Abstract:

Since the 2018-2019 academic year, a collaboration project has been developed between teachers and students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) of the “Comunicació i Llenguatge” Classroom (CiL: communication and language) of the Secondary Education Institute (IES) “La Cañada” of Paterna, the Higher Technical School of Telecommunications Engineering of the Polytechnic University of Valencia (UPV) and the Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications (BUPT), China, having as main objective the use of information technologies , and other emerging technologies, such as learning facilitators and creativity boosters.

It is undeniable that we live in an increasingly digital reality, where it is possible to communicate in real time with people who may be at the other end of the world, in this “global village” that today constitutes our planet. Where it is possible to read news, or listen to a song or enjoy a movie with just a mouse click or a touch on a touch screen. In recent years, homes have undergone a digital transformation where a "router" is an inseparable part of the furniture and the TV is connected to the Internet. Virtual reality even allows us to "walk" without leaving the living room of the house. Smartphones and tablets have come to stay and references to social networks are a common topic in the media. We inhabit cities that every day become more and more intelligent (smartcities) where with various mobile applications (Apps) we can know where we are, make payments, consult information, take pictures, record videos, etc. Wearable devices are being announced as part of the not too distant future and new words such as "Internet of Things", "cloud", "artificial intelligence", "algorithms", etc., have expanded our usual speech. These and many other considerations suggest the need to acquire digital skills from the classroom itself, reinforced at home by families, in a reality that is already “hyper-connected”.

The paper presents the results obtained with the use of "Puzzle Pieces", an application developed for Tablets in Android environment. The application has been designed and implemented in the context of the CiL Classroom and following the guidelines and regulations for social inclusion in special education indicated in the educational framework of the Valencian Community. This application proposes students with ASD to carry out various activities aimed at achieving these digital skills, according to their specific needs and their learning pace. At the same time, it collects and graphs indicators such as date, levels reached, time used to achieve an activity, number of hits and mistakes, activity preferences, etc., which are then used by teachers to adapt their teaching action and thus achieve better results in working with students.

Keywords:

Functional diversity, ASD, IES, ICT, Learning, Social inclusion, Puzzle Pieces.