Adult Learner with Severe Disabilities Finds Great Success with Blended Learning
Posted on May 28, 2009 by Mark Schlesinger
Over the years I have taught many students with impaired sight, hearing, perception, or physical attributes. Thanks to improved understandings and new technologies, we have made great progress in making education more accessible to such students. But we can always do more. Thus, the following story, which a colleague referred to me, captured my interest:
This isn’t a local story. It appeared in the Penarth Times, I confess I’ve never heard of Penarth; it turns out that it’s a seaside resort in the Vale of Glamorgan, Wales.
The piece is about Barbara Scourfield from Dinas Powys. A neurological illness left her with many disabilities, including migraines and an inability to say more than a few words at a time. Incredibly, as the article states, she decided to reclaim her life by enrolling on a groundbreaking new Welsh blended learning course at the Welsh Language Centre, Cardiff.
The course is a blended learning innovation and the results for Ms. Scourfield have been nothing less than remarkable by all accounts:
The first of its kind in Wales, the course teaches students to learn language patterns and vocabulary online, before attending intensive classroom sessions. The nature of the course gave Barbara the time and flexibility to learn at her own pace.
She has slowly regained her speech and has built her way up to communicating effectively not only in English, but also in her target language of Welsh.
Stories like Ms. Scourfield’s lend even more meaning to the work we all do to enhance teaching and learning with effective uses of technology.
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