Group work draft - disabled students and e-learning

The group work task - to discuss 'on'line learning should be compulsory' I have looked at it from the disabled students point of view. As I have discussed previously I am now affected my many of these issues because of the lack of voice and the obstacles that are in my way to pursue my career in the way I used to. Even participating in the course has proved difficult because of the lack of voice in places but in others it has made me feel integrated and able to participate, - more like my old self. I am not going to post the whole presentation but I will post the benefits of on-line for disabled students. If you can think of any more please let me know.

Benefits

• Pedagogical: extended access to tutors. Use of discussion boards can be instrumental in clarifying misunderstood concepts, developing ideas and themes and synthesising ideas between student and tutor, and student and student.  

·         Students can feel comfortable and on an equal playing field with others to exchange ideas through on-line mediums.

·         Students feel that they are not asking inappropriate questions at inappropriate times because the medium is providing a leveling experience for all students.

·         Burgstahler points out that “the removal of social cues and social distinctions like disability, race, and facial expression through text-only communication can make even shy people feel more confident about communicating with others,” (Burgstahler, 1997).

·         ‘Lurkers’ can gain valuable experience by looking and listening to others on-line and this can lead to an increase in confidence for the student. (Salmon, 2000).

·         Archiving of asynchronous discussions within the VLE is a valuable tool for optimising the use for the purpose of reflection or revision.

·         Online learning and discussion can generate an autonomous learning community manifested through formal and informal exchanges among students and between tutor and students. 

·         On-line tutoring can become and important part of disabled students learning. It is something they miss out on in normal learning activities because of the social set up of the classroom and their peers. (Burgstahler, 1997).

·         Online learning can promote social friendship and peer related learning between student groups without making the disability apparent and act as a social barrier. (Burgstahler, 1997).

·         Asynchronous discussion allow for all students to participate at their own pace and time which is important to disabled students. It can extend upon discussion that would reach beyond the classroom and allow for greater reflection on learning.

·         Discussion boards can promote a sense of belonging to a community for those who may be housebound (Debenham, 2001). Equality can emerge from this as students know that they have the same access to the discussion boards as any other student.

View from my window today in the upstairs office: cold bleak grey and miserable. But the atmosphere in the house is thriving. List of things to do today is participate in the banking and corporate governance conference in the Ukraine. So although I may be in Hereford my brain is working away in the Ukraine. The benefits of on-line learning is plentiful!