[Eoghan O’Neill]

Hi Derek,

Welcome to the course and thank you for your post here. I hope you found some of the content within the Google Teachers Centre useful for you. You have chosen a very good example from the Applied Digital Skills section. I have loved incorporating Google Drawings into teaching and learning in recent years. It can both be used to develop student design skills, and as teacher to create a variety of ‘drag and drop’ or labelling teacher designed tasks and assessments.

[Eoghan O’Neill]

Hi Rachel,

Welcome to the course and thank you for sharing your thoughts on development education and the different ways you think it could be integrated within the classroom and curriculum. Many of the points you have raised, such as developing critical thinking and fostering empathy are key aims of the new draft curricula and departmental publications, such as the Wellbeing Framework. This points to development education themes having a key place in the classroom going forward.

[Eoghan O’Neill]

Hi Muireann,

Thank you for your post and for sharing some insights into the work completed in Tralee by that organisation. You are right when you say schools can be key drivers in getting messages out and collecting resources/supplies for those who are in need. Schools generally have access to families from a range of backgrounds, interests and socio-economic status, which makes them an ideal place for seeking help, resources, etc. for those in the greatest need.

[Eoghan O’Neill]

Hi Maire,

Thanks for your post and for your engagement throughout the course. There are many similarities between the Google and Microsoft education offerings, and both have areas they are really strong in. You are correct to highlight the lack of basic skills students may have, despite the fact they may be spending lots of time on devices. Chromebooks are an excellent classroom tool, and offer serious ‘bang for book’. Once you are up and running with the use of Google Classroom, I am confident that you won’t look back and hopefully you’ll be able to apply some of the ideas from throughout the course.

[Eoghan O’Neill]

Hi Sinéad,

Thank you for your comprehensive post here and for your engagement throughout the course. I like how you have been able to use the SETT model as a starting point for planning targeted interventions for a 5th class pupil. As you have said, Immersive Reader is hugely flexible and can be used to allow a child to keep up with the remainder of their class, especially if their need is a specific literacy difficulty like dyslexia. Often, children with dyslexia can be highly adept orally and have strong listening comprehension skills, but meet the barrier of not being able to access content that requires a high reading level. The way you have described using assistive technologies would be a great way to ensure this pupil participates fully and reaches their own potential.

[Eoghan O’Neill]

Hi Brendan,

Thank you for your post. I think the frustration you have explained for a child who is struggling to read content at a similar level to his/her peers is something we all have experienced. You can feel the frustration, and wish there was more you could do to remove these barriers. I like the way you have suggested using Office Lens and Immersive Reader to focus on one line at a time. Often, large swathes of text can be off-putting for a child with literacy difficulties and breaking it down into smaller chunks can make it much more accessible in itself.

[Eoghan O’Neill]

Hi Sinéad,

Absolutely no problem at all. It’s likely that a Word document or website would be used to enable the Immersive Reader technology. There’s no need to attach it  – a couple of sentences explaining how it could be used for pupils with SEN is more than sufficient given the detail you have out into part 2 of the response.

[Eoghan O’Neill]

Hi Ciara,

Thank you for your post here and for your engagement throughout the course. Cork is an area that really does get hit hardest by extreme weather, particularly rainfall in Ireland. It’s likely that children will have heard their parents speak of people they know whose homes and/or businesses have been destroyed by flood waters. This will really hammer home the negative impacts of these extreme events and the importance of taking steps to reduce these and ensure they are less commonplace than they have been in recent years. You have provided three suggestions that are very achievable and will get the whole school community involved in efforts to reduce waste and become more sustainable.

[Eoghan O’Neill]

Hi Odhrán,

Thank you for your post. As you have referred to, we are all very lucky to be living in a prosperous nation such as Ireland. However, you are very right to highlight that inequality is not something that is pigeon holed into certain corners of the world. Inequality exists in Ireland, and children are coming to school from many different backgrounds. Reducing inequalities, locally as well as globally, is an excellent focus for children to have.

[Eoghan O’Neill]

Hi Mary,

Thank you for your post. I am sorry to hear of the unfortunate diagnosis of the child you have mentioned and wish him/her a full recovery. It is fortunate that we have so many useful assistive tools that can help bridge the gap for children with SEN and/or those who miss significant periods of school due to health concerns. Many people on the forum have spoken about the benefits of Immersive Reader, and I’m delighted you have also honed in on Dictate. I often describe this as the inverse of Immersive Reader, and can be really transformative in helping children with literacy difficulties get their thoughts down in writing.

[Eoghan O’Neill]

Hi Sinead,

With regards to part 1, simply creating a Forms quiz, designing a PowerPoint, using Edge as a web browser are all perfectly acceptable. The description can then focus on how a children with SEN could benefit from using this for accessing content. You have highlighted some interesting insights into your reading of the Cosán Framework. As you have pointed out, many professions and jobs gave built-in training and upskilling programmes – unfortunately in teaching, much of this is on the individual teacher’s own terms and there can be huge disparity in the levels of proficiency between teachers in different areas.

[Eoghan O’Neill]

Hi Odhrán,

Welcome to the course and thank you for sharing your thoughts with us. You have touched upon some great points which really capture the essence of the value of pursuing development education in schools. Creating opportunities for children to engage in collaborative projects and forging links with community organisations, and how children can apply what they are learning in their own lives is so important for sustainable growth in this area.

[Eoghan O’Neill]

Hi Brendan,

Thanks for sharing your post with us and how you would envisage the use of Immersive Reader and Office Lens in an infant school setting. Very often, at this age group the gap between those who ‘can’ and ‘cannot’ read can be quite large as emergent readers begin to establish their reading skills. However you have also raised a crucial point around teacher competence. To be able to fully utilise these tools in the classroom, we need to have some experience of using these ourselves and knowing little tricks that will help us get the most out of them.

[Eoghan O’Neill]

Hi Ciara,

Thank you for sharing the work of some of these Cork based organisations with us, as well as the excellent efforts made within your own school community. It is often at times of crisis that the best sides of humanity are shown. You have made a really important point regarding the arrival of people from Ukraine – greater collaborative efforts and communication between schools and these organisations will allow us to support these pupils in the best way possible.

[Eoghan O’Neill]

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