The 21st century is the era where most technologies for education are being created; emerging technologies have been promising teaching and learning innovations for decades. At the same time, inclusive education has the aim to create equal opportunities for everyone, which can sometimes become counterintuitive for individual learning needs and learning experiences, especially, when it comes to learners with specific needs. While assistive technologies have been extremely helpful for specific types of disabilities in the context of special education, this is not always the case in terms of educational technologies (tools and conceptual frameworks), that are at times too generic and not easily applicable to specific contexts. On the other hand, current technological developments such as generative artificial intelligence, while potentially bringing new opportunities and avenues for research and development, if left underproblematized and undertheorized, might even increase existing divides, and favor different types of exclusion.
The most widely used models and frameworks for inclusive education
generally provide a descriptive frame of reference for an aspirational view (i.e. Universal Design for Learning). However, actionable, innovative pedagogical strategies and methodologies that go hand in hand with emerging technologies are not easily available. This is true also in terms of creating individual learning experiences fitted for specific needs in terms of planning, implementing, and assessing learning outcomes. Furthermore, aligning inclusive learning principles with those of individual needs and plans of different learners requires careful reconsideration in line with different tools, modalities, spaces and pedagogies.
Moreover, with new, emerging technologies inclusion issues and problems might even increase if we do not carefully consider related risks and challenges: for instance, we can already witness an emergence of an exponentially increasing gap between genAI-supported and unsupported languages.
With emerging technologies such as generative AI, we should be able to create theoretical, conceptual, and technological artefacts that can tackle these gaps, and provide strategies and tools ranging from policy to practice, focusing on educators and learners – especially in special and inclusive education.
This Research Topic invites theoretical, empirical, and conceptual
contributions that expand our understanding of how emerging technology such as Gen-AI can, on one hand, create opportunities and on the other, create challenges and widen the divide for inclusive education.
Key topics:
Generative AI and inclusive education: theory, practice, and policy
Emerging technologies and special education: prospects for teacher professional development
Ethics and policies for the use of Generative AI in special and inclusive education
Reconceptualizing innovative education in the context of emerging technologies
Challenges, risks, and visions for educational future in the context of inclusive education
Keywords:
Special education, Diversity, Generative artificial intelligence, Inclusive education, Learners with disabilities, Educational innovation
Important Note:
All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.
The 21st century is the era where most technologies for education are being created; emerging technologies have been promising teaching and learning innovations for decades. At the same time, inclusive education has the aim to create equal opportunities for everyone, which can sometimes become counterintuitive for individual learning needs and learning experiences, especially, when it comes to learners with specific needs. While assistive technologies have been extremely helpful for specific types of disabilities in the context of special education, this is not always the case in terms of educational technologies (tools and conceptual frameworks), that are at times too generic and not easily applicable to specific contexts. On the other hand, current technological developments such as generative artificial intelligence, while potentially bringing new opportunities and avenues for research and development, if left underproblematized and undertheorized, might even increase existing divides, and favor different types of exclusion.
The most widely used models and frameworks for inclusive education
generally provide a descriptive frame of reference for an aspirational view (i.e. Universal Design for Learning). However, actionable, innovative pedagogical strategies and methodologies that go hand in hand with emerging technologies are not easily available. This is true also in terms of creating individual learning experiences fitted for specific needs in terms of planning, implementing, and assessing learning outcomes. Furthermore, aligning inclusive learning principles with those of individual needs and plans of different learners requires careful reconsideration in line with different tools, modalities, spaces and pedagogies.
Moreover, with new, emerging technologies inclusion issues and problems might even increase if we do not carefully consider related risks and challenges: for instance, we can already witness an emergence of an exponentially increasing gap between genAI-supported and unsupported languages.
With emerging technologies such as generative AI, we should be able to create theoretical, conceptual, and technological artefacts that can tackle these gaps, and provide strategies and tools ranging from policy to practice, focusing on educators and learners – especially in special and inclusive education.
This Research Topic invites theoretical, empirical, and conceptual
contributions that expand our understanding of how emerging technology such as Gen-AI can, on one hand, create opportunities and on the other, create challenges and widen the divide for inclusive education.
Key topics:
Generative AI and inclusive education: theory, practice, and policy
Emerging technologies and special education: prospects for teacher professional development
Ethics and policies for the use of Generative AI in special and inclusive education
Reconceptualizing innovative education in the context of emerging technologies
Challenges, risks, and visions for educational future in the context of inclusive education
Keywords:
Special education, Diversity, Generative artificial intelligence, Inclusive education, Learners with disabilities, Educational innovation
Important Note:
All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.