EMPOWER · Design and evaluation of technological support tools to empower stakeholders in digital education

Given technological developments in other domains and lessons from the pandemic, there is a strong push to invest in technology-augmented education. However, much remains unknown; for example, what technological abilities are useful in education, how they can be deployed, what training needs arise, and what shape future policies governing this should take. EMPOWER contributes to resolving these questions by developing novel technological support for the education of children with neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs). This use case is, in many ways challenging, and thus ideally suited to 1) make a positive impact on the educational needs of these children, and 2) highlight the potential and limitations of technology-augmented education in a way that can inform future developments generally.NDDs affect approximately 15% of children aged 3 to 17 years. These children can experience difficulties with language and speech, motor skills, behaviour, memory, learning, or other neurological functions and benefit from education tailored to their needs. EMPOWER creates a novel platform based on new paradigms from psychology that suggest that Executive Function (EF) and Emotional Self Regulation are two key sets of skills to target in the educational intervention for these students. The core output of EMPOWER is thus an educational platform, co-created by all involved stakeholders, that facilitates the improvement of these key skills in children with NDDs. The platform will be tested and evaluated in school settings with all stakeholders involved according to the strict standards of a randomized clinical trial. In addition to technological advances, the lessons learned from the development and deployment of this platform will provide valuable insights into the needs and possibilities for training teachers in the use of new technologies as well as input into future policies governing technology in education, including, in particular refined ethical frameworks.