On February 27 the educational workshop on inclusive technologies in education was organised for students-volunteers in Saratov University. The workshop was devoted to work of future pedagogues in inclusive educational environment in modern schools. The event was attended by SSU administration, deans of the Faculty of Computer Science and Information Technologies and the Faculty of Pedagogical and Special Needs Education, members of the academic staff, and students.
‘We have gathered at a special event. As you know, our society has to adapt to new requirements of the 21st century. We often hear the word ‘tolerance’ which means respect to different people, representatives of different religions, different skin colour, and different abilities. Today we see here students-pedagogues, and they have to know how to work with different kinds of schoolchildren. Our university has done a lot in order to help future teachers to meet that requirement. The current workshop is held by Saratov University and the Research Center “Education. Quality. Field” (an independent non-governmental organisation) within the “See the World with My Heart” project,’ said Appointed Chair of the Department of Information Systems and Educational Technologies M.V. Khramova.
The project is implemented due to the grant of the President of the Russian Federation on the Development of Civic Society which was given by the President Grant Foundation to two faculties – the Faculty of Computer Science and Information Technologies and the Faculty of Pedagogical and Special Needs Education.
The workshop members were welcomed by Vice-Rector for Secondary Professional Education and Social Work O.Ye. Nesterova.
‘I am glad to open this event. You can not only see the future but become a part of it. What is more important, we can understand in what ways future pedagogues will be able to help people with eye disorders. Therefore, I wish all of you to learn about new technologies today in order to use them at work and help people with disabilities.’
Dean of the Faculty of Computer Science and Information Technologies S.V. Mironov also addressed to the audience.
‘Today we organise a pilot workshop where students, namely pedagogues, will find out about new educational technologies for children with disabilities. The workshop goal is to let the children with disorders to acquire knowledge together with other school students. I hope the project like that will inspire people to develop new solutions in this sphere.’
As Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Pedagogical and Special Needs Education N.V. Sayapin marked, the university academic staff does its best in order to teach future pedagogues to work with people with disabilities.
‘Last year SSU together with another Saratov university held a big conference which was also dedicated to issues of people with eye disorders. Today the educational workshop is organised within that project, and a few faculties participate in it. Therefore, I would like to wish you to be productive,’ added the deputy dean.
Director of the Independent Non-Governmental Organisation “The Research Center “Education. Quality. Field” N.A. Aleksandrova commented on the project objective.
‘We try to attract attention to problems of children with disabilities. And young students-pedagogues must be ready to work with children like that. Therefore, we need to prepare young specialists to work in inclusive schools. We have already held a few events on that topic.’
N.A. Aleksandrova spoke in detail about each of those events.
Head of the Inclusive Education Laboratory (the Faculty of Pedagogical and Special Needs Education), Associate Professor of the Department of Special Needs Education M.D. Konovalova told about psychological peculiarities of work with children with eye disorders. In her opinion, visually impaired children need more support to adapt to the educational process than children without this problem.
Senior Lecturer of the Department of Information Systems and Educational Technologies E.A. Gavrilova commented on special Windows software and mobile apps for IOS and Android helpful for people with eye disabilities.
