Abstract
In 1997, the Irish government launched Schools IT2000 - a policy framework for the new millennium. Through the implementation of this policy, Ireland has become one of the front-runners in Europe in terms of integrating technology into teaching and learning in schools. But how can one implement this policy in such a way that it impacts on those with, and those teaching students with, special educational needs?
This paper describes the manner in which the policy goals and objectives of Schools IT2000 were interpreted and implemented to cater for special needs, from the viewpoint of the agency charged with implementing the government's policy. Specifically it looks at integrating special needs into the main initiatives within Schools IT2000, which are: infrastructural development, teacher training, pilot research projects, web-based services and software review. It also relates some of the practices developed in approaching the integration of special needs and challenges encountered in doing so.
While IT2000 policy targets have been met, there remain many additional services and support which need to be put in place. The paper will conclude with a look at future developments needed to address these special educational needs.
Introduction
In line with international developments, Ireland launched "Schools IT200", its national policy for integrating technology into teaching and learning into Irish schools in 1997. Its successful implementation has since attracted considerable international interest. This paper addresses the question of the role of special educational needs within this plan and the manner in which they were addressed by the agency charged with the task of implementing the policy. The international ICT (Information and Communications Technology) context and the context of special education in Ireland are outlined, as is the Schools IT2000 policy framework itself. The specific practices which developed and actions which resulted from the policy implementation are summarised. Finally, some of the challenges and opportunities presented through the implementation process are noted and ideas on the way forward outlined.
The International Context of ICT in Education
In the nineties, most western governments adopted national policies or strategies to introduce ICT into first and second level education. This was driven by a number of factors such as the fact that technology is all-pervasive in modern society, the increasing confidence in perceived advantages offered by technology to education, and a need to prepare students for a modern society (and for career opportunities) of which technology is a part. At the same time, partly as a result of the opportunities offered by the technology, a shift was taking place away from the traditional teaching model, in which the teacher is the source of all knowledge, towards the empowerment of the learner to take control of his or her own learning. This has resulted in a role for the teacher which is evolving towards one of a tutor who guides the learners in the learning process and facilitates them to source knowledge and discover things for themselves. This new way of teaching is very suited to the effective use of technology in teaching in learning.
Most national ICT plans reviewed in the course of writing this paper included teacher training in their main objectives, mainly training teachers in ICT skills and occasionally in the new styles of teaching noted above. Other major tasks included the building of relevant educational ICT resources, inclusion of ICT in the curriculum, Internet connectivity and hardware density. Most included a considerable degree of flexibility for school or regional variations in their implementation.
Few national ICT plans include specific objectives or strategies for ICT in special needs in their published plan, an exception being that of Sweden. Sweden's national programme for ICT in schools has significant specific mention of students with functional disabilities and has charged its ICT in schools delegation with allocating special funds to support and speed up development of educational media for pupils with functional disabilities. According to this plan, every pupil with gravely impaired vision and those with severe motor disabilities has a computer as a personal and educational aid. The role of multimedia technology in producing teaching aids that use sign language as first language for deaf students is noted, as is the need for ICT aids to support literacy and serve as compensatory support for students with dyslexia.
Denmark's Action Plan for 1998-2003 notes that the education system must take into account less advantaged groups and that ICT-based projects which support learning process can focus on individualised teaching programmes.
In 2000, Australia launched its school education action plan for the information economy, which was developed by the Education Network Australia Schools Advisory Group. The group had been working on introducing IT since 1995. The plan notes that students with learning difficulties need (unspecified) targeted measures to enable them to use technology purposefully, and that schools must actively promote equity of access to technological skills. However, according to the National Report on Schooling in Australia (1999), reporting from States on the technology access of students with disabilities was limited.
In British Columbia, Canada, a provincial resource programme called Special Education Technology- British Columbia (SET-BC) has been set up to assist school districts in educating students whose access to the curriculum is restricted. School teams meet with a SET-BC consultant to develop a Collaborative Action Plan which outlines what strategies and technologies best meet the needs of the students. It loans technology systems to school districts, and provides technology support and maintenance as well as training on the implementation of the technology in the classroom.
