This webpage has been designed to ensure that all visitors can discover the modernising, digital, technological era of education. Initially, this page will introduce you to the universe of Educational Technology and how it continues to make an impact in our schools.

Nonetheless, the fundamental focus of this website is Assistive Technology (AT). Overall, this webpage is an exploration and evaluation of specific Assistive Technologies. There will be an abundance of critical reflections embedded within this webpage, in order to ultimately assess the potential impact of Assistive Technology within the classroom and how it can affect the learning and teaching processes of our students and educators. This webpage avoids focusing on how Assistive Technologies can support one particular learning difficulty that learners may have. Instead, we will consider the potential impact of speech-to-text-software’s upon the learning experience of pupils with diverse educational needs.

The three crucial aspects of this website are:

• The use of digital technology in education
• Assistive Technology (AT)
• Voice Recognition and Speech-to-text (STT) software used within education

Nonetheless, the fundamental focus of the website is to explore:

• How the use of Assistive Technology within the classroom operates to enhance/reduce the learning processes of students and the teaching processes of educators.
• How Assistive Technologies have the potential to encourage inclusive practices within the classroom.

Fundamentally, this entire website is embedded with wider philosophies of education. In particular, there is a continuous consideration towards the concept ‘inclusion’. If you are unfamiliar with this concept, it is crucial you read over the following section which briefly introduces the concept.

Inclusion – A Brief Introduction:

Predominantly within the twentieth-century, the concept of inclusion has gradually become instrumental for numerous academics, institutions and educators across the globe (Winter, 2006). Various forms of legislation, both internationally and nationally, have been developed in order to ensure that the diverse educational needs of our students are welcomed, accommodated and supported. In previous years, institutions turned to ‘integration’ to ensure that students with various educational needs, were not isolated or disconnected from the common classroom setting. Therefore, all learners regardless of their ability were educated together, under the same practices and most alarmingly, educators advocated the assumption that ‘one size fits all’ regarding education.

However, this ‘integrated’ approach has recently been deemed as problematic, as this presumption stigmatises learners. In recent years, segregating learners because of their diverse educational needs, into different classrooms and even schools, has recently been considered as a violation and denial of their human rights (Hornby, 2015). For example, under Article 24 of the United Nations Convention on the Right of People with Disabilities (2006), inclusive education was declared a crucial right for all learners. This legislation is instrumental for the future of inclusive practices, as it stimulated the growth towards a trans-national understanding of the importance of inclusion.

Ainscow’s (2007) work upon this particular concept is pivotal for those interested in understanding the complexities of ‘inclusion’. To briefly understand the foundations of inclusion, Ainscow (2007, p.56) states inclusive practices should be considered as a ‘a process concerned with the identification and removal of barriers’. Thus, this inclusive ‘process’ (ibid) should be adopted universally, by all of our educators, to ensure that all learners within one classroom have the appropriate support and guidance, which will enhance their learning process, accommodate their specific educational need, in an attempt to ultimately overcome their own barriers to education.