Technology for Social Inclusion

Latest news on the Speech Pathology Tools project – Newsletter 3

Speech Pathology Tools Video

Check out our new video explanation of how to use the Speech Pathology Tools app. The app is available on the play store for free!

Do you want to know more about how to use technology to support students with learning disabilities in the classroom?

Apps and projects to enhance special and inclusive education event

Wed, 27th November 2019, 10:00 – 16:30, Clifton Campus, Nottingham Trent University.

Free Entry and Free Lunch Provided. Register here

Target audience:

Nursery and primary school teachers, speech and language therapists, special education teachers and SENCos.

Learn about:

• Using mobile devices to easily measure engagement in inclusive classrooms
• Using an app to assess and practice speech, language and communication
• Using digital game making to enhance learning in key subject areas
• Making the use of robots more accessible in special education
• Tangible interfaces to improve the mental well-being of students with learning disabilities
• Co-development of research with people with learning disabilities

At the event:

• Sessions will be run as a series of short presentations, each followed by hands on demonstrations and workshops allowing participants the chance to try out and use the technologies.
• By the end of the session you will know how to use and freely access our apps.

The newsletter for the VESVET entrepreneurship skills training project is available now here. Find out what’s been going on so far!

The newsletter for the VESVET entrepreneurship skills training project is available now here. Find out what’s been going on so far!

The second phase of the project is now completed, and the second deliverable is now available on the website. You can download it here. The second research document is entitled “The current situation in speech and language pathology in the EU”. It presents the current situation regarding Speech and Language Pathology provision in the partner countries, with particular emphasis on the implementation with regard to children’s services and schools. Its aim is to give a broad overview of regulation, structure and implementation of speech and language pathology across the consortium countries of the UK, Bulgaria, Turkey, Belgium, Slovenia and Serbia. It goes on to summarise our research into the technologies being used in the field of Speech and Language Therapy. It highlights the parts of the assessment and therapy process which can be achieved with apps in the different languages, and aims to identify gaps in the availability of free tools with the aim of highlighting the focus for our future developments

The first phase of the project has been completed resulting in the first document output of the project. It presents the results of an extensive survey of teachers and therapists across the partner countries, detailing their observations and requirements for technological developments in the field. See the newsletter here.

MaTHiSiS Hackathon Event

The results are in. Check out the video!

Date: 9-10th March 2019 (Registration Deadline extended to 5th March)
£250 cash prize!!!!

Registration Deadline extended to 5th March

Topic – Affective Learning: Your challenge is to integrate your existing serious game in an online e-learning platform MaTHiSiS. To achieve this, your game will need to have three varying levels of challenge (Easy, Medium and Hard). The MaTHiSiS system has a game packaging tool that will assist you in this. The system will also choose the complexity of the materials in response to the learners’ emotional state and performance.

Please see http://mathisis-project.eu/ for background information on the project that created the tools that have launched this challenge.
Venue: The Hackathon is being held at Clifton Campus, NTU. Room TBC.

http://bit.ly/ItagHackathon2019

Why Participate? 
• It is an opportunity to learn something new about a new tool that relates emotion and learning and software created in an EU H2020 project.
• You can win a cash prize of £250 if you create the most engaging learning experience! 
What Programming experience do I need? You can write your own game in Java, Python, or Unity. 
How do I prepare?: There is a webinar on the ‘Game Packaging Tool’ (starting at circa 2 minutes for English version!) which shows you how to package an existing game in a way that integrates with the online e-learning tool MaTHiSiS.

ITAG joins up with ICDVRAT for 2018

This year our annual ITAG conference joined forces with the well established ICDVRAT conference and was held at the University of Nottingham. The interactive Technologies and Games (for health education and disability) conference has long been well aligned with the ICDVRAT (International Conference on Disability, Virtual Reality and Associated Technologies). The event was a great success and further collaboration may well continue in the future.  See the details of the event here.

