Technology-based inclusive classroom activities in the participating schools!
During the design phase, school team members, with the guidance of technology experts, designed 21 inclusive classroom activities using ICT and AT. The aim was to enhance the participation of all children, and in particular the participation and inclusion of children with special educational needs. In doing so, the school teams made use of two templates: 1) a Use Case Template, for describing the profile of the children identified as children with special educational needs and
2) an Activity Template, which support the development of the technology-based inclusive classroom activity.
Across the four countries, approximately 330 pre-schoolers, with and without SEN, from 14 preschools were involved in the technology-based inclusive classroom activities.
Some of the technologies (ICT and AT) used during these classroom activities were: interactive whiteboard, LED board, projector, Bluetooth speaker, educational software, BigKeys keyboard, BigTrack (trackball), Osmo educational games system for iPad, tablet, C-pen, sensors, digital story sequencer, talking photo album, GoTalk, talking picto wall (Touch and Talk), talking clothes pegs, CBoard, Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) adapters and symbols.
Some examples of technology-based inclusive classroom activities carried out in the different countries, are: story telling with sequencing and story structure by use of CBoard; recognition of alphabet letters and phonemes in small and capital letters by labelling pictures and copy typing (e.g., from small to capital letters) with the use of a BigKeys keyboard; the use of a digital story sequencer/talking photo album during the morning circle; the use of Osmo for all young learners in one of the learning corners; and learning different syllable by use of a C-pen.
After the implementation of the technology-based inclusive classroom activities 22 school team members and 53 parents evaluated the activities they were involved in, by completing a survey (there was one for school team members and one for parents). The evaluations were mostly positive.
Two quotes from the surveys:
“Very rewarding tool [Osmo], we should dare to use this more in the classroom and not just individually.” (teacher)
“We are very grateful and happy with this device [AAC]. Our son has really changed (positively) because of it.” (parent)
The preliminary results of the surveys can be found in our article: https://ebooks.iospress.nl/doi/10.3233/SHTI230674