www.lexdis.org

Lexdis

Overview

• Think about how we improve: – technology evaluations, assessments and training. – accessibility and ease of use of online teaching and

learning materials. – as well as develop e-learning skills.

• Throughout there will be links to the results of the LEXDIS project.

You should not label people

• How are you going to cope?

• OK so a label may get me some help but they never seem to look at my skills.

“I have to say that if I’d got that technology, I would use it at home. There’s no way I would use it in the lab - I wouldn’t want that stigma on me ... which is bad, but it’s how people are

Barriers• The usual stories of externally imposed exclusion

due to accessibility problems– Can’t use technology, even if wanted to

• Some stories of self-imposed exclusion– Can use technology, but choose not to

• Tensions when technology use marks student out as “different”: stigmatisation

Personalisation• Will this do for all of you? Showing one size t-

shirt• No that won’t fit me • We are all unique with individual needs and

requirements

Accessibility issues

•Some aspects of the e-learning applications do not interact well with assistive technologies or allow for personalisation;

•Navigability of resource rich websites e.g. libraries;

•Navigability and usability of Blackboard;

•Problems opening and manipulating pdf files;

•Difficulties scanning and manipulating science based resources for screen reading and text to speech.

Nick

Virtual Learning Environments e.g. Blackboard

"I really like Blackboard, but I think that there is an awful lot on there, and it could be made a lot easier to use. The navigation is difficult.

My lecturer might say: “We’ve put up this, on this subject”, and then I won’t know which section it’s in. I’d have to go into each section and open each document section to find it.

There’s a lot of things on Blackboard that I wouldn’t use. It just makes everything much more cluttered, so it’s difficult to focus on what you want."

Virtual Learning Environments e.g. Blackboard

Stacey

“Web of Knowledge. and I found that incredibly useful, and I would have loved to have known that in my first year! [...]You can look for specific articles. You can just type in a Search, and find loads of Articles and read through them. They bring up all the abstracts – and you can read the abstracts as well. As well as that is a ‘funky’ little feature in which you can 'Save the Articles' that you want. They will store the Articles. You can keep searching, and then at the end go back and look at all of them. They will be on one page – all the Articles."

Access affected by skills, technologies and task requirements.

Nikki: On being required to post comments on discussion list in order to pass unit: The website gets jammed up and crashes. On MSN you can see who’s logged on. On there you can’t. If you put a message on, you can sit there for 2 hours waiting for a reply. I had to continue to go back to the library. Those who have internet at home can check it all day. But, I went to the library in my pyjamas because it got so late!

This is unfair.If you don’t communicate on there, you don’t pass.

The student residence are the ones who don’t have the internet? Ours are 40 years old and condemned. The new ones are supposed to have the internet. Eventually I managed to do my project.

Digital agility

• Customising computers to suit preferences; using technology with confidence; Andy

• Swapping and changing from a range of technologies;

• Being well-informed about the strengths and weaknesses of particular technologies in relation to design, usability, accessibility and impact on learning;

• Developing a range of sophisticated and tailored strategies for using technology to support their learning; Ben

• Being aware of what help and support is available.

Keep the tools simple

• “I’m just going to knock this nail in.” (using a very complex bit of kit

• “So why over complicate things? This would do the job perfectly well.” (holding up a hammer)

Support requirements

• Preference for learning how to use technologies– By trial and error– Through support from peers, friends and family

• These findings regarding digital agility are significant in terms of encouraging us not to view disabled students as helpless but rather in terms of wanting to be independent and able to make the most of accessible resources.

It does not take a lot to make a difference

• I only used style sheets and added page numbers to the handout – it did not take that long!

• Hi I just popped in to say ‘thanks!’

• Thinking - Thanks I feel now that all my hard work has not been taken for granted.

Digital Decisions

• Some students mentioned simplicity, skills, suitability and cost as a deciding factors.

• All students talked about their decisions being influenced by time considerations regarding use of assistive technologies, training and social networking applications.

…when I got all my software in autumn last year, and they said: “You need to have your training on this” – as you quite rightly have said – I did feel like I was doing 2 courses and that was, frankly, too

much. I had to stay with my old bad habits because I just didn’t feel I had the time to take out to learn something new to help me.

It was a vicious circle, really.

Provide an overview

• “OK what do you think of the latest plan?”

• “ Oh no when will she ever stop adding things?”

More general findings - Expectations

• Students have high expectations of technology with respect to access, choice and reliability.

• Students expect consistency across modules in use of the VLE: most see it as an essential aspect of course admin and communication

• Students have high expectations of their tutors’ use of technology. They expect use of technology for learning to be appropriate and skillful.

Online• 76% FE/HE students

access internet from bedroom

• Two-thirds using social networking sites ‘regularly’

• 84% agreeing they ‘like to keep up-to-date with new technology and use it as much as possible both for study and in my free time’. (JISC)

My Technologies - 24/7 access

• Students really value 24/7 access to online learning materials which allows them to fit learning into their lives. Ben C

• Students expect to be able to use personal technologies and services in institutional contexts.

• Students are creating their own learning spaces, blending virtual with face-to-face, and formal with social networking.

www.Web2Access.org.uk

LexDis website

• There may be more than 1 direction open to us• But as long as we have information • We can make informed choices

• The Learner Voice • Signposts to assistive technologies, applications,

guides and strategies from students.

Thank YouDr Jane Seale (School of Education)Dr Mike Wald and E.A. Draffan Learning Societies LabSchool of Electronics and Computer ScienceUniversity of Southampton e-mail ead@ecs.soton.ac.uk

http://www.lexdis.org