Texthelp Talks

The Joint Council for Qualifications (JCQ) recommends that access arrangements for exams are part of a student's "normal way of working". But what does this mean and what does this look like in a busy classroom environment?

In this episode, we're putting these questions and more to Simon Tanner from Bohunt Education Trust. Simon shares his experience as Director of SEND in supporting students to produce their best work and have the right opportunities come exam time. 

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Additional resources:

• Find out more about Simon's MAT SEND Leadership Programme on Twitter 
• Get to grips with the latest JCQ guidance 

In this episode we are joined by 2 experts in maths education in Australia. The host for the podcast is Allan Dougan, Allan is CEO of the Australian Association of Maths Teachers (AAMT). The AAMT are partnering with Texthelp to further maths education in Australia, so Allan is in a great position to host this session. 

Allan started his career as a Secondary Mathematics teacher in Scotland. As a celebrated teacher, he held various leadership positions in schools and was Scottish Teacher of the Year Runner Up. After moving to Australia, Allan quickly proved himself as a teacher of merit holding senior leadership positions in NSW schools.

Before joining AAMT in December 2020, Allan was Global Head of Education for a large EdTech company - a role that saw Allan present professional learning across the globe and develop a strong knowledge of current and emerging educational practices and pedagogies worldwide. Allan is passionate about relational and relevant education which helps young people become lifelong learners.

Allan is joined by Dr. John West, who is an independent mathematics education consultant. He currently works as the WA Project Officer for The University of Adelaide’s Maths in Schools Project, a casual lecturer in mathematics education at The University of Western Australia, and a fly-in/fly-out numeracy consultant to Coober Pedy Area School. John currently serves as the President of the Mathematical Association of Western Australia (MAWA) and is the author of a growing range of books for students and teachers including the Problem Solving Handbook (2021) the popular Puzzle Compendium series.

So you can see that if anyone can answer the question, what makes a good maths lesson -it's John and Allan. 

In this episode of the Texthelp Talks podcast, we caught up with Caroline Wright, live from Bett 2022. Caroline is the Director General of the British Educational Suppliers Association. BESA is the UK’s national industry association for educational products and services. Caroline talked to us about the work BESA do to support schools and educators. As well as reflecting on the past 2 years, where we're at now and how we can maintain momentum with EdTech to make our schools even more inclusive. 

In our latest #TexthelpTalks podcast episode, we hear Steve Nordmark and James Basham discuss the future directions of UDL (Universal Design for Learning) and unpack what an ‘expert learner’ really is…

Our third and final day at Bett 2022 has arrived and with it is our final BETTer Together podcast. To wrap up an exciting three days at the show we are joined by leading Bett speakers Abid Patel and Graham Macaulay, as well as some Texthelp friends. Listen along to hear why our key takeaway from Bett this year is 'momentum'.

We are back with day 2 of our BETTer Together podcast series live from Bett 2022! Today we were joined by a host of different speakers and even some special VIPs (Very Important Pupils). 

What we love about Bett is the community of educators that we can learn from and share different experiences with. In this episode we asked our guests the same 3 questions and got very different answers, so we think you can learn from them too. 

This week the Texthelp Talks podcast is on tour at BETT 2022! Join us for a behind the scenes look at day 1. 

In this special episode we are joined by Siddiqui Education's Baasit Siddiqui as he shares insights on closing the achievement gap.

At Texthelp it’s our mission to help unlock everyone's full potential through technology. We love hearing from other like minded people who are passionate about education, accessibility and technology.

That's why we have invited Luis Pérez, Technical Assistance Specialist at CAST, and Mindy Johnson, Director of Digital Communications & Outreach at CAST, to join us for this episode.

We’ll be discussing the importance of accessibility, both as a foundation for UDL, and in online teaching in general. This includes the steps that educators can take to ensure accessibility on their materials, as well as the importance of making sure that PDFs are accessible.

To find out more about how OrbitNote can support accessibility in your classroom visit: text.help/about-orbitnote.

Other useful links from the episode:

CAST UDL Symposium July 27 – 29 (online): bit.ly/cast-symposium-2022

UDL-IRN Summit March 31 – April 1 (online): summit.udl-irn.org

National Center on Accessible Educational Materials at CAST: aem.cast.org (Resources on POUR: Designing for Accessibility with POUR, Vetting for Accessibiltiy with POUR, Creating Accessible Documents).

Mindy’s always-up-to-date digital handout on accessible social media: bit.ly/a11y-social

You can also hear more from Luis over on Twitter, @eyeonaxs and Mindy, @min_d_j.

Transcript also available here: https://www.texthelp.com/resources/podcasts/designing-the-future-to-be-accessible/

In this episode of Texthelp Talks Ben Dyer, our Customer Relationship Champion, chats to student Shelly Zheng. Shelly is studying for a Bachelor of Business, Human Resources Management at Western Sydney University. 

Shelly shares her experiences of student life and accessing the tools and support she needs to complete her studies. Through this podcast Shelly hopes to inspire others who may be wary of attending university, she offers some tips and advice that could be of help too.  We hope to produce more resources with Shelly later this year, so keep an eye out for that! 

More resources to check out:

1. Hear the top 6 reasons why Western Sydney University love Read&Write
2. Visit our Higher Education page for more information 

At Texthelp it’s our mission to help unlock everyone's full potential through technology. We love hearing from other like minded people who are passionate about education, accessibility and technology. That's why we invited Sky Caves, a Senior Learning Technologist at Basingstoke College of Technology onto the podcast.

Sky shares why she's so passionate about integrating technology into the classroom and how her and the digital team at BCoT drive digital adoption across the college.

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To find out more about the EdTech Demonstrator Programme and to sign up to get help and support from schools and colleges like BCoT, visit edtechdemo.ucst.uk