Using ICT to promote flexible lifelong learning in communication, health and disability

People with a disability have criticised health professionals for having limited knowledge of the issues they face and for having patronising attitudes. If student health workers and practising health professionals are not given opportunities to interact with people with disabilities and learn from them, they are unlikely to be comfortable interacting with this group of people.

This is a major challenge for health professionals as people with disability; in particular those with a lifelong disability such as cerebral palsy or intellectual disability are likely to access health services more than twice as often as their nondisabled peers. There is an identified need to involve people with disability actively in teaching student health professionals and graduates who are already providing health services.

Lectures by people with disability help meet the educational needs of the students and workers within the helping professions and can be used to promote lifelong learning among disability workers in both primary- and specialised care. Recent research into the efficacy of providing students with access to virtual guest lecturers has demonstrated that connecting students with virtual guest experts results in increased levels of motivation and interaction. To date there is no research that reports on involving lecturers with disability in virtual teaching programs. The aim of this project is to develop a series of lectures by disabled people using networked voice, text-based, and virtual technologies using a multi- partnership model for effective shared use of the lectures across Norway.

This project incorporates a mixed-methods strategy to respond to the diverse learning styles, needs, and expectations of students and adult learners in a variety of on and off campus environments.

Aims
1. Deliver lectures by disabled people using networked voice, text-based, and virtual technologies.
2. To support participants’ learning and test the efficacy of the model using Second Life

Four lectures by people with disability using networked voice, text-based, and virtual technologies are currently available at http://www2.helsekompetanse.no/atutor/index.php

 A manual to support interested people to enter the virtual world of Second Life is also available. Teaching materials to support the use of the four lectures are currently being developed. Teaching materials will be loaned from University College Library, there will also be a discussion forum at http://www2.helsekompetanse.no/atutor/index.php