Assistive Technologies

I came across the following video on Assistive Technologies:

Assistive technologies provide persons with disabilities the possibility of overcoming barriers and live in a more inclusive society. Such technoligies often include IT equipment that improves or enhances a specific functional capability of the person using it. Examples include:

- Braille software, printers

- Text-to-voice, voice-to-text software

- Modified or adaptive keyboards, mice

- Hearing aids, video spectacles

- electronic organisers, graphic organisers

The E-learning Debate 2010

I found an interesting video outlining the most important points which we face nowadays when we think about e and m-learning. These were discussed during The E-Learning Debate 2010.

'Robot' computer to mark English essays

The owner of one of England's three major exam boards is to introduce artificial intelligence-based automated marking of English exam essays in the UK from next month.
Pearson, the American-based parent company of Edexcel (known as London Exams in Malta), is to use computers to "read" and assess essays for international English tests in a move that has fuelled speculation.
All three exam boards are now investing heavily in e-assessment but none has yet perfected a form of marking essays using computers – or "robots" – that it is willing to use in mainstream exams. Academics and leaders in the teaching profession said that using machines to mark papers would create a "disaster waiting to happen".
Computers have been programmed to scan the papers, recognise the possible right responses and tot up the marks. Pearson claims this will be more accurate than human marking.
Although we live in a ‘technological’ society, I believe that technology can never replace human jobs in certain areas. In my opinion, this is one of them and I am very skeptic about the whole idea that computers can mark essays, where a number of multiple answers can be given in response to the same question. Keeping all this in mind, one has to ask the question, “How can a computer interpret profound human thought and judge if it is right or wrong?”

Shall we lose control?!

A very simple question: by using such e-learning systems, shall MCAST lose control on her students and lecturing staff? By analysing MCAST current situation and forecasting a future one with such an e-learning system, what are the main differences?

Salary for e-learning tutors

"The average salary of a person who lives in the United States and works in e-Learning is $78,436"
http://www.elearningguild.com/research/archives/index.cfm?action=viewonly&id=135

High School US teacher average salary is not more than $50,000
http://www.payscale.com/research/US/All_K-12_Teachers/Salary

I was curious to see whether there is a salary difference for those tutors that use e-learning. In fact, there is a big difference in salary in the US. These two US websites show a discrepancy between e-learning tutors and teachers. I presume that such a salary compensates for the tutors commitment, availability, experience, level, etc.

Gender issues in the use of Technologies.

I think that a gender gap exists between males and females in the use of technology. This is also reflected at MCAST, for example at the Electrical and Engineering Institute there are approximately 450 male students compared to 50 female students. It is also a known fact that heavy computer users are usually males.

This trend is the result of many factors, including: media depicting men as experts in technology; personal expectations of different goals for boys and girls; and learning abilities. These differences can be reduced if the education system, teachers and parents are sensitive to children's needs and strive to expose both sexes to the use of computer technology.

E-Technologies in Industry

"Knowledge is widely dispersed around various research, training and private business organisations and e-learning and e-technologies re emerging as an important mechanism to capture and share this knowledge across the industry". This was stated by Patten Bridge, General Manager of Workforce Development at Murray Gouldburn Cooperative Dairy Company, Australia.

When I think about Bridge's statement, I cannot help but agree. Knowledge is really widespread especially in large countries and e-technologies are surely a very efficient tool to enable this knowledge to be shared. Even though Malta is a very small country and it is relatively easy to go from one place to another, for example to attend lectures or seminars, our industry can always be exposed to knowledge available and processes used in other countries through the use of e-technologies.

Another positive outcome that can be achieved is the fact that if industries adopt a coordinated approach to e-learning, a lot of replication of work can be avoided and this can result in big cost savings.

Quiet leaders have a big impact

There are many leadership qualities that are directly related to the leader's personality and character, and many more that are a combination of several different philosophies. Many leadership styles, though can be successfully implemented with a quiet approach. Quiet leaders are powerful, they focus on action instead of words and are able to generate excitement and develop quality in unique ways.

