3.3.4 Screen readers and speech synthesisers A refreshable Braille display is a row of cells each containing pins that represent Braille dots. These pins are raised or lowered to form Braille letters. The screen reader program sends text a line at a time or as set by the user. The hardware is expensive, a 40 character display costs about £4000 ($7000, €6000); so this option is most often used by those in employment. Its main advantage over speech output is that refreshable Braille distinguishes between individual characters, so there
References 3 The challenge of change …although we may be striving to turn a profession that has the inertia of a supertanker, as individuals each of us is a speed boat that can turn on a dime… (Pate and Hohn (1994), p. 217) The American authors of the quote above suggest that PE needs to change so that it places primary emphasis on the promotion of lifelong exercise. However, they consider that this could be slow and difficult 3.5 Issues of capability Very occasionally, issues about the capability of the headteacher may arise during discussions about performance against agreed objectives. If the appointed performance review governors suspect that the headteacher is not able to meet his/her objectives, they should first consider the circumstances of the school to satisfy themselves that these have not altered significantly to make the objective/s unachievable. If this is the case, they should make necessary allowances when monitoring 3.1 What the review is about ‘The performance review process enables me to have a meaningful discussion about issues at the heart of the improvement of the school, with governors who support me yet make me stop and think about why I do what I do and, more importantly, how I might do my job better.’ Quote from headteacher The review of the headteacher's performance is one of the most important tasks for the governing bo 1 Performance management 5 Further information The Scottish Government: Education & Training Curriculum for Excellence www.ltscotland.org.uk/curriculumforexcellence/whatiscfe/purposes.asp Learning and Teaching Scotland Literacy www.ltscotland.org.uk/literacy/index.asp Department for children, schools and families: Standards Site www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/primary/
Acknowledgements The content acknowledged below is Proprietary (see terms and conditions) and is used under licence (not subject to Creative Commons licence ). Grateful acknowledgement is made the following sources for permission: Marion Coomey and John Stephenson: ‘Online learning: it is all about dialogue, involvement, suppo 5.1 Introduction One of the key differences between Open Learning, where the ‘student’ is remote from the teacher, and a learner just reading a text book or looking up information for themselves on the internet, is the need to encourage active learning. Whether the material is text, online quizzes or audio-visual elements, the learner should not be a passive absorber of information but actively interacting with the resources. This is grounded in views of how people learn. But I have made some assum 3.2 What are aims and objectives/outcomes? It is best to start to settle on the aims and objectives/outcomes (these terms are variously used around the world but are largely interchangeable) of your study unit as soon as possible. You looked at the intended learning outcomes of some units in Activity 1. The difference between aims and objectives is that the aim is the general statement of Introduction This unit looks at the pedagogical issues involved in the creation and selection of self-study educational resources for a set of intended learning outcomes as exemplified here on OpenLearn. It is a unit about writing a unit. Although it considers the way that people at The Open University set about writing open-learning materials, it will not focus specifically on the University’s particular production system. Nor does it look deeply at the technical issues involved in producing certain ty References 4 Evaluating success Understanding the reasons for a school's success may require special expertise, but the fact of that success should be clear….. Martin & Holt, 2002. Take another look at the cycle for improvement (below). 3 Sharing information If all governors are not involved in monitoring there must be procedures through which all are kept informed. Creese and Earley (1999). The role of the governor has changed considerably in recent years: there is a genuine need to know and understand the school much better, from the point of view of its performance and development priorities. At the same time, all governors have other commitment 3 What does the data tell us? Data never gives you the answers: it helps you to ask the questions. (Hawker, 1998) Realistically, what governors can glean from attainment data, without assistance from the professionals, either in school or through the Local Authority (LA), may be limited, depending on your experience of reading statistical information. A single set of figures, relating to only one year's results, may n Acknowledgements Except for third party materials and otherwise stated (see terms and conditions), this content is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Licence Sue Platt has been a school governor for 21 years, at both primary and secondary 4. Strategic management ’It must be accepted that governors
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in every aspect of the strategic management of the school.‘ (Sallis, 2000) If strategic direction is about setting aims and targets, devising plans and policies, and taking decisions that will raise standards, then strategic management is concerned with ensuring that all the necessary elements are in place in order that succes References 1 6. Conclusion This unit has explored the ways in which moving and still images may motivate and inspire pupils in their understanding of music. You may find it helpful to share your experiences of using images with your peers, perhaps through a short presentation to your department. 2 What's out there for our school? There are close to three thousand museums, galleries and heritage sites in the UK and there are approximately 100 million visits made to them every year. Internationally important collections of ancient relics and artistic masterpieces jostle for our attention alongside personal collections of precious oddities. We have a dynamic national network of hi-tech, interactive science centres, encouraging creative thinking and practical experimentation. The centres look back at the history of
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