The initiative was born after the assessment of the specific difficulties encountered by dyslexic pupils and the obstacles they face when doing the basic homework tasks. Since the lesson written by a dyslexic child in his handbook is most of the time unreadable, he is prevented from repeating the work and cannot always rely on the constant attention of the parents helping to review the lesson. Giving a printed copy of the lesson does not help when it comes to children suffering from a reading handicap. Therefore, with this initiative an audio ‘copy’ of the lesson is created in order to allow an easier autonomous work of the student at the end of the day. To do so, peers of the disabled child are involved in recording on an MP3 player the audio version of the lesson in a dedicated moment every day. The dyslexic child is then provided with the MP3 player with all the necessary contents. He therefore receives an ‘oral portable peer help’ to clean up and fulfil quietly his own version of the lesson. The same device is used also to give oral instructions during some tests in order to avoid any early obstacle in understanding the instructions.
Policy Context
Regional policy of IT support in schools
Description of target users and groups
The target group is composed of children suffering from reading/writing dyslexic-like disabilities, in the 48 secondary schools of the area.
Description of the way to implement the initiative
The implementation has been following a progressive trend, starting from pilot experiments, and expanding thanks to best practices shows followed by call for proposals.
Technology solution
The technology used is a role-based access control Learning Management System to foster secure exchange of audio files and a set of classic portable MP3 devices for recording and listening. The whole system is relying on an Open Source PHP/My SQL learning management system, "ILIAS Open Source", and on low-cost mp3 portable players.
Technology choice: Open source softwareMain results, benefits and impacts
The added value lies in the creation of autonomous working moments for audiences who were until then prevented from accessing to any kind of personal homework tools. The impact, which is still currently assessed by an advisory group of experts, is especially sensible in pedagogical and psychological fields: - The pupils are much more confident when starting a new task since the audio record of the lesson is acting as a ‘security net’ that can be referred to as many times as necessary. - Pedagogically, the access to the contents allows the child to undertake the activities with the same chances as his peers and to go through the whole learning process.
Return on investment
Return on investment: Not applicable / Not availableTrack record of sharing
Four public meetings and explanation web pages have been developed
Lessons learnt
Lesson 1 - The project is quickly efficient; Lesson 2 - it is not pedagogical-context sensitive, since it deals with universal needs; Lesson 3 - It does not ask for previous state the art expertise and can be developed with tiny budgets.
Scope: Local (city or municipality), Regional (sub-national)