tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28293861223291280472024-03-19T11:17:29.177+02:00Johannes CronjeJohannes Cronjehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09201193566134950287noreply@blogger.comBlogger89125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2829386122329128047.post-23291735423141033692023-10-06T09:23:00.004+02:002023-10-06T09:30:21.992+02:00Some general advice on writing your thesis<p></p><br /><br />Here is some advice I just sent a doctoral student (made anonymous and generic to protect innocent parties involved).<br /><br />Somehow just about every student makes the same mistakes, so I am putting it here for everyone to save you tears. <br /><ol style="text-align: left;"><li>At the outset, make sure that your automatic styles, (headings, sub-headings, captions, footnotes and automatic referencing) are flawless. It may mean taking some time to learn how to use your word-processor and your referencing software properly. </li><li>In citing the literature, remember to foreground your voice and not that of the authors. In other words, don't use "According to so and so..." </li><li>Please watch my <a href="https://youtu.be/1JZMuvyhBoY">precis video</a> again and make sure each paragraph has a topic sentence and then supporting sentences in descending order of importance, unless you are trying to convince, in which case the sentences build up from least to most important and end with the topic sentence. Also make sure you do ONE TOPIC per paragraph. </li><li>Check for duplication. Because you sometimes put different things in the same paragraph, you tend to repeat them again somewhere else. </li><li>All the diagrams and tables must be explained in full. If the examiner were to ignore the table they must still be able to understand the thesis. You may want to consider where you want to put the diagrams about research methods. </li><li>Finally you need to take the reader with you. I find it quite hard to see the "golden thread" in the chapter (and in all the others for that matter). Under each heading state what is to follow. Then begin with a powerful statement that summarises the whole section. If the examiner is lazy, they can then skip the whole thing and still know what you mean.</li><li>You may find it useful to drop everything for now and go and do this free online writing tutorial. It will help you avoid all the pitfalls: <a href="https://www.niu.edu/writingtutorial/index.shtml">Effective Writing Practices Tutorial | Northern Illinois University (niu.edu)</a>.</li></ol><div><p></p></div>Johannes Cronjehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09201193566134950287noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2829386122329128047.post-31599319856380696742022-08-31T11:06:00.000+02:002022-08-31T11:06:07.718+02:00 How to structure a thesis when you must develop the theory first<p>Theses are usually
structured in five parts: Introduction, Literature review, Research method, Findings,
Conclusions & recommendations. Students often question this structure when
they must develop theory first before they can do the fieldwork. In such cases
they present the structure as: Introduction, Research method, Literature review…
When I question this, they tell me that in their case the literature review is,
in fact, a method and should therefore follow on the method section instead of
preceding it. Such reasoning is based on a misunderstanding of the difference
between a literature survey and a document analysis. In the <b>introduction</b>
you therefore have to point out the dualistic nature of your research.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The purpose of a <b>literature
review</b> is to point out the current gap in our knowledge and to suggest a
point of departure of research towards filling that gap. In the case in point,
the literature survey would come in two parts. The first part of the literature
survey will describe the intellectual puzzle – what do we already know about
the situation on the ground, and what does not quite add up. The second part
will describe the current gap in theory – what has already been done, why it
does not work, and where we should begin looking for answers. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Now comes the <b>research
method</b> section. First you will explain your process: developing a framework
from the literature and then using that framework to solve a research problem.
Thus the research section will have two parts, but the sequence is reversed.
The first part describes the Systematic Literature Review (SLR), which is not a
literature survey, but an actual research procedure where the texts are treated
as data, rather than sources. The second part will describe the field work.
Both parts of the research method section will contain the five key elements: <a href="https://melinsights.com/5-key-elements-of-methodology-section-of-a-research-paper-2/">Logic
of enquiry (quantitative or qualitative), Research setting, Data collection, Data
analysis, and Ethics <!--[if supportFields]><span style='mso-element:field-begin;
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field-end'></span><![endif]--></a>. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">For the systematic
literature review you will describe how you searched for the sources you used,
key words, databases, etc. They you will explain how you filtered them down (your
criteria for inclusion and exclusion). You will describe the types of analysis
you did to extract the eventual themes. You may want to consider the ethical
implications of sensitive texts that you may have included or excluded and the effect
that it may have on the reliability and validity of your findings. The<i><span style="color: #212121; font-family: "Lato",sans-serif;"> </span></i><u><span lang="EN-ZA"><a href="https://www.google.com/url?q=https%3A%2F%2Fjournals.plos.org%2Fplosmedicine%2Farticle%3Fid%3D10.1371%2Fjournal.pmed.1000097&sa=D&sntz=1&usg=AOvVaw0GPE0SeG2LbnU3d659FDbN" target="_blank">PRISMA STATEMENT of Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic
Reviews and Meta-Analyses</a></span></u> <!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-ansi-language:EN-US'><span style='mso-element:field-begin;
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style='mso-element:field-separator'></span></span><![endif]-->(Moher et al.,
2009)<!--[if supportFields]><span style='mso-ansi-language:EN-US'><span
style='mso-element:field-end'></span></span><![endif]--> provides clear guidelines for a systematic literature review. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">For the fieldwork you
will do the same. Is it a quantitative, qualitative, or mixed method study and
why? What is the context where you did your research? What was your population,
how did you sample and why? How did you collect the data and why. How did you
clean and analyze the data? What were the ethical considerations. In experimental
or field research this part is straightforward, while for desk-top studies are
often misunderstood. For experimental and field research we ask: How did you
set up the laboratory? What experimental design did you chose and how did you
execute it. How did you analyze the data? How did you ensure safety for all. For
field research: In what stetting did you do the research, how did you select
your participants, what intervention did you make, how did you collect and
analyze data and how did you protect your participants? Desk-top studies are,
in fact, the same. The only difference is that the data sources are mostly text
based.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">In fields such as Policy
studies, History or Literature the analyzed policies, historical documents or
literary texts are often confused with literature sources. Paradoxically, in when
you study the work of a great literary figure you are not doing a literature study.
You are doing a document analysis. The policies, biographies, or anthologies
that you are studying are your data sources. Thus, in your method section you
will again take a stance regarding quantitative, qualitative, or mixed methods,
you will explain your setting (libraries, archives, or your own PC), how did
you select your data sources (original manuscripts, published works, reprints),
what did you look for in your analysis, and what ethical considerations are
there. In policy, historical work, or literature, for instance, the principle
of anonymity becomes problematic, since the political, historical or literary subject
of your study may well still be alive. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Finally at the end of
the research method section you will explain how you used the framework that
you developed from the systematic literature review as a filter for the data
that you collected in your experimental, field or desk-top research.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The <b>findings </b>will
also come in two parts. Firstly, there will be a discussion of the Systematic Literature
Review and the framework that emerged. Then you show what happened when you
filtered your data through it, and finally you will present the answers to each
of your research questions.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The <b>conclusions</b>
take place in reverse. First you give the answers to your primary research
questions – what your data told you once you filtered it through your framework.
Then you express yourself on the value of your model in making sense of the
data. Finally you present <b>recommendations </b>for further research of your
problem, and further development of your model.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The thesis structure,
therefore, remains the same: Introduction: I am going to solve this problem by
first developing a framework from a systematic literature review, then I am
going to use the framework tot analyze data. <b>Literature review</b>: This is what
we don’t know about the research problem this is what we don’t know about the theory.
<b>Research method</b>: This is how I developed a framework through a Systematic
Literature Review. This is how I used the framework do solve the problem. <b>Findings</b>:
This is what the framework looks like. This is what I found when I filtered my
data through it. <b>Conclusions and recommendations</b>: This is the new knowledge
and this is my contribution to theory. Now we need to solve the following
problems and address the following theoretical shortcomings.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">And then you graduate.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b>References</b><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><!--[if supportFields]><span style='mso-ansi-language:
EN-US'><span style='mso-element:field-begin;mso-field-lock:yes'></span>ADDIN
Mendeley Bibliography CSL_BIBLIOGRAPHY <span style='mso-element:field-separator'></span></span><![endif]--><span lang="EN-ZA">Kshetrimayum,
M. 2022. 5 Key Elements of Methodology Section of a Research Paper. <i>Mel
Insights</i>. <a href="https://melinsights.com/5-key-elements-of-methodology-section-of-a-research-paper-2/">https://melinsights.com/5-key-elements-of-methodology-section-of-a-research-paper-2/</a>.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span lang="EN-ZA">Moher, D.,
Liberati, A., Tetzlaff, J., Altman, D.G. & Group*, P. 2009. Preferred
reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses: the PRISMA statement.
<i>Annals of internal medicine</i>, 151(4): 264–269. </span><span lang="EN-ZA" style="color: #606060; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt;"><a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1000097"><span style="color: #606060; text-decoration-line: none;">https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1000097</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-left: 24.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: -24.0pt;"><span lang="EN-ZA"> </span></p>
<!--[if supportFields]><span style='font-size:11.0pt;line-height:107%;
font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;mso-fareast-font-family:
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EN-US;mso-fareast-language:EN-US;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA'><span
style='mso-element:field-end'></span></span><![endif]-->Johannes Cronjehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09201193566134950287noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2829386122329128047.post-86003894677152563722021-01-14T20:03:00.002+02:002021-01-15T09:06:56.422+02:00The three golden rules of academic success<p style="text-align: left;">As the new academic year starts and with it the New Year’s
resolutions too I thought it would be good to share the advice that I have been giving to
new students every year for the past fourteen years. Mignon Nolte Smit told me
these were the three pieces of advice that her dad gave her when she first went
to university. Over the years I have
been reflecting on them, and while I initially thought it quite humorous, I
have come to realise that they are, in fact, the three golden rules of academic
success – in the following order:</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"></p><ol style="text-align: left;"><li>Make the right friends.</li><li><span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span>Get to know your lecturers.</li><li><span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span>Do a bit of studying.</li></ol><!--[if !supportLists]--><o:p></o:p><p></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The joke lay in the fact that he put studying last; but the
fact is that University is a process of growth intended in creating your
future, and not acquiring a bit of knowledge and skill. Nevertheless your aim upon entering university should be to get a
distinction, not to pass: The higher your grade, the better your return on
investment. So many students write appeals to me asking me to let them have
that one mark that will change their result from 48 to 49 so that the computer
will automatically adjust it to 50%! They are missing the point. The aim is not
50%; the aim is 100%. So let’s take the three golden rules one by one and see
how they can lead to that distinction.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<h2 style="text-align: left;">1. Make the right friends</h2><h1><o:p></o:p></h1>
<p class="MsoNormal">How many times have you heard people say of a university
dropout – “S/he got involved with the wrong friends”? Your friends can make you
or break you.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I remember, at school,
being told not to go to the ice rink – because that’s where they sell
drugs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Believe me, the ice rink is
perfectly safe.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Most addicts get their
first fix from a friend. Don’t make those friends.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Your friends are the centre of your network. They are your
business partners and your connections for the rest of your life. They are also
the ones who will call you in the morning if you overslept after pulling an
all-nighter before a final exam. They are the ones who will lend you their
notes for a class you missed, and you will both end up in the dean’s office for
getting the same questions incorrect in your test. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Make sure you curate your friends properly.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You need those who will push you, challenge
you, criticize you and support you.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You
need to have some friends who are much cleverer than you, so that they can help
you with things you don’t understand.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>You need some who struggle so that you can help them, and get to know
the work much better as you teach it to others. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Above all, though, remember the old truism that if you are
the brightest person in your group, you are in the wrong group.<o:p></o:p></p>
<h2 style="text-align: left;">2. Get to know your lecturers</h2><h1><o:p></o:p></h1>
<p class="MsoNormal">Your lecturers are the stand-ins for your future clients and
bosses. They are there to challenge you, to support you and to help you grow.
