5.2.1. Technology Related Knowledge
The teachers were asked a question concerning which technology they would recommend for use in the math education of children with intellectual disabilities. The most common response was Wordwall, which appears 35 times out of the 59 responses given, while 11 responses indicated LearningApps. Most responses indicate apps, platforms, tutorials, and educational software without providing specific names. References to platforms with educational resources predominate. Livresq or Livresq library are also mentioned three times in total, while Twinkl is mentioned two times. Kahoot and Genially are each mentioned once. Two respondents also selected Paint and one selected Googleforms. Only two answers refer to specific mathematical digital technologies: Geogebra and Mquest.
The results concerning the item seeking to enumerate the advantages of using mobile math games for the math education of children with intellectual disabilities are presented further.
Of the 68 responses given, a common theme concerns technologies’ effects on the attention of children with ID. A total of 30 separate responses indicate a positive effect on attention. Other frequent responses concerned interactivity, effects on motivation, the appeal of mobile games, etc., (for a complete description of frequent themes and their frequencies, see
Supplemental Material Section).
Furthermore, teachers were asked to enumerate some advantages of using Interactive Power Point for the math education of children with intellectual disabilities. A total of 77 teachers answered this item. The most frequent responses indicate positive effects on attention, appeal, interactivity, visual support, and the ability to synthesize information.
Questions 4a, 4b, 4c, and 4d requested teachers to give examples of digital technologies that support the development of mathematical representations, discovery learning, learning individualization, and exercise. An answer scored with three points had to be specific. The highest frequency of specific answers for the particular uses of digital technologies in math education was that reported for exercise, while the least was for discovery learning and learning individualization.
Question 5 solicited a yes/no answer as to whether the participant was aware of augmented reality technologies. Only 22.9% answered that they knew of such a technology.
Question 6 asks for examples of apps/software that support the development of virtual recapitulative panels for math learning, while question 7 addresses apps that can be used to make a video tutorial on how to use a computation algorithm, for which the specific answers are 12.2% and 9.6%, respectively.
Question 8 asks the participants to match four resources to four apps. A total of 30.1% correctly matched at least three out of four resources.
Based on these results, we can confidently say that the technology-related knowledge levels in the case of our sample are rather general.
5.2.2. Technology Integration Practices (Practice1–Practice10 (P1–P10))
P1. Which types of digital technologies do you use in math activities?
A high percentage (68.7%) of the respondents indicated Wordwall and LearningApps, while 61.4% indicated educational offline software, 48.2% use apps on a tablet, 43.4% employ general Office software, 24.1% use mobile apps, 38.6% use interactive activities on a smartboard, 20.5% use e-learning platforms, 12.5% use augmented reality, and 3.6% answered this question with the response other.
P2. What would be the average percentage of time that you use digital technology in a lesson?
More than 50% of answers indicated using technology between 10 and 25% of a lesson’s time, while 20% used technology less than 10% of the time.
P3. What would be the mean percentage of a lesson’s content taught with digital technologies? Most of the responses indicated that teachers teach between 30–50% of content using digital technologies.
P4 asked the participants to indicate the digital technologies they used during online school, to which 73.2% responded online activities with Wordwall and LearningApps; 64.4% general Office software; 61% media tutorials, 46.3% apps on a tablet; 34.1% mobile apps; 43.9% e-learning platforms; and 15.9% other.
P5 asked the participants to select which technologies they used once they returned from online school to onsite school. Online activities created on Wordwall and LearningApps represented 67.5% of the responses. A total of 47% of the respondents indicated that they used apps on a tablet. Other frequently used products consisted of educational software. A total of 44.6% also chose general Office programs, 37.3% chose media tutorials, 33.7% selected interactive activities on a smartboard, 25.3% selected e-learning platforms, and selected 21.7% mobile apps. Augmented reality was chosen by 13.3% (N = 11). A total of 10.8% answered other.
P6 asked the participants to give examples of digital technologies they used to teach different types of math content to children with intellectual disabilities, including math prerequisites (cognitive operations, counting, quantitative comparisons, etc.), number concepts and numeracy, basic math computations (addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division), word problem solving (simple, complex, and specific), measurement units, and geometry. For each form of content, the answers were scored with 1 for a class of digital technologies, 2 if they indicated software or an app, and 3 if they indicated technology that was specific to math. The total score ranged from 0–18. A total of 16.8% had a score equal to or more than 12.
P7 asks about the main teaching function for which digital technology was used. A total of 31.3% of the respondents answered that they use it for only one function (either for an exercise, to teach new math concepts, or for assessment), while 43.4% answered that they use it for two functions and 19.3% that they use it for all three functions. For this question, 80 answers were provided. A total of 88.8% reported using digital technology for exercises, 45% reported using it to teach new content, and 47.5% reported using it for assessment.
P8 asked the participants to select the digital resources they use most frequently in math activities. We scored this item as follows: digital resources are never used—0; one frequently used resource—1; two frequently used resources—2; three frequently used resources—3; and four frequently used resources—4.
A total of 45.8% of the participants indicated that they used two resources most frequently. A total of 24.1% indicated that they frequently used three different resources, while only 10.8 indicated that they frequently used four digital resources.
P9 asked the participants about the types of emergent technologies they have used. A total of 78 answers were provided. A total of 33 teachers (42.3%) responded that they do not use such technologies. A total of 3.6% indicated that they had used one emergent technology, and only 1.2 % indicated that they had used two emergent technologies. A total of 11.5% indicated that they had used augmented reality, 26.9% indicated that they had used virtual reality, 5.1% indicated that they had used robotics, and 23.1% responded with other.
P10 asked the teachers to indicate the educational resources they have created, namely, electronic presentations, virtual panels, videos, animation and animated strips, collaborative documents, conceptual maps, educational games or interactive exercises, and assessment resources, using existing apps. They received one point if they indicated between one and two resources, two points for three to four resources, and three points for five to seven digital resources. Consequently, 49.4% and 37.3% indicated that they had created between one to two resources and three to four resources, respectively. A total of 80 answers were provided for this question, of which 77.5% (N = 62) indicated that the participants had created games and interactive exercises; 61.3% (N = 49) that they had created electronic presentations; 47.5% (N = 38) that they had created assessment resources; 18.8% that they had created videos, animations, and/or animated strips; 17.5% that they had created collaborative documents; 25% that they had created conceptual maps, and 11.3% that they had created virtual panels.