Press release: Schools should be embracing Twitter – Futurelab’s new handbook offers practical guidance on digital inclusion

One of the ways to offer a truly inclusive education for all young people is to embrace their diverse learning needs and encourage active participation on popular social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter to encourage the creation and sharing of information, suggests education innovator, Futurelab (www.futurelab.org.uk), in its latest handbook on digital inclusion.

Addressing the vital issues of personalisation and the learner’s right to a voice raised in government agendas such as Every Child Matters and the Children’s Plan, the handbook “Using digital technologies to promote inclusive practices in education” provides practical suggestions on how educators can help to overcome barriers that may prevent learners of all abilities from reaching their potential. 

The report gives a number of case studies, offering an insight into others’ effective use of technology to overcome young people’s learning, physical, emotional or behavioural difficulties. One of these studies shows how the communicative, collaborative and community-building aspects of social software sites such as Facebook, Wikipedia and Twitter can be used to foster a more personalised approach to. Researchers go on to suggest that allowing learners access to Web 2.0 sites also helps to promote responsible and creative learning. 

With a list of practical resources and technologies, the report suggests that handheld technologies such as mobile phones and Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) which are widely used, play an important role in supporting inclusive practice by motivating learners and deepening engagement in the learning process through a medium with which the learner is both confident and familiar.

This latest handbook from Futurelab goes on to argue that, in order to foster an environment in which all learners can thrive, parents, teachers and the learners themselves should be given the opportunity to express their perspective and be part of the ultimate decision making process. The report states that any ‘single perspective’ approach does not tell the whole story and therefore any educational experiences developed on this basis would start at a disadvantage. The Using digital technologies to promote inclusive practices in education report can be downloaded free from www.futurelab.org.uk/handbooks