Dawn Hallett: a real IT hero

Beverley Head
Friday, 30 September 2011 14:33

You've probably never heard of Dawn Hallett. I doubt you'll hear of her again. But it's just possible she's one of the most influential people working with IT in Australia right now.

Hallett has been given just one year to make a difference using IT. But what a difference it could be.

Hallett is until the end of the year the iPad Coach at Warringa Park School in Victoria, a special education school which is achieving some remarkable breakthroughs with children who have both physical and intellectual disabilities, thanks to a programme which is equipping all teachers and students with an iPad. Children who cannot speak are now communicating; wheelchair bound kids have a vehicle for expression; and most importantly, they are all learning.

Hallett has been working with the children, the teachers - and more broadly, sharing her experiences and insight with educators across the country. But at the end of the year she'll be returning to classroom teaching, by when hopefully her technology nouse will have percolated through the school.

What her story demonstrates is how just about anyone with a determination to make a difference can immerse themselves in technology, understand its implications, and become a change agent in a company or a community.

She certainly didn't start off with any technology ambitions, but from a very early age was attracted to what she describes as 'people with a vulnerability.' Born in Bristol in the UK's south west, Hallett was one of four children in a working class family where Mum worked in a bank and Dad was a lorry driver.

Her high school grades weren't great, but she managed to secure a place at the University of Plymouth to study teaching, specialising in maths. 'For the first two years it was very daunting and I was aware of the gaps in my knowledge. In the first year I had to teach six students and I was terrified - very shy.'

She soldiered on and by her fourth year, when the practical teaching kicked in, Hallett was hooked. In her very first job in a school in Devon she encountered a child with ADHD, who 'made my life hell,' before being moved into the class of a more experienced teacher. 'Then I had a child with a hearing impairment who was possibly also autistic,' both of which piqued her interest into what it would take to help these children learn and participate.

All the children she worked with in the early years were from relatively poor backgrounds. The schools she worked in often had a small pool of computers that teachers were allowed to use with the kids once a week.