Page 6 - EdSource Issue No02

6 Education Technology

BLENDED &

E-LEARNING AS

A SOLUTION TO

ACCESSIBILITY

IN EDUCATION

DAVIS WAITHAKA

Let us start with the biggest issue challenges. Information from digitally, we dramatically reduce
in education for all stakeholders: the Kenya Institute of the Blind the cost of delivering education per
cost. Almost every issue canvassed, website, for instance, estimates student.
discussed or debated comes down about 750,000 learners who are
to matters closely related to cost. We visually impaired and 100,000 being For instance, it would be a tall
can also expand the meaning of cost legally blind. It is also estimated that order to post deaf instructors to
to include all resources such as time, approximately 5% of all learners have all schools that have deaf students
money, human resources, space, hearing impairment in the country. for all subjects and all classes.
equipment and infrastructure. To Nonetheless, these instructors can
add to this debate, there is always Because these learners are be facilitated to log in via a pre-set
a significant discussion of who bears distributed across the country, each schedule onto a learning platform
what cost, how much of it and why. school will enroll a small number where the students can follow.
of them. The government policy is The more the students are enrolled
In many cases, whatever comes that all schools should provide and into the platforms, the lower the
of the cost debate or the attendant facilitate learning for all learners cost per student and the higher the
discussions, the final figures enrolled in an integrated manner. likelihood that all subjects will be

are divided up among student The main challenge here, under covered.
populations of several hundred per the traditional learning setup, then
school. Whether apparent or not, becomes the lack of economies of Access to school will then mean
this significantly reduces the unit scale earlier demonstrated. provision of the special smartphones,
cost per student for every teacher, computers and devices needed for
equipment or infrastructure However, e-learning and the learners to participate in the
employed to deliver education blended learning, leveraging on special classes. It will also mean
services. We can surmise that the emerging digital technology can that the learners go through normal
students enjoy positive economies help the education systems beat childhood socialization in school
of scale. the scale challenge. In a country while attending carefully crafted
where we have hundreds of lessons within the same school.
Unfortunately, this is not the thousands of learners with various When they are all under one roof,
case for learners with accessibility learning difficulties, available digital it is possible to have full classes by
issues such as those with learning platforms can help bring those students joining from across the
difficulties, physical disabilities students under one virtual roof. By country. This alone, could bring
and other social or psychological bringing all these learners together down the unit cost of delivering

EdSource Quarterly | Oct-Dec l 2021