iExpress myself II Erasmus Project

Project Title

iExpress myself II

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for school education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2018

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Access for disadvantaged; ICT – new technologies – digital competences; Inclusion – equity

Project Summary

MDVI students (Multiple Disabled and Visually Impaired) face major challenges in expressing themselves, in communication and learning. Using ICT can support them greatly and make them feel more socially included. We aimed to support professionals to test, train and monitor the ICT skills of their students in a standardized, effective and easy way and make them more aware of the possibilities for making learning easier for the target group with one comprehensible tool. And to give MDVI students opportunities to increase their capabilities to communicate and interact through the use of ICT to make them more self-reliant and improve their overall wellbeing. Also we expected parents to have more options to train and support their children. We can confidently say these aims were reached. A parent said: “Communication options [by use of ICT] offer him more opportunities to show us what he wants. This makes him happier.” A professional: “He has severe motor, speech and visual problems, but his cognitive skills are probably better then we know. With the ICT options we can now find out better what he really understands and wants to tell us.”

In iExpress I a screening instrument for using ICT and assistive devices for MDVI children was developed and validated. Now the partners made a toolkit containing an innovative standardized digital tool to measure, train and monitor their students’ progress. The software is accessible for professionals working with MDVI students to increase their ICT skills and capabilities with assistive devices. It is downloadable for free (Play Store, iTunes and Web for desktop app).The solution includes an individual ICT plan to plan next steps after assessment and to monitor progress.

We also developed guidelines on how to use the software and screening correctly. They also contain specifics on how to work with the target group and use of devices and provisions on the problems and possibilities of MDVI children in relation to ICT skills and assistive devices. It finally includes recommendations for different target groups and requirements for professionals. The complete toolkit can be found on the iExpress web platform. Here, one can also access the secured database and view screening results.

In a 6 month pilot we tested the functionality and usability of the applications to apply and facilitate working with the screening instrument in the daily work of the MDVI teachers/professionals. 10 professionals from the iExpress team were trained to train 31 other professionals in 3 partner organisations INIB (Iceland), Budapest School for the Blind (Hungary) and Royal Dutch Visio (Netherlands) to use the iExpress toolkit. During the pilot the trainees screened 32 students. After the pilot, we made final improvements to the toolkit.

It turned out that using the toolkit makes professionals more effective and efficient in their research and training of ICT skills with the target group. They spend less time setting goals and monitoring the progress of the students. Also students are screened in a more objective way and their evolution can be easily and closely monitored, allowing professionals to have a clear plan for following up of the abilities of the users. All staff members of the multi-disciplinary team and parents now have the opportunity to work in the same way by using the toolkit while working on the same objectives.

The iExpress tool offers MDVI students opportunities to increase their capabilities to interact through the use of ICT which will make them more self-reliant and improve their wellbeing. Parents have improved options to support the students’ development and progress. While in the pilot data we sometimes noticed only little improvement, parents indicate that they experience these little steps as a big achievement for their children. And this is the core. The steps might seem small, but they have a huge impact on the students’ quality of life. As we can see in the iExpress animation movie: Kate’s siblings can now play games with her because she can control the dice using a touchscreen. Isn’t that what we want for all students?

While the project was originally focused on MDVI students (developmental age 0-4), it can be applied to a much wider target group. Also children and adults with the same developmental age but no visual impairment can be screened and trained in their ICT skills, as well as MDVI children and adults with moderate to severe motor disabilities, but with a higher developmental age and young children (calendar age between 0-8) with severe motor disabilities and severe visual impairment or other physical impairments, but without intellectual disabilities.

At the start of the project we stated: the group of MDVI students is relatively small and rather complex, however we may expect that in the long term over a hundred professionals and over a thousand children and family members will benefit. Now, we expect these numbers to be higher.

Project Website

https://www.iexpressmyself.com/

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 236170,5 Eur

Project Coordinator

Koninklijke Visio & Country: NL

Project Partners

• Vakok Ovodaja, Altalanos Iskolaja, Szakiskolaja, Keszsegfejleszto Iskolaja, Egyseges Gyogypedagogiai Modszertani Intezmenye, Kollegiuma es Gyermekotthona
• FUNDACION ASPAYM CASTILLA Y LEON
• BJONUSTU-OG BEKKINGARMIOSTOO FYRIRBLINDA SJONSKERTA OG DAUFBLINDA EINSTAKLINGA