At this year’s Handheld Learning Awards in London, one of three nominated JISC TechDis HEAT projects won the coveted award for Innovation in the Special Needs category. The winner was the Enabling Remote Activity project with the Open University, which allows mobility-impaired students to participate more fully in fieldwork learning activities by working remotely.

Triple nomination success for JISC TechDis

Congratulations were in order at 2008's Handheld Learning Awards in London, when one of three nominated JISC TechDis HEAT projects won the coveted Innovation award in the Special Needs category. The HEAT scheme provides UK higher education staff with the technology to help them develop sustainable good practice for accessibility and inclusion.


The winner was the Enabling Remote Activity (ERA) project, facilitated by Sarah Davies and Jessica Bartlett at the Open University. ERA lets mobility-impaired students participate more fully in learning activities, from fieldwork trips to vicariously experiencing inaccessible locations by working remotely with field geologists.

The Enabling Remote Activity scheme offers:

  • Inclusive fieldwork teaching for students with mobility difficulties
  • An innovative, low-cost communications network for enabling remote activities
  • Support for other institutions aiming to adopt similar accessibility solutions 

 The JISC TechDis HEAT teams were thrilled that two other projects also reached the finals. Alasdair Thin at Heriot-Watt University is experimenting with mobile phones to stream context-specific audio information to students with visual impairments, whilst Andy Pulman at Bournemouth University is exploring the potential of handheld gaming devices as effective assistive technology tools.

This is what the HEAT scheme is all about - developing inclusive practice using technology and bringing it to a wider audience.

Today, Sal Cooke from JISC TechDis said: ‘The three nominated HEAT scheme projects are terrific examples of staff from very different disciplines utilising the potential of technology to create a more inclusive experience for their students. This is what the HEAT scheme is all about - developing inclusive practice using technology and bringing it to a wider audience. Hopefully more staff will now begin to realise that with a little innovation and creativity, technology can help deliver a more inclusive and accessible experience, and that they can come to JISC TechDis for guidance on how to get started and for details of what has already been developed.’

The HEAT scheme has been running since 2006 and the undertakings above are all Round Two funded projects. Read the full list of projects here. 

Website
Read the JISC TechDis press release here.
Find out more about the JISC TechDis HEAT scheme.



Email this page Bookmark or share this pageBookmark & share this page