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Special Education Needs refers to more than just students with learning disabilities that impair their access to and participation in education. Many others struggle each day just to stay in school, focus on lessons or make sense about what is taught. Several students face underachievement and dropout because they feel that school is outdated, uninteresting and does not fulfill their learning needs. In this paper, the authors offer a proposal, often talked about but rarely put into action to bring back struggling students to school: to use multiple forms of presenting information and expression in order to attract students that need more dynamic and broader learning strategies.

Portugal is experiencing a technological reform in education. Technological refurbishing of schools and training of students and teachers is a reality on the rise, enhanced by the implementation of the education technological plan (ETP), which also aims at computer skills certification, by 2010, of 90% of teachers. In a school that must be adjusted to all pupils, special educational needs cannot be neglected and the nature and constitution of its computer resources should obviate the support of these students. Stakeholders’ awareness and ICT training is essential to benefit all students from ICT use. In the case of SEN, this need for training is of paramount importance to establish itself as a facilitator for these students. ICT coordinators are the visible face of ICT implementation in schools; their functions include the management of the schools computer facilities and to zeal for the ICT training of fellow teachers.

ABSTRACTAsphalt mixtures compaction is considered to be one of the most important factors that influence bituminous layers durability. However, it is still not clear how compaction should be carried out. In this paper a numerical tool, based on the Distinct Element Method (DEM), is developed and applied to asphalt compaction studies. Asphalt mixtures were modelled in 2D as an assemblage of circular rigid particles that interact with each other at soft contact points. The methodology was applied to three asphalt mixtures with different compactabilities: Asphalt Concrete 0/16 and 0/5, and Porous Asphalt 0/8. It is shown a good agreement between the static compaction laboratory tests results and the results obtained with the proposed numerical model. Despite the 2D limitations, the obtained results clearly indicate the viability of the proposed numerical tool.