The Schools IT2000 Project
Schools IT2000 is a three year project of the Irish government's Department of Education and Science to integrate Information and Communications Technology (ICT) into teaching and learning in Irish schools. The project began in 1998 with the establishment of the National Centre for Technology in Education (NCTE), an agency under the aegis of the Department of Education and Science. The funding for the initiative was £40 million, and a £15 contribution from Eircom, Ireland's former state telecommunications organisation, brought the total funding to £55 million over three years. The NCTE is charged with implementing Schools IT2000. The Schools IT2000 policy framework document is available through the www.ncte.ie site.
Four key initiatives make up Schools IT2000. These are:
In addition, two other key areas of activity are a major part of the Schools IT2000 project. These form part of all of the above initiatives:
The School's IT 2000 project, originally planned as a four-year programme, was initially granted funding for three years. It had a number of specific objectives, such as the training of 20,000 teachers, ensuring that there were at least 60,000 multimedia computers in Irish Schools (4100 schools) and the connection of all schools to the Internet. In fact, these measurable objectives were achieved in two years.
Ireland commenced its Schools IT integration project somewhat later than many other countries, against a scenario where there was little ICT in primary schools in particular and a number of the many small rural schools did not even have a telephone. The speed of implementation has ensured that Ireland is now one of the leaders in Europe in terms of technology integration. Now, pupils to computer ratios in schools are estimated as being down to 18:1 from 37:1 before the Schools IT2000 project at primary level and 14:1 from 16:1 at post-primary level. The special school pupils to computer ratio before the initiative was 9:1, but this masks the huge range in computer density in different schools which varied from having no computers to nearly 40 in one school. Statistics on the current ratios are pending.
The Irish Special Education Context
Ireland's special education system, in common with other countries, is moving from a situation where a large number of children with special needs were educated in special schools or special classes to a situation where large numbers of students with special needs are integrated into mainstream education. The quantity and quality of provision for integrated students, though increasing, is still somewhat limited.
In terms of administration, administration within the Department of Education and Science is split between different sections of the Department and the need for increased co-operation between the Departments of Education and Health has been established since the publication in 1993 of the Special Education Review Committee report.
Three significant recent developments have taken place in the last two years, outlined below.
In late 1998, an automatic entitlement to support for students assessed as having special needs was established for the first time for many children with disabilities. This has resulted in the appointment of several new teachers and childcare assistants in support of these children. Until this provision was announced, the education system did not provide any practical means of realising its stated objective of encouraging integration of children with special needs in mainstream education. However, the provision of training for these teachers has not yet increased in availability to any significant extent.
The National Educational Psychological Service was established in September 1999 with the objective of providing educational psychological services to students in all first and second level schools and in other centres supported by the Department of Education and Science. The main consequence of this development will be a steady increase in the number of psychologists available to provide a schools service.
A number of court cases brought by parents on behalf of their children to contest the adequacy of the State's response to their child's educational needs have focussed attention on the State's provision in this area. A significant number of improvements to the overall system of provision are certainly being pushed, if not driven, by these court cases.
Within this context, the issues which impact most significantly on the implementation of the Schools IT2000 policy are:
Implementing Schools IT2000 Policy in Special Needs Education
The Schools IT2000 policy framework document addresses all schools, teachers and students, and makes little special mention of special educational needs. Later documents, such as the recent Education Act (1998), specify that such references to "all students" includes " those with special educational needs" to make it crystal clear that this category of students is included.
As the Schools IT2000 policy document did not specify that "all students" included those with special needs, extra care had to be taken to ensure that the Schools IT2000 policy impacted on students with special needs and their teachers as well as achieving its ambitious targets throughout all schools. Great political and financial support for special needs was evident and this had a significant initial impact in terms of the drive to include special needs in the project.
One of the new staff of the implementing agency was given responsibility for special needs, among other things. One of the first decisions made was to adopt the inclusion approach within the policy itself, but in a more specific and identifiable fashion i.e., to include provision for special needs within all of the key initiatives as well as proposing additional provision as needed, rather than to propose a discrete set of activities.
