A CONCEPTUAL MODEL FOR USER-CENTERED LEARNING ENVIRONMENT FOR INTEGRATED EDUCATION OF CHILDREN WITH SPECIAL EDUCATIONAL NEEDS

In today's world, in which advanced technology is used in almost all fields, there exists a potential for the usage of alternative teaching methods that make use of modern information technology, aiming to assist children with special educational needs. This paper describes ideas for use of information and communication technology in the education of children with such needs. Some problems of the integration of children with special educational needs within the ordinary education process are discussed. The legal challenges of educating children with special educational needs are discussed, along with propositions of some ideas for modernization and improvement of the process. Also presented in this paper is a conceptual model of a user-centered learning environment for integrated education of students with different backgrounds and needs. An integrated user-centered application would be able to generate an electronic portfolio for each student upon predefined methodology. The children's portfolios would summarize data about regular and special education (with psychologists, therapists, resource teachers, etc.). Children with special educational needs should be assisted by ICT, so that they have a chance to be educated by using specially adapted resources, according to their specific needs, skills and learning pace.