Online Support for Persons in the Community
By Verburg, Geb; Borthwick, Burt; Assistive Technology - Shaping the Future: AAATE 2003 Conference Proceedings, Vol. 11, No. 1, pp. 427-432Publication Date: 2003
Paper presents a case for the development of online resources to support people with disabilities, their families, and caregivers. A number of groups and organizations involved in online education have adopted the idea of Learning Object Repositories (LOR). The LOR is a reusable element of online content, which may vary from a single slide of a painting to a series of images. They may consist of a PowerPoint presentation or even an entire streamed lecture. The concept of reusable online learning materials on a range of rehabilitation topics can present an advantage in the field of rehabilitation and special education. The development of extensive collections of information of pediatric rehabilitation information organized by age, function, activity, and level of independence can allow parents, clients, professionals, and students to access the information for use in daily life, work, or school. The authors used the LOR approach to develop an online database of questions and answers about reintegrating students with acquired brain injury (ABI). The questions and answers cover major areas of reintegration that are potential problems for classroom teachers. The resource was drawn from a series of online courses about ABI. The information was structured in such a way that each significant concept in the course material was identified with one or more descriptive words or phrases. The descriptors were categorized under topics and subtopics, and cross-references were used to show interconnections between concepts. This was completed with the aid of CINDEX software, which is a conceptual tool for book indexing. The material was entered into Dreamweaver style sheets for presentation on the website. The site was under development at the time the article was written. Implications for site evaluation are discussed.
Published by: IOS Press (Website:http://www.iospress.nl)
Association for the Advancement of Assistive Technology in Europe (AAATE) (Web Site: http://www.aaate.net )
ISBN: 1-58603-373-5
