This article deals with current issues of modern pedagogical practices incorporated in Special and Inclusive Education and touches upon Social Stories as a supplementary powerful learning tool especially in cases of children with autism and other similar communication deficits. According to our literature review, Social Stories better respond to the needs and abilities of the children personality regardless of their age by presenting a considerable amount of social information and best describing social schemata and situations. Also, they provide guidance for socially appropriate attitudes and behaviors, encouragement and support in learning and educational setting, both verbally and visually supported. To set the theoretical frame of this topic, an overview of social constructivism theory and the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology are provided. Moreover, what is also under discussion in this article relates to the new digital challenges that have lately emerged after the combination of Social Stories with ICTs. <p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/edu_01/0745/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>

This paper is a brief overview of the use of Social Stories (SS) as a strategy to support students in attaining communicative skills. More specifically, it presents the general purpose as well as the positive results after integrating story-telling methods into the learning and teaching process for children within the autism spectrum; this is so because they typically manifest serious weaknesses with respect to social and communicative skills. Additionally, this study refers to the beneficial prospects of creating SS through digital media as they arouse children’s interest in the subject matter and do reinforce their creativity in developing a variety of life skills. Finally, some enlightening examples of digitally integrated SS are presented within the Greek educational setting especially nowadays in connection with the Covid pandemic. Any educator can actually benefit from reading this paper and, more particularly, those educators who instruct students identified with autism spectrum disorder or any other developmental disability.

Computer-assisted collaborative learning is known to challenge and motivate students with Learning Disabilities. The present paper therefore intends to briefly present the benefits of computer-supportive collaborative learning activities as well as demonstrate specific practices and paradigms concerning the inclusion of students with Special Educational Needs in Secondary Education in Greece. To reach this target, the researchers proceed to an ICT literature review associated with computer-mediated collaborative and inclusive learning methods in Greek Secondary Education. According to literature review findings, these learning methods are considered beneficial in terms of learning purposes directed to students with learning disabilities since they do raise students’ interest and engagement in the learning procedure, enhance their cognitive abilities and assist them to develop self-esteem, problem-solving strategies and, finally, a solid collaborative attitude. Therefore, this paper concludes that there has been a lack of significant progress with respect to establishing collaborative inclusive learning environments in Greece.    Key words: Collaborative learning; computer-supported education; Inclusive education; Special Educational Needs and/or Disabilities; SEND

<p>The present paper intends to report and analyze ongoing practices and policies with respect to the inclusion of Students with Special Educational Needs (SEN) and/or disabilities into Higher Education in Greece. To achieve this goal, the researchers systematically searched the current literature sources to find out the extent to and the ways in which European priorities set by article 24 of the Convention on the Rights of Inclusion of Persons with Special Educational Needs and/or Disabilities, have been advocated by Greek educational policy within the Higher Education context. Actually, the literature review demonstrates the existing law framework of the Greek national and local policy whose purpose is to promote the development and implementation of digitally assisted services which ought to take into consideration the needs of students with learning disabilities and comply with the international strides calling for a broader inclusive education. The results of this review showed that Greek universities have endeavored to respond successfully to the Greek legislation’s mandates and to fully address anti-discriminatory practice. However, more adjustments and decisive progress steps have to be made in relation to the curriculum and to teachers’ professional training to ensure all students’ inclusion.</p><p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/edu_01/0606/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>

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