They are not there to remind you of deadlines and dry your tears. One of the
complaints that cross my desk most about lecturers, is that they are
inconsistent.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What Lecturer A will give
a distinction for, Lecturer B will fail.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Now what? The point is – you have to get to know very quickly what they
want. The obvious place to look, of course, is in the assessment rubric. If
there is no rubric, ask for one – it is your right.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In academic life there should be no surprises
– neither good ones, nor bad ones.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If
you did better than expected, or worse than expected, then the outcomes were not
properly explained. If the rubric doesn’t tell you, then ask.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>First ask your friends, then ask your class
rep, and then ask your lecturer. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Do not be afraid of approaching a lecturer directly. Remember
– your fees pay their salary. And when I say ask your lecturer, I really mean
ask anything.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ask for an explanation of
where you went wrong. Ask if you may fix and re-submit. Ask for an extension if
you have to. Why you can even ask for a bonus mark. The worst they can do is
say no. The best that can happen is <i>that they get to know you</i>. Don’t worry if
they get to know you for the wrong reasons entirely.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Six months down the line they will remember
you and not the incident, and when an opportunity comes up and they are asked
to nominate someone, they will nominate someone they know. And ten years down
the line when you are rich and famous, they will tell their grandchildren “I
taught them in first-year you know.”<o:p></o:p></p>
<h2 style="text-align: left;">3 Do a bit of studying</h2><h1><o:p></o:p></h1>
<p class="MsoNormal">One of the most common mistakes that students make is not
setting priorities. You need not learn everything. You need to learn the
underlying principles. You must learn to learn. Any assessment is designed in
such a way that any student should be able to get 50%.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then it gets progressively more difficult to
get higher grades. So, the way to approach a written examination is to provide
a tentative answer to every question.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then
go back and do the ones that you know you can do well. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Do not leave a single question unanswered.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you don’t know the answer at all, then
paraphrase the question and write that down as the first sentence of your
answer. Then guess a second sentence.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Then go on to the next question.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>That way if the lecturer needs to find that one mark to get you to 49%
so that the computer can give you 50%, they can put a one next to your
nonsensical answer. Nobody will know, but if you write nothing, we can give you
no mark. Here is a simple case study.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>You get 45%.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Unbeknownst to you,
the whole class does poorly and we decide to increase the grades by five
percent. Now you get 47,25% and you qualify for a re-assessment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Or better still, we decide to increase the
grades by 10% - now you get 49,5% and the computer gives you 50%!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you got 0, then 0 x 10% remains 0.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The same goes for assignments.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Never miss a deadline, ever in your life. Ever.
Just don’t. A non-submission is a zero.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Submit your rough work. Submit an outline of what you would have done if
you had the time. Submit a picture of your granny if you must, but submit something.
It is much easier to ask for an opportunity to improve on work that you
submitted than to ask for a late submission. Better still: Be the first to submit. In my experience the students who submit first are also the ones who do best. Think of it, the best runner of a race is the one who finishes first.Besides, if you keep on submitting first, your lecturers will get to know you.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Finally, don’t be scared. The biggest reason students have
for dropping out of university is that they are scared of dropping out of
university. You open the book and you see how much work it is. Now you are so
scared that you close the book again and go and do something to take your mind
off it. Tomorrow when you open it again, the work has not grown less, but the
time has.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And your panic increases. So
what do you do? <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">My friend Dr Kobus van Wyk once asked us “How do you eat an elephant” – and we gave the standard answer – “One bite at a time”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To which he responded: “If you do that it
will rot long before you have finished”. Then he shows a picture of a few lions
and a few vultures around an elephant’s carcass and he gives his answer: “You
invite your friends!”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Which is the reason for the first rule.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal">Footnote:</p><p class="MsoNormal">Here is a comment from Mignon Nolte Smith, posted on my Facebook Page soon after I posted this. Amazing to learn more of the man who originated my talk!</p><p class="MsoNormal">My dad is 81 this year... he still gives me amazing advice. <a href="https://www.facebook.com/hendrik.nolte.9">Hendrik Nolte</a> has a M.Sc in Biology, was a lecturer at the University of Pretoria. He was the builder of the Merensky Library on Campus. He raised 5 children, still married to his highschool sweetheart. In his life he was a farmer, still is, a headmaster of an agricultural school in Perderkop. He wrote debating speeches for many national winners - including myself that won Tuks redenaars in 1990. He wrote two books, one on stories of the people he knows and one on research of the Nolte Family. His other books are academic, textbooks... i will have to look it up! He is a cabinet maker, an now spends his time making oxwagons on scale - to the Johanna van der Merwe - that was standing at Tuks at the Merensky for many years.</p><p class="MsoNormal">He was the Tuks lecturer who threw a student out through the class window for blowing smoke into a microscope. He was in the Rapport Newspaper and the Landbou weekblad for succeeding with a business venture in times when everyone was failing. He had the right friends... but he never had many friends.</p><p class="MsoNormal">If you are in the Mpumalanga area visit his amazing historic Anglo Boer War museum which he has collected over 20 years.</p><p class="MsoNormal">I have never seen my father depressed, down or even moedeloos... he is the only person on earth I know who has mastered the magic authors like Victor Frankl writes about.</p><p class="MsoNormal">Always a brighter day ahead, always something more to love for, something to do, someone to help.</p><p class="MsoNormal">Thank you prof Johannes for this amazing memory I really appreciate it!</p>Johannes Cronjehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09201193566134950287noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2829386122329128047.post-89572494745676049722017-08-19T10:18:00.001+02:002017-08-19T10:18:03.784+02:00Learning incomes and learning subjectives<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I am sitting in a deep and meaningful conversation with Prof Liezl Nel of the University of the Freestate and our joint doctoral student, Fred Mudavanhu, and Fred has introduced two new words that emerged from his research. These are learning "Incomes" (as opposed to outcomes) and learning"Subjectives" instead of learning objectives.<br />
Now well this resonates with my concept of collectionism...<br />
Learning "Incomes" are those items that are added to the collection.<br />
Learning "Subjectives" are the choices made by curators of their collection of learning assets.</div>
Johannes Cronjehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09201193566134950287noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2829386122329128047.post-36556792774642843632017-01-26T16:08:00.001+02:002017-01-26T16:08:51.419+02:00Advice for an unsuccessful prospective student<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
This morning I received yet another desperate email from a student looking for placement (or a job).<br />
He has been struggling for four years since matric to gain entrance to a university or to get a job.<br />
I am dumbfounded by how bad his attempt was. Do students get NO life skills advice at school?<br />
<br />
Here follows his email (censored to protect innocent people involved) and my reply.<br />
<br />
---------- Forwarded message ----------<br />
From: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX<br />
Date: Wed, 25 Jan 2017 22:43:51 +0200<br />
Subject: Fwd: my file<br />
To:XXXXXXXXXXXX<br />
<br />
to. whom it may concern<br />
<br />
my name is Paul XXXXXX and I would to be considered to study at cput for space in any faculty please resume my certificate.. i'm in desperate need for school<br />
<br />
---------- Forwarded message ----------<br />
From: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX<br />
Date: Tue, 24 Jan 2017 11:43:55 +0200<br />
Subject: my file<br />
To: XXXXXXXXXXX<br />
<br />
please find attaches file of my certificate<br />
<br />
---------- Forwarded message ----------<br />
From: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX<br />
Date: Thu, 17 Nov 2016 19:08:10 +0200<br />
Subject: My application for a job vacancy at webhelp sa<br />
To: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX<br />
<br />
To whom it may concern<br />
<br />
Please find here with attaced file of my resume for a job vacancy with webhelp SA<br />
<br />
I would love if my application would be successful and expect a call or email from you soon..<br />
<br />
Kind Regards<br />
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX<br />
<br />
---------- Forwarded message ----------<br />
From: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX<br />
Date: Thu, 3 Nov 2016 09:32:22 +0200<br />
Subject: my cv...<br />
To: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX<br />
<br />
Please here with attached file of my CV...<br />
<br />
Regards<br />
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX<br />
<br />
<h2 style="text-align: left;">
And my reply</h2>
<div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
Dear Paul</div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
Thank you for your email requesting a place to
study. Unfortunately my Faculty cannot
accommodate you at this stage and neither can we appoint you in a
position. However, since I sense your
desperation and frustration, and since I care, may I offer you some "fatherly"
advice - since my age allows it.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
Always address an email seeking a position as a student
or an employee to a specific person. You
know that I am Prof Cronje, so address me as such, and not as "to whom it
may concern". If you don’t show
enough care to name the person you are addressing, then why should that person
care to give you a position?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
Always use appropriate capital letters. You probably sent this email from your cell
phone. That is no excuse for careless writing.
If your email is careless, how will the receiver know that the rest of
your attitude is not also careless?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
Use full stops after full sentences. Once again - if you cannot even write a full
sentence, how would I know you can write an essay?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
If you apply to a university you need to apply to a
specific course. We cannot simply put
you in any "space". We need to know what your interests and aptitudes
are. I suggest you visit a public
library and use their public access computers to do a free online aptitude test
to see what kind of area would suit you best. You can find one at this link: http://blog.mydreamcourse.co.za/2012/01/02/free-career-aptitude-tests-that-everyone-ought-to-take<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
Delete all previous emails in a chain. The receiver of a
message should at least think that he or she is the only recipient. Why would I want to give you a position if I
can see that three other people would not?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
Go back to night school and re-do Mathematics and
Physical Sciences to obtain at least 50%. I know it is hard, but there are many
NGOs out there who will help you get that result and with Maths and Science
being such scarce skills even a 50% will be a way into a better life.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
Learn to spell and to use the correct words: "um" is not a word. You mean "I'm", and you should
write "I am". Resume means
"to start again" you mean "receive" or "review".<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
You can find some good advice about how to start seeking
for a job here: <a href="http://www.careerplanet.co.za/10-tips-for-first-time-job-seekers">http://www.careerplanet.co.za/10-tips-for-first-time-job-seekers</a><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
Finally, I include in this email Mr XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX an excellent doctoral student of mine.
