Much research is being conducted over the years about the social inclusion of individuals with special needs. These individuals have to face their own deficiencies in social interaction, but also the social exclusion by other members of their environment. This results often in isolation and the enhancement of their social problems, especially in the case on inclusive classrooms. In this paper, a case study regarding (social) empathy fostering in early childhood with the exploitation of the interactive digital storytelling approach is described. The results were positive. Considering the incomplete development of social dexterities of 3-5 year old children and its similarity to social deficiencies of individuals with special needs, this paper builds a discussion upon the exploitation of the same technique within Special Education as a future research path

In this paper a case study in which interactive digital storytelling was exploited for fostering empathy towards children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) is presented. The research population consisted mainly by Kindergarten children. Based on the findings and the overall experience, even considering the design mistakes that occurred, this paper argues upon the deriving value of exploiting multimodal digital representations in the form of a story in order to cultivate empathy towards children with ASD and thus, facilitate social interaction and inclusion. This approach can be useful in mixed population classrooms, but in a wider educational context as well.

Augmented Reality (AR) is a live, direct or indirect projection of the physical-real world which allows users to experience the surrounding environment as it is, in real-time, enhanced with digital and/or interactive content. It seems that AR can be exploited for teaching various disciplines. In this paper, the preliminary results of a study regarding a teaching intervention about science education in primary school and specifically the topic of the water circle are presented. The AR content was deployed through the ENTITI creator application.

The fostering of empathy among primary school students is an important goal because it enhances the improvement of behavior and the development of positive social contacts. Empathy can contribute to understanding and supporting others’ needs. In most cases, empathy in young children is developed through listening to sad stories, experienced first-hand by others. In the educational scenario presented in this article, the dramatic effects of climate change were conveyed to the pupils through a message said to originate from the future, delivered by an educational robot. The message was expressed by a peer living in Iran in 2050. In addition to delivering the message, the robot called on children to prevent climate change from rapidly worsening by changing their own way of thinking and attitudes. Thus, students called upon a formulated educational problem to understand and handle through their own emotional and cognitive performance through the robot’s storytelling. This performance was intensely affected by empathy towards the Iranian peer’s difficult personal living conditions. The research focused on measuring the evidence of empathy development. Additionally, the design and implementation aspects of the robot are presented, utilizing the implemented teaching intervention as means of demonstrating the innovative nature of the robot.

Educational research in Kindergarten is gradually gaining more attention. Children who attend quality care and education programs in their early years are benefited in their future life. Also, Kindergarten lately attracts the attention of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) approaches and seems that such activities can be implemented easily in this level of education with important positive results in children's life. In this paper the results of a teaching intervention for approaching the notion of speed in Kindergarten, utilizing the Sphero robot, are presented, indicating the feasibility of designing robotic-enhanced activities for fostering STEM education in Kindergarten.

DIAS is an asynchronous discussion forum software, mainly developed in order to offer extended monitoring and interaction analysis support, by providing a wide range of indicators jointly used in various situations, to all discussion forae users (individual students, groups, moderators/teachers or even researchers/observers), appropriate for their various roles in different activities. In this paper we focus on the explanatory and interpretation issues that arise when the integrated interaction analysis (IA) features are used by a teacher – moderator. Core objective of this paper is to outline the importance of appropriate interpretation of the IA indicators. The notion of interpretative schemas is deployed and their potential exploitation is thoroughly explored, using examples from real teaching settings. In fact, the significance of interpreting visualization data in a combined way and from different perspectives is designated, leading to the conclusion that this issue needs to be further researched.