Physical and Virtual Games for education and social insertion of intellectually handicapped people Erasmus Project

Project Title

Physical and Virtual Games for education and social insertion of intellectually handicapped people

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 adult education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2016

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Disabilities – special needs; ICT – new technologies – digital competences; Access for disadvantaged

Project Summary

During the whole process of the education of intellectual handicapped people the different actors involved in the education process suffer the gap of educational materials adapted to their real situation and needs. The relatively reduced number of people in this situation compared to people in ordinary education makes the publishing companies do not watch this need as a business opportunity. This makes that finally the schools and other organizations involved in the education and training of the special needs people, are currently using material produced for the very young children. But, even if in many cases the intellectual abilities of these students are similar to those of children, the emotional and personal development is totally different. We can see frequently special needs adults using educational materials developed for children, what makes them to feel unhappy and ridiculous. Besides the above mention problem, the schools must face an even bigger problem, which is the poor cooperation of the families and society in the education of the intellectual handicapped students. The work made in the school has no continuation at home, where the students ordinary stay most of the time just watching TV or without doing anything at all.
The main aim of the project is to contribute to the family and social insertion of intellectual handicapped students and adults through the use of a tailor made ICT resource, which consist in an Online Platform with different resources.
Throughout the project consortium has carried out the following activities:
A1. Carrying out research on main needs of adults and schools in term of ICT materials to facilitate the education and training of people with intellectual disabilities. This activity aimed at bringing to the project the opinion of experts in special education related to how must be the approach and methodology for a game for special education. It was implemented with the assistance of an independent expert.
A2. Develpmet of the Online Interactive Platform
The Online platform, virtual community and real game, intellectual output of this project includes the following resources:
-. A robot, which will be the element with which the user of the platform interacts. The robot will fulfil the following requirements to ensure total freedom to be copied and produced:- the development will be open-source hardware, being free the hardware design- chassis, case, wheels, etc. could entirely be made with a 3D printer.
From the platform, it will be possible to control and program a physical or a virtual robot. In both scenarios, the robot will follow the instructions as scheduled. For the real robot, the board (simple processing) will be real too.
-.10 Teaching Units, which have been developed by consortium partners based on the results of the research carried out and the knowledge and experience of the partners. Each unit includes 3 different levels of difficulty, in order to be adapted to the different intellectual levels of the users.
-.An Online Game, which will include the same game, but to play online. It is based in the same robot, but in a virtual game and over virtual boards with the developed units.The games seek working different fields, such as orientation, sequencing, etc.
A3. Testing implementation of the Online Platform
This activity aimed at highlighting the reaction and opinion of the target group in front of the output produced inside this project. Then, partners have worked in adapting the platform according the comments, mistakes, suggestions… presented during the testing phase of the project.
A4. Quality assesment of the Online Platform
The activities produced under this project have been assessed by the partners during the whole project. Furthermore, an external evaluation of the Platform has been subcontracted during the middle stage of the project.
A5. Produce a guide for implementing the game
Consortium has produced a guide to facilitate the implementation of the games by the target groups. In order to facilitate its use, the Guide was made as a video.
The partners of the project are the following:
Conselleria de Cultura, Educacion e Ordenacion Universitaria (Spain), coordinating organization which is the responsible for Education in Galicia Autonomus Region.
Spoleczna Akademia Nauk (Poland), university with wide experience in the development of EU project in education. .
Daniel Castelao – Cebem Formación Profesional SL (Spain): education centre activily involved in the development of robots and giving VET courses in electronics and ICT.
Cooperativa Sociale Ceis Formazione (Italy), big NGO activily involved in the education of groups in social risks and in special education.
Project Management Association (Romania), NGO involved in the development of EU projects for education.
Atenea Projects Lda. (Portugal): IT company with expertise in the development of ICT based tools for education.
IST. D’ISTRUZ. SUPERIORE ALDINI VALERIANI – SIRANI

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 197453 Eur

Project Coordinator

CONSELLERIA DE EDUCACION, UNIVERSIDAD Y FORMACIÓN PROFESIONAL & Country: ES

Project Partners

• SPOLECZNA AKADEMIA NAUK
• Project Management Association
• COOPERATIVA SOCIALE CEIS FORMAZIONE
• IST. D’ISTRUZ. SUPERIORE ALDINI VALERIANI – SIRANI
• ATENEA Projects Lda.
• CEBEM FORMACIÓN PROFESIONAL SL