Portability, Feasibility, Collaborativeness: Teachers' Perception Of Tablet Use For Inclusive Education

Thanks to their peculiar features and their employability in collaborative activities, Tablets can be really helpful in fostering the inclusion of children who cannot attend school for medical reasons. Within the project TRIS context (Tecnologie per l'Inclusione Socio-educativa [Technologies for socio-educational inclusion]), we carried out a pilot study in which we equipped the junior high classroom of a homebound student with Tablets, for both each student (n=22) and the teacher (n=7), and the homebound student (n=1). Data from both questionnaires and semi - structured interviews were collected in order to investigate the change in teachers' competencies in Tablet use and the inclusive activities done with the tool, on one side, and to understand their perception of Tablet use in everyday class activity, on the other side. The results are likely indicating that teachers do recognize and use the Tablet as a useful tool for the inclusion of the homebound student, but they do not use it in other activities as it is still perceived as too demanding in terms of efforts and time.