Technologies for Inclusive Education: Beyond Traditional Integration Approaches

For graduate students and researchers, Barres (Carlos III U. of Madrid, Spain) et al. compile 15 articles by computer scientists and engineers, educators, and others from Europe, India, Mexico, and Japan, who consider the use of technology in inclusive education. They address the potential of multimodal interfaces to facilitate universal access to learning content, including multimodal conversational interfaces, the PreLingua tool for voice therapy, interactive teaching agents that process non-verbal input modalities such as eye-gaze and facial expression, and embodied conversational agents in interactive applications for children with special needs; the possibilities of virtual worlds in lifelong learning and middle school; and approaches to user modeling, including adapted human-computer interaction, adjusting speech-based interfaces to language disorders associated with intellectual disabilities, and a user model compiled using emotional parameters in game-based learning as related to student performance and motivation. Subsequent sections cover content adapted to users with special needs, such as digital educational objects, communication aids, and an automatic grading tool adapted to the language skills of students, and devices and simulators like mobile devices for disabled and non-native users, remote response devices used in university teaching, and the use of simulators to explain abstract concepts.

The book illustrates how to use these new technologies to enhance teaching and learning to every student regardless of their learning style or disabilities. [...] It will be useful for school administrators and teachers looking to use innovative technologies in teaching a wide range of learners, including learning disabled, non-English speakers, and those with nontraditional learning behaviors.