Workshops

:: UPCOMING WORKSHOPS ::

Half-Day Workshop

Seminar: Classroom Teaching Strategies: using technology for inclusive education

Our students are becoming more diverse in their learning needs. The sort of strategies required to ensure the success of all students in the classroom are changing all the time. As a larger portion of students with diverse learning needs are now in mainstream education, we are understanding more about what their core challenges are: knowing what to do in a lesson, keeping up with the pace of the classroom, organising their thoughts, working as part of a group, and managing their emotions.

In this workshop, educator Craig Smith will look at the diverse range of learning needs students have across our classrooms, and will demonstrate how teachers can use a range of technologies to best support their students. Craig’s approach is to show how simple, everyday technology resources create great learning benefits for all students. As well, Craig also shows how innovative, advanced technological tools are giving students in inclusive education settings many new wonderful opportunities across the world.

Educators will leave this workshop with many new resources and strategies to take back into their classrooms. They will feel confident in knowing how to use free, available technology resources to support the inclusive learning goals of their classroom, and will gain new insights into the latest technological tools that can help take student progress even further.

Speaker: Craig Smith

Craig Smith has worked as a classroom teacher, researcher and education consultant for the past sixteen years. He has primarily worked in schools for children on the autism spectrum and is currently a national manager of an autism education program in Australia. Craig has served on the special education advisory board at the University of Newcastle and has been awarded recognition as an Apple Distinguished Educator for his innovations in using technology in the classroom. Over the past decade, Craig has travelled around the world and worked with educators on the latest approaches to supporting students in both mainstream and special education environments. He is passionate about recognising the strengths and interests of students, about the role of technology in this space, and about creative ways to help achieve greater inclusion across schools. Recent keynote presentations and masterclass workshops include sessions for education ministries in Dubai and Singapore, for the United Nations in China, and across South Africa, New Zealand and Australia.

Course Outline

1. Diverse Learners: what are their needs?
   • Look at what we mean by diverse learners
   • Explore the latest research, including the Educational Needs Analysis, on the challenges that students report they have in the classroom
   • Understand how to identify diverse learning needs in our classrooms
2. Universal Design for Learning
   • What is Universal Design for Learning?
   • How does Universal Design for Learning apply in inclusive classrooms in 2022?
   • Look at case studies of how this framework is used in classrooms across the world
3. Executive Functioning
   • Learn about the range of learning needs we call Executive Functioning, including:
     • how students plan and organise their work
     • how they manage their time
     • how their working memory operates
     • how they start and finish tasks
     • how they monitor their work
     • and, how they manage their emotions
4. Technology in the Inclusive Classroom
   • Explore the idea of cognitive load and how technology can support this
   • Learn about the range of free accessibility tools built into our everyday computer software that can help student literacy, executive functioning and cognitive load needs
   • See practical ways to begin immediately using these technologies in your classroom
5. Advanced and Innovative Learning Technologies
   • Understand the range of technological tools that are supporting students in inclusive classrooms to learn new skills through their diverse needs, including:
     • Using mobile technologies (like iPad) to create augmented reality experiences that tap into new sensory ways of learning
     • Using virtual reality (like Oculus) to introduce new ways of seeing the world for students, to then bring back into traditional classroom learning outcomes
     • Using maker resources (like 3D printers) to teach students with diverse needs how to solve real-world problems
     • Using digital art and video tools to create virtual avatars that students can use to help present their work in engaging new ways
6. Resources and Next Steps
   • Receive digital resources and supports to help you take what you’ve learned in this workshop straight into your classroom
   • Plan your next steps for incorporating technology into the inclusive classroom to support a range of diverse learners in the coming weeks

Course Objectives

On completion of this workshop, participants will be able to:

1. Understand the broad range of diverse learners in our schools
2. Identify these diverse learning needs in your classroom
3. Discuss the research associated with current inclusive learning challenges
4. Know how to incorporate Universal Design for Learning in your lesson plans
5. Recognise the role that Executive Functioning has on student achievement
6. Use available technology to tap into accessibility supports for our students
7. Show others how to use valuable everyday technological learning tools
8. Understand a range of new, innovative technology resources that can further support the success of diverse learners in inclusive classrooms
9. Plan to incorporate these technologies into classroom projects and individual student goals
10. Share resources and learnings with colleagues and families to help them understand the role that technology can play in supporting diverse learners

Who Can Benefit?

This workshop is appropriate for all grade levels (pre-k to secondary) special education and general education teachers, tutors, technologists, social workers, counsellors, psychologists, and administrators.

Course Fees & Closing Dates

Registration Type	Closing Date	Fees (S$) /pax
	30 Jul 2022	150
Normal	Till Full	180