Note to readers: I have been going through my blog and finding old blog posts that I had not published. This post about TEAL classrooms was written after I had visited Boston at the end of 2014 (I need to find the exact date), when I was working at Wits. I have only published the …
Category archives: Uncategorized
Mlibrarian Badges
Introductory comments Thank-you for the opportunity to present at OE4BW. I’m very sorry not to be there with you in person in Vipava. My family and I are on holiday in France this week. This has been a valuable mentorship experience. I’m grateful to Sandhya Gunness and Lance Eaton for working alongside with me. We …
Six Social Publishing Challenges
Getting books into the hands of children is vital if kids are to learn to read. But there are many significant challenges facing those who wish to build a nation of story-readers and story-tellers. Five of these challenges are: Affordability – the average storybook in a book shop is expensive and many caregivers / parents …
A 20 year celebration of Eiffelcorp
We toasted Eiffelcorp’s 20th birthday celebration at a function in Jo’burg. I particularly enjoyed the “fire-side” chat with Andre and Gwen van der Merwe. Among ed-techies like myself, Eiffelcorp is best known as the company behind Blackboard. I learned a bit more about the history of Eiffelcorp and its origins. This “mom and pop” start-up …
Blended learning enables…
It’s not always very clear why digital technology is adopted in an organization. But unless the rationale for adopting blended learning is widely shared, then it’s likely that the loudest voice will dominate and wide scale buy in to the digital vision will be limited. The purpose of this activity is to surface among internal …
Predatory Conferences. Caveat Empor.
The “good deal” offered by a good conference is being sullied by predator conference companies. These conference companies have no recognised expertise in the field, have no mandate from an academic or professional body and have profit as their motivation. They are akin to scavengers , preying on inexperienced pups, not sure who to turn …
New mobile pathways to children’s stories
In Sub Saharan Africa, progress has been made in pursuing the goal of universal Primary Education. However, the reading literacy levels of African children are far from adequate. A key obstacle to learning to read is the shortage of appropriate stories for early reading in languages familiar to the young African child. UNESCO’s research has found …
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Facilitating Online
I’ve signed up for a five week Facilitating Online course run by Emerge Africa. Here’s why I’ve joined. I’ve met some fabulous facilitators in a range of organisational settings. From young adults informally working alongside teens on an outdoor youth camps to expensive organisational development experts hired in by senior managers to in to assist …
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 …
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 …
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