Skills For a Next Generation

Flora, who is still at the beginning of the first semester of her Master's degree, went to her Algebra class as she had every time before. Although she feels that she doesn't always have the same access to the lessons and their contents as the rest of her classmates, she always makes an extra effort to keep up with the subject and always manages to solve the proposed exercises. However, that day's lesson was different for Flora. The teacher came to class with new teaching methods. This lesson was more accessible to Flora, allowing her to follow the lesson in a more inclusive way, being 'on an equal footing' with her classmates. At the start of the academic year, the academic community was informed of the existence of the Skills For Next Generation platform, where the academic community could share their experiences of inclusion and accessibility within it. When she got home after classes, Flora was thinking about how included she felt with her teacher's new methods, and, knowing that she has classmates in the same situation as her, but who don't have the same teacher, she decided to use the platform to share her experience. Navigating through the Platform with the help of Assistive Technology, Flora navigates to the section for sharing experiences, where, using the 'Speech-to-text' feature, she explains how she felt, reporting on the methods used by the Teacher, in the hope that other Teachers can see this information and adapt these new methods to their classes.

Marco was on the terrace of his college with his group of friends from class who were helping him organize movements for LGBTQIA+ inclusion and Autism in the student community because these are causes that directly affect them. It was during a study break that he noticed a poster advertising the Skils For Next Generation platform. Curious about the content of this poster, he decided to open his computer's browser and explore this platform. While browsing the platform, Marco noticed a section of gamified content, a set of games, both physical and digital, available to him on the platform, and, in a moment of leisure, he decided to try them out with his friends on the terrace. After exploring the set of games, they noticed that they really do boost learning in an accessible and inclusive way. Marco then had the idea of writing an e-mail to some of his teachers and sharing this new discovery with them. Recounting his experience with the games (and that of the rest of his classmates), Marco encouraged the teachers to use these alternative means of teaching in their classes, given that the different classes have students with various physical and psychological disabilities. To the delight of the students, most of the teachers were very receptive to this e-mail and effectively adapted these games to their classes, thus creating more fun learning moments in which all the students could participate and learn.

Artur is not a very modern teacher, but that's something he'd like to try to change, but doesn't quite know how. Professor Artur's classes are auditorium classes, where he has hundreds of students in front of him, without much opportunity to not only offer good support to all his students, but he himself has difficulty understanding the difficulties of his various students. The lecturer has a specific curricular unit that is attended by blind students, and I thought it was time to find new teaching methods that were more accessible to these students, so I decided to use my weekend to try to find a solution. On Saturday morning, he went to UP's Skills For Next Generation online platform, where he searched for information relevant to the situation. In the midst of this search, Professor Artur came across a share made by a student who was also blind, Flora. Professor Artur spent the weekend discussing the experience shared by this student, knowing that he himself would like to provide a similar experience for his blind students. So he analyzed the subject matter of his classes and explored the best way to adapt the other teacher's methods to his classes. The following week it was time to put these new methods into practice. They didn't change the learning of the class as a whole (non-blind students), but they were much appreciated and used by the blind students, who felt the subject matter was much more accessible. After this lesson, the teacher decided to develop new versions of these methods and share them on the platform so that other teachers can access them too.

Carla has been a member of staff at her college's library for a couple of decades now, and over all these years she has seen all kinds of students pass through this place, from international students to students with physical and/or psychological problems. These students often use the space as a place to work, but they also like to take part in the various activities proposed by Carla in the Library. However, Carla sometimes struggles to make these activities 100% inclusive and accessible to all students, and this is something Carla wants to improve. To start this process of change, Carla turned to the Skills For Next Generation platform in search of information to adapt her activities. However, Carla herself is partially sighted and sometimes finds it difficult to read text on the monitor if the text is too small, but the platform allows her to increase the font size to one that gives her a better reading experience. Already with an accessible font size, Carla navigates in search of information that will provide her with a more inclusive vocabulary, and how to have better communication (above all) with Students with Special Educational Needs (SEN). With time and practice, Carla develops speech and activities that are more inclusive and accessible to all students, so that they get the best out of them. In addition, Carla sometimes likes to explore the platform and read about students' experiences, so that she can get direct information on how she can have a better presence and take more correct attitudes towards other students, gradually learning how she can become a more accessible citizen.

The prototype was tested with 8 (eight) possible users (3 (three) professors and 5 (five) students), one of the main conclusions to look over is the nomenclature and choice of titles for the categories and sub-categories in the filter section. Most of the results showed that the platform’s structure was easy to understand and navigate, and with important type of content that the users see themselves resort to in situations of academic purposes, or simply for the inclusivity and accessibility from the content.