If you need good advice about how to get to the top, contact him
directly and if you are ever in Cape Town, buy him a coffee and talk to him
about how to do it.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
I wish you success in your future.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
Best wishes<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<br /></div>
</div>
</div>
Johannes Cronjehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09201193566134950287noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2829386122329128047.post-34176773048375061802016-08-30T08:09:00.004+02:002016-08-30T08:09:45.748+02:00Collectionism as an approach to Instructional Design<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal">
It was the emergence and rapid growth of Pokémon Go, and a
number of “Badge Breakfasts” in Johannesburg and Cape Town that first sparked
the idea with me. I want to coin a new word
for the phenomenon of micro-credentials in the world of learning and teaching. Pokémon
Go muscled in on the phenomenon that people like to collect things. The same way we collect souvenirs on our
travels, pick up shells on the beach, or collect credits towards the next free
coffee at our local coffee shop, we like collecting. In the field of elearning
this phenomenon has also been recognised both by the open badges community and
by the rise of SCORM and Experience API. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So I was looking for a term that would cover the phenomenon
of collecting bits of learning and stringing them together to form a portfolio,
or maybe even a qualification. I was
looking for a word that would resonate with Seymour Papert’s <i>Constructionism</i>. So, I looked first at
collectivism, which describes the fact that knowledge rests in the collective –
and I like it, because it resonates with Rhizome theory. But collectivism is
about people working as a collective, it does not describe the act of
collecting. Then I found a word that had
no definition in Google’s online dictionary – “Collectionism”. I found one use of the word as hoarding. So I
want to propose the use of the word <i>Collectionism</i>
in the design of teaching and learning as a way of leveraging our natural
tendency to collect things, and using that as a basis of developing a knowledge
base.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Collectionism would then form the basis of what I want to
call <i>asset-based</i> teaching and
learning – where the learner is seen as someone collecting assets to construct
an own skill-set, rather than as an “empty vessel” with a deficit that needs to
be filled or corrected. The concept of collectionism will resonate with
librarians, who are, by definition, builders of collections. So from the
librarians one might borrow the act of classifying and categorising
assets. Of course in dealing with assets
one is already borrowing from economists, and thus it would be necessary to
find some way of classifying the assets that are collected. This definition of assets can already be seen
in the way that metadata is imbedded into badges. One could define assets by
their size – in other words the amount of knowledge that is contained in a
unit, or by their duration – in other words, whether they are permanent assets,
such as degrees, or whether they have expiry dates – such as drivers’ licences. . Are
they cardinal or ordinal assets – did you get them for achieving a stated
learning objective, or did you win them in a contest? One could also define
assets in terms of their tangibility or otherwise in other words, can the asset
be “traded” in the form of a course and certification. I could be trained as a life coach and based
on that asset, I could coach, or even train other life coaches. On the other hand, in intangible asset would
be the fact that I was voted the best life-coach in the district, and thus
could charge more for my services that someone else.<o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
So that is my opening gambit. How can we develop a system of assets and
recognise them so that they can form the building blocks of all our learning? <o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
Johannes Cronjehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09201193566134950287noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2829386122329128047.post-50100403768305226492015-02-05T08:31:00.000+02:002015-02-05T08:48:14.973+02:00Outline of a Masters or Doctoral Thesis or Dissertation<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Ok, so two days ago I posted Chapter 4. I didn't think of posting the others, because they have been on my website for years.<br />
But then again, not everybody visits my website, which is at <a href="https://sites.google.com/site/johannescronje/">https://sites.google.com/site/johannescronje/</a> , and there may even be people who still don't know about my "Free online doctoral programme" which is at <a href="https://sites.google.com/site/johannescronje/doctor-doctor">https://sites.google.com/site/johannescronje/doctor-doctor</a><br />
<br />
For all of you then, here are the links, first to the "Logic of a thesis" and then a brief sketch of what goes into every chapter.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://sites.google.com/site/johannescronje/documents/logic_of_a_thesis.doc?attredirects=0">The logic of a thesis</a><br />
<div>
<br />
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li><a href="https://sites.google.com/site/johannescronje/documents/chapterone.doc">Chapter 1</a></li>
<li><a href="https://sites.google.com/site/johannescronje/documents/Structure_of_literature_survey.doc?attredirects=0">Chapter 2</a></li>
<li><a href="https://sites.google.com/site/johannescronje/documents/chapterthree.doc?attredirects=0">Chapter 3</a> </li>
<li><a href="http://johannescronje.blogspot.com/2015/02/how-to-write-up-findings-chapter.html" target="_blank">Chapter 4</a></li>
<li>Chapter 5: Tjeerd Plomp's <a href="https://sites.google.com/site/johannescronje/documents/Structr%20fnlchapter01_10.doc?attredirects=0">"Structure of the final chapter"</a></li>
</ul>
<div>
So there you have it. Now spend the weekend and just populate it. Then you can submit on Monday.</div>
</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
</div>
Johannes Cronjehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09201193566134950287noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2829386122329128047.post-9114756121364655882015-02-03T16:54:00.000+02:002015-02-03T16:54:10.256+02:00How to write up the findings chapter<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I don't know why I have taken so long to describe the findings chapter. My "<a href="https://sites.google.com/site/johannescronje/doctor-doctor" target="_blank">Free online doctoral programme</a>" has been up for three years now, but still it is silent on the most important chapter. So, here goes.<br />
<br />
In a traditional five section thesis, the findings make up section four, Introduction, Literature survey, Methods,<strong> Findings</strong>, Conclusions and Recommendations. Nevertheless, it is really the first chapter that you will write out completely. It is the most important chapter of the thesis the most exciting one, but also the most difficult one to get started with.<br />
<br />
The most common mistake that people make is to write the chapter as an inventory of what the instruments told them. They would start unpacking the demographics of the participants, and then launch into the questionnaire from question 1 to question 100, providing all the relevant statistics, and generally boring everybody to tears. So how is it done?<br />
<br />
The first thing to do is to orientate the reader regarding the research. Do not be repetitive, but explain briefly the purpose of your research and why you followed the methods that you did. Then explain how you will structure the findings chapter. Two structuring principles are important here. Your theoretical or conceptual model and your research questions. The questions are structured as they are derived from the theoretical or conceptual model. A simple example would be if one were to use a system as a conceptual model. So the conceptual model will say that there is an input, there are processes, there is an output and there is a feedback loop to ensure sustainability. From this the questions will be derived. What is the input? What are the processes? What is the output? How is sustainability achieved? And that is how the chapter will be structured.<br />
<br />
So after brief description of the research and the participants you launch into the story of your research. The rhythm is this:<br />
<br />
The question was...<br />
The reason for this question was to determine...<br />
The instruments used to get to the answer were...<br />
The instrument that gave the best information was...<br />
This is the information that the instrument gave (in narrative form)<br />
And here is the evidence of that information (statistics, quottionss, screen captures, embedded video clips, transcripts)...<br />
These instruments supported the answer in this way, and here is the evidence.<br />
These instruments gave contradictory evidence (if any) and this is it.<br />
So my tentative answer to the question is ... <br />
This supports the literature that says... and contradicts the literature that says... and adds the following to our body of knowledge.<br />
<br />
And so you go on, question by question question. Of course, you start with the sub-questions and the lesser questions so that they all add up when you finally ANSWER THE MAIN QUESTION(S).<br />
<br />
And that's it. You have presented your findings. Now write <a href="https://sites.google.com/site/johannescronje/documents/Structr%20fnlchapter01_10.doc?attredirects=0" target="_blank">Chapter 5 the way Tjeerd Plomp suggests</a>. Then tidy up the other chapters and ensure they are completely aligned with Chapter 4. Then submit and have a happy life.<br />
</div>
Johannes Cronjehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09201193566134950287noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2829386122329128047.post-77080758427683874932015-02-02T16:40:00.003+02:002022-11-01T10:02:01.306+02:00Don't be tense about tense<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Prof Alta van der Merwe asked me to write up something about the use of tenses in a thesis, so that she could get her students to cite me.<br />
I can resist anything except temptation, so, for the sake of citation, here goes, Alta!<br />
<br />
Use the simple present tense for things that go on indefinitely. Use the past tense for things that have just happened, and the past perfect for things that had already been completed by the time the research took place.<br />
<br />
Chapter 1 - Introduction<br />
This thesis describes <present tense=""> research that was conducted <simple past=""> to determine if there had been <past perfect=""> a significant improvement in the results of a given treatment.</past></simple></present><br />
<br />
So to explain more clearly. If you are writing about the thesis itself, then you use the simple present. Chapter One deals with the introduction, rationale and research method of the study. Chapter Two reports on the current literature. Chapter Three describes the methodology. All in the present tense, because those chapters fulfil those functions right now, and always will.<br />
<br />
Chapter 2 - Literature survey<br />
The literature survey is written predominantly in the present tense. Smith and Jones say: "We don't know what we are doing but we publish it anyway" (2014 p. 67). Note that Smith and Jones are two authors, so they say. But the article by Smith and Jones says, because it is just one article. If, however, you are telling the story of Smith and Jones and their research, then it is in the past tense. Smith and Jones conducted research in the 1990s, and found numerous instances of people publishing in fields that they know nothing about. As their article puts it (present tense) "People publish for the sake of seeing their name in print, rather than to contribute to knowledge" (Smith and Jones, 1990 p. 27).<br />
<br />
Chapter 3 - Research methods<br />
Here you use mainly the past tense. You are describing what you did. If you have to follow up on things that had already been done, then you use the past perfect, and if you have to cite and author to substantiate what you did, then you use the present tense. <br />
Questionnaires were distributed among the participants who had already viewed the movie and they were asked to complete a four-point Likert scale, Johnson (2013) suggests that a Likert scale should have an even number of points to prevent participants from taking a mid-point position.<br />
<br />
Chapter 4 - Findings<br />
All in the past tense. It is what you found. Even if you found things that will hold true indefinitely, it still remains in the past, because that is when you found it. Yesterday I found that the sky was blue. The fact that it is blue today, and will probably be so tomorrow is irrelevant.<br />
<br />
Chapter 5 - Conclusions and recommendations<br />
Conclusions are written in the present tense. The conclusions are your contribution to the body of knowledge. It was found that some people did one thing and other people did another. The conclusion is that different people do different things.<br />
Recommendations are written in the imperative. More research should be conducted to determine the circumstances under which people do what they do.<br />
<br />
So that's it. No need to be tense about tense. Just tell it as it happens.</div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiATCN9dZiVukQHAobT_RNxpE4QFS_37PacKLmIrXsMdJn6cPi45oFs1qTPEgiM8niBkIz70nWNTXBNwFd2VTRdhyJ8CQM_zNvmcP1avuk4kJBnOOuUpVT_aW-uFYndpKcVxUWoMmSENv_u4duP-uf29Sul-jwiN6vrqK3fP1pvJzrrN2uCv8nYrFOi_g/s720/tenses.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="612" data-original-width="720" height="272" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiATCN9dZiVukQHAobT_RNxpE4QFS_37PacKLmIrXsMdJn6cPi45oFs1qTPEgiM8niBkIz70nWNTXBNwFd2VTRdhyJ8CQM_zNvmcP1avuk4kJBnOOuUpVT_aW-uFYndpKcVxUWoMmSENv_u4duP-uf29Sul-jwiN6vrqK3fP1pvJzrrN2uCv8nYrFOi_g/s320/tenses.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Image with permission by Dr Raa Khimi who is also the author of the book Science & Engineering Research Writing Template<div> <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Science-Engineering-Research-Writing-Template/dp/967148560X">https://www.amazon.com/Science-Engineering-Research-Writing-Template/dp/967148560X<br /></a><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br />
<br />
<br />
<br /></div>
</div>Johannes Cronjehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09201193566134950287noreply@blogger.com19tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2829386122329128047.post-73652977842977149482014-08-01T14:19:00.004+02:002014-08-01T14:19:50.766+02:00...But not everybody has a smartphone<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
The most frequently asked question (faq - is a really good abbreviation for it) that gets put to me during any discussion on Rhizomatic learning, is "But not everybody has a smartphone?"<br />
To which I get tempted more and more to reply, but anybody who is serious about their own learning should take the trouble and get one. At less than R700 on prepaid it is not a bad option.<br />
Now Arthur Goldstuck points to a "<a href="http://mg.co.za/article/2014-07-29-smartphone-uptake-in-south-africa-rising-dramatically" target="_blank">Massive increase in SA smartphone purchases</a>".<br />
This is hardly surprising, if one considers that <a href="http://www.mooreslaw.org/" target="_blank">Moore's law</a> observes that computer power doubles every two years.<br />
Goldstuck points out that this growth in purchases is driven by apps, most noticeably <a href="http://www.whatsapp.com/" target="_blank">WhatsApp</a>. He continues, though, that the tendency of apps to need constant updating is bandwidth hungry and that consumers, therefore, even though they may have the phone, will be hard pressed to buy the data. Nevertheless there is a tendency for cities to provide <a href="http://projectisizwe.org/tag/tshwane" target="_blank">free wifi</a> in selected areas. <br />
