Wits-e/Sakai developers have been redeployed

Sakai is an open source platform and developers from the higher education community are key to service, manage, maintain and develop Sakai.  In late 2013, Prof Crouch instructed eLSI management to move the Wits-e / Sakai developers out of the unit and into CNS for operational reasons. The impact of this redeployment of developer support Wits-e / …

An edugroan about our eduroam

Eduroam (education roaming), the secure world-wide roaming access service developed for the international research and education community, made my life in Boston such a breeze. Normally navigating appointments and offices on an unfamiliar campus is challenge but when on MIT & Harvard’s grounds, blanket wireless coverage allowed me, a South African visitor, to find my …

Connected Course

Spent Friday afternoon listening to Jim Click Groom, Alan Link Levine and Howard Embed Rhinegold introduce Connected Courses in a session entitled Pre-course: Orientation: Registration & Setting up your Network. I only listened for the first half an hour but “Click”, “Link” and “Embed”  did have some good points about online learning. These were the …

Putting the laptop / tablet debate before the horse

There is a heated debate between tablets (iPads and others) vs laptops. This  is a discussion that gets to the heart of the intention to improve access to ICT. But before we re-launch the great laptop vs tablet debate, and cost out the budget required for equipping student with devices…. The department that wants portable computing …

Are we ready for Blended Learning?

Technologies for teaching and learning are a part of the current and proposed Teaching and Learning plan at Wits. If Wits is indeed going to be tech savvy, going beyond EdTech “solutionism”  and explore how a range of different modes for course provision can best be used, then it is appropriate that a range of …

Making sense of MOOCs at Wits

The word MOOC is an acronym for Massive Open Online Course. The term emerged in 2008 for a particular type of e-learning activity that was intended to integrate “the connectivity of social networking, the facilitation of an acknowledged expert in a field of study, and a collection of freely accessible online resources” (McAuley et al …

Making ICT a part of a school’s vision

The primary school where my children are enrolled have taken steps towards preparing the school for the introduction of information and communication technology (ICT). The governing body are thinking of equipping teachers with laptops and Gauteng Education department have equipped the school with a set of tablets. These are exciting moves for our school and …

Digital Divides & Participation Gaps

Wits has made it explicit in its vision 2022 that it would like to known as a “tech savvy” intuition. On our digitally equipped connected campus, academics and students do make regular and expert use of digital technologies to meet their communication, scholarship and teaching needs. Ability of staff to access and use the network …