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/

Online Educator – boundaries or no boundaries?

Last November, the first edition of the National Digital Literacy conference was successfully organised. Representatives from various entities held various presentations helping participants focus on this year’s theme; Positive usage of internet. A source of debate was the boundary which an educator should set for himself when online. During the conference, our key speaker, Mr […]

Is emerging technology accessible enough?

In today’s rapidly evolving world, new technologies are constantly reshaping the educational landscape. The rate at which these innovations become available plays a significant role in shaping the educational sector. However, it’s essential to consider how these emerging technologies can both positively and negatively impact accessibility, as they can inadvertently contribute to the digital divide. […]

Positive aspects of Web 2.0

Web 2.0 has provided various online tools with varying functionality e.g. blogs, wikis, social bookmarking, social media, mashups, RSS and virtual Worlds. Through advents in the web, what is done in the real world is nowadays imitated in the virtual world. For example Social Networking allows friends to keep in contact. Wesch through his video […]

Staff development perspectives

In all state schools, a compulsory staff development session needs to be held every term. In the school where I used to teach, one of these sessions focused on dyslexia. The presenter lectured through a powerpoint on how a dyslexic student could be identified and what measures should be taken in class to include such […]

27.1 Supporting disabled students

Read Seale Chapter 8 Supporting the use of accessible e-learning: the student support service perspective. 1. How helpful do you think it is to have ‘specialised’ rooms or areas in an educational institution, which only disabled learners can use to access technology/online learning material? Such specialised rooms having restricted access are prone to create segregation rather […]

Designing and developing accessible e-learning experiences

I had the opportunity to read Seale’s ‘ Designing and developing accessible e-learning experiences: the learning technologist’s perspective. Seale (2006) hints that various authors make the ‘assumption that it is learning technologists who will respond’ and who are mainly responsible for accessibility. Although this might be true, it is important that such a debate does […]

Eye tracking

Yesterday I have been invited to an informal presentation of an eye tracking device. It was my first experience with such a device and through a discussion with the supplier and by actually trying out the device and related software I found myself thinking about issues we’ve met in H810. The adaptility of the product […]

Activity 24.2 Approaches

Which approach could you take in your role? It is difficult to use the first two approaches as in the institution for which the online learning resource has been created disabled users are not ‘identifiable’. Moreover there are no accessibility experts working at the institution and hiring them may be costly. The online learning resource […]

What makes online learning accessible?

The designing of accessible online learning should include inclusion, removal of barriers and flexibility. The design of learning resources should cater for both current and future needs. Seale (2006) highlights elements of online learning that need to be made accessible and some ideas about the use of accessibility guidelines and standards. The list of elements […]

17.2 Alternative formats

Types and formats of resources, teaching materials and activities that are used in my context: Class presentations are normally created using Powerpoint. Blind students may need an audio file describing the contents of the presentation or software such as a narrator. Probably creating an audio file for each presentation used in class is not feasible […]