A bit of background The Fundamentals of Avocado Production is an online course that I put together for AgriColleges. The course was designed as a proof of concept of a constructivist and mobile friendly course. The course is intended for remote students (usually drawn from the agricultural sector) and takes an active approach to learning. …
Category archives: Development
Workshop 1: Love your LMS
The resources below are a collection of self authored resources, intended for use in a course development workshop. They are platform agnostic, and are intended for an active, discussion rich workshop, where the different role-players who have to work together to make better use of the LMS, can explore the environment and express themselves. Role …
The blended learning field guide
I’ve been working with the Department of Education Innovation at Pretoria University to design a “Field Guide to Blended Learning, intended to complement the Blended Learning Self-Evaluation app. The app uses eight dimensions (assessment, teaching and learning strategies, learning activities, content, communication, administration, design and support) as a structure for self evaluation. Academics open the …
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 …
Supporting learning in unexpected spaces.
I’m involved in assisting academics and teachers with the “reach” of their work. I come alongside them and contribute to the teaching and learning experience. The technologies that I tout and support are partly responsible for reshaping or traversing the walls of a classroom. By adding a new layer of technologies into an existing classroom, …
Continue reading “Supporting learning in unexpected spaces.”
Generating ambient intimacy
Maybe it sounds a bit too touchy feely, but I’ve been thinking more and more that there’s a need for a place in an educational setting where there are opportunities for students and faculty to create a feeling of connectedness, a spot for sharing and belonging. The hyper public world has created such places. Intimate …
An inspiring knight in Cape Town
Schoolnet and the Commonwealth of Learning invited me (and a variety of highups in Education) to a day long seminar in Cape Town around the topic of ICT integration and teacher training. The key note speaker was the inspiring knight, Sir John Daniel. Not only did he take 25 years to complete a part-time Master’s …
Connecting the dots
I’ll come to listen to your parade of movers and shakers, spend the night comfortably cosseted in clean linen. Thanks for the food, flight and great speakers. You’re obviously serious and I must admit, I’m flattered that you want me to come to your do. Although it makes me sound a bit ungrateful (and I’m …
Differentiated Tasks
William M. Ferriter’s article is Why Teachers Should Try Twitter is more about differentiated instruction than Twitter. When I read it, I thought – here’s a note to self – time to explore how technology can be leveraged so that “students of different abilities, interest or learning needs” can use different learning paths so that …
Does it have to be so hard?
Hostname, username, computername, network, password, submit – are words that I see everyday and respond to without thinking. This jargon however, is a foreign language to a person on the other side of the digital donga. Yet the terms are thrust as a greeting at the struggling “digital immigrant”, aware of an information avalanche, threatened …