The Role and Status of Information Technology and Communication in the Education of Children with Special Needs Education

Abstract

The information and communication technology plays a very important role in education, on the one hand, it improves the level of education of students and, on the other hand, it contributes to better communication among the educational agents, while speeding up the personal development of the students. Using educational software tailored to the specific nature of different types of disabilities, the benefits of ICT can also be very well exploited in special education. The impact can be significant both in the therapeutic and educational process, and the literature has shown some success stories by students with disabilities assisted by ICT. In Romania, however, little has been done so far to assess how ICT is used by teachers to work with students with different types of disability. For this reason, the main purpose of this research was to identify the extent to which pre-university teachers are open and ready to use ICT applications in special education. The sample consisted of 105 pre-university teachers from Bihor, Romania. The tool used was a 76-choice questionnaire and the implementation period was January-March 2016. The results show that although they are aware of the importance and have a positive attitude towards the use of ICT in special education, most teachers included in the study believe they are poorly trained and want to deepen their knowledge in this area during their continuing professional training.

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