Practices which grew out of this approach included the specific mention of those with special needs in policy implementation reports and plans in order to directly address special needs provision and thereby ensure that it was not omitted from the plans, accidentally or otherwise.
Representation of special needs teachers in groups of teachers brought together for different Schools IT2000 implementation purposes was considered essential to again ensure that special needs requirements were not omitted.
Questionnaires included questions about special needs and ICT in a bid to gather more specific information for future policy making.
Where certain numbers of projects were being supported and software titles were being evaluated, a working rule was to ensure that at least 10 per cent of the total could be categorised as special needs.
Although a subset of primary and post-primary schooling, the NCTE adopted the approach of identifying special needs as an additional category for information and support purposes, as well as integrating special needs into both of the other categories. One of the key reasons for this is that special schools are officially classified as primary schools, even though they have children of post-primary age. The drawing together of those interested in special needs at both primary and post-primary levels into one category where they have more in common with each other was considered to be the most useful approach.
An example of this strategy in practice is the approach taken to special needs provision within ScoilNet - the website for Irish Schools, which includes separate sections for special needs information and communication. Another example is the software evaluation pilot project, which identified three groups of teachers to evaluate software, i.e., primary, post-primary and special needs.
At the same time, it was absolutely crucial to ensure that special needs permeate the primary and post-primary categories also, as without this, the advantages to be gained by treating special needs as an additional category would backfire. Some teachers do not see themselves as special needs teachers even though they may have students with special educational needs. Equally some resources, although not intended to target special needs students in particular, are very suitable for such students and vice versa. Integration of special needs in the primary and post-primary categories helps avoid the marginalisation of special needs and those involved in special needs education. It helps to create a situation whereby awareness of, knowledge about and responsibility for ICT in special needs is shared among a number of teachers in the school, including mainstream class teachers and the ICT co-ordinating teacher.
Overview of Provision for Special Needs within the Schools IT2000 Project
The National Centre for Technology in Education now has two staff working on special needs (a national co-ordinator working half-time on special needs and a full-time project officer). Their job is to assist in the integration of special needs into the key initiatives of Schools IT2000 and to provide additional supports where necessary.
The main activity of the Technology Integration Initiative is the distribution of grant aid to schools. Extra provision has been made over and above the funding available to mainstream education, in recognition of the great needs of students with special educational needs and of the well-recognised positive impact of technology on the education of students with special needs. This extra funding consisted of an increased level of basic grant and increased per-capita funding for special schools and classes and schools with special teaching allocations for Travellers. Most recently, resource and learning support teachers at primary level were given a grant for the purchase of hardware and/or software. Two funds also exist for grant allocation to individual special needs pupils, primarily those who are integrated into mainstream classes. In all, over £3.5 million of the £25 million capital funds was dedicated to special needs through these allocations.
In addition to the funding allocation, the NCTE disseminates information to teachers and students on appropriate technology and makes it available through ScoilNet, the NCTE website, and via a network of 20 regional ICT Advisors based in the regional education centres.
In the area of teacher training, emphasis has been placed on providing basic introductory courses for all teachers, including those working in special needs. It has been agreed that special needs should be a component of all basic courses and examples and information relating to special needs included in all specialist courses where relevant (e.g., career guidance and ICT, Building a School Website etc.).
Regarding training for teachers involved in special needs education, special needs teachers are encouraged to complete basic training (Introductory Course Phases 1 and 2) as this will provide the necessary foundation for attending the specialised training courses on ICT and special needs. Design of these courses is now underway. Liaison with third level institutions has commenced in a bid to ensure that post-graduate or in-service special education teacher training courses include similar or equivalent ICT training.
Special needs and ICT courses will consist of:
The NCTE is also financially supporting Education Centres in the provision of support groups for ICT and special education/learning support. Support groups can be a great source of continuing education and training for special needs teachers.
Support is a big issue for teachers and parents of special needs children, who often feel isolated, helpless and frustrated. The ScoilNet website's special needs sections and "talk" facilities offer opportunities to overcome these difficulties for parents, teachers and other supporting professionals, as well as for the students themselves. The website is a valuable tool in that it offers possibilities for communication and support from colleagues and other professionals. It is becoming a valuable resource as more and more people contribute to the pool of information, advice and reference material available both within the special needs sections and throughout the site as a whole.
