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/

Week 11 – A3: Quality and elearning

A3a: ICT and test performance “Effectiveness of Reading and Mathematics Software Products: Findings from the First Student Cohort” In the US, The No Child Left Behind Act called for a study on the impact of technology on student academic achievement. Findings; 1. Test Scores Were Not Significantly Higher in Classrooms Using Selected Reading and Mathematics […]

Week 11 – A1: A ‘classic’ debate

1 A, B -Jotting down some thoughts & Opening remarks Daniel argues that in education there is the need of higher volume, consistent quality, lower cost. This three fold quest is rarely achievable (mentions the example of open universities). “Most attempts to introduce media into education do not take advantage of technology’s strengths.” He acknowledges […]

Week 10 – A7: Exploring OERs

3 OER initiatives were explored in this activity; MIT Open Courseware (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA) Open Learning Initiative (OLI, Carnegie Mellon University, USA) OpenLearn (The Open University, UK) 1. MIT Open Courseware – A large number of courses are available here with each course a Syllabus, Calendar, Lecture Notes, Assignments, Exams, Study Materials. * […]

Week 10 – A5: Blogs and blogging

‘Blogging’ a contraction of the term web logging In this activity the floowing paper has been read; Kerawalla, Lucinda, Minocha, Shailey, Kirkup, Gill and Conole, Gráinne(2008)’Characterising the different blogging behaviours of students on an online distance learning course’,Learning, Media and Technology,33:1,21 — 33 “…determine the issues that are important to these bloggers, and we describe […]

Week 10 – A2: An alternative to Wikipedia?

1. What do their different editorial policies imply about differing approaches to authority and to the role of the ‘expert’? What are the most important differences between Citizendium and Wikipedia in terms of their editorial policies? In Wikipedia any anonymous user can edit the content. Citizendium differentiates between authors and editors. Authors can still remain […]

Week 10 – A1 – Have you edited Wikipedia?

Baker’s How I fell in love with Wikipedia. 1. Is there anything new for you in the article? Does it make you more or less likely to consult Wikipedia, or does it make no difference? It was interesting reading about the behind the scenes of Wikipedia i.e. how posts are created, edited and deleted. Also […]

Week 8 9 – A10 – Exploring learning design tools

The emphasis here is to give you some exposure to using these tools. We want you to concentrate not on the user interface or structure of the tools per se but to think about how they are guiding the design process and to what extent they are useful. Phoebe – pedagogy planner http://phoebe-app.conted.ox.ac.uk/ London Pedagogic […]

Week 8 9 – A7 – A learning-centred view

In this activity a learning design different from the previous two has been analysed. This Hybrid Learning Model (HLM) developed in Belgium by LabSET is learning-centred view. This contrast with the other activities which dealt with a teaching-centred approach. site of project: http://cetl.ulster.ac.uk/elearning/hlm.php This model takes into consideration both learner and teacher roles thus is […]

Week 8 9 – A9 – Representing designs

Conole (2008), ‘The role of mediating artifacts in Learning Design’ “The chapter argues that this approach to learning design, which centres on the concept of mediating artifacts and their role in the design process, can be used as a descriptive framework for describing the dynamics, processes, and different aspects involved in learning design.” pg 187 […]

Week 8 9 – A8 – Comparing different schemas for design

In your discussion forum share your views on each of the three schemas. How did the schemas compare? Can you imagine using any of the schemas? Do you think the schemas help in terms of getting teachers to adopt a less technology-centred approach to design? The Hybrid Learning Model is learning-centred view. (site of project: […]