. Therefore, teachers need support in acquiring the digital skills necessary to implement quality distance learning and creating and organising these digital lessons and content in the most inclusive way possible.
The project resources focus on inclusive pedagogy and content adaptation of online educational material. There will be more than 200 practical resources altogether! They are:
- A guide on digital adaptation needs based on literature, expert’s recommendations and need analysis conducted over 500 participants.
- 50 Practical Adaptation Sheets on written and multimedia content and pedagogical practices.
- A Toolbox with 50 inclusive digital resources and tools for online education.
- 50 Video Tutorials on the adaptation of content and use of digital tools.
- 10 Adaptation Checklists for different types of specific needs
- 50 Worksheets for teachers to practice the adaptation of educational content.
Let’s look a little more into what’s being prepared!
The practical adaptation sheets provide guidelines and practical advice for teachers and schools to create inclusive content and adopt inclusive teaching practices. This means that their online lessons would be designed inclusively from the beginning of their preparation. The surveys carried out during the pandemic indicate that teachers are asking for short and quick courses on digital skills and adaptation of online material to motivate and engage all their learners.
This shows the significant lack of information and training on inclusion in e-learning. From work done so far, we have created visual practical sheets on topics such as:
- Using audiobooks and educational material adapted to the needs of pupils with specific learning disorders during lessons to promote inclusion.
- Using interactive tools such as flashcards, animations, etc.
- Education gaming to make lessons more stimulating.
- Software to help pupils with spelling and internet navigation for example.
- And many more!
These adaptations will, of course, include the format of the font, the layout, etc. but will also focus on the pedagogy, the presentation of the lesson, its organisation and evaluation and feedback.
The practical adaptation sheets will be available in English and 5 EU languages (French, Greek, Italian, Romanian, Portuguese) thus making them accessible for a lot of people worldwide and countries sharing the partners’ native languages. The inclusive format guidelines will also be applied to these sheets, thus also making them accessible for teachers with specific needs.
The toolbox is a collection of 50 presentation sheets on different online resources, tools, and software for online learning. The inclusiveness and accessibility of those tools will, of course, be priority criteria for their selection. We have created a presentation sheet for each of these tools, including advice on how to use them effectively and inclusively for online learning. Each presentation sheet will provide:
- A description of the online tool/software/resource
- An explanation of how to use it for instruction
- An evaluation in terms of accessibility
- Practical tips for inclusive use of the online tool/software/resource
As shown in the School Education Gateway survey of teachers and schools, there is a considerable lack of lists of tools and resources for online learning. Though, they are highly necessary to provide an inclusive and practical online learning experience for all their students.
Teachers will use the toolbox to discover online tools and use them inclusively for their online teaching practice. It will also be a great indicator of accessibility regarding users with specific needs. Our investigation and selection led us to identify several helpful software tools for interacting with students through gaming and quizzes, making lessons more stimulating. We have also selected additional software to help students with Specific Learning Disorders, especially in spelling, reading and writing. The presentation sheets presenting tools in English will be available 6 languages, thus making them accessible for a higher number of users. For more targeted use, national tools available in the partners’ languages and countries will also be presented.
By providing these resources, the project will align with the priorities of the European Commission’s action plan on digital education, whose goal is “high quality, inclusive and accessible digital education in Europe”.
And looking at what is almost ready…
The guide on digital adaptation needs is in its last phase of proof-reading! Filled with advices from experts sources, information, tips and guidelines, this guide is a fountain of information about inclusion, online learning, special needs and more.
Cherry on top… Here is a peak at the cover page of our guide!
So stay updated !
Visit the project website: coming soon
Follow the project on Facebook: @Logopsycom
#DigitALLproject #accessibility #erasmusplusproject
In collaboration with: AIO (Association pour l’Innovation en orthopédagogie-Belgique), IST (Italy), the Regional Directorate of Primary and Secondary Education of Western Macedonia, Doamna Stanca (Romania) and Epralima (Portugal)