So, the answer to the question remains. Every student should have a smart phone.</div>
Johannes Cronjehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09201193566134950287noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2829386122329128047.post-43629042211447831502014-06-01T17:38:00.001+02:002014-06-01T17:38:11.634+02:00I have just completed the Hour of Code<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Eureka.<br />
So I got the answer to the question that has been bugging me for all this time.<br />
If the system is the one that learns, then what should we be teaching?<br />
And as Andrew Lloyd Weber's <i>Evita</i> pointed out so poignantly, "The answer was there all the time":<br />
So, to put it differently If there's an app for everything, then what do kids still need to learn"<br />
And the answer? They need to learn how to put it all together. The solution: CODING.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxgnGA7spfjYzr52DWydKqjPRpUHq4de-CDoNXwEnoKdMio2dihxyb3zBvfc2E1p1i8LG00T-EXQBn3wtqvELOGwVfNsXfIXjuuyAeOlKEjhewfAcg51LcgUObaCgBpUXYJOT9ymAE5GE-/s1600/certificate.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxgnGA7spfjYzr52DWydKqjPRpUHq4de-CDoNXwEnoKdMio2dihxyb3zBvfc2E1p1i8LG00T-EXQBn3wtqvELOGwVfNsXfIXjuuyAeOlKEjhewfAcg51LcgUObaCgBpUXYJOT9ymAE5GE-/s1600/certificate.jpg" height="225" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<a href="https://www.facebook.com/victor.ngobeni.7" target="_blank">Victor Ngubeni</a> stated on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/" target="_blank">Facebook</a> that he had just completed the Hour of Code. So I thought it was a good idea and shared it on. Then <a href="https://www.facebook.com/niret.grobler" target="_blank">Niret Grobler</a> commented that it was Awesome. So I thought I might try it too. And was it AWESOME. In one hour I played "Angry Birds" and programmed a Zombi to eat a Sunflower.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
I earned six "Mastery Trophies" and this beautiful certificate. I learnt how to move, turn, repeat, use an "if" statement, and use an "If then" statement. I intuitively understood for the first time why the "Go-to" statement is harmful, and I learnt a whole lot about my own behaviour as a learner.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
In the process I interrupted myself two or three times to read WhatsApp messages from home (I am in Alaska for the<a href="https://www.hetl.org/events/2014-anchorage-conference-2/" target="_blank"> #HETL14</a> conference) drink, coffee, etc. </div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
So, I learnt so much about 21st Century learning. </div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
</div>
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>It is granular (as in rice)</li>
<li>It is gamified</li>
<li>It is motivational</li>
<li>It is hightly structured</li>
<li>It can be archived</li>
<li>The results can be shared</li>
<li>It can be added to at any time</li>
<li><a href="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1joG3us00-Qxus1WtuVCF9FesN0JbqHdZwPiARaEmCpE/viewform?" target="_blank">Click here to suggest other characteristics.</a></li>
</ul>
<div>
I have never studied computer science. In 1983 I did a six-hour course in programming a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodore_64" target="_blank">Commodore 64</a> in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BASIC" target="_blank">Basic</a>. Yet those little bits of skill were enough to help me understand the logic behind just about every device I have ever had to interact with. It made it easy for me to understand the concept of writing macros in Word or to create spreadsheets in Word and finally it helped me understand how to use IFTTT to navigate the maze of apps on my phone and to get them to work together.</div>
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The problem with the Rhizome, is that it is a maze. It has many many branches, most of which lead you nowhere, but many of which lead to aMAZING results. And the point with programming, as is pointed out by the <a href="http://learn.code.org/s/1/level/1" target="_blank">introductory video</a> of The <a href="http://csedweek.org/" target="_blank">Hour of Code</a>, is that it allows even a robot to navigate a maze.</div>
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So in our multilingual world and our multi-device world there is one language that we all need to learn to write - the language of code.</div>
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Johannes Cronjehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09201193566134950287noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2829386122329128047.post-57931223111177468322014-05-07T18:46:00.000+02:002014-06-04T16:01:49.102+02:00How to be smarter than your smart phone<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">QR Code for this site</td></tr>
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The final confirmation of the conspiracy was when the <a href="http://mendi.uct.ac.za/~frxbar001/news.html" target="_blank">trees in the Company's Garden acquired QR Codes</a>, and the City of Cape Town, together with some partner institutions also provide free Wi-Fi access to people who wish to read these codes. Although there was some political discussion about the extent to which the digital divide was really being addressed, there was complete silence about the fact that the users of the Wi-Fi and the OR codes were not the chief beneficiaries of this technology. The chief beneficiaries were the providers of the codes and the access. While visitors to the Garden would acquire some information about the trees, it is the trees that are collecting information about the users - and this information is much more valuable than that <i>Encephalartos Princeps Zameaceae</i> have reproductive organs in the form of cones. The trees are discovering who are accessing this information. When are they accessing the information? What devices are they using to access the information? What routes are they taking through the garden? Which trees are viewed more than others? What other information are they accessing through the wireless network? To what extent is this information relevant to the trees? What patterns of use are emerging in the Garden? And you thought you were just finding out what tree it was. The moral of the story is that by acquiring a simple QR code, the trees have joined the Internet of Things, and the trees have become generators of information, rather than just providers of information.<br />
The stated beneficiaries of the Wi-Fi-enabled trees are, among others, school groups who will come on field trips and learn about the trees. So here it is where it becomes interesting. What will they be doing once they get back to the classroom. Will they be writing the traditional essay - my trip to the Company's Garden? Might they be required to produce a slideshow of the trees they had visited, or, heaven forbid, might they be given a test to give the botanical name of the Kei Cycad? Here then is the first challenge. If the information is already on my phone - I just have to point it at the tree - then why would I need to learn (read memorize) that information?<br />
It is not just the QR code, however, that has connected things to the Internet. All over the world <a href="http://www.geocaching.com/" target="_blank">Geocachers</a> are squirreling away little boxes of trinkets and connecting them to the Internet via GPS coordinates. This map shows the caches within walking distance of the Hilton Hotel Anchorage. So, my whole world is be-speckled with little boxes that collect information about me.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihqYgRQ6O8-Lr925GVA1XzHfIrKXEA3zynawzLJ5LwtZLebY21l471Ntklb_jAft5Fp8NZ_nfV30LrANKjPIf8cQrSWQPSOXbpbnXVFugAILY-agsC6k0dIUcfVwREkYH87p4HReFOTqfH/s1600/AnchorageCaches.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihqYgRQ6O8-Lr925GVA1XzHfIrKXEA3zynawzLJ5LwtZLebY21l471Ntklb_jAft5Fp8NZ_nfV30LrANKjPIf8cQrSWQPSOXbpbnXVFugAILY-agsC6k0dIUcfVwREkYH87p4HReFOTqfH/s1600/AnchorageCaches.PNG" height="270" width="320" /></a></div>
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The value of Geo-caching for education is clear. Numerous sites of historical or geographical importance have already been cached, and the planters of the caches usually take some trouble with providing relevant information - more often than not copied directly from <a href="https://www.wikipedia.org/" target="_blank">Wikipedia</a>. Teachers use these caches as way-point on field trips, they hide their own caches for students to find, or even encourage students to plan their own caches!</div>
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But it is not just things that are getting permanently connected to the Internet. So are people. In your pocket you carry<a href="http://www.zdnet.com/blog/diy-it/weve-come-a-long-way-baby-the-iphone-4-vs-the-ibm-pc-infographic/502" target="_blank"> roughly a million times more capacity than the first IBM PC of 1981</a>, and that <a href="http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2009/07/20/how-powerful-was-the-apollo-11-computer/" target="_blank">XT computer had eight times more capacity than the Apollo 11 Guidance Computer</a>. And most of the time the computer in your pocket is connected to the Internet, and sending back information about what you are doing. Then we use it to send text messages.</div>
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More importantly, though, is that the phone in your pocket has unlimited capacity when it is connected to the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_computing" target="_blank">cloud</a>, Most of us enter the cloud through the <a href="http://www.google.com/chrome/%E2%80%8E" target="_blank">Chrome</a> gates of <a href="http://www.google.com/" target="_blank">Google</a>. </div>
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This is more than just a blog. It is also the text of my Keynote at the Social Media in Higher Education conference, Johannesburg 8, 9 May 2014. In this talk I am trying to use a "Flipped Classroom" approach, using cell phones as response devices. So here is the first exercise. </div>
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Follow this link and list what you consider the<span style="font-size: x-large;"> "<a href="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/16OrDp7ps2H5xqW2VeP91rRJO-_aYLYY0PDGaBvDfV_w/viewform?usp=send_form" target="_blank">Trends in 21st Century Learning</a>"</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Here's a word cloud or the responses till 2014-06-02</td></tr>
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You cannot use your <a href="http://www.android.com/" target="_blank">Android</a> phone without it, and you'd be silly to use any other <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smartphone" target="_blank">smartphone</a> without it. Once you have logged into Google Chrome on all your devices, they start discussing your movements among one another. When your phone alarm wakes you, <a href="http://www.google.com/landing/now/" target="_blank">Google Now</a> will gives you a weather update and tells you how long it will take to drive to work. It will even remember <a href="http://www.cnet.com/how-to/how-to-find-your-car-with-google-now-parking-locator-card/" target="_blank">where you parked your car</a>. If you search for a place with Google Chrome on your desktop, Google Now will alert you on your phone to say how long it will take to get there. If you drive there using <a href="https://www.waze.com/" target="_blank">Waze</a> as a GPS navigator, not only will it let you bypass heavy traffic, it will allow you to see which of your friends are travelling, and even let them send you pic-up requests so that you can collect them on your way. If you run with the phone in your pocket, fitness trackers such as <a href="http://www.endomondo.com/" target="_blank">Endomondo</a> will trace your route on a map, report on your progress every kilometer, tell you if you are ahead or behind your target, and even tell you which of your friends are running. And if running alone does not make you thin, a calorie counter such as <a href="http://www.myfitnesspal.com/" target="_blank">Myfitnesspal</a> will calculate how many calories you need to eat per day to achieve your target weight, and allow you to record every morsel you consume, either by entering the data manually, or by scanning the bar-code on the box of the product you eat or drink; and it will even communicate with Endomondo to give you credit for any calories you burnt on your run! Many of these apps connect with one another, and of course all of them with Google and Facebook. So, once again, while you think you are the one who benefits, actually, think of all the lovely data you are generating... When all this has you dead tired, then just put the phone on the mattress next to your pillow, and it will graph your sleep cycles, and ensure your alarm adjusts to wake you at the optimal level of your sleep cycle. Of course, all the information that all the apps collect, goes into the cloud, and that is where they get aggregated and disaggregated.</div>
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Now here's where it gets interesting for me as a professional student of the learning process. It takes us back to my post of <a href="http://johannescronje.blogspot.com/2013/07/rhizonomy-my-new-favourite-word.html" target="_blank">July 5 2013</a>, where the question is, if I can now navigate with friends, see traffic jams 10 kilometers ahead, and avoid them, really lose weight and keep it off, achieve a personal best with the assistance of a coach, then I have learnt. But what did I learn, how to launch an app? And, as I said previously, the answer is, no, it is not I who learnt, it is the system, the Rhizome, that has learnt, and it is all of us who benefit.</div>
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Then there are two new questions: What should we be teaching in a world where everything is learning? How should we be teaching it?e</div>
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I answer to the first question many Universities are developing a set of "Graduate Attributes" that they believe should characterize their graduates. The move towards attributes rather than knowledge resonates with the well-established tacit knowledge we all have that "Good programmers teach themselves to code", or, for that matter, good writers teach themselves to write, etc. So our jobs seem to be to teach our graduates how to achieve those attributes. Samantha Thomas (2014) talks of the "<a href="http://www.slideshare.net/ceciliatomas/web-semantica-34352195" target="_blank">Semantic Web and Personalization</a>". She identifies two identities created by students working in a Web 3.0 environment: a <i>personal</i> and a <i>narrative</i> identity. The personal identity is built upon sharing, openness and collaboration, while the narrative identity is one of personalization and automation, as we adapt to our ever-changing personal ecology. Then, of course, there are any number of websites that tell us of the characteristics of 21st Century learners, such as these <a href="http://drsaraheaton.wordpress.com/2011/12/07/21st-century-learners/" target="_blank">21 Characteristics of 21st Century learners from Dr Susan Elaine Eaton</a>, and <a href="http://literacy.dpsnc.net/21st-century-literacy/characteristics-of-21st-century-learners" target="_blank">these from the DCS literacy framework</a>.<br />
Closer to the answer to the second question may be Terry Heick's (2014) teachthrought on the <a href="http://www.teachthought.com/learning/what-students-will-learn-in-the-future/" target="_blank">eight things that students may learn in the future</a>. These are Literacy, Patterns, Systems, Design, Citizenship, Data, Research and Philosophy.</div>