Seven teachers have been appointed by the NCTE to work as ScoilNet facilitators. Their work is focussed on facilitating contributions to ScoilNet's special needs sections, including discussion groups, noticeboards, and curriculum resources. A key component is the special needs technology section, which provides information on the assistive technologies available to meet the educational requirements of special needs students in Ireland. This section is being developed to include information and advice sheets on the use of technology with students with special abilities and disabilities.
The Schools Integration Project Initiative includes 22 projects with a special needs focus. While the participation of special schools was initially quite low, this has been built up significantly in the last several months so that a wide range of special needs ICT applications are now an integral part of SIP. As there are an increasing number of students with special needs in mainstream classes, the mainstream SIP projects are increasingly interested in taking special needs considerations into their activities and the NCTE is assisting with this activity.
The last key area of activity in Schools IT2000 is interactive software in the curriculum, which includes identification of relevant software for Irish schools. This is being done via a software evaluation process, the pilot phase of which is drawing to a conclusion soon. Special needs featured strongly in this activity from the start and, as a result, the first batch of software evaluations to be released will include a high percentage of software titles suitable for special needs students. Several special needs teachers have been selected to evaluate the suitability of these titles and their evaluations will shortly be published in the 'Software Central' section of ScoilNet.
Some software publishers and suppliers who specialise in special needs software have recently expressed an interest in coming to Ireland to give a series of demonstrations and workshops and this has raised the knowledge and awareness levels of ICT advisors and teachers alike on the applications of software in a special needs setting. Two nationwide tours have already been conducted to date. These are a useful adjunct to the special needs support groups, or in some cases provide the necessary stimulus for the setting up of such groups. They have also resulted in, or been stimulated by, donations of software to the education centre software library.
Some other activities in which the special needs team are engaged consist mainly of working towards the development of a support service for special needs. The lack of support was identified initially as the biggest single issue facing special needs teachers in the area of ICT. Working to build the knowledge and involvement of ICT advisors in special needs is crucial to this development. Support groups and on-line information resources and discussion groups are also central to this development.
The NCTE has also started working with the European Agency for Development in Special Needs Education through its Irish representative. The Agency is working on an ICT and SEN research project which involves collecting information from 18 member organisations. The first product will be a web database of the information collected listed by member countries and themes, following on from which themed short paper reports will be developed later this year. The Agency website is at www.european-agency.org
Challenges and Opportunities Encountered in Integrating SEN into Schools IT2000
One of the difficulties with the approach adopted by the NCTE is that integration of special needs cannot be achieved by a series of discrete actions under the control of one person or team of people. Instead, it requires a sometimes difficult awareness raising and persuasion process, as well as a steep learning curve (and the time necessary to acquire this learning), within the implementing agency itself and among its management structures. Achieving adequate financial allocation for special needs was not as big a difficulty as achieving this more invidious integration. Although less visible than, say, a series of activities directed solely at special needs, the impact of the inclusion approach has a greater impact throughout the schools and throughout the policy, than would otherwise have been possible.
Other difficulties that arose are that teachers and other supporting professionals find it difficult to afford the time it takes to integrate ICT. Many teachers struggle to get adequate resources to support the child with special needs and ICT is a lower priority for these teachers than these other resources and supports. Widespread information technology support structures have just been initiated in the last year, but there is little expertise on ICT and special education within this structure at present. Ways to improve this situation are being investigated. However, even when this basic problem is solved, another will remain in that, due to the specialised nature of each child's special needs, many teachers feel they need access to expertise and advise tailored to the specific ICT needs of the teacher and pupil concerned. This has significant resource implications and also requires a team approach (technologist, educationalist, psychologist, occupational/speech therapist etc).
Regarding teacher training, many teachers working in special education have not been trained in special education and the challenge to integrate ICT is therefore too great a challenge for many that are already struggling with their teaching. Most teachers do not have the additional specialised training that they require to effectively and confidently use ICT with pupils with SEN. Third level institutions have not provided adequate training to pre-service teachers in ICT and Special Needs in the past, although this is changing. In-service courses on ICT and SEN have not yet been delivered.
