TEACHING INCLUSIVE MEDIA LITERACY TO TEACHERS: DESIGN OF A BLENDED LEARNING COURSE FOR REMEDIAL TEACHERS AS AN OPPORTUNITY FOR PARTICIPATION AND INCLUSION

The paper addresses the need for (remedial) teacher training for social participation of people with disabilities. Today, digital media is inextricably linked to the life-reality of all people. They also have their place in the everyday life of people with physical or intellectual disabilities. In order to use the potential for participation in society, people with disabilities are also dependent on the help of those who accompany and support them in everyday life. These are primarily (remedial) teachers or nurses. Therefore it is necessary for them to develop an awareness of the importance of digital media for people with disabilities and to use their skills in dealing with people with disabilities.

Because of that the main focus of this project is the design of a blended learning course for the project PADIGI sponsored by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research, The European Social Fund in Germany, and the European Union. The learning environment is being developed for use in the training and further education of social-care professionals and may also be used in education. A blended learning course enables the specialists to learn flexibly and independently of time and place. Within the moodle-based learning environment various activities, tools and plugins are used, which will be discussed in more detail in the paper.

The main focus of the course is on raising the awareness of the importance of digital media for the social participation of people with intellectual disabilities. The remedial teachers are trained to support people with intellectual disabilities in dealing with digital media in their daily lives. In addition to theoretical basic training (media literacy, data protection, risks in the WWW, inclusion etc.), the participating professionals also receive practical training in dealing with special tools and apps that are suitable for use in working with people with disabilities.

This results in two key objectives:
1. Raising awareness of media literacy
2. Practical training of remedial teachers

The course will be evaluated in two trial phases – on the one hand in education and on the other in further education. Through qualitative interviews and questionnaires with teachers and trainers as well as the participating remedial teachers, the course content should be improved and further developed. Upon completion of the project, the course should be made available as an OER.

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