Author: Keith Aquilina

Currently my professional role is that of Education Officer (Quality Assurance) within the Directorate for Quality & Standards in Education in the Ministry of Education, Malta. After eight years teaching Computing and ICT within a state secondary school, I moved to the Department of eLearning where my role focused on the organisation of national educational events of which the national eLearning awards and conference, Malta Robotics Olympiad and student competitions. In addition to the work within the Department of eLearning, as from 2011 I have taken the role of ICT coordinator within the Directorate for Lifelong Learning where for 5 years, I was involved in the development and organisation of ICT related courses within the directorate’s adult education centres and collaborating entities. In 2012, I completed my Masters studies in Online and Distance Education from the Open University. This blog started off as an online reflective diary for my studies in the Masters in Online and Distance Education with the Open Univeristy. As may be easily deduced, my main interest is in technology, learning and anything in between. Linkedin; mt.linkedin.com/in/keithaquilina/

VLE vs PLE – Can they co exist in our learning?

In brief I would say that PLEs are mostly used for informal learning whereas VLEs, due to them being implemented by educational institutions, will inevitably focus on formal learning. How can an institution formally endorse a PLE? I would say not possible, if not in small courses. An institution, in particular courses, might recommend / […]

Week 21 & 22 – A3a – Horizon report

The Horizon 2009 report, provides a snapshot of which technologies will probably, in the near future, have an impact on society. 1 year or less Mobiles Cloud computing 2 / 3 years Geo-everything The personal web 4 / 5 years Semantic aware applications Smart objects Mobiles – Verstaile tool …New interfaces, the ability to run […]

Week 21 & 22 – Where are PLEs heading?

In drawing up a visualisation of my PLE, I have have come to two main points; Many of my preferred tools are accessible via a web browser (obvious or not?). Tools accessed through a browser can therefore be portable i.e. Computer System independent. An internet connection has become a must in different contexts mainly for […]

PLEs ?

It’s been almost three years since I was promised that a VLE should be deployed ‘soon’ for all Maltese schools. It seems that different constraints have put this project behind schedule. In all this time I saw the need that school website had to change from a repository of information into something more dynamic, involving […]

Weeks 21 and 22 – A1

Reading by Conole – Stepping over the edge: the implications of new technologies for education. Reflect on your own experience and how technologies have changed the way you do things and how you work. What changes have occurred in your own institution over the last decade in terms of the use of technologies? In my […]

Week 19 – A2: MAODE students and mobile devices

In the interview accounts, it emerged that the travelling environment had an impact on the mobile device usage. Not so relevant for my context. Living in a free wireless city is a utopian dream. I can relate this to my school’s experience in having a wifi coverage. Thus any school LAN resources or on the […]

Week 18

So many interesting activities but so little time…had to skim through some of the activities, hopefully I’ll manage to get back to them in the coming weeks.

Week 18 – A6 – Twittering

I still doubt the effectivness of tweeting when compared to other social networking tools. Twitter is somewhat crude and lacks collaboration features which are found in other tools. On the other hand it was interesting to read articles in which it was highlighted how Twitter was used in different educational settings; http://steve-wheeler.blogspot.com/2009/01/teaching-with-twitter.html (from Karolina) Twitter […]

Week 18 – A4c: Searching for ‘social networking’

In this activity I have searched on social networking focusing on low income students. This was done through Del.icio.us. Observed limits of this social bookmarking tool. Ain’t a search engine better for such a search? Links found; http://jerz.setonhill.edu/weblog/permalink/educational-benefits-of-social/ ‘few students in the study were actually aware of the academic and professional networking opportunities that the […]