Present: Philippa Waterston, Amanda Walker, Sandy Gardiner (For Jennifer Pow), Brian Shannan

Note of Technology Group (Hearing Impairment) Meeting held at the SSC on 13 January 2014 at Forth Valley Sensory Centre.

Present: Philippa Waterston, Amanda Walker, Sandy Gardiner (for Jennifer Pow), Brian Shannan, Jim Harrigan, Alan McQueen and Sheila Mackenzie.

1. Membership As noted in last meeting “The group felt that a representative from social work would be useful in the group as technology used outwith school should be included in the groups remit eg in the home.” Amanda offered to speak to Maria Dick who is a Social Worker at Forth Valley Sensory Centre and has been involved in project work with deaf teenagers. ACTION: Amanda 2. Toolkit/Resources  Discussed how we might like to approach any work we do by breaking it into age groupings, eg Preschool (0-5), Primary (5-12), Secondary (12-19), Post School (16+). Other areas of focus would be transition stages and SQA/Examinations/Assessment. Look at the ‘needs’ within each section. Beware of information becoming quickly outdated.

 Would like to produce resources aimed at improving management of listening technology in a range of settings and circumstances. Resources would possibly comprise Checklists, Video demonstrations (listening room), ideas for exploiting technology during lessons, good practice ideas, keep it simple.

 Need to assess what resources are already available: eg NDCS materials and videos, other countries may have looked at these issues. Group should feed back to Sheila any materials that they know about. ACTION: All 3. Subtitles Subtitles are a major issue. YouTube subtitling option only works on some videos. Need to explore this issue.

4. Apps Send out a call for contributions to begin a list of useful Apps or useful terms for searching for Apps! ACTION: Sheila 5. Invited Visitors/Training SQA Assessments/CEM tests regarding digital papers - we would like to invite representatives to attend a meeting to discuss the issues for Deaf candidates. GTCS representative to discuss how teachers could embed technology learning into their portfolios. Ewing Foundation are keen to deliver training in Scotland.

6. Main group to meet again on Thursday 27 February at 11.00 in the SSC.