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I believe that the answer to the second question, "How should we be teaching 21st Century Skills" lies in <span style="font-size: x-large;"><a href="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1vnvd1I5EDCOMFEbNX5Xb8Vc25al-GzDV3U-qF_gG0Zc/viewform?usp=send_form" target="_blank">Project-based learning</a></span> (PBL), as described by the Buck Institute (<a href="http://bie.org/about" target="_blank">BIE</a>), who define PBL as "a teaching method in which students gain knowledge and skills by working for an extended period of time to investigate and respond to a complex question, problem, or challenge". BIE identify eight essential elements: Significant content, 21st Century competencies, In-depth enquiry, a Driving question, the Need to know, Voice and choice, Critique and revision, and a Public audience.</div>
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Once such a problem has been defined and the problem-based learning brief is being developed, one must consider the channels of delivery. It is here that the concept of blended learning comes into its own. But what has to be blended? Terry Hick identifies <a href="http://www.teachthought.com/learning/6-channels-of-21st-century-learning/" target="_blank">Six channels of 21st Century learning</a>: Community interaction, Absraction and creativity, Media literacy, Play, Self-direction and Dialogic response. So, How would you <span style="font-size: x-large;"><a href="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1tKNRNd-yCKyfm72evIKXggQCadiNB8QFgtIdEGWddKQ/viewform?usp=send_form" target="_blank">rate the various channels</a></span>?</div>
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Johannes Cronjehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09201193566134950287noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2829386122329128047.post-86011907130445999722013-07-05T14:39:00.002+02:002013-07-05T15:27:27.440+02:00Rhizonomy - My new favourite word<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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For some time now I have been wondering what sort of <i>learning</i> we are obtaining through social software. To be sure, when I do <a href="http://www.geocaching.com/%E2%80%8E" target="_blank">Geocaching </a>I learn a little bit more about my environment, but it is nothing that I would not have learnt if there were a notice board next to the feature where the cache was buried.</div>
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At the same time, what am I learning when I use <a href="http://www.waze.com/" target="_blank">Waze</a> to navigate? If one defines learning as "to be able to do something afterwards that you could not do before" then owning a GPS device means that I can now reach a destination, which I could not do before. I cannot read a map. I never could. Besides, reading a map while driving is dangerous. Now, with a GPS, I can reach a destination safely without having to read the map. So, I learnt to navigate without having to navigate. HOWEVER, with a social application such as Waze, other users also input data into the system, and now I can avoid congestion on roads that I cannot see. Waze knows where the congestion is because other road users have reported it. At the same time, when I report congestion (or by simply driving with Waze open) other Wazers can also avoid congestion. But here's the question - ok so now I can do something that I have never been able to do before - I have almost developed a sixth sense - but what have I <i>learnt</i>. And then I read <a href="http://steve-wheeler.blogspot.com/2012/11/next-generation-learning.html" target="_blank">Steve Wheeler's</a> post and I realized it's not what have I learnt. It is what have <i>we</i> learnt. And the "we" are three entities. It's me, it's other road users, and it is Waze itself. Here's where Learning 3.0 becomes clever. Learning is now integrated in to the whole system - it's not just the teachers and the learners who are learning, it is also the supporting technologies that are learning.</div>
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Google knows what I am searching for before I have even finished typing the search string - because it knows what I searched for before, and it knows what other people around me are searching, and so it can predict. And on my phone Google even knows where I am and predicts where I want to go next. And so the learning becomes a "cloud" of learning, or as Steve puts it, a "hive" of learning that includes the technology.</div>
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So, thank you <a href="http://steve-wheeler.blogspot.com/2012/11/next-generation-learning.html" target="_blank">Steve Wheeler</a> for introducing me to your new word, <i>rhizonomy</i>:<br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: justify;">Learning 3.0 will be user and machine generated, and will in all respects be represented in what I will call 'rhizonomies'. The rhizonomic organisation of content will emerge from chaotic, multi-dimensional and multi-nodal organisation of content, giving rise to an infinite number of possibilities and choices for learners. As learners choose their own self determined routes through the content, so context will change and new nodes and connections will be created in what will become a massive, dynamic, synthetic 'hive mind'. Here I do not refer to any strong artificial intelligence model of computation, but rather a description of the manner in which networked, intelligent systems respond to the needs of individual learners within vast, ever expanding communities of practice. Each learner will become a nexus of knowledge, and a node of content production. Extending the rhizome metaphor further, learners will act as the reproduction mechanisms that sustain the growth of the semantic web, but will also in turn be nurtured by it. Learning 3.0 will be a facet of an ongoing, limitless symbiotic relationship between human and machine. <a href="http://steve-wheeler.blogspot.com/2012/11/next-generation-learning.html" target="_blank">(Wheeler, 2012)</a></span><a href="http://steve-wheeler.blogspot.com/2012/11/next-generation-learning.html" target="_blank"> </a></blockquote>
So now, back to the Geocaching example. Through <a href="http://www.geocaching.com/%E2%80%8E" target="_blank">Geocaching</a> I am learning more about the area where the cache is. But, actually, the area is learning more about me too. While visiting Bloemfontein last month I woke up to the roar of lions. Yes, I thought, this is Africa, but lions in the middle of town? Or was I just imagining things. Then I opened my Geocaching app and realized that I was right next to Bloemfontein Zoo. And, very close to the Lion's cage, there is a cache. So I paid my R27 entrance fee, and found two caches.<br />
So, my learning is obvious. But wait, there's more. The owner of the cache learnt about me, and the Geocaching community learnt about my caching behaviour, and the zoo learnt that having caches inside could potentially earn them R27 per enthusiastic geocacher.<br />
And that is the mind boggling thing about Learning 3.0 - the integration of machine learning and human learning. STUPENDOUS.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://steve-wheeler.blogspot.com/2012/11/next-generation-learning.html" target="_blank">Steve Wheeler's Learning Grid</a></td></tr>
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Johannes Cronjehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09201193566134950287noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2829386122329128047.post-34895164050943701022013-02-05T10:57:00.002+02:002013-02-07T08:32:59.266+02:00Oom Frans<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Tomorrow we will bid a last farewell to my late Dad's elder brother, Oom Frans. After my dad and my brother passed away, he was my most closest and most senior paternal relative, and our <i>Pater Familias</i>.<br />
I last saw him at Oom Chris's 75th birthday, when he congratulated him on having grown up nicely, and having married the right wife. I last spoke to him just before Christmas when he gave me some useful information and telephone numbers of the "Fish" relatives in Cape Town. <br />
To me Oom Frans was the "GLS" model of my dad. Essentially the same, but with electric windows, leather seats and air conditioning. And I don't use the motor car metaphor lightly. My earliest memory of him is of his family driving away in a grey "Up and Down" Citroen - a car that so fascinated me that I bought an old one for my own son at the beginning of this year. When they returned from their UK posting in the early seventies, they brought along an Austin 11/55 just like ours, but theirs had "inertia reel" seatbelts, and a heated rear window... When they returned from Germany, he had a BMW like my grandfather's, but it had metallic paint. When they returned from Greece, they had a small Mercedes 190 - the only one in Pretoria. Then things went really pear-shaped and he bought a Chrysler Neon, but he redeemed himself by finally getting a Subaru with a bigger racing fin at the back than any other car I'd seen.<br />
From the beginning there was something fascinating about him and his family. Their house in Berea Street had push-button light switches, not levers like ours. They had a dome clock with a pendulum that went round and round, and a rocking horse that you wouldn't believe...<br />
And then they went away. For six years - my whole primary school life, he and his family were a newspaper cutting in Ouma Bunty's flat at Talisman 116.<br />
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My fondest memories of Oom Frans and his family are from two or three amazing junior highschool years when I visited them every Saturday. When "Nefie" and I cycled through Brooklyn on the Moulton and the Chopper, when Frans Junior (then Frannie) sang all sorts of songs like "Have you ever gone past an Aston Martin when it's standing still? You will probably find it's talking to a Mini, grill to grill." And Carel had a toy model of Lady Penelope's pink Rolls Royce!<br />
Then there were the in-between years when they were away in Germany and Greece. But we reconnected when they returned and they were guests of honour at just about every house party we had at 146 Hugh street.<br />
After my father passed away, I really got to appreciate the time he gave me in discussing the old days. Here in Cape Town he took us to Bantry Bay and showed us where Grandfather Fish's house was, and showed us where they swam in the sea and tried to warm it up with boiling water!!!<br />
I re-read Grandfater Fish's "Autobiography of a Counterjumper" after seeing his painting in the City Hall; and then I came across the lovely little piece "An evening with my grandson" The baby in that story is the man who passed away - what a sense of continuity.<br />
He was also the driver behind the "Familiebrief" in which the five siblings, (and later the four siblings and my Mom) shared their weekly doings, thus keeping such a strong connection despite their huge geographic dispersion.<br />
And now he's gone, and so is a significant link to my past. But he will stay in my memory.<br />
An in automotive spirit I salute him like Renault saluted the Citi Golf: <br />
Respect.<br />
<br />
<br /></div>
Johannes Cronjehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09201193566134950287noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2829386122329128047.post-55049269213712610162012-11-05T10:34:00.001+02:002012-11-05T10:34:04.533+02:00Fast Forward to Leadership in Higher Education<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Ok. So as is to be expected from online courses, I missed two weeks. In all fairness, though, I did read the course outcomes and glance through the prescribed articles. The Big Data stuff was fascinating. <br />
I will be returning to the two missed weeks in due course, but there's no point in catching them up now. I will jump ahead and concentrate on this week's topic - Academic Leadership. I must preamble this discussion by pointing out that I find it very exposing. Here I am writing about academic leadership. By virtue of my appointment as a Dean, I am an academic leader. But am I a good one? Am I an average one? Am I a bad one? I don't know. I have no real way of knowing. What is the benchmark? I do well in my performance reviews with my line head. Much of what I suggest gets done. Some people call me a charismatic leader, others call me an autocratic leader, others call me weak. Yet as a Faculty we are progressing beyond what could be expected of us, given the constraints of sitting across five buildings after the merger, and being unable to consolidate at the speed which we would like to see. What progress have we made, if any? How do we even know it is progress?<br />
I will take as the starting point of my discussion the article by Paul Portney in the <em>Washington Post</em> entitled "<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/on-leadership/the-leadership-vacuum-in-higher-education/2011/10/31/gIQA1X0lZM_story.html" target="_blank">The leadership vacuum in higher education</a>" (31 Oct 2011). Portney had been a dean for almost six years, and I am now entering the sixt year of my deanship. Written exactly a year ago the article resonates very strongly with me. <br />
A number of elements come to mind - resistance to change, lack of leadership training, lack of succession planning, and the nature of the beast.<br />
I really like the response given to Portney when he complained of resistance to change <em>“Duh. You’re in a profession in which you and your colleagues celebrate graduation by putting on the same silly hats and robes that were worn a thousand years ago. What the hell did you expect?”</em><br />
That and the fact that we tend to continue teaching the way we were taught, are two of the key problems. Interestingly enough, though many of us want to change - we just don't know how. We have to teach the way we were taught because we have not experienced any other way. The second key driver to this inertia is fear - and particularly fear of failure. Except, the nice word for this is "risk aversion". So here's the thing. We e<span id="goog_793498068"></span><a href="http://www.blogger.com/"></a><span id="goog_793498069"></span>xpect students to learn from their mistakes, but we penalise them for their mistakes. So they parrot us, and they don't learn, and they do well. So obviously we ourselves don't want to make mistakes, because, since we don't forgive our students, they won't forgive us... And the madness continues, yet we all email one another links to the over-exposed Ted-talk by Sir Ken Robinson, "<a href="http://www.google.co.za/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&frm=1&source=web&cd=3&cad=rja&ved=0CDgQtwIwAg&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ted.com%2Ftalks%2Fsir_ken_robinson_bring_on_the_revolution.html&ei=inCXUMvxIM6DhQfY5YCYAQ&usg=AFQjCNGcgfbvNemog8RSllDdUBpjMgbJAg&sig2=hUwWs3zmECSgr31pAZ9RaQ" target="_blank">Bring on the learning revolution</a>". But we all expect the <em>other</em> ones to lead the change.<br />
On the other hand. In the Faculty I have noticed some really cool inititatives of cross-curricular teaching, interdepartmental collaboration and even inter-institutional collaboration. What is needed now is one great push to see how we can integrate these pilot studies into the main stream. The initiatives of the department of Applied Design to investigate ways to have a unified first-year is most encouraging. But I believe we are not moving fast enough. Then on Sunday I saw this amazing TED talk by Shimon Schocken: <a href="http://on.ted.com/aE2L" target="_blank">The <span class="il">self</span>-<span class="il">organizing</span> <span class="il">computer</span> course</a>. It is premised on the concept that academics should not be teaching. We should be creating an environment in which learners learn. This, coupled by the term I learnt in Cyprus last month, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heutagogy" target="_blank"><em>Heutagogy</em></a><em> </em>has my head spinning. I want to create a landslide. I have already identified a number of key innovators in the Faculty. I am going to call them up and we are going to start a hugely disruptive set of interventions to create not just an environment in which students can learn, but to create a culture of individually-directed learning. So here's where popular culture comes in. I have to work according to Malcolm Gladwell's <a href="http://www.gladwell.com/tippingpoint/index.html" target="_blank"><em>The tipping point</em></a><em>. </em>I already have mavens, connectors and salespeople. I just have to align them and make things happen.<br />
