um well I think it is 330 so we're going to make a start um hi everyone that has logged in or maybe you're watching it uh afterwards via the video link um welcome to cimx Thursday 30 and also to Miles p is it pilling pilling yes yeah um from the British uh assist of Technology Association we're really thrilled that Miles has offered to uh run this session this afternoon on uh the power of assist of technology so thank you very much for for doing that we we are members of the British assist of Te
chnology Association I think it's really important that we're um all you know working together and sharing um the impact of assist of technology and how it can change young people's lives in particular so thank you very much and I'll hand over to you I think we've we were recording the session and I think we will just suggest if people have got questions to pop them in the chat or do you want them to raise their hand and then maybe take it at the end um I think yeah uh pop it in the chat and the
n at the end I'll come back to it with you as well I'll have the chat running alongside what's going on okay brilliant well I'll hand over to you thanks very much not at all it's a pleasure well it's great to see you all thank you for coming this afternoon and uh I just want to introduce myself I'm miles pilling I have been a special Schools teacher for 28 years and then I was a ICT coordinator during that time and then I became a u advisory teacher and my role was to provide loan equipment to c
hildren in our local Authority and would provide the equipment and the support um at the height of our service we had um a technician who built our kit and we had a TA who was able to go out and support the TA who was supporting the child that was a really good methodology and I would work with the senior management team the teachers and the pupils working at Solutions and the range of pupils was quite wide we had from dyslexia through to cerebal py through to autism through to ADHD and uh for 1
0 years it was my dream job and I loved every single minute of it it was uh absolutely fantastic uh but then uh as in our country happened particularly with local authorities is that austerity in 2013 happened and we had to basically um uh hand our kit over to schools which I didn't mind it was uh the right thing to do but our service was pulled and I was then faced with a choice close to retirement do I retire or do I continue to do what I do so I chose the latter and now work across uh an imme
nse different area but it is important because it really explains the importance of the power of assisted technology at that time we adopted the every child matters agenda and we just got it right um the major problem we faced in this local Authority was having the same service across a whole region and we managed to enable that region to have the same service no matter where you were and it really was working and then sadly uh funding was pulled and that stopped and I don't think this is an unf
amiliar story so this is why the project that I'm about to show you occurred we then um I was a member of Bara I'm a member of Bara a council member and I I I just felt that as a government for the last decade there hasn't been any kind of focus or even encouragement to use assistive technology um and I just felt that lots of children were being left behind and uh I just want to share some facts with you and explain what the project was I felt that it needs to have a proper um look at and uh pro
motion of technology to schools because I was meeting schools in the last 10 years who didn't really understand what um assistive Tech was and even what it could do and also the knowledge wasn't just there and for me that brought about this project project we acquired enough funds to make free films that we want to back to schools this is released now and uh I can tell you a bit more about the figures of downloads of things but let me continue with my journey about why this is important 1.3 mill
ion pupils in the UK have special needs that's a whopping 15% of the school population that's a figure that came in 2021 72% of teachers said they use assisted technology to support students with disabilities that was for the national Foundation of educational research which sounds a pretty high figure I do agree but it also uh and also this figure 63% of schools in the UK reported using assisted technology to support their students and that's from the British educational suppliers Association t
hat figure came about but that still leaves 28% of teachers who may not be using assisted technology and 37% of our schools who may not be using assisted technology at all to support pupils the Bea study I met the guy who actually uh compiled that study and he said to me it's somebody I didn't didn't know I met him at bet and he told me that he came across a school that was still using XP as their operating system but the really wild thing about it was they didn't know there was another better n
ewer operating systems that is the level at some places that we're facing for whatever reason I do not know the background and I'm not mentioning the school because I don't know it um but there is a huge gap between what um is what schools do I do know there are some amazing schools and we came across them in the filming also 38 38% of secondary schools have assisted technology devices but we have no knowledge of how they're using them and in what way they're using them so I think those figures
of 72% and 63% it's going to be very much dependent on how how old that equipment is and whether the schools have had training in it so when I T to schools in the last 10 years they have said well actually we haven't got any Finance to buy new kit um we haven't got time to learn about assisted technology and we don't have any training uh facilities so I thought we can't I must do something uh because I'm passionate about this because I've seen the changes that have and so of you at senar now out
of this study 80% of pupils who need at in all sectors of the UK schools that's that's the figure of people who necessarily need it do you know how many actually use it 3.1% so there is a need out there so the facts are telling us that but more important importantly how do we get a positive message across to schools well I'm of the belief one person can make a difference and that's that's what I intended to do and I was blown away by the fact that the council you know because making films is no
t cheap and uh everybody pitched in and helped and so we have a group of stakeholders and you'll get that mentioned during the presentation what are the titles of these films well we wanted to stress the importance of assistive technology in education and so those figures are put into a graphical way into the actual episodes these episodes last between 15 and 20 minutes that'll come up in one of the slides um we also have using theist of technology which is more about the actual cases that pup h