As both ICT and special education are different specialisms, it can be hard to find teachers with adequate knowledge of both to resource any ICT initiatives in special education, including teacher training, software evaluation, the development of innovative pilot projects and the development of ICT advice packs and resources. There is a myriad of mainly charity-based support organisations dealing with special needs, some of which have specialised knowledge of ICT for certain special needs applications. Communicating with and sourcing knowledge from this broad range of organisations takes a lot of resources.
On the positive side, the perceived benefits of using ICT with students in terms of the student's learning, motivation and behaviour is a significant encouraging factor for most teachers who go out of their way to find technology information and solutions, despite the deficit in support available.
The National Council for Curriculum and Assessment has begun a process of developing a new curriculum for special education, concentrating on students with general learning disabilities, and the opportunity exists to integrate ICT from the initial stages into the curriculum itself and into all resulting in-service training that will follow the introduction of the curriculum.
Future Developments: Some Ideas
The Schools IT2000 project is nearing a conclusion, and while many of the objectives have been achieved and a solid base on which to build now exists, there is a long way to go in terms of effectively and adequately integrating ICT into teaching and learning in special needs education.
The most important recent development is the provision of funding for ICT in schools for an additional two years (until 2002). This means further action on ICT and special needs can be planned. Specific objectives need to be identified in terms of technology integration for special needs in any such plans, and adequate resources identified to achieve these objectives. More research needs to be done to identify suitable targets and objectives, both nationally and internationally (e.g., appropriate computer-student ratios for special needs and whether there should be different ratios depending on the type of special need).
The main additional ICT-led services and supports which would contribute to improved integration of ICT in special needs education in Ireland include:
Conclusion
The Schools IT2000 project has been very successful in achieving ambitious targets in an even shorter period of time than was initially envisaged. Although special educational needs was not specifically mentioned within the targets, nor was it excluded, and the Schools IT2000 project has brought considerable benefits to those working in special education. In particular, it has provided a good basic coverage of hardware, software and Internet connectivity, trained teachers in basic IT skills, raised awareness and knowledge of software and interactive resources and their potential within the curriculum and involved schools in special needs and ICT research projects.
However, there is still a long way to go for the full benefits of ICT to be brought to all teachers and students in special education. Specific targets now need to be set for special education and ICT and adequate resources earmarked for the benefit of this sector, as well as ensuring that the integration of SEN requirements within all ICT initiatives is maintained. National and international research and information is needed in order to identify the most appropriate objectives and targets to include in future plans. The push towards better special education provision in general, which is well underway, needs to advance in a co-ordinated fashion to facilitate better integration of ICT into education for children with special education needs.
References
"Dissolving Boundaries: ICT and Learning in the Information Age - Proceedings of a Conference held in Dublin, 4-5 May, 1999. Dublin: National Centre for Technology in Education, 2000
"Information and Communication Technologies in the Education System: Action Plan for 1998-2003." The Ministry of Education, Denmark, 1998.
"Innovative ICT projects in Irish Schools: a catalogue of projects supported by the Schools Integration Project under Schools IT2000." Dublin: National Centre for Technology in Education, 2000.
"Learning in an online world: School education action plan for the information economy." Adelaide: Education Network Australia, 2000.
"National Report on Schooling in Australia," 1999.
"New Technologies: Teaching Training and Distance Learning: Results of the Helios Thematic Group no. 4." Mondovi, Italy: European Commission, 1998.
"Schools IT2000: A Policy Framework for the New Millenium." Government of Ireland (Department of Education and Science), 1997.
"Special Education Review Committee Report." Dublin: Government Publications Stationary Office, 1993.
"Special Educational Needs: Curriculum Issues. Discussion Paper." Dublin: NCCA, December 1999. "The Education Act." Dublin: Government Publications Stationary Office, 1998.
"Tools for Learning: A National Programme for ICT in Schools." Ministry of Education and Science, Sweden, 1998
"Special Education Technology-British Columbia Information Bulletin" 1998/09/12.
Websites:
 |
 |