Context Technology tools for disabled refer to devices or systems that support people with special needs to maintain or improve their autonomy, self-reliance and wellbeing. These tools address a wide range of special needs related to social, behavioural, cognitive, perceptive or physical conditions. As the focus of this project, "students with autism spectrum disorder" may suffer from difficulties with social communication and interaction, repetitive behaviours, delayed speech development, problems with eye-contact, reasoning, differentiating perceptions, and orientation that prevent them from performing their academic tasks in the same manner as other students. Technologies produced especially to ease social and communicative challenges of students with ASD play an important role in reducing barriers to learning. Obtaining knowledge about how to use these assistive technologies for students with ASD will provide SEN teaching undergraduates to improve both their teaching and technology skills. It will also enable them to facilitate learning processes of these students. In this respect, a curriculum is needed for SEN teaching undergraduates which will meet social and communicative needs of students with ASD and focus on the use and selection of the appropriate technology and when and how to utilise it and evaluate its efficiency. Need Analysis results that we conducted to frame this proposal, revealed the necessity of training courses on this issue. Hereby teaching materials consisting curriculum as modules and VR resources will be used during the course delivery. Objectives Hereby, the objectives of the project are as follows. 1- Capacity building of SEN teaching undergraduates and enabling them to excel in teaching 2- Promoting assistive technologies for better social and communication skills of students with ASD 3- Investing in innovative technologies as teaching materials (VR content) and contributing to the development of education technologies We plan to develop; a- A Curriculum "Introduction to Technology Tools to Improve Social and Communication Skills of Students with ASD" b- Teaching materials VR Resources Number & Profile of Participants The target group of the project are 120 SEN teaching undergraduates in the partner countries, specifically interacted during the project practice. Other participants will be 60 lecturers, teaching professionals, SEN teachers and other stakeholders working in the study field who will directly be involved in the project practice. 250 participants will be invited to the proposed multiplier events as audience and be informed of the developed intellectual outputs. In this way, we aim to reach different universities across Europe and introduce project's intellectual outputs to be included in their education programmes. In addition, staff members of the partner organisations will be active during the project practice and the project website will enable us to reach a wider audience. Methodology & Activities Methodology consisted of three cycles on the course of the project is as follows. Cycle 1 - Literature Reviews & Curriculum Development (Individual & Team Works) Cycle 2 - Content & Software Development (Workshops & Technological Support) Cycle 3 - Piloting (Training courses & Evaluations) Activities to be implemented are as follows. Cycle 1 1- Partnership will review literature to prepare two reports named "Autism Spectrum Disorder & Social and Communicative Challenges" and "Assistive Technology Tools for Accelerating Learning Processes of Children with ASD". These reports will form the basis of the proposed curriculum. 2- Curriculum will be developed as modules on a cloud service and necessary arrangements will be made on the curriculum in order to adapt it to national contexts. Cycle 2 1- Workshops will be organised for the content development. Subject matter experts, lecturers and other stakeholders will participate in the workshops. The focus will be on the most effective assistive technology tools for ASD. 2- After the workshops, team works will take place and scenarios (6 in total) will be written necessary for VR resources. Then the software will be developed. Cycle 3 1- After the preparation process of the intellectual outputs, training courses for SEN teaching undergraduates will be organised. Pre and post tests will be applied before and after the training courses to reveal the effectiveness of the courses. Results & Impact SEN teaching undergraduates will directly participate in the project practice and be equipped with necessary pedagogic and technology skills about these assistive tools. Interested lecturers from all over the world will be able to use the developed curriculum and VR content in their classes. Partner organisations will be able to use developed curriculum and VR resources during their course delivery. Through panel discussions and a valorisation conference project results will be disseminated to a wide range of stakeholders.
To improve the university lecturers and teaching skills of the university students. To integrate technology into teaching processes to reach better results and produce more effective solutions Increasing the university students’ awareness of assistive technologies that they can use to facilitate learning processes of students with ASD and ease their social and communication skills. We also wanted to develop new ideas and collaborate with partners to develop innovative learning materials to be used for SEN teaching undergraduates who will work with children with ASD. All of the partners prepared SEN teachers and/ or school teachers and knowledge gained in the project is very important for us and our students to support children with ASD.
