For the fourth consecutive year Catholic schools National has participated in SIMO EDUCATION, on this occasion to present its Guide “Personalized learning with ICT. Learning Landscapes for students with Special Educational Needs ”. Is about a subsidized project by the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training, that trains and accompanies educators in a new personalization tool, Learning Landscapes, which uses technology to favor the possibilities of growth and cognitive development of students with disabilities.
Irene Arrimadas and Sonia Ramos, director of the Department of Pedagogical Innovation of EC and responsible for the Special Education Team of EC respectively, jointly presented the Guide, and the project of which it is a part, based on the Student-Oriented Learning Landscapes with Special Educational Needs derived from disability.
In the words of Sonia Ramos, the project starts from the “desire to favor the personal development of students with Special Educational Needs, through methodological strategies” and a means: the Learning Landscapes as “stimulating and inclusive means for these students” . He has ensured that thanks to the Learning Landscapes, students take an active part in their training, offering an activity that teaches, motivates, provokes and includes. And these, according to Ramos, are not the only beneficiaries, because for teachers it means a new training, updating and accompaniment; and for the school an exchange, update and innovation, as well as a new vision of the students.
The head of the EC Special Education Team has explained that Learning Landscapes are so useful for students with Special Educational Needs because they awaken their abilities and potentials; provoke mental processes and social skills; they make the active child their learning; and favor personal development, as well as their social inclusion.
For his part, Irene Arrimadas has affirmed that the Learning Landscapes combine the Theory of Multiple Intelligences with the Bloom Taxonomy, allowing students to choose different ways to achieve the same desired learning, and that from Catholic Schools it was decided to apply this approach methodological to the Special Educational Needs for all the benefits they could bring to these students in their learning.
Next, Arrimadas has presented the characteristics of this project, which included the celebration of a training day for teachers of Special and Inclusive Education, the subsequent tutoring of six participating EC centers in the creation of their Learning Landscapes, and the publication of the Guide presented in the day, among other contents, collects the eight experiences of these six centers.
Both have explained how the teachers and students of the EC centers participating in the project found that working with Learning Landscapes involves an improvement in cognitive functions (overcoming barriers, stimulating executive functions …); of communication (advancement of the communicative attitude, of the desire for exchange …); and social skills (autonomy and decision making …). And that the use of ICT facilitates inclusive work with other students, as well as participation, generating healthy competitiveness.
Workshops on Learning Landscapes
The day has ended with three practical workshops energized by César Poyatos, advisor to the Department of Pedagogical Innovation of EC, and Ana María Martínez, professor at the G. Nicoli International College in Madrid. Together they have invited the teachers present to: experience a Learning Landscape as students, visualizing the activities, responding to them with cooperative work and receiving the “rewards” for the work done; to assume the role of the teacher in the design of Learning Landscapes according to the students and the subject; and to digitize a Learning Landscape, an essential step to reach all students and thus make their learning more flexible.
EC Commitment to Special Education
“Customized learning with ICT. Learning Landscapes for students with Special Educational Needs ”(2019) is the third guide of Catholic Schools, after“ EnREDate for sure ”(2017) and“ Generation APPs ”(2018) edited with the aim of promoting the use of ICT for the improvement of the learning of the students with Special Educational Needs derived from disability. All available on the EC website: https://www.escuelascatolicas.es/innovacion-pedagogica/inclusion-educativa-2-2/