List of Inclusion Opportunities

Technology & infrastructure

decorative element

2 Manager

This list of inclusion opportunities is the result of a meeting of experts that took place 10 - 12 April 2019 in Gothenburg / Sweden, and of a subsequent consultation process involving further experts external to the EICON project consortium.

Download this list of inclusion opportunities
as a file for sharing with others, adapting to own needs or printing.


It is assumed, that most organisations offering vocational education and training find themselves in one of the following situations:

  1. Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) are provided or largely prescribed by external policies, or the infrastructure is not considered an area to be changed (see section 1 below)
  2. Information and Communication Technologies can be freely chosen, and infrastructure is configurable, to tailor both to the organisation and its (inclusion) requirements (see section 2 below)

The two options represent different levels of freedom for decisions and changes. Hence, different implications of either prescribed or open to choice technologies and infrastructure need to be reviewed. In reality, an organisation might neither fit 100% into the one or into the other category; rather it will be a mixture of conditions. It is therefore recommended to go through both sections of guiding issues and skip those issues that are not relevant for your specific situation.


Section 1: Making best use of given technologies or infrastructure

In situations where technologies are provided or prescribed by external policies (i.e. policies that neither can be influenced nor ignored by an educational organisation), or where the infrastructure is not seen as something that needs to be adjusted to the specific requirements of an educational organisation, it is essential to find out about the impact of the prescribed technology configuration on the organisation’s inclusive capacity.

The following questions may be useful to reflect on the potential or already observable impact of such policies:

  • 1) For example, locked computer rooms, no open Wi-Fi, use of mobile phones forbidden in educational organisation
  • 2) For example, learners with autism who often do not communicate with others have been observed in communicating with humanoid robots without problems
  • 3) Some examples: a virtual reality roadshow with simulators for different farming machines visits schools around the country, yet is owned and operated by a public authority; teachers bring their own devices to school and use them for teaching; private support / donations by parents, local businesses, stakeholders to buy ICT equipment.


Section 2: Selecting technologies and configuring infrastructure tailored to the organisation

In other cases educational organisations will find themselves in the role to select specific technologies, and to adjust / configure established (or elsewhere tested) infrastructure solutions to their own needs and requirements. Availability of technologies and respective vendors who provide essential services (e.g. repair, replacement etc.) may vary depending on the location of the VET organisation. Yet, most probably a smaller set of alternative technologies, operating systems or infrastructure solutions would be shortlisted. What would then be the selection and configuration criteria if the aim is to raise the organisation’s inclusive capacity?

Reflect on hardware or software that …

  • 4) in opposite to solutions that come with a wide range of functionality where only few would be used in the beginning and therefore might be overwhelming for novice users
  • 5) For instance via virtual reality applications

Critically assess hardware or software to avoid ICT that …

  • 6) For example software that does not allow learners to explain their own communication needs to others and hence requires help of a third person for this task

Beyond the technologies and infrastructure to be acquired by the organisation, learners themselves often possess technologies that are essential to them. To make best use of it in the context of learning:


In reality, focussing on inclusion-related considerations only does not suffice. Specifically budgetary limitations are also important and might lead to the need for finding compromises between economic and pedagogic considerations. The following areas point out some options with budget implications to be discussed. However, none of the options per se is positive or negative with regard to inclusion. But it is assumed that in the context of developing inclusion capacity, it is preferable to choose options that ensure rather stable budgetary foundations for the procurement and maintenance of ICT:

  • 7) E.g. renting hardware; support / donations from parents, local businesses, other stakeholders

Context

The main objective of the Strategic Partnership EICON is to support organizations / institutions providing vocational education and training (VET) to become more inclusive using information and communication technology (ICT). Organizations / institutions that are active in VET are particularly in need for guidance on how to further develop, as they often have to work towards multiple aims simultaneously, i.e. inclusion usually is one among many other aims. EICON particularly explores the inherent potential and synergies in the overlapping section between education, inclusion and digitalisation.

How to use this list of inclusion opportunities?

There is no 'one best way' for any organization / institution active in VET to increase its inclusive capacity with ICT. Rather, each organization / institution needs to find its own solution that then fits perfectly to its respective situation and requirements. Therefore, this list of inclusion opportunities aims to guide organizations / institutions through a process of reflection and planning. List entries contain both examples of good practice and innovative examples and focus specifically on inclusion potential in an organisation.

Lists of opportunities may be used by different groups: teachers, managers of VET institutions / organizations and facilitators that support these organisations in organizational change processes. These lists have a slightly different focus depending on the respective role, so make sure you select the ones that fit to your role. Teachers use them, for example, to formulate requirements for their management with regard to the procurement of new ICT. Facilitators in turn can use the lists to discuss and decide on possibilities for specific ICT change projects together with the organisation's representatives. Managers can also use the lists to identify potential uses of ICT for inclusive leadership.

EICON (Enhancing inclusion capacity of educational organizations / institutions providing VET with information and communication technologies (ICT)) is an ERASMUS+ KA2 Strategic Partnership for vocational education and training during 2018 - 2020 (Grant Agreement No.2018-1-DE02-KA202-005110). This list of opportunities has been developed in the context of EICON. It represents the results of discussions among the experts involved in the project as well as a subsequent public consultation process that involved a wider audience in reviewing the intermediate results.

Creative Commons Licence CC BY SA

The list of opportunities is published under the Creative Commons License CC BY-SA, i.e. you are free to copy and redistribute the checklist in any medium or format, and to remix, transform and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially. However, you must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. If you remix, transform, or build upon this material, you must distribute your contributions under the same license as this original. To give appropriate credit, please use the following information: [Author] ERASMUS+ EICON Project Consortium [LINK] www.eicon-project.eu

The European Commission support for the production of this publication does not constitute an endorsement of the content that reflects the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use that may be made of the information contained therein.

qr code

If you are using this list of inclusion opportunities in practice, we are highly interested in your experiences with it! Please help us to further improve these results by taking part in our short survey. Scan the QR code or click on the code to open a short survey. Thanks a lot in advance for your contribution!