How to support teachers in their daily work with SEN children?

How to integrate interactive multi-sensory techniques for learning and assessment in classrooms?

The INTELed project aims:

• to support teachers in acquiring knowledge and skills about the use of multi-sensory technology for addressing the needs of Special Education Need (SEN) children in inclusive education contexts;
• to develop a methodological framework for training teachers based on embodied cognition, research on embodied learning and the premise of multi-sensory technologies.

In turn, the overarching goal of the project is the integration of these techniques in the school classrooms, thus contributing in students’ academic, social and emotional development.

Key innovative characteristics of the INTELed project:

• to push from theoretical assumptions to practical experiences in complex classroom realities where children of different levels of ability and disability coexist;
• to stimulate audio-visual, kinesthetic and playful learning driven by research on embodied learning;
• to adopts a holistic approach to the education of SEN children with a focus on academic goals as well as emotional and social aspects;
• to create a community of practice and realization of the need for an upgrade for the current teacher training programmes;
• to build on the extensive expertise of the consortium on innovative pedagogical approaches in SEN and inclusive education.

We participated in the first meeting between the partners of the INTELed project that took place at the Cyprus University of Technology on the 20^th - 21th November.

The kickoff meeting began with an introductory speech by Prof. Panayiotis Zaphiris presenting the Social Computing Research Center, which is the multidisciplinary research center of social computing of the Cyprus University of Technology.

Next, Dr. Andri Ioannou gave an introductory speech presenting the Cyprus Interaction Lab, which is the first lab of its kind in Cyprus dealing with topics in human computer interaction and educational technology.

In addition, the 4 partners had the opportunity to define the project’s framework as well as the timelines of the project, while they also discussed and exchanged their views, focusing on the best accomplishment of the INTELed project’s goals.

The kickoff meeting concluded with the partners’ visit at the Cyprus Interaction Lab (CIL). During the visit, the CIL staff guided the partners at the CIL premises, while also demonstrating the available technologies and equipment.

The next consortium meeting will take place in June 2018 at the University of Piraeus.