[Eoghan O’Neill]

Hi Eoin,

I think you have highlighted a really excellent and important point around the principles of Cosán. The new class that most teachers will get each September have different needs, interests and personalities. What worked well in the previous year may not work well with the new group of children you will receive. Therefore, we must be reactive to this, and identify the professional development needs that will meet these interests. Ensuring we maintain high standards in the profession is essential to meeting the evolving needs of the education system.

[Eoghan O’Neill]

Hi Eoin,

Thank you for your post. For those with moderate learning difficulties (and often, also mild general learning difficulties), the use of systematic phonics instruction is often difficult to implement. Assistive technologies are particularly useful in this regard. Tools like Immersive Reader and Dictate enables pupils to aurally decode and orally express their thoughts. As you have mentioned, this all happens with frustration levels kept low. The knock-on effect of this is that children can often develop an interest in text/reading, where they previously were put off by the struggle that it caused.

[Eoghan O’Neill]

Hi Damien,

Thanks for sharing your quiz, which showcases your skills in designing a Google Forms quiz. The quiz is certainly topical for those in the senior primary classes. You are correct to say that it can remove the stress and anxiety from written tests, and that it can cater to a number of different learning styles. The incorporation of a video clip is one example of this, and you have included it within your own quiz. This assists children who may find it difficult to read excerpts or chunks of text.

[Eoghan O’Neill]

Hi Maureen,

It goes without saying that the future is digital, and that digital literacy and proficiency is now an essential life skill. The issue of teacher confidence in engaging with digital tools has been spoken about for a long time now. The best thing we can do is to experiment with a small number of digital tools each year. We can then make an informed decision about the tools that are useful, and those that are not. The use of digital technology certainly allows for a more facultative role, as the students guide their own learning more so than traditional means. It is those engaging learning experiences that we are all seeking to create, and digital technology is one medium through which we can achieve that.

[Eoghan O’Neill]

Hi Catherine,

I’m delighted that the course has equipped you with more knowledge, confidence and skills in relation to learning difficulties such as dyspraxia, dyslexia and dyscalculia, as well as the various assistive technologies that can help each. PowerPoint Live is such a powerful tool, and can work in particularly effective ways with EAL students. In terms of numeracy, Top Marks is an excellent resource, full of engaging content. However, I also love to use the myriad of virtual manipulatives that can be found on the Toy Theatre website.

[Eoghan O’Neill]

Hi Aoife,

Thank you for your post. Your suggested outline for using the Microsoft Lens is excellent, and really showcases how technologies can help bridge the gap between pupils that has been created by a learning difficulty. As you have said, dyslexia can impact on a child’s numeracy development. as well as literacy when they reach the senior classes. So much of senior maths requires pupils to decipher word problems, and a literacy difficulty can really impede them. Once they know how to use the assistive technologies outlined, they could really work to their strengths and continue to make progress, in line with that of their peers.

[Eoghan O’Neill]

Hi Maebh,

Google Drive is such a powerful tool, and with the 100TB storage per school domain, it is something which effectively offers unlimited storage. Using it effectively has so many benefits, and the Applied Digital Skills steps are a great guide. I find ‘Drive for Desktop’, which can be downloaded on the settings cog at the top right of the Drive home screen excellent. The moves your Google Drive onto your desktop, and you can save items directly as you would to documents on your computer. Having this functionality removes the need to use the web browser and takes some steps away from the saving/uploading of files.

[Eoghan O’Neill]

Hi Aoife,

Welcome to the course and thank you for your detailed post. It is clear that you have engaged deeply with the DLF and have offered many suggestions for the ways in which the use of assistive technologies can be ‘mapped’ to different statements and standards. I particularly like the ‘leading and supporting a culture of innovation and improvement in using using digital technologies’. As reflective practitioners, it is that ‘improvement’ and ‘innovation’ that will allow us to provide more relevant and engaging learning experiences for our students. The use of digital technologies (and assistive technologies, in particular) is one way in which we can achieve this.

[Eoghan O’Neill]

Hi Jennifer,

Thanks for your post. Kahoot! is certainly an engaging learning tool, which could be used very effectively for the case study you have chosen. Keeping the pupil engaged and interested in the learning is crucial for progress to occur. Ed Puzzle is a tool which I personally love using in any setting. The ability to rename the video or remove the original title is something that can be very useful if you want to use it for research purposes. ‘Variety’ is so important and you have referenced this in your post. Ensuring the children in our schools have access to varied tools and varied learning experiences is so important to their overall progress and development.

[Eoghan O’Neill]

Hi Aoife,

Thank you for your post and for outlining your approach to meeting the needs of a pupil with dyscalculia. This is a challenging learning difficulty to overcome, and the research out there related to it is very much in its infancy (especially when compared to specific literacy difficulties, like dyslexia). The use of concrete materials and manipulatives is a key component of any maths lesson in an SET setting. There is also the scope to use some virtual manipulatives if the concrete approach is stagnating – these can be found on Toy Theatre and The Math Learning Centre.

[Eoghan O’Neill]

Hi Cal,

Thank you for your post and for sharing your digital story with us. It is clear that you have grasped the most important functionality of using Google Slides. An added benefit of embedding the YouTube video within the slide (as you have done) is that ads will not play on the video. As you have pointed out, the Google Workspace tools allow extra scope in terms of how you frame the lesson. It allows us to go much further and extend the learning more than with the traditional ‘pen and paper’ approach. The integrated nature of the suite allows multiple tools to be used when covering the same topic, ensuring variety and appropriate levels of challenge.

[Eoghan O’Neill]

Hi Aoife,

Thanks for providing this sample lesson activity for your pupil with reading and writing difficulties. There are so many tools out there to help children with literacy difficulties (in particular). The ability to have the text read aloud and to have text transcribed from speech really offers children the opportunity to have themselves represented on paper. We often hear about children who are very strong and competent orally, and how this doesn’t translate to their written work. This can lead to self-doubt and create a stigma around the writing process. Having access to some of the tools you have included in your post as an aid could really be transformative for these pupils.

[Eoghan O’Neill]

Hi Aoife,

You have made an excellent point here regarding the benefits of using tools like Immersive Reader and Dictate in the mainstream setting, as well as an SEN setting. It is so important that we move towards a space where there is a continuity between the tools used in the classroom and the SEN room. The likelihood is that if a tool helps one student with SEN, it will help all children in a class to some degree. Both speech-to-text and text-to-speech software has a key role to play in assisting those with specific learning needs and should be embraced in all settings.

[Eoghan O’Neill]

Hi Annmarie,

Welcome to the course and thank you for your post. I’m sure you will have noticed that the functionality of Google and Microsoft Forms is very similar, and many of the skills you developed with Google would be transferrable. The issue of homework is one which is certainly contentious in many schools, and it is very challenging to reach a consensus among staff/parents. However, the use of a survey tool to gather as much data as possible is a great first step in this area. You will find the 365 tools very useful in this regard.

[Eoghan O’Neill]

Hi Christy,

Thanks for the post and for the breakdown you have provided of a potential SETT plan. What I really like about the SETT model is that it really forces us to think about specific scenarios and the exact measures we plan to take to positively impact the learning experience of the individual child. PowerPoint Live is a great tool, and thanks for pointing this out. Its functionality in multiple languages makes it an ideal tool for EAL learners.

[Author]

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