Real Life conference in Amsterdam (June 2018)

On June 20 the Real Life blended learning conference took place in Eye Film Museum. It was the final act of the three-year project Real Life in which the ISRG team worked together with 4 other EU countries to set up the digital learning environment My-real.life, for which various serious games were developed. Find out more about the event on the Real Life site here.

Edurob Results to be Released at ITAG  – the Final Edurob Project Conference (Oct 2016)

There will be a full morning dedicated to the work undertaken in and the results coming out of the Edurob (Educational Robotics for Students with Disabilities) project, and a number of other linked presentations and exhibition stand relating to the project. The project has created a dedicated suite of apps and robotic interactions for the NAO and Lego Mindstorms EV3 robots. These interactions have been used in classrooms across Europe to test the theory that robotics can hold student engagement and increase learning in students with intellectual disabilities. You’ll be able to get hands on with the robots and control them with the Edurob apps. This year’s Interactive Technologies and Games Conference –Education, Health and Disability will take place at the Nottingham Council House on Old Market Square on  (26 – 27 October 2016). For full details visit the ITAG conference website.

Call For Papers (Apr 2016)

Interactive Technologies and Games Conference –
Education, Health and Disability
Nottingham Trent University, UK  (26 – 27 October 2016)
The aim of ITAG is to bring together academics, developers, beneficiaries and practitioners to explore interactive technologies and innovate within the areas of Education, Health and Disability. For full details visit the ITAG conference website.

MaTHiSiS – Managing Affective-learning THrough Intelligent atoms and Smart InteractionS project Kicks Off (Mar 2016)

MaTHiSiS is a 36-month project funded by the European Union under the H2020 work programme that will assist the educational process for learners and their tutors and caregivers by creating a novel and continuously adaptable “robot/machine/computer”-human interaction ecosystem to enhance vocational training, workplace learning and mainstream education for individuals with or without learning disabilities. The project aims at providing a “system product” for professional and curricular education for individuals with certified and non-certified intellectual disabilities.
The first meeting was held on 21st/22nd Feb 2016 in Madrid. (more)

ITAG abstract submission deadline extended

The deadline for submissions of abstracts for the ITAG conference 2015 has been extended to Tuesday 19th May. For full details visit the ITAG conference website.

No One Left Behind project kicks off (Feb 2015)

School pupils will soon be creating their own video games in the classroom, as part of a new project to link gaming to the wider curriculum. The ISRG at NTU is a key partner in the €3.2 million ‘No One Left Behind’ initiative, co-funded by the EU Horizon 2020 Programme. The project will allow children to use a non-leisure gaming ‘toolkit’ to develop digital games on mobile devices – with the aim of enhancing their abilities across all academic subjects, as well as their computational proficiency, creativity and social skills. more.

RISE final resources released (December 2014)

The RISE project assists refugees in improving their employment skills. The four serious computer games and curriculum material can help to prepare jobseekers in five important areas: IT Skills, Vocational Skills, Intercultural Communication, Services, and Rights & Responsibilities. This project was developed with the help and experience of volunteer refugees for the use of refugees. Access the FREE RISE resources now! here.

BBC Radio Nottingham Interview (Oct 2014)

On Sunday 26th October, Professor David Brown was interviewed on BBC Radio Nottingham about our ongoing project to build a game to increase awareness of prostate cancer among African Caribbean men in Nottingham. The interview is no longer available directly from the BBC Radio Nottingham site, but you can listen here.

ITAG 2014 (October 2014)

The seventh annual ITAG conference was held on the 16 – 17 October 2014 in the Council Building, Old Market Square, Nottingham. The conference focused on the use of interactive technology and games in the fields of health, education and disability. For more information view our conference page here. Or for full details visit the ITAG conference website.