Training males in the Early Years through an e learning programme

I would like to use my last blog to hear your opinion about recruiting males in early childhood programmes. At present in MCAST we only engage females and no male has ever trained to teach in the early Years.

There are, of course, many reasons to include men in the lives of young children. Foremost of these is the need for young boys and girls to develop positive relationships with men, and to develop positive views of maleness and masculinity (Cunningham & Dorsey, 2004). The overall positive impact of father involvement in the healthy development of young children has been well documented (MacDonald & Parke, 1984; Lamb, Pleck, & Levine, 1985; Gadsden & Ray, 2002). One way to increase the involvement of men in the lives of their children is to include more fathers, other male relatives, boyfriends, etc., into the early childhood education program (Fagan, 1996). And the best way to attract these men is to make them feel welcome. Research shows that fathers are more likely to become involved with their children when opportunities to do so are provided for them (Cohen, 1993).

More over MCAST could engage in offering training through an e learning programme, hope you find this interesting and I look forward to hear your views.

Open source e-learning applications

Open Source software products for eLearning are becoming widely accepted. An increasing number of organizations are taking advantage of Open Source products, like Moodle and Sakai, for Learning Management Systems and authoring tools, like Udutu, for course production.

The advantages of open source applications are:

- usually free to download, which makes online learning more affordable.
- Access to the source code makes the programs customizable.
- Open Source software often has a large and supportive community.

The disadvantages of open source applications:

- The documentation for Open Source software can be disorganized.

References:
2009 Technology trends that impact online learning. Retrieved on 23rd June 2010 from http://theelearningcoach.com/business/2009-technology-trends-that-impact-online-learning/

Maltese primary schools and E-learning

In a previous post entitled E-learning for Children's Study Patterns I have commented on various websites which are very educational for the children, which although fun can substitute for studying. Whilst browsing websites of Maltese schools I have encountered this website from a primary school in Malta.

I have attached a link of this school's website in which one can find among other things, updated news circulars and a school calender for the parents, and a kid's corner which shows the children's work, Health and safety tips, and also learning activities which the children can enjoy and subtly learn from! Other schools should definitely take the shift in current learning styles into account and consider constructing a website in a similar pattern

School: St.Francis Birkirkara
Website: http://www.stfrancisschoolbkara.com/

Exploiting ICT to improve Parental Engagement

Schools are promoting the use of ICT for parents to support students' learning and help them engage more in their child's process. It is a way for parents to better understand what their child is doing.

From the video attached it transpires that there are parents who nowadays prefer texting than receiving letters from schools.

Through the use of ICT parents can have access to the moodle sites which students themselves use. At the parents' convenience, students can show at any time what they did during the day, the resources they are using, work done, etc.

From a particular student's experience it is evident that students appreciate the use of ICT, since it facilitates the fact that today students have the opportunity not to miss out on any lessons due to their absence.

An idea which I really liked from this video is that in the site there is a Parent Area, from which parents can get all the support needed. Parents are being provided also with immediate up-to-date information on school activities, child's behavior, progress, etc.

Therefore as we can see ICT is a tool about communication and bringing parents in the community.

Using ICT to Improve Schools

I was watching the video on ICT in schools and what I found interesting is their argument that using ICT in the classroom can also help improve assessment systems to develop more clear pictures of learners’ performance. Monitoring attendance and progress and turning information into statistics and data to formulate strategies to improve knowledge delivery to students. Diagnosing areas for improvement is made easy through different computer software.

I personally would love to have the advantage of using such a system. Creating online databases of learner information can aid individual educators and their institutions to offer improved educational programmes suited for their learners’ needs.

Having so many people furthering their education and instilling lifelong learning culture has increased the influx of students. ICT may help educational institutes deal with education for the masses by providing a more flexible system to cater for individual needs.

