Instructional Principles, Universal Learning Design and the role of technologies. In F. Ugolini & V. Tsipidis (Eds.), International Conference ICT for inclusive learning: the way forward Athens, Greece: Euracademy Association.

The principle of inclusion (Unesco, 1994) arises new challenges for education. Curriculum design should not be addressed to an “average student” and subsequently adapted to special subjects; instead it should be conceived so as to be “for all” since the very beginning of the design, taking into account the various exceptionality (special needs, gifted students, cultural differences, language differences). Fields such as the architectural design in primis and technology design, have already fully endorsed the Universal Access principles (such as WAI, Web Accessibility Initiative at W3C Consortium, http://www.w3.org/WAI/); more recently Education has also started to move towards a “Universal Design for Learning”(UDL) perspective (http://www.udlcenter.org/aboutudl/udlguidelines). Inside this frame we propose an “Instructional Design for All” model (IDAll), which moves from a comparative analysis of Gagne, Merrill and Cognitive Load Theory models. IDAll is consistent with Evidence-based inquiries (EBE), conducted also in the domain of Special Needs (see: What Works Clearing House initiatives by US Department of Education, http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/; The Best Evidence Encyclopedia at John Hopkins University, http://www.bestevidence.org/; cfr. also Mitchell, 2008). Within this theoretical framework we focus on how technology becomes a crucial asset for an effective approach to the UDL implementation. The work is partially funded by the WISE (Wiring Individualized Special Education, http://www.wisefirb.it/) project (2010-2012) supported by the Italian Ministry of Instruction and University (FIRB funding action).