New perspectives for inclusion: Special Education meets one-to-one computing

This work describes an Action Research project conducted in the contest of Uruguayan special schools during a particularly interesting period: the deployment of the CEIBAL plan. CEIBAL, which stands for "Educational Connectivity of Basic Computer Science for Online Learning", is the local implementation of One Laptop Per Child (OLPC), a project aiming to the diffusion of wifi connected laptops in primary school classes. OLPC targets the children of all countries, with particular attention towards those of developing countries. The main idea guiding this thesis is that giving a laptop to every child can change the established structure of relationships which connects the disabled children to the able bodied. In fact, they cease to be the only ones using technology at school, and a new environment is created where the computer is no longer a possibility, but a matter of fact. The traditional technological means which support a pupil's integration process become an existing part of the environment and they are no longer an objective to aim for. The research follows a mixed experimental design, including various data collection techniques. The initial part of it adopts an ethnographic approach, describing the environment studied: this is paired with the description of the solutions adopted in order to solve technical problems together with the local actors. The research to this point is mainly based on interviews and direct observation, plus a cycle of development and testing of new accessibility solutions. A reflection on the local meanings of integration and inclusion is also proposed, to set the basis for the second part of the research. After the initial explorative study, four case studies are analyzed in order to deepen in the comprehension of the relational processes which are fostered by the introduction of technology at school. A methodology is proposed, based on both qualitative and quantitative techniques, in order to study the integration and inclusion processes of disabled children in ordinary schools. Observation of children and interviews are paired with level tests and sociograms, in order to verify if the teachers' views on their children are confirmed in practice by the pupils. This research does not try to find a general, abstract theory: the knowledge generated here is based on direct experience, tested on the the field and reported in the form of a grounded theory. The final objective is double: exploring the present conditions of the environment studied and defining guidelines for planning future work.