E-learning for Children's study patterns

So far most of us have been focusing on e-learning for teenagers and adults. However, once again I would lie to shift the focus onto e-learning for children. In one of my previous posts entitled ‘You Can Read’ I wrote about the e-learning opportunities available for children under the age of six. In this post I would like to focus on websites which help children learn and study better.

As the post entitled ‘Are We Digital Immigrants’ (posted by one of our colleagues) suggests, today’s adults (teachers included) were not always immersed in technology. While most of us have known to use technology from a young age, we still had to adapt to it at one time or another. Speaking from a personal perspective I was only encouraged to use the internet for my studies at around the age of 10. It was only at this age that my teachers began pushing me to search for information online, and at the time they seemed to only focus on sites such as Encarta and Britannia. Nevertheless, things have changed today. More and more children are encouraged to browse the net in order for them to search for information on different websites. The government is also contributing to e-learning by donating a number of computers for each classroom, leading to every child, from the age of 4/5 to be computer literate.
Nevertheless, despite all this it seems as though educators are stopping short of teaching children how to study using online sources. With the current shift in examination laws being the way it is (i.e. the removal of Junior Lyceum exams and the change of exams to tests with younger children) our youth are finding it harder and harder to adopt a good studying strategy. Hence this might deter them when they come to study for exams in secondary school. Most of the students already find studying boring, in a few years time it would get even worse since other sources of entertainment are readily available in their own homes.
Yet the solution might be just a click of a button away! Teachers educating our youth should give their students online studying tips. If they help the students search for websites which will help them study in a fun way kids may alter their perspective on learning (resulting in more children enjoying school and hopefully continuing school at a tertiary level). Online studying resources are readily available. Taking a look at some of these websites I too stopped to learn from them, let alone our kids! Take a look at this website and evaluate it for yourselves: http://www.e-learningforkids.org/
Why aren’t teachers using these sites? Do they fear that by encouraging children to use these sites they might get complaints from the parents? Is it because most parents (especially of older children) form part of the ‘digital immigrant’ era (http://mcast-elearn.blogspot.com/2010/06/are-we-digital-immigrants.html) hence they do not understand the truly educative opportunities that are accessible online?

Time Management in E-Learning

Time Management in E-learning is not only a concern for lecturers who must invest in properly coordinating this valuable resource. Moreover it is a major concern as part of the unit or course creation in terms of the time period required by students to actually be able to view, understand and assimilate the presented material.

One must take into consideration network connectivity speeds, software updates and also the actual amount of course content material! This element is particularly important since unlike face-to-face tuition, the tutor can rarely gauge and must theirfore experimentally forecast the pace at which the learner is following lectures, unless he makes continuous use of advanced tracking tools. However most of these tools are limited to reporting the 'access-to' such resources rather than the actual reading, viewing, listening and actual understanding!

In fact, a study related to e-learning puts particular focus on this and underlines the following important information which one must consider to evaluate how long the student will take to learn the learning unit:

• working on the learning subject
• exercise solving
• tasks sending
• purchase and the study of supplementary literature
• various activities

More information is available in this document.

Good design for e-learning presentations

Found this online Power Point presentation regarding the presentation of E-learning modules. This might be useful for our final online presentations.

It's actually quite easy to remember: CRAP
C for  Contrast ( Make things different )
R for Repetition ( Reuse Design )
A for Alignment,  ( Line things up )
P for Positioning ( Group related elements together )

At the end of the presentation there are also a couple of design examples. Have a look at it here

Food for thought

Look up the trailer for the film Waiting for Superman.

My eLearning Experience : Tell me yours

This is the final week of blogging and wikiing and I must say that I shall miss it.

When I started the PGC in VET course I was very much worried how I would cope with the then mysterious eLearning Module.

Things got worse when I realised that such Module would be worked out in the month of June, the month of time constrained assignments, corrections and end of the year results issue.

And then can Vanessa. I confess that a teacher has a lot of influence over her students and I must thank our tutor for inspiring confidence in us from the first lesson.

