The objective of CITE is to support 21st century learning skills with a specific focus on collaboration, communications and social interaction in the special education context. The project aim to identify what factors influence the design of collaborative activities mediated by technology for children in special education. Prototypes will be developed in participation with the children, their teachers and parents. This approach foregrounds children’s voices and interests, while supporting their creative and critical engagement with technologies. Based on assessment criteria developed within the project, we will evaluate in what ways the developed activities can be useful tools for training collaboration and preparing for collaborative learning activities. This approach provides the researchers with the possibility to study and accumulate knowledge from situated practices and different appropriations of technology. The results from the project will inform how activities that utilize digital technology to form innovative learning environments and pedagogical practices can be designed to support collaboration in special education.
CITE contribute to the computational thinking agenda as it understands digital skills acquisition as socially-situated practices embedded also in the special education contexts. The research focus on how children in special education acquire knowledge in order to engage actively in the design and use of digital technology to support their personal agency in a digitalized society. With a special focus on communication and collaborations skill, the project support the progression of knowledge, to demonstrate the ability to apply knowledge in new ways, adapt it to the situation in hand, and transfer it into new materials, contexts and real life situations.
