v Multidisciplinary Exploration of Learning Environments for Children with ASD: The CASCATE Project Tuononen, K., Korhonen, V., Vellonen, V., Virnes, M., & Kärnä, E. School of Educational Sciences and Psychology, University of Eastern Finland, Finland • Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) have challenged educational professionals in Finland and abroad in the creation of suitable learning environments (LE). · Still, there are very limited pedagogical means to overcome the challenges related to ASD. • Technology-enhanced activities and LEs have been seen promising for the children with ASD regarding, for example, general cognitive, social, and language skills [9] as well as academic skills [3]. • Technology-enhanced solutions may be preferred also because they provide less variability and higher precision compared to traditional teaching approaches [4]. · However, more research is needed to understand the possible benefits and suitability of technology-enhanced teaching solutions and LEs [3, 4]. • We have created a technology-enhanced LE from the perspective of Special Education and Educational Technology in order to explore what constitutes a good LE and to support learning of children with ASD. • The following guidelines were guiding the creation of the CASCATE LE [7, 8]: · The modifiability of the technologies in order to consider the children’s individual needs. · The transformability of the technologies for the solutions to be affordable and easily integrated into the children’s everyday contexts. · The focus on the children’s creativity and active roles guaranteeing them opportunities to show their abilities, and to provide them roles as innovative and active developers and research partners. · The support for the children’s strengths by, for example, utilising various senses in the environment. • The CASCATE project targeted its research on communication and interaction, attention, creativity, individual strengths, and the inclusion of children in research and development of the LE. • Technology-enhanced action group sessions organised on a weekly basis at a special needs school in Finland • An action research approach with continuous circles of implementation and evaluation • Participants: 8 school-aged children with ASD or autistic features (6 boys, 2 girls) and teaching staff members • Data collection: video recordings, field observations, and interviews • Continuous feedback collected from both the children and teaching staff to guarantee their active participation • The CASCATE LE is a modifiable environment with applications that can be adjusted for children’s individual strengths and interests. • The CASCATE LE includes four different action stations: LEGO® building, Symbol matching, Kinect playing, and Storytelling. • The CASCATE project has examined the individual differences in communication [6] and triadic interaction [5] while children work with the technologies. • Game development [1] and the inclusion of teaching staff and children into the design and research of the LE [2] have been targeted also. • Psychological research into the areas of attention and social interaction has been recently implemented to further increase the interdisciplinary approach. • With the mobile eye-tracking technology we study the visual attention of the children while they work with the technologies. · Investigation of the children’s individual strengths and preferences will provide us valuable information on how to further develop suitable LEs for children with ASD. • The microanalytic method of Conversation Analysis is used to examine how the interactions between the children, co-participating adults, and computer applications are organised. · Examining the interactional context where learning is taking place will increase our knowledge on the detailed interactional factors to be considered when designing suitable LEs. • Technology-enhanced LEs will be further investigated due to their great potential in supporting children with ASD. • Research on educational settings in different cultural contexts will be conducted in order to improve the local and global understanding of how to teach children with ASD. • Our goal is to be able to provide solutions to the worldwide challenge of educating children with ASD. [1] Korhonen, V., Virnes, M., & Kärnä, E. (2014). Catching game: A body movement game for children with autism spectrum disorders. In Proceedings of World Conference on Educational Multimedia, Hypermedia and Telecommunications 2014 (pp. 2057-2061). Chesapeake, VA: AACE. [2] Kärnä, E., Parkkonen, A., Tuononen, K., & Voutilainen, M. (2013). Teachers' and assistants' views on an action research project with children with autism spectrum disorders: The positive outcomes and pitfalls of inclusion. Pedagogia Oggi, 1, 115-130. [3] Pennington, R. (2010). Computer-assisted instruction for teaching academic skills to students with autism spectrum disorders: A review of literature. Focus on Autism and Other Developmental Disabilities, 25, 239-248. [4] Ploog, B. O., Scharf, A., Nelson, D., & Brooks, P. J. (2013). Use of computer-assisted technologies (CAT) to enhance social, communicative, and language development in children with autism spectrum disorders. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 43, 301-322. [5] Tuononen, K., Kiiskinen, S., & Kärnä, E. (2014). Considering individual variation in triadic interaction among children with autistic features during a technology-enhanced LEGO® building activity. In Proceedings of World Conference on Educational Multimedia, Hypermedia and Telecommunications 2014 (pp. 1466-1475). Chesapeake, VA: AACE. [6] Vellonen, V., Kärnä, E., & Virnes, M. (2012). Communication of children with autism in a technology-enhanced learning environment. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 69 (International Conference on Education & Educational Psychology, ICEEPSY 2012) (pp. 1208–1217). [7] Vellonen, V., Kärnä, E., & Virnes, M. (2013). Supporting the strengths and activity of children with autism in a technology-enhanced learning environment. In D. G. Sampson, J. M. Spector, D. Ifenthaler, & P. Isaias (Eds.), Proceedings of Cognitive and Exploratory Learning in Digital Age (CELDA 2013) (pp. 170-177). [8] Voutilainen, M., Vellonen, V., & Kärnä, E. (2011). Establishing a strength-based technology-enhanced learning environment with and for children with autism. In T. Bastiaens & M. Ebner (Eds.), Proceedings of World Conference on Educational Multimedia, Hypermedia and Telecommunications 2011 (pp. 601-606). Chesapeake, VA: AACE. [9] Whalen, C., Moss, D., Ilan, A. B., Vaupel, M., Fielding, P., MacDonald, K., . . . Symon, J. (2010). Efficacy of TeachTown: Basics computer-assisted intervention for the intensive comprehensive autism program in Los Angeles unified school district. Autism, 4, 179-197. • We acknowledge the financial support of the Children with Autism Spectrum disorders as Creative Actors in a strength-based Technology-enhanced learning Environment (CASCATE) project from the Academy of Finland, 2011-2014. Introduction Objectives Participants and Methodology The CASCATE Technology-enhanced Learning Environment Current Research Future Directions CONTACT INFORMATION: Katja Tuononen, katja.tuononen@uef.fi. Leader of the CASCATE project: Eija Kärnä, eija.karna@uef.fi Acknowledgements View publication stats View publication stats