ave um and the final one is lost in transition between primary and secondary schools now the order is slightly different Lost In transition is number two using assisted technology is number three and number one is the importance of assisted technology in education what we did that was unique is that at least I'm not aware of it um is that we went out and filmed in seven schools 25 plus pupils and we interviewed them and asked them their Journey through education and what we got back was absolute
ly an eye opening um what we want these films to be doing is that we want them to go into staff meetings hence the timing roughly about 20 minutes so it could fit on a staff meeting or it could be used in incent days or it could be used in assemblies to show pupils how assisted technology has changed lives and teacher training that's a very important one and what we're saying is we're giving this free to schools there's no cost to this because as I've said with the cutbacks and the austerity and
the problems over Finance these are the top three reasons schools don't use that that technology as they should do but what was staggering is what the pupils told us many of the pupil said they received no help no help whatsoever at Primary School uh for their dyslexia for those kind of neurod Divergent needs in fact they were called lazy and stupid this just didn't happen with one pupil it happened with a lot of them I would't say all of them because all had different needs those with more com
plex needs yes their needs were being met but those on the neurod Divergent Spectrum um of things their problems were very sufficient so they came out of primary school thinking they're not clever uh that they're stupid and so you'll hear them telling their stories I will show you a brief clip towards the end of this presentation so that's the plan um who was involved um these are our sponsors uh scanning pens you will know text help you will know micr link you might know microlink one of our pa
rtners uh has been working very successfully in providing training via n and the DF free to schools in the last year and they've been having great success in showing students how this work because how on Earth or where do you go to find training who's going to do that I mean I am of an age and I have lived had a lived experience through all the changes and it suddenly occurred to me that special educational needs in education is only 54 years old Back in 1970 the law that actually provided educa
tion for people with uh learning difficulties or mental handicap as it called them um it's only quite relatively young um we had great power and use in the '90s to achieve all of this and we also had support with funding in the '90s but then when we got to the 0s the government said you've had your funding that's it uh and you were left on your ownmy came in um and and you know the story many of you have been involved in this so I back in um I think it was one senen show in round about 20 uh 15
I I asked teachers where did they get their CPD from and the answer came back Twitter as it was then it's now Twitter X and so you can see what was happening people weren't getting out of schools to do training uh and therefore they weren't getting the help so there was a real need to fill and step in the Gap and do something um in the absence and provoke people to do something not by bashing them overhead with a stick but actually letting them listen to the pupils and what they are telling them
because I actually believe that pupil voices are very powerful for change so I'm just going to play you this video it only lasts two minutes it's our trailer and then we'll talk further I can think of one child and there early journey in education was very much dictated by their behavior within the classroom they were actually unable to access the curriculum or put any output because of the barriers that they had when I was growing up because I didn't have the assistant technology I always thou
ght you're not smart you're not as clever as other people when I moved to Secondary School kind of just went oh you're fine but I wasn't really fine using assisted Technologies is valuable for all but it's vital for some the technology that we introduce is available to everybody across College of nearly 5,000 students there's not always going to be someone there to read for them or to write for them this is where our assist of technology is come in to help them to do that for themselves if it's
good inclusion for some it's it's good inclusion for all I feel that there's fantastic opportunities to be spired by the work of others out there this technology has allowed everyone to achieve and there's then also no Stigma around it that child's Behavior significantly changed from the moment we introduced the technology for them I believe it's very important for the students to actually have the knowled of the program it allows me to do my homework faster and in greater detail so it definitel
y helped being able to express what I want to write about and it's made writing a lot easier and a lot neater it was the way for me to focus on my work when you use it it just makes you a lot happier it's definitely boosted my confidence so much it's not just uh people of the sex yeah it's is everybody that needs it we're enabling our future generation to all be at the same level and have the same access so that just gives you a flavor of what this is and also uh the quality of the product that
we're talking about we hired uh a proper videographer who himself had dyslexia and although as I said it's not all disys lecture is about other things as well we felt that um it was important to give it quality and give it impetus we also Enlisted the help of Russell PR whose voice you know uh maybe on BET radio um he's he's got a very clear and engaging voice and he's doing the narration on our films so the to the films are tools and uh what do you see on the screen here and it can go out uh wi
th any any additional information is we want the share the films to be shared widely um that's the email address and we're asking you to fill in a very short form so that we can track the impact of it um since November there have been 159 downloads of which 30 of them are college are universities and colleges which I'm really pleased about because that means it's getting into the hands of teacher trainers um we also felt that it so what you've seen the films what do we need to do now and uh I co
-wrote with Julia clutter more Julia than me from scanning Pence on a free guide that you can uh get from n um and if I click on that it will take me to that IH hope and then you can see where it is okay right I won't bother uh it's actually if I just change that if I just change that um just give me a second I'll just stop sharing and there we go okay so yeah so um let me just go back in again and uh this time I'll just share as I am going to take you to a website so that you can see that thing
all great plans hello George I am just in the midst of a webinar can I I ring you back when I finished okay thank you um so you should see now um where this is at the moment and there is the at mini guide uh you would have to join uh Nason to obtain it but it's a free download and you can you can download it and share it if you live abroad um don't get it in Singapore or or New Zealand uh because you'll get charged £50 for it but it's free to UK and all you do is just log in and sign for it um