As it is known, technology has been developing rapidly and most of the technology products find a place in education. Many assistive technologies have been produced for the sake of individuals with special education needs (SEN). Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are among the groups that need special education. Students with ASD, which is the focus of this project, experience some problems with social communication and interaction, repetitive behaviors, delayed speech development, engagement with eye contact, reasoning, differentiating perceptions, and orientation dimensions compared to their peers. Assistive technologies facilitate the learning processes of these individuals. These technologies need to be introduced to the university students who would teach students with ASD. For this purpose, this project had been prepared and developed. VR is a promising technology in education helping people to concentrate, focus on and understand things that cannot be taught in real teaching settings because of different challenges. Thus, we designed the teaching materials as VR materials both as a facilitator and as an innovation.
Context Technology tools for disabled refer to devices or systems that support people with special needs to maintain or improve their autonomy, self-reliance and wellbeing. These tools address a wide range of special needs related to social, behavioural, cognitive, perceptive or physical conditions. As the focus of this project, "students with autism spectrum disorder" may suffer from difficulties with social communication and interaction, repetitive behaviours, delayed speech development, problems with eye-contact, reasoning, differentiating perceptions, and orientation that prevent them from performing their academic tasks in the same manner as other students. Technologies produced especially to ease social and communicative challenges of students with ASD play an important role in reducing barriers to learning. Obtaining knowledge about how to use these assistive technologies for students with ASD will provide SEN teaching undergraduates to improve both their teaching and technology skills. It will also enable them to facilitate learning processes of these students. In this respect, a curriculum is needed for SEN teaching undergraduates which will meet social and communicative needs of students with ASD and focus on the use and selection of the appropriate technology and when and how to utilise it and evaluate its efficiency. Need Analysis results that we conducted to frame this proposal, revealed the necessity of training courses on this issue. Hereby teaching materials consisting curriculum as modules and VR resources will be used during the course delivery. Objectives Hereby, the objectives of the project are as follows. 1- Capacity building of SEN teaching undergraduates and enabling them to excel in teaching 2- Promoting assistive technologies for better social and communication skills of students with ASD 3- Investing in innovative technologies as teaching materials (VR content) and contributing to the development of education technologies We plan to develop; a- A Curriculum "Introduction to Technology Tools to Improve Social and Communication Skills of Students with ASD" b- Teaching materials VR Resources Number & Profile of Participants The target group of the project are 120 SEN teaching undergraduates in the partner countries, specifically interacted during the project practice. Other participants will be 60 lecturers, teaching professionals, SEN teachers and other stakeholders working in the study field who will directly be involved in the project practice. 250 participants will be invited to the proposed multiplier events as audience and be informed of the developed intellectual outputs. In this way, we aim to reach different universities across Europe and introduce project's intellectual outputs to be included in their education programmes. In addition, staff members of the partner organisations will be active during the project practice and the project website will enable us to reach a wider audience. Methodology & Activities Methodology consisted of three cycles on the course of the project is as follows. Cycle 1 - Literature Reviews & Curriculum Development (Individual & Team Works) Cycle 2 - Content & Software Development (Workshops & Technological Support) Cycle 3 - Piloting (Training courses & Evaluations) Activities to be implemented are as follows. Cycle 1 1- Partnership will review literature to prepare two reports named "Autism Spectrum Disorder & Social and Communicative Challenges" and "Assistive Technology Tools for Accelerating Learning Processes of Children with ASD". These reports will form the basis of the proposed curriculum. 2- Curriculum will be developed as modules on a cloud service and necessary arrangements will be made on the curriculum in order to adapt it to national contexts. Cycle 2 1- Workshops will be organised for the content development. Subject matter experts, lecturers and other stakeholders will participate in the workshops. The focus will be on the most effective assistive technology tools for ASD. 2- After the workshops, team works will take place and scenarios (6 in total) will be written necessary for VR resources. Then the software will be developed. Cycle 3 1- After the preparation process of the intellectual outputs, training courses for SEN teaching undergraduates will be organised. Pre and post tests will be applied before and after the training courses to reveal the effectiveness of the courses. Results & Impact SEN teaching undergraduates will directly participate in the project practice and be equipped with necessary pedagogic and technology skills about these assistive tools. Interested lecturers from all over the world will be able to use the developed curriculum and VR content in their classes. Partner organisations will be able to use developed curriculum and VR resources during their course delivery. Through panel discussions and a valorisation conference project results will be disseminated to a wide range of stakeholders.