What was unfamiliar to me became familiar immediately and I was blogging and wikiing away regularly and eagerly after just a lesson!

The Presentation task was the biggest challenge but as a team these were surmounted and the production was completed in record time. My skills at video editing were put to good use and since then I have been working on other video presentations that I shall use in my lectures come September.

And what about the Moodle? I wish IBAC had such software as I would surely put it to good use and involve my students in the forums etc etc.

ELearning has been a very positive experience for me and I am determined to continue studying further.

Module 3 has definitely been my favourite one. What about you?

So, What Next for E-Learning at MCAST?

I believe that every participant in the PGE in VET course agrees that the e-Learning Module has helped us develop our e-skills in some way or another. We have blogged, contributed on the forum, created Wiki’s and cross-fertilized ideas and teaching methods amongst the teaching community at MCAST in a way that we can now provide better quality teaching to our students.

I believe that this benefits the students, the lecturing staff, MCAST as an institution, and the Maltese society at large.

But, at the end of this one month of e-Learning, the question that comes to mind is “What lies ahead for E-Learning at MCAST?”

First of all, I believe that it would really be a pity if all the contributions of the PGC in VET course attendants are lost, or put aside on some inaccessible server. I have read with interest various blogs and Wiki’s and found them to be extremely helpful and informative. Unfortunately, come July they will probably be inaccessible!

Secondly, a decision must be taken: if e-Learning is the way forward in Education, then we must set up a framework within MCAST that supports and promotes it within our teaching community. This should be supported by proper investment, the provision of resources, training and the allowance of time for e-Learning development.

Colleagues, I would like to hear your comments and suggestions on the matter. What next for E-Learning at MCAST?

The Foundations of E-Learning

Alghough many people think that e-learning has been in existance only for the past fifteen years, it actually started in the 1920's with Sydney Pressey's testing machine.
Although originally designed for testing, this machine was then associated with teaching. The approach based on his work became known as 'programmed instruction' since learners could only proceed to the next section if they had acqired the knowledge from the previous section.
Pressey's contribution to e-learning was inspired from Edward Thorndike's thoughts that if a 'mechanical ingenuity' existed such that a printed text 'could be arranged that only to him who had done what was directed on page one would page two become visible and so on' (Holmes B., Gardner J).

Holmes B., Gardner J. (2006) ; E-learning concepts and practice; (P. 35-36); Retrieved from Google books database

Common E-learning Tools used by VET teachers

The Australian Government lists the following Web-based tools and applications commonly used by VET Teachers:
LORN (Learning Object Repository Network) - LORN provides access to learning resources from a variety of learning material collections. TeacherTube - Provides search functionality for teaching videos developed by teachers worldwide stored in a single repository. Blogger – May be used as a tool to communicate with students by posting teaching schedules, progress reports, assignment due dates, examination times etc. del.icio.us - Bookmarking service that allows users to store tags on a centralised website thus providing access to bookmarks from any computer connected to the internet. Flickr - Source of graphics for learning resources. Google Maps - Access to satellite imagery and street maps. Survey Monkey – May be used by teachers to gather feedback from students or as assessment tools. Wikispaces - Wikis can be useful to students needing to produce a single document when working as a group on a set project. YouTube - Centralised storage for both teacher and learner produced videos.

Vision: Looking at the future

A very interesting online magazine, which is free to download, and which looks at a variety of Technologies integrated within an educational context.
I do suggest that people go through some of its interesting articles.


http://www.futurelab.org.uk/resources/documents/vision/VISION_11.pdf

Universal Learning Design: Empowering the Next Generation

Quite an interesting video which makes you think about the good use technology can serve in the classroom. Students with identified learning disabilities, students with unidentified learning disabilities and normal students can all benefit equally from such technology. Students who would otherwise have dropped out from the Course can be saved. Do you have experiences similar to the ones in the video which you can share?

Do you have a teaching blog?

