Special Sector Workshop

The Basics Workshop was organized for people working with the Special Learning Needs Sector and made possible through Alliance Francaise de Karachi in collaboration with the Sustainable Development Networking Programme (SDNP) Pakistan. SDNP desired to provide computer-training services that are designed to meet the educational needs of teachers as well as students with special learning needs.

The beginning session provided a good introduction to computers and the Internet, and explained how various software and application programs work and how people with special needs can utilize them. Participants included educators and individuals with special learning needs. The workshop had a two-fold objective. The first is to help individuals who are hard of hearing, visually impaired or have learning disabilities, acquire computer skills. This will help them integrate with and be supported by their community as any other individual. The second objective is to help teachers help their students overcome barriers that prevent them from reaching their goals in life.

This pioneering step was taken in hope that participating educators are able to begin to use the basic software and able to work on them with their students. They can also share this information with parents/carers and other colleagues closely associated with their students in their own environment. However, they will require further training and expertise to obtain sufficient competence to train others in advanced-level computer studies.

The workshop titled "Computer Basics & Internet Training" was hosted at Alliance Francaise de Karachi. A total of thirty-one individuals comprising of both special children and educators from eleven different institutes participated in the workshop. The special (deaf) students from Ida Rieu School, ABSA Institute and Deaf Education & Welfare Association Trust (DEWA) were present; the educators belonged to eleven different organisations. These include Ida rieu School for the Deaf & Blind, ABSA School for hearing impaired, Deaf Education & Welfare Association Trust (DEWA), Special Teacher Parents Resources Centre, Pakistan Association for Blind, Shaheed-e-Millat Special Education Centre, Al-Shifa Day Home, Association of Physically Handicapped Adults, Ujala Centre, Bait-ul-Shafqat, and Pakistan Association for the Deaf. Further information about these organizations is provided in the list of participants.

The proceedings began with a welcome speech by Mr. Jean Marie LAROSE, Director Pedagogical, Alliance Francaise, followed by an introduction of SDNP by the workshop organizer. The first session comprised of both students and teachers. A sign-language interpreter (Mr. Muhammad Nadeem from Ida Rieu School) was present all throughout for facilitation of the proceedings. Later on the children were taken for a hands-on training to the cyber-caf at Alliance Francaise. The afternoon session was solely on Internet Training and was focussed on the educators. Manuals were provided with to those attending so they can introduce the basic computer courses in their respective organizations.

This activity is part of SDNP Pakistan's initiative of knowledge sharing amongst the special sector in Pakistan. Participating organizations can avail further advanced level training and free website hosting facility.

SDNP is a global initiative of United Nations Development Programme and it is being managed in Pakistan by IUCN- The World Conservation Union.

Day Programme

Participants

Images

SDNP believes that to actualize a meaningful and beneficial participation of end-users, through internetworking technologies, there should be an in-house capacity in the governmental, non-governmental and other civil society initiatives to publish their websites and frequently update the information and knowledge content.

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