So then, on to the lack of training. I must say that I would guess that at the level of a dean or a vice Chancellor one should be selected based on leadership skills, rather than be trained for it. Nevertheless, the only training that I have had since becoming a dean was a session billed as managing performance, which ended up being a training session in labour legislation, concentrating on how to fire people. Sad, deeply sad. Having done half an MBA as well as a "Junior Leaders'" course in the defence force, as well as an education diploma, I would say that, at least at the level of soft skills training for leadership, I have had enough. But what I lack most in training is systems training - training in how the University works. No such training exists. I have to learn all these things by accident. Here is a matter of immersive learning - learning from my mistakes. Of course, what makes it more difficult is that the university itself is still learning. Many of the systems that I would like to understand have not been developed yet - or are in the process of being changed. What has been very useful for me was to develop a series of "Faculty training days" where the whole faculty, including the dean, get briefed on the systems inside and outside of the university. We ask the key people in administrative positions to tell us how their systems work, and then we try to follow these procedures. Finally, I am a dedicated autodidact - I teach myself, which, after all, is why I joined this mooc.<br />
Of course I have lack of succession planning to thank for my appointment. As a result of the merger there was no clear successor tot he previous dean, but even more, there was a feeling that the university specifically wanted an impartial outsider to take charge. I have, however, in the past five years identified at least four people who might well be the next dean. And I have worked closely with them to ensure that they gain institutional, national and international exposure so that they would be able to take over seamlessly from me. But this succession planning goes further throughout the faculty. I have also begun to find shadow heads of departments to ensure smooth transisions there as well.<br />
When I speak of the nature of the beast I refer to Fred Mulder's recent keynote at the ICEL conference in Groningen, Netherlands, where he pointed out that there are three competing forces in higher education, these are access, efficiency and quality assurance. As you concentrate on the one, the other two necessarily miss out. At our Institution this quandary leads to a schitzophrenic beast. While we strongly want to be one of the most accessible institutions in the Western Cape, nevertheless we have to do so on a very strained budget, and at the same time a relentless sequence of quality assurance interventions by the Department of Higher Education is sapping our energy. The leadership challenge in this case lies in aliging these things. How can we streamline or processes to ensure efficiency, while at the same time improving quality so that we can increase access. And it is here where, once again, Heutagogy becomes exciting. We must create a multi-faceted learning environment that will enable a culture of learning so that students can take charge of their own learning.<br />
And that will require mega change.<br />
</div>
Johannes Cronjehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09201193566134950287noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2829386122329128047.post-29546341329852246262012-10-25T14:15:00.000+02:002012-10-25T14:15:00.789+02:00The week that wasn't<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
The most important element that all MOOCs have in common is their incredibly high drop-out rate.<br />
So that's why I promised myself I would NOT drop out.<br />
So last week I went trough the required readings on Sunday night, but pretty quickly I discovered that there were simply too many of them.<br />
The theme of week two was: Net Pedagogies: New models for teaching and learning <br />
However the University of Central Florida's <a href="http://blended.online.ucf.edu/" target="_blank">Blended Learning Toolkit</a> is certainly one of those sites that I will be visiting again and again.<br />
Once again there are three prescribed learning activities:<br />
<ol>
<li>Map what you are hearing to your institutional context. What parts are relevant to your institution?</li>
<li>What might be your role in moving your school to a new model?</li>
<li>Write a dialog/argument you would make to sell the administration on the idea of moving to a new model</li>
</ol>
Assignment 1<br />
In terms of the institutional context the most important lesson from this module lies in <a href="http://www.educause.edu/ero/article/blended-learning-toolkit-improving-student-performance-and-retention" target="_blank">Cavenah's (2011)</a> defensive definition of "Blended learning": "<strong>Blended courses</strong> provide much of the <strong>flexibility and
convenience</strong> of an <strong>online</strong> course while retaining the
<strong>benefits</strong> of the <strong>face-to-face classroom</strong>
experience". <br />
<br />
So as far as the Faculty of Informatics and Design is concerned this is really what has been happening, particularly in the work done in the Department of Architecture. They are following two models. Firstly they extend the studio to the students' homes by supporting them via Facebook, and secondly they take the studio into the field in their Design Build activities, and then replace the conventional classroom-based briefing and support, by communication on Facebook.<br />
In Public Relations the traditional "current awareness" lecturing has been replaced by a Twitter feed, and in Industrial Design students make videos to replace essays on field trips.<br />
<br />
BUT SO MUCH MORE CAN BE DONE.<br />
<br />
Wayne Coghlan sent me this excellent link to "<a href="http://knowtoneed.blogspot.com/2012/10/open-door-into-science-of-color-theory.html" target="_blank">Colour Theory for Everyone</a>". Now here's the thing. With such an EXCELLENT online resource WHY are we still teaching it the old way? All we need to do is to develop an excercise for students to develop their own artefacts based on what they learnt on the site, and that's it.<br />
The trick with blended learning is to do it in such a way as to maximise the LEARNING of the students by giving them learning tasks (real learning tasks, as opposed to "busy work") while minimising the work of the instructor by making such tasks "self-assessing". By self assessing I mean that once the task has been completed, we will know that the student has achieved the learning outcome, because without that outcome having been acheived the student would not have been able to do the task.<br />
<br />
Assignment 2<br />
My role in moving the Faculty to a new model will lie in putting more pressure on innovative teaching. I was lucky in that Jolanda and Hermie decided to do their doctoral studies under my supervision, and so they are using the new pedagogies. The problem lies in the fact that most of us teach the way we were taught. And not everyone was lucky enough to be taught by Renate Lippert at Masters' level. So althouth many of the Faculty staff really want to change their pedagogy, and recognise the need to, they lack the knowhow and first-hand experience of how to do it.<br />
So with our current "tablet project" I am planning to do exactly that - let them learn by experience.<br />
We had our first tablet day a few Saturdays ago. Everyone brought their tablets along. But just about nobody could use them. Many had not learnt the interface. Nobody had set it up to work on the University Internet, and the University Firewall had not been opened to Android Applications. So it was pretty hectic. But we learnt BY EXPERIENCE - that it may well be necessary to spend one session with students setting up their technology, and then another session teaching them how to use the technology something that we may well have omitted had we jumped straight into teaching with the new technology.<br />
At the same time during "software week" a few weeks ago it was again brought to my attention that we spend an inordinate amount of time in a lab teaching students which buttons to press to achieve what, when we actually know that firstly good programmers teach themselves, and secondly there are Youtube videos and Queston and Answer blogs that teach the stuff much better than we can.<br />
<br />So next year I will be spending quite a bit of time with curriculum officers and staff generally interrogating the way we teach. My secretary has already begun to set up meetings.<br />
<br />
Assignment 3<br />
This is the easy one. The administration has already bought into the idea. It is the academic staff who are lagging behind. Nevertheless it may be a good idea to persuade administration to look at incentivising the move to new technologies and new pedagogies because, at least in the initial stages, they simply are more time consuming. Consider the simple task of grading assignments. If they are handed in on paper, you open them and grade them. HOWEVER, if they are submitted through the elearning portal, a few things need to be done. You have to log into the portal. That means you have to find your password and hope that it has not been changed by the automated password expiry system. Then if you are lucky and you get logged in, then you have to download each assignment into a directory. This could take about 30 seconds per assignment. Then you have to open each assignment and grade it using the "insert comment" feature. Again this opening, inserting comments and saving could take a few seconds. So, if you are teaching one or two, or even 10 students it doesn't really matter. But now when your class gets to 60, and you spend one minute downloading, opening, saving and uploading each assignment, then you spend 60 minutes doing busy work - work that has to be done by you, but that does not add any value. So, that's an hour down the drain that you could have spent on getting your research output done, but it is an hour that was hidden inside of each of the assignments that had to be downloaded, opened, commented, saved and uploaded.<br />
Now, even worse. If it were done on paper I could take it home and grade it while sitting on the bed. If I don't have a laptop and a fast Internet connection at home, I have to do this at the office.<br />
If administrtation does not see that the type of work has changed, and if admin does not compensate staff for their extra time, and for their extra bandwidth, and even for their extra equipment, then we have far to go.<br />
<br />
Of course, the secondary objective (or maybe the primary objective) of my participation in this MOOC is to learn about them. So I have to report now on my learning so far.<br />
<h2>
What I am learning about MOOCs</h2>
The most important lesson that I have learnt from this Mooc is the same lesson that I keep on learning about online learning. It is about a mistake that I keep on making, and it is about a mistake that I keep warning my own stuents against. <br />
The problem with learning on the Internet generally, has become one of too MUCH information, rather than too little information.<br />
So what is making this particular course hard for me, is to decide which piece to distill for myself.<br />
I realize that, as a constructivist and a post-modernist, I tend to do exactly what the designer of this mooc has done. Give the learners as much information as you can, and then suggest to them that they contextualise it to their circumstances. The advantage of that is that every learner therefore tailor makes his or her own learning. The problem, of course, lies in deciding what is important, and in structuring it. And maybe that is the job of the instructional designer. To help the learner navigate this world with too much information.<br />
The analogy here would be for an instuctor to explain to a student of keyboard instruments that the note hanging from the bottom of the five staves is called D and that it corresponds with the piano key directly above the keyhole. The white key between the two black keys (as oppose to the set of three black keys on either side of the pair) That piano key is called D. It is easy to remember because it is the D key, D for Donkey with two black ears.<br />
Now, once you know the D key, as you go op one position, either onto the line or between the next, so you move one key up. And if you get to a "hash tag" in front of the key, you play the next black note instead. And that's how easy it is. Now you can play anything on the piano that you like.<br />
And that's why it is hard to learn to play the piano on your own.<br />
And that is why it is hard to stay focused on a resource-based learning course.<br />
</div>
Johannes Cronjehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09201193566134950287noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2829386122329128047.post-75722324489525769882012-10-09T18:45:00.003+02:002012-10-09T18:56:51.908+02:00Edfuture<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I have just joined a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massive_open_online_course" target="_blank">mooc</a>. This is my first mooc. I joined it because I wanted to get to know what it feels like to be in a mooc. I also joined it to learn what the mooc has to offer.<br />
<a href="http://edfuture.mooc.ca/" target="_blank">The topic of the mooc is the future of higher education</a> - CFHE12<br />
<br />
The first task is to use my blog to comment on a number of selected readings and contextualise them to my institution. Now isn't it a good thing that I have a blog.<br />
<br />
There are eight articles in the leading list for this week. Here, in the sequence in which they appear, are my comments of how the context of the CPUT Faculty of Informatics and Design resonates with the eight papers. Each title is hyperlinked to its article.<br />
<br />
