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VET trainers / teachers who attended the focus group agreed on the fact that, at first, It is necessary to understand the improvement aspects of a teaching method / workshop focussed on
VR and how it allows overcoming any critical issue / barrier / obstacle in the field of disability.
Then, before using virtual reality, users (both teachers and SEN students) must be adequately trained, with a practical training or some preparatory exercises, to fully understand the limits
and potentials of these tools. Therefore, an in-depth technical, methodological and emotional preparation, to become familiar with this instrument is essential both for VET trainers and for
SEN students.
Students with disabilities generally approach technology quite well, but obviously, the severity of the disease and the way in which the new technology can or cannot be applied must be
assessed.
Despite of these pre-conditions, teachers agreed that virtual reality can bring significant help to those with special educational needs / disabilities.
About the specific required preparation for SEN students before using VR tools, VET trainers stated that it is important to prepare students to these new technologies, both in relation to the
contents (how they work, what they are for) and from a relational / psychological point of view, to help them in the management of new / different dynamics than those of the "normal"
interaction between peers. Virtual reality has certainly great potential and, for this reason, young people must be guided in order to make a correct use of it. The level and the specific
required preparation, VET teachers said, also depends on the disability or the difficulty. For cognitive disabilities, for instance, there is certainly a need for greater attention and preparation.
Regarding other areas of personal, social or professional development in which VR can be beneficial when working with SEN students, VET teachers / trainers agreed on the fact that through
VR apps SEN students can improve soft skills (especially interpersonal skills and problem solving) as well as hard skills. Teachers said that it could be useful to use virtual reality to let SEN
students try situations they perceive as new, risky, fearful or embarrassing. Virtual reality could become a "safe place" in which they can try, guided by an adequately trained VET teacher,
new and unknown sensations / emotions / situations. In this way, they will increase their self-esteem / self-confidence in order to face real situations. At last, with autistic students, VR has
been considered useful in order to learn specific behaviours to be replicated in reality.
Italy2 (REATTIVA):
WBL through VR should be highly inclusive as it allows not only to stimulate almost all the senses, but to be completely immersed in the learning by doing experience
VR applied at WBL should make learning much more intuitive and easily overcoming the difficulties that SEN students may encounter in their VET education and most of all during their
practical experiences;
since VR is digital content, its use could go beyond the classroom, allowing individual SEN students who so wish to view and test the material used even from home. Being the VR experience
identical to itself, it can be repeated endless times, with the possibility of allowing a SEN student to achieve a concrete learning experience;
VR applied at WBL should make possible things that are difficult to be realized in factual reality, allowing SEN students learning by doing in a virtual environment and experiencing first-hand
what it means to be something or someone. The study of mechanics, for example in VR, can be done by putting the SEN learner in the shoes of a mechanic working in the automobile industry;
SEN students need, however, to be well prepared to participate to WBL through VR and, most of all, to be provided with clear instructions. Some SEN students may feel dizzy or disoriented
and the teacher should be prepared to handle this. It is also essential to pay enough attention to managing SEN students' expectations of what is possible/available with such technology,
demonstrating, for example, the limitations of VR in use from the outset so that they do not feel stressed or frustrated if results are different from their expectations;
VR clearly limits the teacher's interaction with students as their ears and eyes are covered by headset or glasses. By consequence, the teacher has to think about how to communicate with
the SEN students and control them and the rest of the class;
in terms of VR applied at WBL, experimental practice should help SEN students to understand complex themes, concepts, theories that are difficult to learn without their visualization;
VR also should enhance SEN students' creativity, increasing their self-esteem and confidence in their abilities, as it gives them the opportunity to experiment, imagine and propose solutions.
Poland:
Participants felt that they needed a specific methodology on how to work with VR and what contraindications disqualify students (especially SEN) from working with VR
Participants had no knowledge about what special preparations work would be needed when teaching SEN students by VR
Participants had no knowledge about what special psychological, social or group dynamic preparations for SEN learners are needed
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