Many countries try to make their educational system more inclusive, but what about special education? Special education is destined to children who experience more difficulties in certain areas, thus needing a more personalized pedagogy. However, every country has different rules when it comes to special education. This is what makes the partnership of the Blue Platform project so interesting, since it involves partners from Turkey, Belgium and Italy.
Special Education in the partner countries
In Italy, special education is organized in mainstream schools. Special schools were closed in 1977 and the 1992 Italian Framework Law for the Assistance, Social Inclusion, and the Rights of Persons with Disabilities no. 104 has emphasized the inclusive aspect of education throughout the country. This system allows for a greater inclusion of disabled people in society, but teachers still need the tools and help required to provide high quality education for children with specific needs.
In Belgium, the situation is different as these children mostly go to special schools. The aim of Belgian special schools is to provide a more individualized education with the support of specialized staff in order to foster social and professional inclusion. It is however possible for students with lower levels of disability or learning disorders, to go to mainstream schools provided that they build a detailed individual support plan in collaboration with the parents and a specialist.
In Turkey, children with special needs often go to mainstream schools. Some of them do not have access to any kind of special education, even if the numbers remain unclear. For students with specific needs, some special classes exist. When a pupil has a disability, the decision can be to send them to a mainstream school, a special school or an inclusive class in a mainstream school. These children can also follow additional courses in special education and rehabilitation centers, where many teachers have to create their materials with their own efforts and handcraft due to a lack of financial resources.
This project’s goals
The project aims to provide a platform for children and teachers to use in special education schools. The platform will be very useful to monitor the children’s work and progress. The project’s goals will be reached through the production of the following outputs:
- The Blue Special Learning Management System
- Accessible Educational Content
- Animations for Educational Objectives
- Preparation of Games
- Voiceover Studies
Here are a few things that the platform will bring to the pupils and their teachers:
For the pupils:
- Development of needed skills such as hand-eye coordination, listening, speaking, problem solving, numeric knowledge, and social adaptation;
- Fun education replacing enforced education and easy-to-difficult hierarchical approach stimulating the student’s curiosity;
- Flexibility in repeating the exercises and lessons as many times as needed;
- Acquiring the skills needed to gain autonomy;
- Preparing for higher education, professional training and adult life.
For the teachers:
- Free accessible and adapted material available at all times;
- User-friendly platform for both the pupils and their teachers;
- Supportive learning environment;
- Monitoring of the student’s homework and progress;
- Possibility for the teacher to take over to help the student;
This project started in 2017 and as a duration of 2 years.
Facebook: Mavi Platform/Blue Platform