UNESCO's <a href="http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0018/001831/183168e.pdf" target="_blank">Trends in Global Higher Education</a>: identify the following trends: Globalisaion, massification, inequalities in access, increasing student mobility; teaching, learning and curricula; quality assurance, accountability and qualifications frameworks; financing higher education and the public good-private good debate, the private revolution, the academic profession, the research environment, information and communication technology, demographics and the impact of the economic crisis. From my perspective as the dean of a faculty in a South African University of Technology that has a deep commitment to disadvantaged communities and a stated mission to be "At the heart of Technology Education in Africa" interesting tensions arise. We are all too aware of our position in terms of globalisation and student mobility with overtures made to us by so many international institutions that we are beginning to be quite selective in who we partner with. One of the biggest obstaces we face is in providing access in an unequal society, and, yes, our students are very mobile - many of them coming from neighbouring provinces and even neighbouring states. We have just emerged from, and are embarking upon a new set of quality assurance efforts. As a faculty, specifically we have made the re-design of our curricula our highest priority - even surpassing research. As a University of Technology we are uniquely positioned through work-integrated learning, to be very close to the public good private-good debate. We have also instituted a number of initiatives to get our students to be economically active even before their studies have been completed. We find ourselves affected in a strange way by the private institutions around us. They do not take away many students from us, but they take away potentially some of the best students. And the students with the deepest pockets. Moreover many private institutions provide a service of a quality that is not nearly so much better than ours as the costs are higher than ours; while there are a number of blatant fly-by-night operators who cost unsuspecting students inordiate amounts of money, and when they present us with their certificates to engage in further studies, they have to learn that these are of no vanlue. The Faculty of Informatics and Design is blessed with a very strong cohort of enthusiastic academics who see the challenge of growing the institution from a former technicon to a powerful university as an energising activity. We are developing ourselves as scholars, and we are constantly building our networks. We have even developed our own flagship <a href="http://www.design-development-research.co.za/" target="_blank">Design, Development and Research</a> conference. In terms of information and communication technology we are in an ironic position that we have an oversupply of unreliable technologies. Our ratio of students to computers is 2 to 1, in other words there is one computer for every two students. But our bandwidth is slow and our connectivity is unreliable. On the other hand, like many other developing countries we have leapfrogged much of the technology by the rapidly increasing use of mobile devices for learning. Thanks to cheap connectivity on the Blackberry platform we have started to make extensive use of Facebook and Twitter as communication channels to extend the classroom beyond the brick and mortar. We realise, though, that we need to revolutionise our pedagogy to keep abreast of the expectations and capabilities of our students. As a faculty we have developed a main research focus in the pedagogy of teaching design with the aid of technology. In this way we are integrating teaching and research, thus enhancing the effectivity of what we are doing, and this is our main attempt at surviving the economic crisis. All in all, I would say that the Faculty of Informatics and Design is reasonably well positioned to face the challenges identified by the Unesco paper.<br />
<br />
In his brief summary of the proceedings of the 2012 conference of the International Education Society of South Africa, entitled <a href="http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20120912160836275" target="_blank">Africa must lead innovation in higher education internationalisation,</a> Hans de Wit argues that Africa with its very young population, and also with its position as the "most internationalised" contitnent in the world, is best positioned to drive innovation. This is a novel idea, but not misplaced. Africa is geographically positioned inside the triangle of the three great forces of the US, Europe and the East. In the Faculty of Informatics and Design we are privileged to have both lecturers and students form a multitude of African countries, from as close as Namibia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Kenya and Tanzania, to as far as Ghana, Nigeria, Cameroon and Sudan. This has enabled us to be the founding member of the "Network of African Designers". Our extensive collection fo African staff and students certainly place us in an excellent position to drive such innovation.<br />
<i><span style="color: grey; font-family: GillSansMT-Italic; font-size: medium;"><span style="color: grey; font-family: GillSansMT-Italic; font-size: medium;"><span style="color: grey; font-family: GillSansMT-Italic; font-size: medium;"></span></span></span></i><br />
Joshua King provides <a href="http://forbesindia.com/article/tuck-school-of-business/3-reasons-why-india-will-lead-edtech-in-the-21st-century/33456/1" target="_blank">3 Reasons why India will lead EdTech in the 21st Century</a>: Culture, Demand and Mobility. Unfortunately for us we have only one of the three - the mobility. How are we going to develop a culture of learning, and how are we going to create a demand for a high quality education?<br />
<em><span style="color: grey; font-size: medium;"></span></em><br />
Blogger "The homeless adjunct" explains <a href="http://junctrebellion.wordpress.com/2012/08/12/how-the-american-university-was-killed-in-five-easy-steps/" target="_blank">How The American University was Killed, in Five Easy Steps</a>. 1. Defunding, 2. Deprofessionalising and impoverishing professors, 3. Managerialism, 4. Corporate culture and corporate money, and 5. the desctruction of the students. Luckily our university scores only 1 out of five in all this, which is the rampant rise of managerialism. The systems around us are being tightened so much that our eyes bulge. We are lucky in that our state funding has remained pretty much unchanged (i.e. we are not being defunded more than we have already been) and that we have not been able to get enough corporations that are willing to suck us in. So on the one hand we have been lucky. On the other hand, we have been working actively at professionalising our academics. We spend large amounts of money on the professional development of our academics as well as on the improvement of their qualifications and their attendance of international conferences. The improvement of the quality of our staff is already showing in terms of the increase of standards at both undergraduate and postgraduate level. And, if our academics are seved well, then so will our students be... I often jokingly say that as the dean it is my job to staff the complaints desk. And I am happy to report that, to date this year, out of a student body of 3000, I have had only three complaints, and of these only one was a complaint about poor teaching. The others have been administrative. In fact, this year the number of messages of thanks and congratulations have outnumbered the complaints.<br />
<br />
Kevin Carey describes <a href="http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/magazine/septemberoctober_2012/features/_its_three_oclock_in039373.php?page=1" target="_blank">The seige of academe</a>, giving us a preview of what may replace the university, by mentioning any number of web 2.0 inititatives, such as Coursera and Udacity that provide massively online open courses. He then speculates that, sooner or later, participants in these courses will want their certificates or badges or attendance points recognised by traditional institutions. Of course that will lead to the possibility of there being an institution that is accredited to perform valid recognition of prior learning, and to award legal and credible degrees without the candidate's having attended a traditional university... So watch this space for my own announcement of my own mooc, quite soon.<br />
<br />
<i><span style="color: grey; font-family: GillSansMT-Italic; font-size: medium;"><span style="color: grey; font-family: GillSansMT-Italic; font-size: medium;"><span style="color: grey; font-family: GillSansMT-Italic; font-size: medium;"></span></span></span></i><span style="color: grey; font-family: GillSansMT-Italic; font-size: medium;"><span style="color: grey; font-family: GillSansMT-Italic; font-size: medium;"><span style="color: grey; font-family: GillSansMT-Italic; font-size: medium;"></span></span></span>An opposing view comes in the form of an essay entitled <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/07/why-the-internet-isnt-going-to-end-college-as-we-know-it/259378/" target="_blank">"Why the Internet is not going to end college as we know it</a>". The author argues that until the financial model for college education changes we will not have Internet-based colleges. Of course, that is only half the story. Just about every technology from 35mm slides, 16mm movies, U-Matic cassettes, Television, Radio, or even in the "Sixties the Encyclopaedia Britannica, whatever, has been punted as the disruptive technology in Education. But people are missing the point. The point of education is to give learners LESS knowledge, not more. My parents bought the Britannica. They subscribed to the yearbook. We never used it. It was just too overwhelming. The good teacher is not the one who teaches you most. The good teacher is the one who teaches you the one thing you need. And that thing, most often than not, is not a piece of information. It is more likely to be a piece of attitude. And the more the Internet grows, and the more Web2.0 communities we belong to, and the more moocs we attend, the more we will yearn for that brief period of intimate physical human contact.<br />
<br />
David Schaffer of the University of Albany highlights <a href="http://www.rockinst.org/newsroom/news_releases/2010/03-15-new_paradigm_for_economic_development.aspx" target="_blank">The Growing Role of Higher Education in Economic Development:</a> <em>Higher education institutions and systems that are successful in this arena, the report said, appear to rely on a combination of four key factors:</em><br />
<ul type="disc">
<li><em>Innovation — that is, using their research power to create knowledge that can have economic impact, and then actively working to help move new ideas into the marketplace.</em></li>
<li><em>Knowledge transfer that helps businesses grow and prosper, through programs such as job training, technical and other consulting assistance, and assistance to startups.</em></li>
<li><em>An activist role in revitalizing the communities in which they are located, such as efforts to help local elementary and secondary schools.</em></li>
<li><em>And their core mission of producing the educated populace that’s needed to build, run and work in the innovation economy.</em> <a href="http://www.rockinst.org/newsroom/news_releases/2010/03-15-new_paradigm_for_economic_development.aspx" target="_blank"> (Schaffer, 2010)</a></li>
</ul>
It is astounding how close the Faculty of Informatics and Design is to these goals. In Industrial design we have a project in which students learn, in their degree year, to move from product to profit. It is our hope that they will exit the university as employers rather than employees. The department of Information Technology have their own "Hub" that directly addresses the element of knowledge transfer, job training and assitance to startups. Furthremore we are in negotiations with local incubators to locate our students with them. The department of Architecture, with their Design Build project at St Michaels school fulfils the activist role, specifically with an elementary school. Finally the whole faculty's research question, "What do people do, and how do we design solutions for them" resonates with the last factor. However, the aspect that fascinates me most about this, is that the four factors listed by Schaffer, might as well be our very own rationale for the construction of our "Design Park".<br />
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Finally David Staley and Dennis Trinkle identify ten "faultlines" that contribute to <span class="Object" id="OBJ_PREFIX_DWT368"><a href="http://www.educause.edu/ero/article/changing-landscape-higher-education" target="_blank">The Changing Landscape of Higher Education</a></span>. I will comment briefly on how these resonate with the faculty of Informatics and Design. <br />
<em>#1 Increasing differentiation of higher education: </em>Interestingly South African higher education is currently characterised by institutional drift with Technikons having achieved Univeristy status, and some Universities entering the domain of "professional" courses. On the other hand there is much to be said for the renewed emphasis on FET colleges that the minister of Higher Education is wanting to model on the American Community Colleges. Here the Faculty of Informatics and Design is well-placed with existing MOUs in place between the IT department and some FET colleges, and the initiation of talks between the Design department and the College of Cape Town.<br />
<em>#2 The transformation of the general education curriculum: </em>Need I say anything. Not only is curriculum transformation the key activity of the Faculty. It even drives our new Faculty structure, and will determine how we plan our physical spaces during our consolidation phase.<br />
<em>#3 Faculty faces of the future: </em>The Faculty of Informatics and Design recognises, more than most, the value of the development of Faculty, as well as the recognition of Faculty endeavors. We spend a quarter of a million rand per year sending staff to the Design Indaba. We have six staff training and development days per year. We have had the highest number of ad-hominem promotions in the Institution. Furthermore we are pioneering the use of ICT in education in a number of ways. We are at the forefront of using video essays and digital stories, we lead in using <em>Twitter</em> and <em>Facebook</em>, and we have just launched a project using <em>Android </em>tablets.<br />
<em>#4 The surge in global faculty and student mobility: </em>Although there are some lecturers and professors who seem to be abroad more than they are on campus, we still lag behind in the mobility of our undergraduate students. Fortunately for us we are visited regularly by foreign exchange students, and, thanks to our DDR conference, if we can't visit the world, we at least get the world to visit us.<br />
<em>#5 The new "invisible college":</em> We are in the process of developing extensive personal and institutional networks by being represented on any number of boards and academic institutes. We are harnessing the electronic media to ensure that, although we are geographically far removed, we nevertheless remain close to the action on a number of fronts.<br />
<em>#6 The changing traditional student: </em>Here is our biggest weakness. We have lost touch with how our students think. We still beleive that we can send them emails. We still beleive that they should hand in paper-based assignments that have been printed out. We still believe that they should work by hand and by desktop machines. When we have our annual media conference we sit there and we see what our alumni look like, and what our future students will look like. And then we go back and we teach in a traditional classroom and complain about the lack of air condiditoning.<br />
We have an interesting mix of youg and old, rich and poor students, but we are still stuck to a predominantly morning-based, studio-based teaching system aimed at the middle class. We are doing very little to accommodate students who have to work. We are doing very little to encourage students to get work and integrate that work into their learning experience.<br />
<em>#7 The mounting pressure to demonstrate the value added of a college degree: </em>In South Africa, unfortunately, we do not sit with this problem. The problem here is the reverse. Many students just want a degree - no matter what the degree is. Studying has so many financial and social advantages that the economic value of the degree is sometimes neglected. It is therefore our responsibility to ensure that there is such value. As I mentioned earlier, we must change our aim from producing job seekers to producing job creators.<br />
<em>#8 The re-valuation of middle-skill jobs: </em>This resonates so well with the renewed focus on the FET colleges. The challenge for us, therefore, is to adjust our selection criteria upwards significantly, so that the colleges can find really good material in the middle sill market. No longer should those with middle skill abilities drop out of our courses. They should not enrol with us in the first place. Proper career guidance and proper selection is needed to protect students from making expensive mistakes.<br />
