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Hi Elaine,
Thanks for your post. As an SEN teacher, OneNote would be an excellent aid for the distribution and organisation of content. The ability to label and colour-code content has huge benefits for all children, especially those with SEN. The ability to use yellow backgrounds is beneficial for dyslexic students, and the ‘Immersive Reader’ is a real game-changer for those with specific learning difficulties.
You have also highlighted many of the ‘admin’ features that OneNote could be used for. It really could form the basis of a ‘digital staffroom’, where resources are stored, worked on and monitored.
Hi Arlene,
As you have pointed out, OneNote is a really useful and effective tool for staff collaboration and for use with the children in senior classes. It could be a really effective tool for a ‘flipped classroom’ approach where content is shared and gone through at home, before coming to school ready to engage in some interactive activities based on what they studied. Pen and paper is very limited, and OneNote demonstrates just how effective a ‘digital notebook’ can be.
Hi Louise,
Welcome to the course. There are so many resources and tools available within the Office 365 suite, and one is always learning. Most schools will start out at a very basic level and gradually word will spread of another great tool they can use. I am also a big fan of using Forms over Kahoot! as I find the assessment data you get much more reliable. The ability to insert images, videos, recordings, etc. are great tools for differentiation and accessibility. As you have said, the Microsoft Education Centre really is a ‘go to’ resource. There are so many excellent courses available and one could easily spend months upskilling and learning new features.
Hi Liz,
The debating topic you have chosen is certainly very relevant and emotive. The activity you have chosen certainly places a focus on 21st century skills, and particularly that of ‘skilled communication’. I really like the way you have managed to integrate so many of the Google apps into your plan in such a meaningful way. There is so much learning and skill development evident here, and it really is the essence of a 21st century activity.
Hi Tomas,
I fully agree around the importance of teachers being aware of the SSE guidelines and the elements of each stage. Too often, we are given a plan that has been created by school management and told we need to be doing x, y and z. It’s important for teachers to be involved and invested in the process. Doing this will ensure that they have a greater understanding of both the ‘what’ and the ‘why’ of what is being done. This can also lead to greater investment and participation in the review and evaluation of the improvement plan.
Hi James,
From the description you have provided, Sway and Forms would be the ideal tools to use in your setting. Sway has the potential to be used for both ‘content consumption’ and ‘content creation’. As you have said, it could be used as a teaching aid initially, and a Forms quiz could assess understanding of the content.
Moving on from this, you could gradually release some independence and look at adding some of their own content to Sway templates, before working on building their own from scratch. It would serve as the idea tool for an ePortfolio within this setting also.
Hi Áine,
Welcome to the course. You have touched on many of the issues around special education in Ireland in your post. Tight budgets make it essential that we make the ‘right’ decision when purchasing AT’s. However, there are so many different options out there and the needs of individual children are so unique. This is what makes it such a minefield.
Having a knowledge of as many different options as possible will allow you to make more informed decisions, when presented with the individual needs of each child. This is extremely challenging in a special class setting, as needs are ever evolving and may required low/medium/high tech solutions in the one year.
Hi Tomás,
Welcome to the course. Thank you for asking the question around the use of Kahoot! versus the use of Forms.
While the children love Kahoot! I would always opt for either Forms or Socrative when designing an assessment. Forms allows you to add media files and images for each of the ‘answer options’, which is a paid feature within Kahoot! Furthermore, I feel the timed nature of Kahoot! and the fact they can only see four colours on their screen makes it unreliable in terms of assessment data. Children are concerned with answering quickly and getting their name on the leaderboard. In my opinion, there is a place for both, but Forms would be more of a ‘go-to’ in terms of assessment.
Hi Niamh,
As a growing school, the use of an online platform such as Teams would be hugely beneficial. It will allow you to create a series of plans, schemes, policies, etc. and have them stored away as the school grows.
We operate a similar system of uploading the Cuntas Míosúil as you have outlined. This is effective as it cuts out some work for the principal, but also produces a level of accountability for the teacher. Given that everyone has access to this, it’s unlikely that late Cuntas Míosúil’s would be a regular occurrence. Your suggestion for using it to keep teachers on leave / job-sharing in the loop is an excellent one.
Hi Seán,
Like many others, the pandemic highlighted the potential of digital technology to you. Creating daily digital content and resources is extremely challenging – thankfully, it can now be used as a resource to assist (rather than replace) our instruction. You have listed some of the many advantages to its use – one of these is the ease at which work can be differentiated. This is especially evident in school, where each child is using the same device, and the ‘differentiation’ is not noticeable. The children are unaware they are completing modified tasks, and it is great for the self-esteem of all in the class.
SSE is a great opportunity for schools to select specific areas for improvement, if done right. As you have written, it is most often the formalisation of different projects and initiatives being done. The ‘review’ phases are so important, and it is key that all staff are supported in terms of implementing whatever the change is.
Hi Seán,
As you have said, very often accessibility apps can often be counter-intuitive and very difficult to use. There are a number of Chrome extensions like this, and it can be quite frustrating. However, the majority of the in-built Microsoft tools are very easy to use and designed specifically to meet the needs of struggling learners. Immersive Reader and OneNote are perfect examples of this. The ability to split OneNote work into folders and label/colour code everything can be hugely beneficial to visual learners and those who struggle with organisation.
Hi Andreu,
Thanks for your post. Thanks for sharing your SESE activity with us and for bringing up the topic of ‘safe search engines’. Kiddle and Kidrex have long been the market leaders when it comes to child-friendly search engines. There is now a new search engine called ‘Swiggle’, which works in the same way.
The ‘Minecraft Education Edition’ is an excellent resource. Indeed, there are a number of excellent resources available for free on https://code.org/ These activities include a number of self-paced and self-directed units of work, which is an excellent guide for teachers new to coding.
Hi Julie,
Welcome to the course. From reading your post, it’s fair to say that there is nothing for you to fear within Microsoft Teams. You are already using a large number of the available and relevant functions. It’s great that your SET team have such strong collaborative structures built already.
The issue of access to devices for all children is an important consideration. While laptops and tablets may not be available in every home, it’s likely that there is access to a smartphone. Therefore, while it might be more difficult to create content, it is possible for all children to access things you have shared to help their learning, e.g. tutorial videos, audio recordings, etc.
Hi Laura,
As you have referred to, OneNote really can become your ‘hub’ of learning and school activity due to its functionality. The ability to divide work up helps both teachers and students from an organisational point of view. Immersive Reader is one of my favourite tools to use, and it makes learning so accessible to those who struggling with literacy.
The use of Office 365 / Google for email is almost always the first step schools take. Experiment a little with the O365 tools, and gradually attempt to bring them into your practice, both individually and as a school.
