Abstract:
Beyond any possible rhetorical division between those who are for or against a more or less massive
use of technologies, it is undeniable that technologies always have effects on cognitive, relational, and
autonomy processes of individuals, in every season of life and by virtue of the quantity and quality of
the use to which we are exposed.
The experience of the pandemic caused by Covid19 definitely amplified and highlighted this fact,
making the advantages and disadvantages of online life, to which many were forced, immediately
apparent. The data on the learning process, in particular on the exclusions that online education has
generated, is evident, although very patchy. The difference was determined by the technological skills
of learners and teachers, by the possibilities of access to appropriate infrastructures and devices, and
by the style of conducting teaching. With regard to this last point, pre-Covid teaching methods were
an important factor: digital teaching has often amplified, for better or for worse, what was already
being done in the traditional way, with the evidence, however, that some changes that were less evident
in frontal teaching were urgent in mediated teaching. The speed of the lesson, for example, the didactic
rhythm, the anchorage to the concrete and the levels of personalization were some of the conditions
that compromised the success of online training.
Technological teaching has also concerned the population of pupils in difficult, disabled, and
disadvantaged situations, for whom the impact with the ICT world has been accompanied, as research
has shown, by other risk factors (Ianes, 2020), again linked mainly to pre-Covid elements, and referring
above all too experienced integration, practiced as a cultural model for schools or as a routine
afterthought.
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, recognizes new
technologies as an essential contextual element for the promotion of the person's functioning,
becoming tools capable of compensating for deficits, facilitating independent living, or, conversely,
an obstacle and depriving environment/tool. For this reason, they find a specific place within the Environmental Factors of the ICF (WHO, 2001) and the assessment that must be made of them in view
of individualized educational planning.
International research (Woodward et al .,2001) based on evidence that tries to define what works in
the ICT world for children with special educational needs, taking into account a plurality of variables,
amount and type of feedback, practical experience, evaluation systems, motivation, teaching strategies
- comes to the conclusion that the fact that software has been validated on the research level, does not
guarantee that it works in practice (ibid., p. 21). The contribute aims to go in this direction and intends
to provide some general reference criteria for evaluating and choosing technological opportunities. |
