Differently abled learners often pose a stress on educational infrastructure because of their various needs and requirements.As an answer, educational suppliers are swearing by the new watchwords of versatility and multi-channel learning, and investing in products that can be adapted to a variety of learning situations for a spectrum of abilities.

One such educational tool is Clicker. Designed by Crick Software, Clicker offers a powerful multimedia and writing support tool for learners of different ages and abilities.

Learners can write with whole words, phrases or pictures by clicking cells in the Clicker grid. By using sets of linked grids, pupils can have access to an unlimited number of words and pictures that provide a framework or scaffolding for their writing. As well as writing simple documents, learners can create multimedia talking books using pictures, sounds and even video, opening up new channels of understanding where conventional ones are rendered ineffective.

“Clicker 5 is extremely inclusive. All activities can be easily edited by the instructor to differentiate the material for different abilities. The program is fully accessible by switch users, and has a number of options to make it accessible for visually impaired users,” said Lina Howarth,Marketing Manager, Crick Software.

“It’s versatility as learning tool covers everything from simple word and labelling activities to sophisticated multimedia presentations with digital pictures, animation, sound and video. It addresses a wide range of literacy objectives at word, sentence and text level. It is designed to be used in shared, guided and independent writing sessions,” She said.

Any tool is only as good as its supporting materials, and Clicker is strong in that department. Curriculum relevant materials can be downloaded directly to the programme, and ready-made downloadable material is easily available.

Clicker can be used in innumerable ways in the classroom; for example Clicker is the perfect tool for use with an interactive whiteboard, creating activities such as personalised, interactive talking ‘big books’.

Inclusive education is very reliant on multi-channel learning. Barriers to learning can be overcome by trying different stimulations for the learner. Clicker realises that, and provides a platform that supports a vast variety of supplementary tools that can engage through phonetics, interactive newspaper reading, voice recordings and story-telling.

Clicker is part of a family of ‘click to learn’ products that all share a similar versatility designed to appeal to the widest range of learners.In an education scenario that is increasingly cognizant of the need to cater to different abilities and needs, expect more demand for such toolsets in the Middle East and worldwide.

Join the Clicker Club

St John the Evangelist RC Primary School in London has a Clicker Club. Though it might sound like a fraternity or even sorority, the Clicker Club is actually part of a Wave 3 intervention for learners in years four, five and six with dyslexia and other literacy difficulties. Clicker 5 is used in small group sessions to develop spelling skills.

“Clicker Club targets pupils from Years four, five and six who are struggling with spelling due to dyslexia or other literacy difficulties. Small groups of pupils come along to Clicker Club in the ICT suite for two fifteen-minute sessions per week, and use the Clicker program to type up sentences they have made up. These sentences include target words that each pupil is learning to spell [usually two target words per sentence],” says Kim Connor, Inclusion Coordinator at St John Evangelist School

“The pupil has to remember the sentence, type it up and make any corrections. After this the pupil listens to Clicker read the sentence out loud. Finally the child self-assesses his work using a marking system that the pupils have devised. The emphasis is on using both routes into reading – the sounds in the word and the look of the word. The pupils gain confidence through this regular, short, focused practice. There are lots of opportunities for over-learning and most importantly the experience of making mistakes and learning how to put them right. This allows the pupils to develop the ability to correct and edit their own work and find ways to remember the spellings of key words,” she explains.

The Clicker Club aims to link the learning with skills gained from working with Clicker to those acquired in other situations within the classroom or at home.“Learners at the Clicker Club at St John are making great progress in their confidence, their knowledge of strategies to learn spellings, and their awareness of how to edit their own written work. They are learning to identify why a particular word was difficult, and why it became easier,” enthuses Connor.