The Future of Education

Context

Our current society demands professionals with XXI century skills. STEAM disciplines have shown to be especially relevant to facilitate their acquisition. However in such disciplines inclusion of students with intellectual or developmental disabilities (IDD) is very difficult. RoboSTEAMSEN aims to support educational processes by providing teachers of students with IDD, with methodologies and tools for fostering STEAM by using Robotics and Active Learning Methodologies.

Aims

The project main aim is addressed by:

• Understanding disabled students needs and adapting robotics and active learning methodologies to their different disabilities;
• Defining training programs for teachers so they can make adaptations to personalize the learning of students with IDD;
• Developing a community of practice supported by a technological ecosystem to provide a meeting point for teachers and decision makers about how to succeed in STEAM Education for IDD students.

Activities

The following activities will be implemented:

• A taxonomy for classifying resources addressed to students with IDD;
• A user model to personalize learning paths;
• Resources and courses for teachers;
• Workshop models to spread the results beyond the project;
• A technological ecosystem to support a community of practice in the topic.

Results

The main project deliverables are:

• A database of tools and resources to provide the knowledge to facilitate adapting robotics and active learning methodologies for different IDD
• An online course to be carried out in other institutions beyond the partnership that can be useful for training teachers from the associated partners
• A Community of Practice to spread the result and be able to maintain it after the project is finished

Partners

·         University of Leon, Spain

·         University of Salamanca, Spain

·         CEE NTRA SRA del Sagrado Corazon, Spain

·         Instituto Politecnico de Braganca, Portugal

·         Colégio Internato de Carvalhos, Portugal

·         University of Eastern Finland, Finland

·         Pixel – Associazione Culturale, Italy

·         EuroED, Romania