Tag Archives: disabilities

Disability, Diversity and Inclusive Education – a new free online course

FLed4all 2x1 1120x560Millions of children around the world are excluded from access to education because of a disability; join this free online course to find out how inclusive education can work, especially where resources are limited.

Education for All is a six week long course beginning on 4 April 2016. It aims to explores how inclusive education can address barriers to learning and participation, and transform school communities. The course is offered by the University of Cape Town on the attractive FutureLearn platform, and is led by lecturers Judith McKenzie and Chioma Ohajunwa.

The course outline is:
● Week 1 – Why inclusion?
● Week 2 – Education begins at home
● Week 3 – Creating an inclusive school
● Week 4 – Partnerships for success
● Week 5 – Changing classroom practices
● Week 6 – Building networks

The course is aimed at teachers, other professionals and parents interested in developing inclusive education. It requires 3 hours of study time per week, a total of 18 hours overall. The course is free to study, and if required a Statement of Participation is available at £34.

Enrol free here: https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/education-for-all

If you are interested in children with disabilities you might also like to take a look at The Center for Parent Information and Resources – a resource library for families of children with disabilities which I previously reviewed.

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Tufts Child & Family WebGuide

tuftscfwgThe WebGuide is a directory of quality websites covering all ages from early child development through to adolescence.

Tufts University have assembled approved links to websites and videos on topics of interest to parents. It is also used by students and professionals in the fields of child development, education, and psychology. All the sites and videos listed on the WebGuide have been systematically evaluated by graduate students. In order to ensure reliability, the evaluation system includes criteria such as the inclusion of citations in peer-reviewed journals.

This really is a very reliable resource for students and workers’ continuing professional development (CPD). It is easy to navigate, with drop-down menus across the top of the site. For example, ‘Health’ includes ADHD, Autism and Aspergers.

The WebGuide has been systematically evaluating links since 2001, so it has now amassed a substantial collection. Tufts’ evaluation criteria are rigorous, but I think that if it were to have begun today it might have indicated whether each resource was open-access or not.

Viewing the WebGuide from Europe, I can’t help wishing we had a comparable directory for resources outside the USA.

Access the WebGuide at: http://www.cfw.tufts.edu

The Center for Parent Information and Resources – a resource library for families of children with disabilities

1524942_10152155313989587_1330526752_nThis month’s free CPIR newsletter ‘Buzz from the Hub’ included a Spotlight on Early Learning Resources, which prompted me to draw your attention to what’s available at CPIR.

CPIR is funded by the US Government, and provides two key library services – a comprehensive collection of resources of their own, plus well-selected links to external resources. CPIR’s own collection includes many of the resources developed by NICHCY, the National Dissemination Center for Children with Disabilities, who’s funding ended in October 2013. These resources include documents, guides, web pages, presentations, videos and audio, webinars, online modules and online tools. The links to external resources are well-arranged and the site search works well, but beware – you could end up browsing for hours!

Key Topics within the CPIR library include:
* Behavior
* Disability
* Family supports
* Mental Health
* Parental Rights
* Early learning

The CPIR website and many resources are offered in Spanish alongside English, and is provided under a Public Domain licence, so there is no restriction on how you use it.public_domain_logo-69px

If you want to keep up-to-date with new resources added to CPIR, subscribe to their free newsletter ‘Buzz from the Hub’ mentioned above, or follow them on Facebook or Twitter.