From Telecommunications Engineering to the Inclusive Classroom
“I don’t teach technology so my students can build gadgets; I teach them to discover their intrinsic capacity to transform, heal, and repair the world.”
Ricardo Aguado Vallejo
Telecommunications Engineer
Technology & Robotics Educator · Creator of Tecnodivergence
Milestones & Recognition
- ▪ National Teacher Prize Spain 2026: National Winner of the highest teaching accolade.
- ▪ Leading Teacher EU Code Week: European Commission Ambassador promoting coding, digital literacy, and accessibility.
- ▪ ONED Expert Committee: National Observatory for Educational Technology (INTEF / Spanish Ministry of Education).
- ▪ Mentes AMI Awards: Winner 2025 (technology team); Top 3 National Finalist 2026 (“More Life, Less Social Media”).
- ▪ RetoTech Endesa Foundation: National Award 2023 and Teacher of Aragon Award 2021.
- ▪ 1st National Prize CoTEDI: Inclusive computational thinking for pediatric hospital care.
- ▪ 13 Years at Fundación Dfa: Direct leadership and hands-on experience in the disability sector.
A perspective born of lived experience
My path is not that of a conventional teacher. I am a Telecommunications Engineer, but my genuine specialization emerged from personal necessity: I have lived with physical disability since the age of 11. This personal reality, together with my 13 years of leadership at Fundación Dfa, led me to pioneer ‘Tecnodivergence’: an educational and engineering paradigm where technology serves human diversity to restore autonomy, equity, and dignity.
My Vision: Human Tecnodivergence
Today, as a Secondary educator at Colegio Juan de Lanuza (Zaragoza, Spain), I pass this philosophy to my students. I don’t simply teach coding or electronics assembly; I empower them to identify, empathize with, and solve tangible challenges in their community.
Tecnodivergence is a pedagogical model in which engineering adapts to human diversity, never the other way around. It rests on three unwavering commitments:
- Service-Learning (S-L): Classroom technology is only ethically meaningful when it benefits real people: pediatric oncology patients, individuals with severe motor disabilities, or drivers requiring accessible parking.
- Technological Sovereignty and Open Source: We prioritize free, open tools (ESP32 microcontrollers, Scratch, Linux, Python) so students truly understand the architecture they build upon rather than remaining locked in proprietary commercial ecosystems.
- Digital Well-Being and Mental Health: Teaching how to unplug is just as crucial today as teaching how to code. Through the “More Life, Less Social Media” challenge, we provide teenagers and families with tangible agency against addictive screen algorithms.
Family Robotics: Building Intergenerational Bridges
An initiative I have led for the past three years at Colegio Juan de Lanuza. Every two weeks on Friday afternoons, our MakerSpace turns into an open workshop where parents and children build and code side-by-side for two hours.
No prior technical knowledge is required. From 3D computer modeling and ESP32 microcontroller circuits to assembling full robotic prototypes, families from all backgrounds experience the joy of making together and strengthen their emotional bonds away from passive screens.
Institutional Commitment & Educational Community
My work extends beyond the school to provide active transfer and pedagogical-technical consultancy across the national and European education ecosystem:
- Leading Teacher EU Code Week (European Commission): Member of the European network of educator leaders driving coding, computational thinking, and technology inclusion in schools.
- ONED Expert Committee (National Observatory for Educational Technology / INTEF - Spanish Ministry of Education): Advisory on trends, digital governance, ethical AI, and teacher digital competencies.
- CSIC & ”la Caixa” Foundation Summer School: Keynotes delivered across two consecutive editions on practical AI in the classroom and communications abstraction for young programmers.
- Teacher Training (AulaAragón): Designed and directed official teacher training for the rollout of the regional Computing and Robotics curriculum in Aragon.
- STEAM Outreach: Keynote speaker and workshop leader at the II National STEAM Congress in Zaragoza, The Wave forum, and science vocation projects at San Jorge University.
MagicSTEAM Platform: Breaking the 4th Digital Wall
Together with Pepe Fernández, we created MagicSTEAM, a free and open-source Scratch-based physical computing environment connecting on-screen code to real hardware via ESP32 microcontrollers and custom educational PCBs, freely available to any school or inclusion center worldwide.