Understanding and supporting the e-learning experiences of students with disabilities

A report on an initiative at the University of Southampton to build an online resource to help students with disabilities

Editorial

This is my last editorial before I step down from the ALT-J editorial team. Rhona Sharpe and Frances Bell, will form the new ALT-J editorial team and I wish them the best of luck in developing the direction of ALT-J in the future. I would also like to thank the rest of outgoing editorial team, the ALT-J editorial board, the reviewers and authors that I have worked with over the last six issues of ALT-J, who each in their way has contributed to furthering our knowledge and understanding of the relationship between technology and learning

Editorial

Disability, technology and e‐learning: challenging conception

Learning technologies and the lifelong learner: Armament or disarmament?

Educators at all levels are underpressure to produce ‘lifelong learners’. Their task is to ‘arm’ the student with knowledge and skills that will enable them to be creative and enterprising scholars. One possible way of arming the lifelong learner is through the use of learning technologies. Learning technologies can offer armament by widening access and participation and offering flexible delivery. This paper will use the results of two evaluation studies to explore the argument that learning technologies have the capacity to both arm and disarm students. Results from an evaluation of an email discussion list will be presented to highlight how the way a learning technology is used may arm a learner by giving them information but disarm them by promoting a lack of confidence and a low valuation of discussion. Results from an evaluation of a Microcosm application will be presented to highlight how the way a learning technology is used may arm a learner by helping them to apply knowledge but disarm them by placing restrictions on their self‐directed learning. These results will be discussed in order to argue that the ‘disarmament’ of students through the use of learning technologies may place obstacles in the way of lifelong learning

Editorial: The role and influence of key stakeholders in the learning technology community

In this issue of ALT-J we have six articles that address three broad topics of video, costbenefit analysis and the emergent learning technology community. The first two articles present case studies on the use of video in teaching and learning. Shephard et al. describe their experiences of re-purposing a back 'care video' for video streaming, and use these experiences to highlight key challenges that others may face when attempting to re-purpose a video. Blake and Scanlon use their experiences of analysing video recordings of students, who were using computers to support their collaboration in solving statistical problems, to argue that such video analysis provides useful rich data with which to interpret and understand students' experiences

E-learning accessibility practices within higher education: a review

The 2001 Special Educational Needs and Disability Act (SENDA) made it an offence for educational institutions to discriminate against a disabled person by treating him or her less favourably than others for a reason relating to their disability. The Act covers all aspects of student services, including provision and use of electronic materials and resources. Learning technologists have therefore been charged with the responsibility of ensuring that electronic teaching materials can be accessed by disabled students. In an attempt to explore how learning technologists are developing practices to produce accessible electronic materials this paper will present a review of current accessibility practice. The review will focus on what key professionals (academics, researchers, educational developers and staff developers) within the learning technology field are saying and doing about making electronic materials and resources accessible to disabled students. Key issues that may influence the "accessibility" practices of learning technologists are highlighted; the importance of these issues for developing an understanding of "accessibility" practices is discussed and implications for future research are identifie

From the voice of a ‘Socratic Gadfly’: a call for more academic activism in the researching of disability in postsecondary education

In this article I use the lens of voices and silences to frame my review of research in the field of disability and postsecondary education. I argue that we need to view research in this field as a necessarily political act that seeks to turn voices of silence into voices of change. Researchers therefore need to re-think their role in order to understand how they can use and direct their political voices. In order to persuade researchers to heed my call for more academic activism I draw on the arguments of Allan (2010) and adopt the role of a ‘socratic gadfly’ to identify six political areas of research where I argue that voices and silences need more critical examination. In discussing these six areas I hope to illuminate the implications for ‘genuinely investigative’ research in the future

Two perspectives on the language of special needs computing: towards a shared view

This paper reviews and examines the language used in literature that describes the educational and therapeutic use of microcomputers with people who have special needs. In the language of special needs computing two perspectives are identified. One perspective focuses on the microcomputer technology while the other focuses on the microcomputer user. While the language of both perspectives acknowledges the value of microcomputers, each perspective moves towards an acknowledgement that microcomputer use needs to be placed in an environmental context. This move in both language sets reflects an increasing focus on the potential barriers to microcomputer use. <br/

How does risk mediate the ability of adolescents and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities to live a normal life by using the Internet?

The focus of this position paper is Internet use by adolescents and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Drawing on existing literature in the field we will identify problems with and gaps in the current research. Our review is framed by three main questions: What constitutes a ‘normal’ life for adolescents and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities? What constitutes ‘normal’ use of the Internet for adolescents and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities? How does risk mediate the ability of adolescents and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities to live a normal life by using the Internet? The key focus of this review is the complex relationship between adolescents and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities and those providing support; how they negotiate access to and use of the Internet and how perceptions regarding risk and normalcy mediate this negotiation. As a result of this review will argue that identified gaps and problems in the research field need to be addressed by expanding both methodological and conceptual approaches. In particular we will propose the need for more in-depth qualitative research that is inclusive in nature. We will also propose that an adapted positive risk-taking framework might be useful in framing the design, implementation and analysis of future research