Special School
Current ICT Status: Intermediate Stage
School Profile
- 7 teachers
- 50 students with mild to moderate levels of learning disability and somestudents with other disabilities
- 7 computers (4 in classrooms and 3 in the resource room)
- Assortment of peripherals (switches, alternative mice and keyboards, etc.)
- 4 printers
- Selection of educational software
- Internet connection in the school office
ICT Adoption To Date
The staff developed their original ICT plan with the assistance of a colleague from another special school and they update their plan on an annual basis. Some members of staff have participated in NCTE's Introductory Phase 1 and 2 courses and there is now a core team of three teachers driving the integration of ICT within the school. The school currently has 7 computers and 4 printers along with a limited number of basic reinforcement software titles. A small number of peripherals (such as switches and alternative mice/keyboards) have also been purchased to assist students in operating the computer.
Staff are anxious to receive further training in order to fully exploit the beneficial aspects of ICT use in the school. At the moment, the Internet is only accessible from the computer in the principal's office - this makes it difficult for students and teachers to access the Web, or to send and receive e-mail. Staff tend to use the Internet primarily to access special needs information on ScoilNet and to source curriculum content for classroom use.
Plans to Reach Advanced Stage
Although each classroom has its own computer and printer, there is as yet no co-ordinated approach to integrating ICT throughout the school. Over the next three years the school will incorporate ICT into its overall school plan, primarily focusing on matching the needs of individual students to appropriate ICT resources. Since most of the staff are new to using ICT with students with special needs, whole school training on ICT and special needs is planned in order to further explore how ICT can play a positive role in assisting these students. At least one member of staff will attend a Basic Troubleshooting course in order to deal with minor computer maintenance issues.
Having participated in whole school special needs and ICT training, the staff plan to purchase additional hardware, software and peripherals. In addition to purchasing eight more computers, all classrooms will be wired and networked so that all computers and printers can be connected to a server and the Internet. Students and teachers will have access to relevant resources and the Internet, and they will also have the facility of saving documents on the school server. The majority of software purchased to date has been content rich, e.g., basic literacy and numeracy drill and practice, spellings, etc. In future, the staff plan to purchase more content-free software, such as a word processing application, presentation and multimedia authoring software. They also plan to purchase a digital camera so that students can take photographs of themselves and their local environment and incorporate these into their digital productions.
The staff intend to use the Internet more to communicate with colleagues, primarily through the ScoilNet special needs discussion group for mild and moderate learning disabilities, where they can discuss topics of mutual interest. They also plan to source lesson plans on ScoilNet, as well as locate useful information on specific disabilities and current research in the area of special needs. As the school will be networked, students will have improved Internet access. This will allow them participate in a range of e-mail projects, such as revolving stories, and to share student writing with schools around the globe. During the coming year, the older students plan to participate in a number of Web treasure hunts on curriculum topics such as electricity, endangered species and famous buildings of the world. Finally, the school intends to develop its own Web site where students can regularly publish their work for the benefit of the wider school community.
Management and Planning
- Major focus on matching students' needs to appropriate technology (i.e., peripherals, software, etc.)
ICT Resources and Infrastructure
- Purchase 8 additional desktop computers and related peripherals
- Purchase a laptop computer
- Purchase a digital camera
- Purchase educational software
- Network and wire 10 rooms (7 classrooms, plus the staff room, resource roomand library)
- Source and agree a maintenance contract for all computers in the school
ICT and the Curriculum
- Integrate the use of e-mail and the Web into daily classroom activity
- Focus more on the use of content-free software in all subject areas
- Use the digital camera to record daily school events (i.e., school trips, climate change, school visitors, sporting occasions, etc.)
School ICT Culture
- Staff are to utilise the Internet to communicate with colleagues and locate appropriate content
Staff Development
- Staff are to identify their specific training needs
- Whole school training on ICT and special needs is to be undertaken
- One teacher is to be sent to an annual special needs conference and any other relevant seminars/events in the field
- One teacher is to attend the NCTE Basic Troubleshooting course
- One teacher is to attend the NCTE Internet and E-mail course
- A number of staff are to attend the NCTE Multimedia Authoring course
