Shaping the future of technology use in the classroom

Most children with autism find computers and technology safe, motivating and engaging. Technology has the potential to enable learning in new and innovative ways and we are particularly intrigued by how technology can be used to support children with autism to communicate better. This includes ways of improving children's ability to turn take in conversation, to develop conversation skills and to work together with someone else on a tabletop device, or to help them communicate when they cannot talk.

In the last few years, members of our project team have worked with children of different ages and in partnership with practitioners and parents in a range of schools to inform the development of technologies that can be used in the classroom. These technologies support children on the autism spectrum to develop social communication. ReacTickles helps children to explore how they use their body, to understand cause and effect and to take turns. COSPATIAL helps children and young people to collaborate with one another and improve their conversation skills and ECHOES helps children to concentrate, to develop joint attention and to regulate emotions.

These technologies are now ready to be used more extensively in schools. We want to put children in control of their learning and to investigate how these technologies can become part of the day-to-day practice in classrooms. To that end, we will work closely with children, parents and teachers to explore how ECHOES, COSPATIAL and ReacTickles can make a measurable difference to practice in the classroom to improve the social and communications skills in children who have difficulties in this area. We will also work with teachers and other staff to offer genuine opportunities for professional development.

Researchers and teachers will work together in six different schools to identify ways of using these technologies in new and exciting ways. As part of this work in special, specialist and mainstream schools, we will create short and interesting films of the work we do together so that these film clips can inspire other teachers and schools to explore new ways of using technologies to enable learning. We will also launch an online portal where teachers, parents and other schools staff will be able to access resources to help them in their practice. These resources will include an online workshop, guidance documents on how to use the technologies, with suggestions of how to link with the curriculum and with assessment. The online portal will be open to all schools with the aim to inspire, motivate and engage staff in using technology to meet the needs of not only children on the autism spectrum, but all children.

Our ultimate aim is to make a difference to the lives of children and young people on the autism spectrum by exploring optimum conditions for learning for them. We have seen that technology, when used in the right way, can inspire and motivate children who can be difficult to engage and that technologies can be used in new and creative ways which can be of real benefit to these children. Our key stakeholders and research beneficiaries are therefore children and young people, but also their teachers and other staff who work with them. This project will support collaboration in which academics and non- academics will have the time and scope to build connections as they work together, thereby contributing to instrumental, conceptual and capacity building impact.

* Instrumental because we want to influence practice, in particular the practice of using technology in creative and exploratory ways to encourage social communication and social skills for children and young people;
* Conceptual because we aim to explore the intersection between general and specialist pedagogies and the boundaries of technology use in real-world classrooms;
*Capacity building because through the process of the work, we will be involved in increasing children's technological skills and learning as well as developing the technical and pedagogical skills of teachers. As researchers, we will also develop our own skills and expertise in the use of technologies and in addressing how to engage in successful knowledge exchange. Crucially, such knowledge exchange will also form the basis for future research applications to further extend this important field of knowledge and application.

Our work with teachers will contribute to their professional development and we will work with them to explore new ways of using technologies. This work will include dialogue about pedagogy as well as practical work on trying new strategies in the classroom. We will encourage teachers to report on their own practice and pedagogy as well as the progress of the children, and we will ask them to share this with us through the online portal where we will give feedback. Our strategy therefore also entails working with teachers to develop their evidence-based practice.

The work will benefit the wider social science community through the evaluation of this knowledge exchange strategy itself, elements of which can be incorporated in other knowledge exchange work generally. We will evaluate the process of value creation during the project by using Wenger, Trayner and De Laat's (2011) process and framework for evaluating value creation in communities. This work will be disseminated to the social science community through conferences, workshops, publications and the TLRP TEL community.