1. Virtual Classroom Tour - VCT
Text
Global Forum 2012
Prague November 28 – December 1

2. The Power of KINECT in Special Needs Education
Educator(s)
Drs. Willemijn de Lint ( Pediatric Physical Therapist )
Hans Smeele ( Teacher Special Needs Education - ICT)
School
Brief description of school context
mytylschool De Ruimte - the Netherlands
Special Needs Education , physically and mentally disabled students
School Website
Content/Subject Areas
Motor learning in special needs education
Age/Grade level
Age: IQ < 70
Project Objectives
Improving necessary motor skills to increase autonomy and citizenship

3. Design of the Learning Environment
Project Description
Brief description of the project and the background.
What are the stated objectives and learning outcomes? Is the learning activity long-term? Does it call on students to plan their work and assess their work over time?
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Design of the Learning Environment
Examples of planning (e.g. pedagogic approach, links to resources used). Please highlight creativity and innovative teaching practices. Emphasize to
what extent the planning for learning facilitates the development of different dimensions of 21st century skills e.g. knowledge building, use of ICT for learning, problem-solving and innovation, self-regulation, collaboration and skilled communication.
Microsoft’s Kinect motion sensor was used in our school for special needs education to improve students’ motor skills. The students describe their own movement problems , experienced in real life situations. Improving their motor skills is part of increasing autonomy and citizenship inside and outside school situations. Students who participated in our project, experienced dynamic balance problems (‘I often fall when I play outside’) and physical fitness problems (‘I get quickly out of breath when I play soccer with my friends’)
Students plan their work by choosing to train the motor skills they need in every day life. They play the Kinect games that are most similar to their own real world problems and they reflect on the learning process through feedback given by the Kinect . Once a student is used to learn, using the Kinect, little supervision is needed.
The types of feedback, given by the Kinect, facilitate appropriate motor planning and self reflection. The student gains knowledge concerning the trained motor skills and develops better judgment on his/her competence (= perceived competence).
Generalization of the learned skills to ‘real world’ situations is plausible because the skills were trained in an implicit way.
video Power of KINECT in Special Needs Education- 1
video Power of KINECT in Special Needs Education -2
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4. Evidence of Learning
Examples of products and outcomes created by the learners throughout the project – including use of ICT. What sort of ICT is used and how has it been used in the project.
To what extent do students use ICT in ways that support knowledge building, collaboration, or learning beyond the classroom? Does ICT use enable new knowledge-building/collaboration/learning beyond the classroom opportunities that would not have been possible without it? Have digital tools been used in imaginative and ground-breaking ways to support learning processes?
Please add files, videos etc. which documents clearly the learning process and evidence of students’ learning
Kinect has really changed the way students experience education! Kinect has several features which make it suitable for students with physical disabilities. First of all: The students don’t need a controller! Every movement the student makes is a movement in the game. This technology invites students to move just like they would as if they were really playing the game indoors or outdoors. The type of feedback, given by the Kinect through pictures and video’s of the student, offers the student information to asses his/her own performance. This provides a basis for improvement.
Learning by using Kinect results not only in more fun and motivation, but also ensures a longer attention span, which is often lacking in students in special needs education. It also suits the interest in gaming and lifestyle of this age group.
Learning outcomes/research outcomes:
1) Significant improvement of balance (measured with the Movement-ABC test), and significant improvement of physical fitness (measured with the Shuttle-run GMFCS-1 test)
2) Significant increase in motivation (measured with motivation questionnaire)
KINECT video Evidence of Learning - Balance
KINECT video Evidence of Learning - Fitness