We've been writing about the importance of blogging and e-learning and how much this helps our students. It would be interesting if those lecturers who do have a blog would share it so we can all get some ideas from each other. I will start by posting mine: http://electronicsketchbook.blogspot.com/ I currently have three students and two friends posting on the blog, be it articles, tutorials or interesting videos related to the topic.

I am also seeing a lot of referenced posts here on the blog, I thought the blog was more for us to have a space to communicate our thought and share ideas rather than pasting things from other sources (correct me if I'm wrong, shouldn't these go in the wiki?).

Teachers’ Perspective on e-Learning

Teachers who develop e-learning courses find that creating online courses usually takes more time than creating for face-to-face courses. This is so because online work needs to be understood on its own. It is not always possible for the presence of a teacher in online courses so the design of the course should be strong enough to stand on its own.

Many times it is easier to create an online course from scratch than to modify an existing course since modifications that need to be done are usually extensive.

In relation to the students, those who usually are dedicated to face-to-face courses are also dedicated to logging to online courses and following them. On the other hand students who do not display such dedication for normal face-to-face course, neither do they display such dedication to online courses. (de Vega, McAnally-Salas, & Lavigne, 2009)

Reference

de Vega, C. A., McAnally-Salas, L., & Lavigne, G. (2009). Attitudes and Perceptions of Students in a Systems Engineering E-Learning Course. Acta Didactica Napocensia , 95-110.

Teachers’ Perspective on e-Learning

Teachers who develop e-learning courses find that creating online courses usually takes more time than creating for face-to-face courses. This is so because online work needs to be understood on its own. It is not always possible for the presence of a teacher in online courses so the design of the course should be strong enough to stand on its own.

Many times it is easier to create an online course from scratch than to modify an existing course since modifications that need to be done are usually extensive.

In relation to the students, those who usually are dedicated to face-to-face courses are also dedicated to logging to online courses and following them. On the other hand students who do not display such dedication for normal face-to-face course, neither do they display such dedication to online courses. (de Vega, McAnally-Salas, & Lavigne, 2009)

Reference

de Vega, C. A., McAnally-Salas, L., & Lavigne, G. (2009). Attitudes and Perceptions of Students in a Systems Engineering E-Learning Course. Acta Didactica Napocensia , 95-110.

Personal Learning Environments - the future of e-learning?

The idea of a Personal Learning Environment (PLE) recognises that learning is continuing and seeks to provide tools to support that learning. It also recognises the role of the individual in organising their own learning. Moreover, the pressures for a PLE are based on the idea that learning will take place in different contexts and situations and will not be provided by a single learning provider. Linked to this is an increasing recognition of the importance of informal learning.

In terms of educational technology, there has been little attention paid to informal learning. It is remarkable that formal learning technology and applications have only really been made available to those enrolled on an educational programme or to those working for larger enterprises.

Many institutions are experimenting with the use of blogs and other social software tools in a more restricted environment as part of the curriculum. One interesting issue is the extent to which ‘communities’ continue after the end of a particular course. This also raises questions about what responsibilities institutions and teachers or moderators have for supporting such learning, outside course times.

PLEs provide learners with their own spaces under their own control to develop and share their ideas. Moreover, PLEs can provide a more holistic learning environments, bringing together sources and contexts for learning hitherto separate. Students learn how to take responsibility for their own learning. Critically, PLEs can bridge the walled gardens of the educational institutions with the worlds outside. In so doing learners can develop the judgments and skills or literacy necessary for using new technologies in a rapidly changing society.


Reference:
Attwell, G. (2007). Personal Learning Environments-the future of eLearning?. E-Learning Papers. vol. 2

Decision Support Systems to improve e-learning environments

The following is a summary of an interesting paper I read:

Most Learning Content Management Systems (LCMS) offer a reporting tool that provides information such as number of accesses, time spent in the course, number of messages read, etc. However, these reports do not show a clear vision of each student’s academic progression leading to difficulties for on-line tutors to gauge who their students are, what are their learning styles, how their students behave in the virtual course, what difficulties they find and what probability they have of passing the subject.

