ONLINE VIDEO TRAINING TO IMPROVE DIGITAL COMPETENCE AND COMPUTER SELF-EFFICACY FOR SUPPORT TEACHERS

In Italy, support teachers are required to follow a specific special needs teacher-training programme that includes an ICT-lab. This paper describes an online video training course specifically developed for this part of the programme during the period of pandemic connected to COVID19. It investigates how the course may influence the way support teachers perceive knowledge and competence acquisition related to technology use, specifi- cally focusing on the construct of ICT self-efficacy, outcome expectation and interest. A total of 233 participants took part in the study. They filled out the ITIS scale and ad hoc surveys both in the pre- and post-treatment phases. T-tests for paired samples and sequential multiple regression analyses (stepwise method) were conducted. Results showed changes in their perception about (a) technological skills, (b) the effectiveness of digital technologies for de- veloping inclusive projects, (c) computer self-efficacy, outcome expectation and interest, and (d) how the employment of videos in the course and absence of time constraints impacts on self-efficacy. Practical implications, limitations, and suggested further research are also discussed

Enhancing Home Education in Italian Context: Teachers’ Perception of a Hybrid Inclusive Classroom

Homebound Education in Italy is based on one-to-one teaching conducted by teachers who visit the sick student at home. This modality does not include interactions between homebound students and classmates, thus inhibiting the educational aspect of peer relationships. With the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and the consequent dispositions of the Ministry of Education regarding remote education and integrated digital didactic (DID), new opportunities became available for homebound students. In this research, we applied and tested in the context of homebound education a model of hybrid inclusive classroom developed in a previous project ((TRIS), addressing homebound students that could not permanently attend school and followed lessons remotely. The present study involved two homebound students affected by chronic and acute diseases. During the 2020/21 school year, the model was proposed to the two school councils (22 teachers in all) and the trial monitored; at the end of the school year, semi-structured interviews were conducted with teachers and transcriptions analyzed using a deductive approach based on the model. Results confirm some findings of the TRIS project, while new aspects emerged linked to the specific context. Overall, the implemented hybrid classroom seems to have positively affected both the learnings and students’ inclusion