Spatial thinking is a blending of knowledge and skills that supports people in identifying, and interpreting location, distance, relationships, orientation, movement, change, patterns, and trends through space. It is as a key ability for STEM disciplines, social sciences and humanities, as well as for several tasks of daily life.The competence of spatial thinking, usage and interpretation of maps or other spatial tools is not self-evident for all; it is a dexterity which must be cultivated. For students experiencing disabilities, such as visual impairment (VI), spatial thinking proves to be an imperative skill for perceiving the world far beyond their immediate experience. Learning functional ways to utilize spatial experiences as an entirety and realize the relationships between objects in space and themselves is vital. Maps and other spatial representations are a splendid source of information for portraying space and environment. By using tactile maps and innovative ICT technologies, children may deploy their spatial notion more effectively compared to proximate orientation experiences in accordance with verbal directions. Providing thus a concrete set of such tools would empower specific spatial thinking skills not only of those with VI but of all students. The VISTE proposal aims at empowering the spatial thinking skills of students with VI. This will be accomplished by providing an innovative methodological framework and a semantic and technical infrastructure for developing appropriate inclusive educational modules to foster spatial thinking. The project’s main target groups are primary/secondary education students, as well as teachers, teachers’ trainers, and stuff involved in their education. Six partners from 4 EU countries, (Greece, France, Romania and Luxemburg), i.e., 2 from research and technology (National Technical Univ. of Athens GR, Inria Bordeaux Sud Ouest FR), 2 special schools/educational institutions (Athens School for the Blind GR, Liceul Special pentru Deficienti de Vedere RO), one teachers’ training centre (CCD Cluj RO), and 1 technology provider (INTRASOFT LUX), adequately meet all requirements of the project objectives.VISTE is methodologically structured to fully support the production of the following 5 intellectual outputs: 1. The VISTE inclusive educational framework for spatial thinking of students with VI will introduce essential strategies for the development of an innovative teaching approach towards effective spatial thinking for students with VI, facilitating inclusion for accessing mainstream schools. New cartographies will also be explored in a multi-sensory approach.2. VISTE Spatial Thinking Educational Components will introduce, implement, and validate innovative ways for spatial thinking educational practices. To accomplish that, new modules will be designed and developed, to encompass needs of students with VI, and both will be piloted and validated in formal educational contexts.3. VISTE Innovative ICT Toolkit (design, implementation and validation) will: (a) take advantage but also extend existing tools developed in previous projects, and (b) incorporate new tools developed especially for the project. This includes an extension of the GEOTHNK authoring environment (www.geothnk.eu) with new innovative features and will also include an augmented reality tool that allows VI and sighted students and teachers to collaboratively, explore, and build geographic maps. The toolkit will be available in the languages of the consortium plus English.
Competence in spatial thinking, usage of maps or other spatial tools is not self-evident for all; it is a dexterity, which can be cultivated. Strengthening spatial thinking in school education has been linked to positive results, such as success in STEM, promotion of innovation and mitigation of social inequalities. For students with visual impairment (VI), spatial thinking is, additionally, a critical compensatory ability for functionally utilizing spatial experiences. It can contribute to students’ mobility, independence, academic progress, social integration and professional development. Spatial thinking can provide a basis for inclusive education, through open-ended problem solving tasks and scientific inquiry activities, which stimulate students' interest and promote cooperation in the classroom, with multiple benefits for all students. Tactile maps, as well as innovative spatial tools exploiting Information and Communication Technologies, can be valuable aids in this direction. Project “VISTE: Empowering Spatial Thinking of Students with Visual Impairment” was a Strategic Partnership for school education supporting innovation and the exchange of good practices, co-funded by the Erasmus+ programme of the European Union (9/2016 – 8/2019). The project’s mission was to create a methodological, semantic and technical infrastructure for cultivating spatial thinking in inclusive educational environments. The objectives were: • to address the needs of school students with VI, by strengthening their spatial skills, and • to cultivate these skills through cooperative activities with sighted students, so as to enhance integration of students with VI in mainstream education. The project’s main target groups were school students (11-15 years old), teachers, teachers’ trainers and other professionals involved in education. The consortium consisted of 5 partners from 4 European countries: the National Technical University of Athens (Co-ordinator, Greece), Institut National de Recherche en Informatique et en Automatique (France), INTRASOFT SA (Luxembourg), Casa Corpului Didactic Cluj (Romania), Eidiko Dimotiko Sxolio Tiflon Kallitheas (Greece) and Liceul Special pentru Deficienti de Vedere Cluj-Napoca (Romania). Its members (a university, a research institute, a software company, a teacher’s training centre, and a primary and a secondary school for the visually impaired) brought in different areas of expertise; meanwhile, the project also benefited from additional co-operation with several other organizations active in relevant fields. Four intellectual outputs were produced. 1. An innovative inclusive educational framework for empowering spatial thinking in students with visual impairment was researched and developed. 2. Educational spatial thinking components were designed, implemented and evaluated. They include educational scenarios which address a range of scientific fields, classes and curricula and utilize open learning tools. 3. An innovative ICT toolkit, to assist the work of educators, has been designed, implemented and validated. Its first pillar is the web-based VISTE Community of users (platform), which allows teachers to share open educational resources developed in the project and cooperatively develop new ones. The second pillar is an augmented reality toolkit, which VI users can use to explore tactile maps with complementary audio information, to receive guidance to construct their own maps, or to explore tactile material in a quiz mode. The prototype was extended in order to also enable teachers of VI students to create their own audio-tactile material. Furthermore, a virtual reality toolkit has been designed and validated, which can be used as a street simulator in order to train VI students in orientation and mobility lessons. 4. A guide of good practice and policy recommendation has been formulated, based on the experience gained during the project. Additionally, two joint staff training events provided teachers of VI students the opportunity to enhance their knowledge and skills and develop common resources, as well as to receive training on integrating augmented/virtual reality and 3D printing in their educational practice. Finally, 12 multiplier events and a variety of dissemination activities diffused project results to wider audiences. The project has won an award of excellence at the Edumanager.ro Gala forum in Romania. It has received a warm reception by the 175 school students (including 85 VI students) directly involved in its educational activities. It has equipped hundreds of education professionals with skills and motivation to serve the needs of their students using the VISTE approach, while the potential exists for further impact via the online community, the open access of intellectual outputs and the activities of teachers’ trainers. Project results have been communicated to the research community via publications and presentations at major conferences.