if you want to sign up to our discussion group we have a teachers for at initiative which is actually going through the sen Network where we're trying to generate good practice and belief so you can then go to this website barer online.org initiative and it's on the slides I'll make sure that they work okay so this is the uh impact one that's where you can get hold of the films this is the teachers for at and what we're trying to do is share good practice and enable people to um take this on boa
rd and to move the debate forward because I think it will only work if we make an impact in the nation I mean my aspiration is to reach all 22,400 12 schools and uh that's that's my dream I've only got 159 at the moment uh or at least 159 downloads so there's a way to go anyway I'm gonna I'm going to stop there now and uh let you um have a chat with us about these things if anybody has uh um a question or wants to know more about it then please uh put a question in the chat or just unmute yourse
lf and ask me okay I'm just checking the chat now and can't see anybody at the moment H thank you brave enough for there um hopefully there's a few schools on the call today that we sign up for some of those resources because yeah definitely very worthwhile um yeah does anyone have any questions miles I just look we want to [Music] unmute no they're all stunned into silence at the moment if I just go back to why I think this is important um we're now living in an age where schools are struggling
to meet needs aren't we so anything that could save time or money and I think that's that's one of the questions that perhaps people don't necessarily uh think of at they think it's expensive they think it's unreachable but I know there is two technologies out there that can make a huge difference that our pupils told us about one is text to speech and the other is speech to text and you can attain that in Microsoft 365 or you could get it from Google Docs literally it's free and except obvious
ly you'd have to pay for Microsoft things but those are two technologies that could change lives and that our pupils told us it transformed their lives and I think um schools are quite unaware of some of the resources they've already got in the school that's free and available that not only supports the students but helps the teachers uh with their workload um and you know their um meeting the needs of their students and and families so indeed and indeed such little changes can make a huge diffe
rence and we've been employing a mantra uh essential for some and useful for all because it benefits everybody to actually have aist of Technology into your setting because uh it helps those to achieve better results who may struggle um or those who actually are doing okay but they're not doing brilliantly and it may actually engage them to use maybe better quality words or or the smarter ways of doing things uh and this is becoming more prevalent with AI although that is a hot potato in in educ
ation terms it has to be researched and looked at in terms of what it what good could come out of it as opposed to what harm it may cause and I'm realizing both sides of that equation but um yeah we we have opportunities and uh I missed the the organizations that I was aware of Bea British education communication Technologies Association they that used to do research and all of the things that would you know where do schools find best where do they see good practice where is that coming from and
usually it's word of mouth or the school next door and there's nothing wrong in that um but there's no conduit and there's no kind of um Direction uh in order to enable students to use these Technologies I had one student I was working with in as a lecturer in the university and she said if only I'd have known about this technology when I was in school it would have changed my life so I'm on a mission yeah well I think yeah the simc team join you in that mission so yeah um yeah which is great t
hat you've come along to share that resource today so um we'll definitely as a team we can share that um as we go out around schools in London um yeah I think you know London's quite lucky because um most of the schools um also have lgfl as their internet providers with a whole load of free resources as well brilliant stuff from them absolutely brilliant resource yeah that that's that would um certainly help uh students as well so yeah I think I think it's a case of spreading the word and knowle
dge because uh that's that's the third part of the teacher strand the funding one is mainly a part of the reason we did the films was to actually convince decision makers in Parliament and once we've got the impact figures we'll be able to say to them well look there's been this many downloads and it's had this effect and uh you know um surely you should be doing something about it but probably not in an election year so we will wait and see but I think it's important that um you know we can we
can try and influence decision makers to prioritize it um I think when governments do initiatives I remember the interactive whiteboards and the boards came into schools but there was no training uh or at least the initial training was this is an interactive board this is what you do and then nothing you know kind of fell into disrepair um because uh there was no training in how to interface in your teaching and training so that's why it was really uh different from that so um you know we've had
this kind of thing so the chasing after the bright shiny objects um I call it that way you know your iPads and your uh virtual realities these are all things that you know are not the essential nuts and bolts that can change lives I'm not saying they're useless I'm just saying you know there could a more focused a more more targeted use of assistive Tech that can transform lives and we we through our films have seen that and I'm sure through your practice you've seen that as well and uh you kno
w I think if we just make one step closer to that it would be hugely successful okay two minutes before thank you oh oh we got some new messages what do they say you can join them yeah I can see it um Morin says delongi I thank hi Morin I absolutely agree with Miles students with ADHD and dyslexia are soften invisible and highlighting the support available and providing the training is so important I yes yes and yes so that's why we set up these things and these mechanisms and uh we just want to
our main goal at Bara is to raise the awareness of assisted Tech technology in the UK and this is one area that I'm I'm actually passionate about and want to provide a legacy of so that at least if we move into the next decade uh we will have better uh use of technology for our students so they won't get left behind particularly those with neurod divergency brilliant well thank you so much and for sharing your passion um and yeah those resources I don't know if there's any other questions so we
might just finish it there Annabelle can stop the recording and
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