13/06/20141 Managing Change: A forum on the role of technology in Higher Education in Wales Wednesday 7 th May 2014 Venue: Media Resource Centre, Llandrindod Wells LD1 6AH 13/06/

13/06/20142 Dr Shirley Evans Jisc TechDis and Trustee - Association for Technology

Registered charity no Association for Learning Technology (ALT)

The Association for Learning Technology (ALT) is an independent educational charity. Our object is to advance education through increasing, exploring and disseminating knowledge in the field of Learning Technology for the benefit of the general public. ABOUT ALT

Learning Technology is ICT-based tools, services and systems to enhance learning and teaching. The Association for Learning Technology is the UK's leading independent professional and scholarly association in the Learning Technology field. We pursue our aims by improving practice, promoting research, and influencing policy. ABOUT ALT

1300 Members and counting from 27 countries across 5 continents representing 300+ organisations from across sectors schools, colleges, universities, lifelong learning, skills, research, industry and government including

ALT Aims Intelligent use of learning technology – promoting the intelligent use of learning technology, informed by pedagogy and evidence across learning contexts Research and practice – strengthening learning technology research and practice through collaboration, sharing and networking, nationally and internationally Strategy and policy – providing authoritative input to education leaders to help shape the development and use of learning technology Representing members – listening to and representing our members as the authoritative voice on learning technologys central role in learning Leadership and professional development – creating and supporting leadership and professional development in learning technology Communicating – providing clear information.

Research in Learning Technology Open Access

Get Involved the ALT Annual Conference for learning technologists and one of the largest conferences of its kind; a full programme of events, online and face to face, focused in practice and research in Learning Technology; the publication of Research in Learning Technology, ALTs peer-reviewed Open Access journal and occasional publications; networking and collaboration within our community of researchers, technologists, teachers, policy makers and industry from across schools, colleges and higher education; regular dissemination of policy developments, news in Learning Technology, consultation responses and our Policy Board; professional development and leadership in Learning Technology; the independent and self-funded work of a professional Association run by and for its members; the authoritative voice of our members represented in policy developments. Special Interest Groups around topics such as Open Educational Resources, Video in Education, Games and MOOCs.

ALT SIG Wales ALT Wales is a national SIG for practitioners and researchers in learning technology based in Wales. Planned remit is to: further the aims of ALT in Wales; promote the technology agenda in all sectors of Welsh education; encourage sharing of expertise, resources and best practice in learning technology within the context of Welsh education; influence relevant policy and strategy; develop constructive relationships with related organisations and committees.

ALT SIG Wales The ALT Strategy sets out clear aims for national and international collaboration. The ALT Wales group will support the strategy via its planned remit by helping to build a stronger community of practitioners, researchers and policy makers in Wales and by contributing a Welsh perspective to the work of ALT overall. It will further serve to help ALT develop its membership in Wales and make an active contribution to the work of ALT members via events, communication and other activities.

ALT online ALT on

Jisc TechDis Funded to increase accessibility and inclusion through technology in UK post- compulsory education. Technology can help remove barriers to learning, living and work, and can open up opportunities for everyone and enable inclusive practice. Inclusive practice is about considering the needs of everyone when designing and delivering services or materials. Work in many areas from guidance for teachers on using MS Word more accessibly, or using podcasts or video; to guidance for university managers on policy and strategy for inclusion.

Who and How do we work? We are centrally (government) funded. Small team working across the United Kingdom. Supporting learning and teaching in further, vocational, and higher education sectors, including work based learning, adult community learning, prison education, independent specialist colleges and increasingly third sector. Working in partnership and at all levels to influence: Management policies as well as practice in the classroom; Commercial sectors (eg publishing, assessment); Government policies, legal issues and funding issues. 13/06/

Facts and Figures 1 There are around 11 million disabled people in the UK. 1 There are nearly 200,000 students in HE who have declared a disability. 2

Facts and Figures 2 DisabilityPercentage of students in HE with disability Visual impairment1.5 Hearing impairment2.9 Physical impairment3.8 Mental Health11 Autism2.7 Long term illness or health issue11 Specific learning disability47 Two or more disabilities8.3 Another disability or impairment11.5 HESA, 2013

TechDis Toolbox Aimed directly at end users – students. A collection of resources which give useful hints and tips on technologies that can help individuals work quicker, slicker and smarter.

TechDis Toolbox Developed by students for students. Bite-sized videos, short guides, and animations. Small bits of just-in- time information that can be easily absorbed.

TechDis Toolbox

Small Business Research Initiative – text projects azzapt – iansyst: quick and easy transfer of files between devices whilst converting them into the users preferred format. Navitext - System Associates: improved navigation and accessibility to books and documents for people who are visually impaired, identifies key navigation points in a text and provides easy ways of moving through it and finding what is needed.

SBRI - Gesture recognition projects uKinect – GameLabUK: using Microsoft Kinect technology, to help users learn and improve their Makaton sign language skills in a fun and engaging way. Portable Sign Language Translator (PSLT) – Technabling: the PSLT translates a range of sign languages into text. It is portable, flexible and works with a wide variety of handheld camera-enabled devices such as smartphones.

SBRI – new projects Ready steady STEM' supports projects that open up access to science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) subjects for disabled learners. Good to go, is about increasing independence in unfamiliar or challenging environments by giving people easy access to the information they need when they need it.

Xerte Xerte Online Toolkit (XOT) is a free Open Source tool developed by the Information Services team at the University of Nottingham. It allows staff with limited technical skills to create rich online content. It can be used: To support distance learning. To support collaborative creation and sharing of subject content. To support active classroom/lecture contexts, especially with interactive whiteboards. To support learners in being active content creators. It has a range of accessibility benefits (colour and font change, keyboard access and text to speech) built into it. 24

Xerte Interactive resources with the new version of Xerte can also be more flexible for international students. Example - directed towards orientation of international students and shows what can be done to deliver a lot of complex information in a flexible manner – this includes interactive quizzes, drag-and-drop, sorting activities with video and audio. There are some case studies from international students towards the end. Note that its available as an OER for others to use too. (old flash version). Due to the cleverness of the Xerte server model in version 2.1 I can play it again in HTML5, so the students can follow it on a mobile device at their convenience – try this: =html on your iPad or smartphone. =html 25

OASES The Online Accessibility Self Evaluation Service (OASES) allows you to benchmark your organisation's accessibility practices to widely accepted 'reasonable adjustment' recommendations as well as the practice within other institutions. The service is quick, free and anonymous. Can be applied to a range of roles within institution. 26

Conference ENABLE: the 2nd International Conference on Using New Technologies for Inclusive Learning 18 & 19 June 2014 at the HEA in York and online. Attend online - bookings now open and it is free. The conference will be organised into a number of themes centred on the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) to support lifelong learning by disabled adults and older people. Delegates will vote for the Hans-Heinrich Bothe Award for Best Paper in memory of our colleague who died in a tragic accident in the Tyrol, 31st July A book of abstracts will be distributed in electronic format. Full papers to follow. 13/06/

Any questions please? 28

29

References HESA (2014) Disab1213.xlsx [accessed 15 March 2014] Disab1213.xlsx 3 4http:// on&slug=103&title=Facts%20about%20Dyslexiattp:// on&slug=103&title=Facts%20about%20Dyslexia statistics/ statistics/ 7http:// and-hearing-loss/statistics.aspxhttp:// and-hearing-loss/statistics.aspx