ViPi “Yes I Can ICT” Symposium Event (December 4th , 2013)

Two European lifelong learning projects (the VIPI and ATLEC project) end in December, and the final Symposium presented their outcomes within a wider framework of learning, employment and independent living for people with disabilities. The two projects are complementary as VIPI focuses on the development of skills in ICT for (young) adults with disabilities and ATLEC on skills and competences in ICT based Assistive Technologies. The Symposium has a twofold aim: raising awareness among gatekeepers and policy makers on the need for ICT and ICT-AT training and also providing concrete curricula, methods and tools produced in the project. Highlighting needs and demonstrating material to tackle those needs, is considered a valuable contribution to further equal opportunities and the participation of people with disabilities in learning and employment. UPDATE… The entire event is available as both videoed presentations, and slideshows here.

ISRG project featured on the BBC (November 2013)

The BBC came to ITAG to film an article which featured on BBC East Midlands Today about how humanoid robots could help to improve the education of children with learning difficulties. Professor David Brown of the ISRG was interviewed along with Professor Penny Standen from The University of Nottingham, and representatives of the Oak Field School.

ITAG 2013 (October 2013)

The sixth annual ITAG conference was held on the 17th-18th October 2013  in the Council Building, Old Market Square, Nottingham. For full details visit the ITAG conference website. There were several presentations from the ISRG team including presentations on ViPi piloting, stroke rehabilitation using Kinect, the m-Trust mobile commerce application, the RISE project, and a collaborative presentation with the Oak Field School on working with people with intellectual disabilities to develop accessible serious games.

ViPi Games Released (August 2013)

The ViPi project has released its multilingual basic ICT skills games for people with disabilities. There are multiple games including Memobile for Android devices, Rob the Mob ICT, Escapology ICT, True False Quiz, Yes No Quizzes, StaySafe and Fly Swat! For full details of the games released and where to get them, go here.

Keynote at SENNET Working Group

Professor David Brown of the ISRG recently presented a keynote lecture for the Special Educational Needs Network at the Special Needs Education Working Group at European Schoolnet in Brussels. See the interview with him below and the report from this meeting here.

SGSCC – Questionnaires released (April 2013)

The LLP EU Project “SGSCC” aims to develop educational computer games for adolescents/young adults with mild learning difficulties in order to increase their employability. Related to this goal we are interested in the assessments by stakeholders and beneficiaries, which will constitute the basis of our further developmental process.

The two (accessible) questionnaires can be accessed here:

• Questionnaire for teachers, trainers, stakeholders in the field of special education (or .doc version)
• Questionnaire for adolescent/young adult with mild learning diffiuclties
   (or .doc version)

ViPi – Yes I can ICT! Final symposium announced (March 2013)

The ViPi Project (Virtual Portal for Interaction and ICT Training for People with Disabilities) has announced it’s final symposium called Yes, I can! ICT. It will take place on 4th December 2013 in Brussels, Belgium. The Symposium has a twofold aim: raising awareness among gatekeepers and policy makers on the need for ICT and ICT-AT training and on the other hand providing concrete curricula, methods and tools produced in the project. Registration is now available. A promotional video about ViPi is also available below:

ViPi Multimedia Roadshow

Explore the ViPi multimedia roadhow now to find out all about the project, and the great free ICT training resources that came out of it. The roadshow contains links to the games developed, links to the ViPi curriculum and training materials, interviews with the team and stakeholders, and much more! See it all here.

RECALL project finalised and Interactive Systems RouteMate User Site created

The RECALL project has been finalised including the release of all project reports and software. You can now download RouteMate – the route training software for Android devices and the console for desktop route creation from the main Recall site (here), or from the all new ISRG site for ongoing support for RouteMate users (here).

PAUSE video released (January 2013)

The PAUSE project was finalised and submitted at the end of November, and as part of this the documents and software produced have been made available from the project website here. This contains links to the project reports, the training manuals and the software and instructions for use. Find out more about the project by watching the newly released video.

Game On Extra Time (GOET) Project

The GOET project is now completed and the following video details the importance of the project.