Examining the process of information and communication technologies integration at the School for the Handicapped

The purpose of this study is to determine the integration of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in the teaching-learning process at the School for the Handicapped from the perspectives of the stakeholders. Because the aim of the study was to describe the case in-depth in its real context, this study was carried out as a case study through the qualitative research method.The study was conducted in the 2007?2008 Fall and Spring terms at the School for the Handicapped. The participants of the study all from the School for the Handicapped, included 3 administrators, one of whom was principal and two of whom were vice principals, 24 faculty members, 3 of whom were extraneous staff and 60 hearing-impaired students. The data were collected through the insider participant observations of the researcher by compiling the semi-structured interviews, open-ended questionnaires, researcher's journal, documents and the archival records. The data have been analyzed inductively. Findings and interpretations were made in the scope of the research questions.In conclusion, an emerged model derived from all of the findings had five components, substructure, access, technical support, teaching and evaluating approaches and staff development and it constituted for the ICT integration in the teaching-learning process of the School for the Handicapped. The components of the model are cyclical in nature interacting with each other. The activities organized with the scope of a project at the School for the Handicapped had positive effects on the component of teaching and evaluating approaches of the model. The School for the Handicapped had sufficient substructure for the access to hardware, software and other ICT supplies. In general, while the support of the staff and students? access to ICT supplies and applications was stated, some barriers were stressed by the participants. In addition, some problems were stated in the technical support component and it is considered that these problems hinder the functions of the model. Many staff stated that they needed in-service training programs for the integration of ICT to the teaching-learning process at the School for the Handicapped.