ABSTRACT
Handheld and mobile technologies are causing a stir in classrooms across the country as teachers and learners discover the opportunities that they bring. Nowhere is this excitement more palpable than among educators who work with children and young people with special educational needs. Tablets are a technology with a lot of social cachet, too, 'aspirational and engaging', explained Ben Annett, ICT coordinator at Riverside, a special school in Haringey. While the accessibility of tablets, their capacity to be used by people with restricted movement or limited cognitive understanding is one of their attractions, focusing on just this aspect of them limits their usefulness. Stephen Drewitt is a research assistant at the Bridge School and he helps staff investigate the most effective ways to use tablets. For many children and young people with more complex special needs, such as profound and multiple learning difficulties (PMLD), this brings a greater immediacy than other means of interacting with technology, like switches.
