Digital Public Educational Resources for Special Educational Needs students

We, the partners, saw our partnerships as an opportunity to pass over Covid-19 negative effects and more to built positive results starting from there. COVID-19 Pandemic threw the schools all over the world in a dark age in the spring of 2020, but after an year also good things emerged from this, many actors in education exceeding their limits. Still, we considered there was much more to do in order the pupils who passed or are still passing through online school as remote work experience to get over it and to incorporate it into everyday life. Aiming to base on facts, we had started our 2 years journey from: the results of a research study “Online activities in special education” presented by project coordinator in November 2020 at a conference and a SWOT Analyze conducted among project partners. Even when the social and emotional aspects were an issue for all, we discovered that for SEN students the damages were even worse, because it is less about knowledge and more about development in all important areas: cognition, language, motricity, perception, even basic skills, areas we worked to cover during project.

Emerging from the limitation we experienced in school activity during pandemic we formulate the goal of our project which was to reduce the negative effects imposed on SEN students and their teachers and families by the online school period by: O1. Developing ICT (Information Communication Technology) skills of creating digital materials to teachers working with SEN students O2. Developing ICT skills of using digital tools and materials to teachers working with SEN students O3. Increasing the responsible behavior of the teachers working with SEN students towards online education and/or using ICT in education O4. Increasing the responsible behavior of the SEN parents towards online education and/or using ICT in education O5. Facilitating SEN student development and/or regress limitation after online education during pandemic period by using ICT/digital materials and methods

During application stage we split our project on 7 phases, which were followed during implementation: Phase 1 - Organizing over 32 local and 4 international workshops where to share suitable tools, to create and adapt digital materials; Phase 2 - Developing 85 digital materials (instead of 72 proposed) and translating them in all 8 project languages: English, Romanian, Polish, Turkish, Portuguese, Slovenian, Spanish and Greek. Additional, a working material kit for each digital material was prepared; Phase 3 - Piloting or testing digital materials in classes, introducing objective related with them in the pupils Individual Educational Plan (IEP) in order to improve the materials and ensure long-term results for a larger group; Phase 4 - Editing a Practical Guide about creating digital materials; Phase 5 - Posting final/revised version of digital materials in a public library open on the project web-site and promoting it through various channels: educational platforms, Facebook pages, WhatsApp groups, YouTube channel, etc; Phase 6 - Opening discussion forum group for professional and parents for sharing ideas, asking and offering advices, etc. Phase 7 – Organizing Erasmus+ Dissemination and Valorization International Conferences, including plenary presentations, workshops and marathon movie sessions (e.g. a joint event with another Erasmus+ project, with all partners participation in Romania).

During application stage we propose two tangible/material outputs as a result of project activities, even if not budgeted: 1. Digital PER_SEN Virtual library posted on project web page: https://digitalpersen-erasmus.site/ Results/ Virtual Library. The library contain 85 (instead of 72) digital materials adapted for SEN pupils, such as: short movies, virtual stories, interactive applications, PPT presentations, games, tests, etc., translated in all 8 project languages, suitable both for online activities and face to face activities. The materials were designed on the 6 main developmental areas, respecting guidance from each partner country curricula: a) cognitive development; b) language and communication; c) psychomotor skills (fine and gross; colors, shape, body scheme, spatial-temporal orientation); d) sensory stimulation; e) basic skills (imitating, eating, washing, dressing); f) socio-emotional skills and on age levels: a) primary; b) gymnasium and c) vocational. 2. Practical Guide “How to create a digital educational resource?” containing theoretical and practical aspects under 53 pages of B5 format divided in 4 chapters: Chapter 1: Necessary steps to follow for creating digital materials; Chapter 2: Describing tools and platforms to be used; Chapter 3: Examples of digital materials described; Chapter 4: On-line resources. The guide is reachable on project webpage in all project languages, but also on printed shape, in Romanian language with ISBN 978-606-986-051-9, edited under Editura Didactica Militans-Casa Corpului Didactic Oradea 3. An additional output, which is not tangible is the workshop: "Digital educational resources for SEN students". This was not written on application but it was coming along with the project, being perfected with each presentation: during National School Psychologist Conference in November 2022 for the first time, then during several Pedagogical periodical Meetings of Teachers at each country level and during final dissemination event of each partner during October-December 2023 and finally -during International Dissemination and Valorization Erasmus+ Conference in October 2023.