5. Knowledge Building & Critical Thinking
Examples of how the learning activities require students to move beyond reproducing what they have learned to building knowledge through interpretation, analysis, synthesis, or evaluation.
Extended Learning Beyond the Classroom
If the learning experience is not bound by classroom walls, time-frame of conventional lessons, subject parameters – please show examples of this.
If the project addresses real world issues (i.e. authentic situation and data from outside the classroom) or has meaningful impact on communities locally and / or globally please show examples of this.
The student gains knowledge concerning his/her own motor skills, but also concerning psychological aspects like perceived competence, increased confidence and self-esteem. Self-reflection is an important tool for critical thinking, facilitated by the way feedback is given by the Kinect.
The learning activities, which are trained with the Kinect, are based on motor problems experienced by the students in real life situations. The main goal is to implement the acquired skills in every day life outside the classroom. This will result in increased autonomy and citizenship of the student.
Kinect technology makes it possible to train motor skills in almost ‘real life’ situations and to learn new movements at an automatic level (subconscious level). Furthermore, the motor skills are trained in a implicit way so they generalize to ‘real life’ situations more easily, as we know from scientific literature.
KINECT video Extended Learning

6. Collaboration
Examples of how the students work with other people, sharing responsibility while making substantive decisions for developing a joint product, a design, or an answer to a complex question. Students may be collaborating with their peers in the classroom, or with students or adults outside the classroom
Some Kinect games require collaboration between students. They have to negotiate and plan together whether they, for example, go left or right and whether they jump together to achieve their goal. When the game is completed, the students discuss the results together, based on the feedback from the Kinect. Collaboration with the teacher often takes place as well. The teacher can make the exercise harder or easier by standing on the balance board together. The collaboration trained inside the school situation will help the students to be more cooperative when playing outside with their peers..
KINECT video collaboration rafting

7. Cutting Edge Use of Technology for Learning
The learning activity involves students’ use of ICT – whether or not the use of ICT helps students build knowledge/collaborate or learn beyond the classroom, and whether or not students could build the same knowledge/ collaborate or learn beyond the classroom in similar ways without using ICT
Kinect technology makes it possible to learn motor skills in a way which can not be done without the use of ICT
Learning by Kinect is more fun, motivates, and increases the attention span.
The feedback, given by the Kinect during and after the game, gives the student the opportunity to reflect on the learning process very well because the student can see his/her own movements on the screen. This type of feedback also stimulates perceived competence and increases self-confidence
The students must work together physically and they should negotiate during the whole game Together they watch the video/photo feedback and discuss what must be done next time to achieve even better results
The students formulate their own movement problems they experience in daily life situations. By choosing the right Kinect game the motor skills, which are needed most in real life, can be trained ( = personalized learning )
Because the student focusses on the game he/she moves without conscious control (automatic level). Students find their own most efficient way to move and solve the problem. Because the motor skills are learned in an implicit way they are implemented in real life situations more easily

9. Educator as Innovator and Change Agent
In environments where innovative teaching is challenging, have innovative teaching practices and ICT been used in instrumental ways to change how students learn. Does the educator demonstrate evidence of continuous improvement in their professional practice, model lifelong learning and exhibit leadership in their school and professional community by supporting other educator’s development and understanding of the impact on learning of the effective use of digital technologies?
Education of ‘students with special needs’ is extra challenging because it is even more important to match the skills the student already masters and to improve his/her cognitive, social and motor skills in meaningful learning environments.
The main goal in our school is to reach the highest possible level of autonomy for each student concerning those cognitive, social, and motor skills they need most to participate in our society. We experience ICT is a very useful instrument to realize these educational goals and to compensate specific disabilities Effective use of digital technologies to support education of ‘students with special needs’ requires specific knowledge en specific skills in all the educators in school. Training and supporting the educators in this way is one of the main activities of Hans Smeele. Our vision on how ICT can improve the quality of (special) education is expressed clearly in ‘The Four in Balance model’, which we use in our school: according to the Four in Balance model, introducing ICT for educational purposes has a greater chance of success if four basic elements – vision, expertise, digital learning materials and ICT infrastructure – are in balance. These basic elements are complementary and mutually dependent.