Currently, LCMSs provide data mining reporting tools, such as the Moodle Data Mining Tool, but they are designed more for power and flexibility than for simplicity since they are too complex for educators to use and their features go well beyond the scope of what an educator may want to do. Consequently, these reporting tools must provide intuitive and easy to use interface which answers the following questions:
• Knowing students’ profiles according to demographic and navigation information
• Knowing drop-out students’ profile and successful students’ profile
• Knowing session patterns
• Grouping students according to their use of course resources
• Finding out the questions which students fail more frequently
• Discovering the resources which are commonly used together
Zorrilla, Garcia and Alvarez (2010) present the proposal of a decision making system which helps distance instructors to answer some of the above questions. Their solution addresses two main challenges: firstly, to determine the input variables and what techniques must be used to answer the teachers’ questions appropriately; and secondly, to define a graphical interface which allows tutors to interpret the results easily.

References:
Zorrilla, M., García, D., & Álvarez, E. (2010). A decision support system to improve e-learning environments. ACM International Conference Proceeding Series; Vol. 426; Proceedings of the 2010 EDBT/ICDT Workshops.

E-learning - Legal Issues

Personal information in assessment
Educational institutions are obliged to ensure that assessment information is processed in accordance to the Data Protection Act. Hence learners must know of the information gathered about them, while also information processing and secure storing is done in line with the Data Protection Act.

Using others materials
Using other individuals' materials must be done with due respect for the intellectual property rights and hence ensuring legal compliance.

Something goes wrong with Technology
Institutions may be liable for students affected by poorly managed technology-based assessment, since they must make sure that there are no infrastructure problems, applications used must be well tested, adequate back-up plans exist, as well as others.

Hacking/cheating in technology-based assessment
In cases in which students cheat or hack into the system, it is most likely to be in breach of the institution IT policy and hence disciplinary action must be taken. Furthermore, an offence by the student is also committed under the Computer Misuse Act, which disallows unauthorised access to a software system.

Special needs students finding difficulty in using the computer/online system
Institutions must ensure that accessibility is considered throughout the design of a technology-based assessment, while also making sure that the technology allows for changes to accomodate all users' needs. This involves that the Institute abides with its duties under the Disability Discrimination Act.


References: http://www.jisclegal.ac.uk/Themes/eLearning.aspx

The use of Internet as a search tool?

In 2008, the British Library and Joint Information Systems committee (JISC) have commissioned a report titled “Information Behavior of the Researcher of the future”, to identify hoe the specialist researchers or current students, are likely to access and interact with digital resources in five to ten years’ time.

According to the report, a research into how children and young people become competent in using the internet and other research tools, has identified the following:

• “the information literacy of young people, has not improved with the widening access to technology: in fact, their apparent facility with computers disguises some worrying problems

• internet research shows that the speed of young people’s web searching means that little time is spent in evaluating information, either for relevance, accuracy or authority

• young people have a poor understanding of their information needs and thus find it difficult to develop effective search strategies

• as a result, they exhibit a strong preference for expressing themselves in natural language rather than analyzing which key words might be more effective

• faced with a long list of search hits, young people find it difficult to assess the relevance of the materials presented and often print off pages with no more than a perfunctory glance at them”

The following then is related to both the current use of the internet by young people and, a technology generation earlier. There is little direct evidence that young people’s information literacy is any better or worse than before. However, the ubiquitous use of highly branded search engines raises other issues:

• young people have unsophisticated mental maps of what the internet is, often failing to appreciate that it is a collection of networked resources from different providers

• as a result, the search engine, be that Yahoo or Google, becomes the primary brand that they associate with the internet

• many young people do not find library-sponsored resources intuitive and therefore prefer to use Google or Yahoo instead: these offer a familiar , if simplistic solution, for their study needs

Source:

http://www.jisc.ac.uk/media/documents/programmes/reppres/gg_final_keynote_11012008.pdf