ICTs for Education: An Inclusive Approach to Addressing Challenges Faced by Roma Communities in Europe

摘要

Despite the fact that education is a basic human right, children and youth from marginalized communities often, lack access to quality education programs. Applying ICTs as a tool to education, rather than the solution, has great potential to narrow existing education gaps, while conveying skills and competences necessary for economic and social survival in today's connected and digitalized societies. Roma are Europe's largest ethnic minority group, and despite multiple efforts to improve the living conditions of Roma people, the majority of Roma households continues to live in deep poverty, is subject to social exclusion and discrimination. Moreover, four out of five students from Roma communities, lack basic cognitive skills and competences. This paper introduces the Head in the Clouds Project (HIC), an innovative learning program based on self-organized learning environments, the use of state of the art IT devices and the innovative learning approach MINIMAX while shedding light on the use of ICTs in marginalized communities. Particularly it discusses potential long-term impacts of ICT enabled self-organized learning environments on creating more inclusive educational programs and societies, and the potential contribution of inclusive and IT supported learning environments towards the achievement of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).