<em>#9 Higher education as a private rather than a public good: </em>Once again it is a reassuring factor that South African Higher Education has been spared the pressure of being abandoned by Government. Although we are part funded, there is not the clear drive to continually reduce our funding, and thus, at this stage anyway, we remain a public good - and that is where we should be.<br />
<em>#10 Lifelong partnerships with students:</em> Speaking for myself as a professor of education, rather than as a dean I can categoriclly state that I have maintained a very strong bond with just about every student ever to have graduated with me. I have done this through the "Catts" mailing list, and through the "Elearning Update" conference. I have done this by helping my alumni in their job-hunting efforts, and I have done this in assisting them with career counselling. I meet them in person, I meet them online. Not only do I meet with them, I have created a community of them. And that is what should be happening in the Faculty. Fortunately the PR department is taking the lead here by running alumni events, and, of course, by inviting their alumni to the Media Conference. But yes, unfortunately the last "faultline" is actually a huge weakness in the Institution and in the Faculty. But I have had a conversation with the new director of advancement, and he assures me that this is one of his key goals for the near future. On the other hand, at a more intimate level I know that there are many of the Faculty staff who have similar networks with their alumni that I have. So we have something to build.<br />
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So there then are a number of elements that we need to consider in checking the extent to which the Faculty of Informatics and Design is ready for the future. I look forward to your comments.<br />
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Johannes Cronjehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09201193566134950287noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2829386122329128047.post-59514393560872436052012-10-01T14:42:00.001+02:002012-10-01T14:42:33.420+02:00Two amazing conferences - Part 2<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
So the rain/drizzle has stopped and I have had a nice chat with <a href="http://www.aect.org/" target="_blank">Ana Donaldson</a> about her trip to Northern Ciprus. But now I am in that sort of information overload mode that one has after a conference. Checked of of the room and sitting in the lobby waiting to go to the airport.<br />
I really like the ICEM. It is a small, intimate association that is truly international, and even though there were probably not even 100 people at the conference, every continent was represented.<br />
I did a keynote with Piet Kommers last year in Aveiro, and this year here in Cyprus. I really think I will be going to Singapore in 2013.<br />
So here are the highlights. <br />
<a href="http://icem2012.cardet.org/" target="_blank">Design Thinking and Learning Design, Nicosia, Cyprus 26 - 29 Septembe</a>r #ICEMCY12<br />
John Hedberg set the tone with a keynote in which he showed much new technology, and then asked the question - are we really extracting maximum value from all this technology. Somehow we cannot get to overcome Larry Cuban's criticism of so many years that technology has simply not lived up to its promise. But then, if one compares that with the final keynote by John's colleague Matt Bower, then the answer becomes a resounding YES, or NO...<br />
What I take away from this conference is that we MUST re-think what we do. And we must be brave, and we must be radical.<br />
Why on this green earth are we still expecting students to write conventional essays and illustrate them with conventional pictures if there are mobile devices and apps that cannot be embedded in conventional writing - and if what we are getting students to write about, is much better exprienced than described. Hats off to people like Veronica Barnes and Rael Futerman from CPUT who are brave enough to let students make videos instead of write essays. Hats off to people like Jolanda de Villiers Morkel and her colleagues in Architecture who have extended the studio into the pockets of her students by using Facebook. Hats off to Ayesha Toyer and her blog teaching, and Marian Pike and her Twitter teaching.<br />
What really concerns me though as I reflect upon this and other conferences, is the number of times that I suggest things at work only to be told by my seniors or my juniors that it will not work. Then when I get to conferences I hear that other people are trying it out, and then I read online that there are even "rules" for it.<br />
One case in point. In discussing our Unviersity's computer budget I have been saying, why does the university provide technology - either to staff or students. Why don't we ask people to provide their own technology - within certain parameters and then incentivise it. Then I was told it can't be done. Then John Hedberg actually gives it a name. It's called BYOD. Bring your own device. THEN there are online articles such as "Five rules for 'Bring Your Own Device" teams". In other words, the answer to the naysayers is "Yes, it CAN be done, if you follow certain rules". When I argue with people about what a studio is, I get called a cretin and someone who simply does not understand design education. And then John points to artciles about SKG "Spaces of Knowlege Generation" - and then I find articles about it such as this very new one by <a href="http://www.google.com.cy/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=6&cad=rja&ved=0CEYQFjAF&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.partnershipsjournal.org%2Fojs%2Findex.php%2Fjls%2Farticle%2Fdownload%2F282%2F277&ei=oINpUJHMOsjCtAaprIHAAw&usg=AFQjCNEtIXHjz04R297PucyBgS9l-DjG8w" target="_blank">Riddle</a> (2012).<br />
While I am wondering how we can use a tool to portray our new modular curriculum visually, John shows "<a href="http://en.linoit.com/" target="_blank">Lino</a>" - which is a shared pinboard for education. BRILLIANT.<br />
While I am wondering how we can use android apps on the tablets that we bought for our ECP students, John points us to Kathy Schrock's "Bloomin excellent" <a href="http://www.schrockguide.net/bloomin-apps.html" target="_blank">classification of Apps according to the new version of Bloom's Taxonomy</a>.<br />
So the conference was really good for my soul - and really good for my self-confidence in terms of where we should be going as a faculty.<br />
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<a href="http://image.slidesharecdn.com/conoleicemkeynotefinal28sept-120928035227-phpapp01/95/slide-15-728.jpg?1348822600" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://image.slidesharecdn.com/conoleicemkeynotefinal28sept-120928035227-phpapp01/95/slide-15-728.jpg?1348822600" width="320" /></a></div>
The keynote on day two was Professor Gráinne Conole who took design thinking in learning to a whole new level. The whole concept of Learning Design, rather than Instructional Design, offers an amazing set of solutions to the re-curriculuation problem in the Faculty. I have invited her to spend some time with the Facutly and we'll see if we can combine this with a trip that she will be doing to Unisa anyway. <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/GrainneConole/conole-icem-keynotefinal28sept" target="_blank">The slideshow of her talk</a> is an absolute must read for anyone who is in the process of designing any form of learning event. And<br />
THIS PICTURE simply had me drooling. I WANT ONE for the whole Faculty's offering. Learn to use Linoit, everyone.<br />
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Matt Bower's presentation made it so clear that we simply cannot continue the way we are working. There's a whole new world out there. Two years ago, at a Faculty Training Day I said: "Mark my words, the future lies in APPS" Retha and her team took it hook, line and sinker, and I am so proud of what they are doing now. The only real comment from the floor was "We need to think holistically about where we are going first, before we can fragment it all with apps. We need to ask 'what apps for what purpose' first." And, of course, nothing happened. So we have fallen even further behind. We MUST get together and have a workgroup on apps. <a href="http://mattbower.com/blog/?p=568" target="_blank">Check out this blogpost of Matt's and you will see why</a>.<br />
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Then, just to complete my experience, at the end of the conference I went for my frst swim in the Mediterranean in Larnaca. The evidence is on Facebook, but I will not link to it. It was after the swim that <a href="http://www.geocaching.com/profile/?guid=19bbb803-965e-432e-b4c9-4ca5ade65027" target="_blank">Antia Stangl</a> introduced me to the magical world of <a href="http://www.geocaching.com/" target="_blank">Geocaching</a>. She logged in on her Cellphone. Then we followed the GPS and solved a little puzzle. And there, hidden under a bench was a tiny cannister about the size of half a thimble. Inside the cannister a little scroll. We opened the cannister, she wrote her name on the scroll, closed it and hid it away again very carefully. Then she logged into her phone and announced that the task had been successfully completed. <br />
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And just like that the magic happened for me. In one simple act of finding a little magnetic tube and adding a name to its contents, and then recording that in the cloud the real world and the digital was made to connect. Here in the world of the Geocacher lies a whole new way of connecting with people, with retaining the actual artefact, and yet linking it to everyone else. The implications of this for work-integrated learning still has to be plumbed. I think I have found a new thing to be hooked on, GEOCACHING rules ok.<br />
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But it is drizzling again outside.</div>
Johannes Cronjehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09201193566134950287noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2829386122329128047.post-24811699517128651192012-10-01T11:11:00.000+02:002012-10-01T11:12:26.620+02:00Two amazing conferences - Part 1<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I had planned to do first bit of <a href="http://www.geocaching.com/" target="_blank">Geocaching</a> today, but, in a very strange turn of events it is actually DRIZZLING in Nicosia in summer. What makes this even stranger is that it is during their national holiday - so it will rain on their parade...<br />
But that allows (no forces) me to sit down and reflect on the two conferences that I have just attended. One in Pretoria, one in Cyprus. Both amazing in the way in which they have been able to integrate where we are with technology, and where we are (or are NOT) with education. There seems to be this constant disconnect between what technology allows for education, and what we will allow it to do for us. We keep on under-utilizing it.<br />
So, here then a couple of notes and links regarding what I have learnt from the two conferences.<br />
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<a href="http://repository.up.ac.za/handle/2263/19718" target="_blank">University of Pretoria Library Services e-Strategy Symposium: Out of the e-box 19-20 September 2012</a> #Fablib
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After a nice opening in which Prof Stephanie Burton, DVC Research of UP presented a few really good challenges to the library, Dr Adele Botha of the CSIR did another one of her stunning presentations about <a href="https://wiki.uef.fi/display/IMPDET/Abstract+-+Adele+Botha" target="_blank">Mobile learning</a>. This link is to another presentation of hers, but she is VERY worth listening to. I don't know if she is the one who coined the term, but what I now know best from her presentation is about the quest for the ever elusive "3G-spot" that place, somewhere in a tree in Africa, where there is fleeting 3G reception. And under the three there is budding commercial activity... Huge cudos for Adele is that she managed to tempt a very busy DVC who had a day of interviews ahead to stay till the very end of her presentation - while constantly saying to me "I have to go - please tell her I am sorry I missed the last bit" - and then she stayed to the end. Well done, Adele.</div>
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I did my "<a href="http://vimeo.com/32140043" target="_blank">Seven ages of Technology in Education</a>" Then there were two Skype presentations. One by Robert Miller about the <a href="http://repository.up.ac.za/handle/2263/19874" target="_blank">Internet Archive Book Digitization Project</a>, where they are in the process of digitising EVERY BOOK that there is in the world. They already have made a backup of the INTERNET. Yes, they downloaded the entire Internet onto hard disks and stored it in a HUGE shipping container. The mind boggles. This resonated well with a presentation by Michelle Rago about the <a href="http://www.wdl.org/en/" target="_blank">World Digital Library</a>.Put the two presentations together and one wonders why there is still a need for an institutional repository. We need to sit down and think very seriously about information provision at a university. It it not better to hire a really good human who can search for information, rather than to hire yet another subscription to yet another commercial repository. Will the university library of the future consist of a few highly skilled helpdesk workers? I hope so.</div>
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Then the metrics of scholarship came under fire. Leslie Chan took us on a journey towards "<a href="http://repository.up.ac.za/handle/2263/19884" target="_blank">Re-imagining research impact in the open knowledge environment"</a>, which made me wonder: Do we really still need impact factors and H-scores if there is <a href="http://socialmention.com/">Socialmention.com</a>. The very concept of measuring readership as an indication of quality has made me wonder. If we see how many people mention you - regardless of whether that is a social citation or a citation in an accredited journal - using that to measure quality should then place "50 Shades of Grey" way higher than "The great Gatsby" And this could have interesting repercussions for designing high school reading lists.</div>
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In his paper about Libraries, technology trends and researcher expectations, Theo Bothma took us on a whirlwind tour of URLs and technologies, most of which I tried to capture in my <a href="http://www.evernote.com/shard/s235/sh/9202f1a4-1269-44b0-8859-417e4f708918/f4769164d4dab98c917f825c0f41cc86" target="_blank">Evernote file</a>. Two things that come to mind immediately upon reflection is Flipboard, and the Youtube clip about the Social Media Revolution, 2012.</div>
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The next morning Dr DR AMALEYA GONEOS‐MALKA presented a powerful analysis of "Marketing to young adults in the context of a post‐modern society". This resonated so strongly with what we have been saying so long about learners in a digital age. The point is, we really have to re-think the learning tasks we give students, as well as the way we assess their learning. This was a very strong theme at the Nicosia conference as well. My perception of this, after the past three weeks, has changed severely. I can no longer complain because my phone and my ipad cannot do what my laptop can do. Neither can I complain because my laptop cannot do what the other two divices can do. And then, of course, together with the "Smart TV" I have to realize that we live in a Four-Screen world. And that, therefore, the learning that we expect our learners to do, should become four-screen learning. And where does that leave paper and pencil?</div>
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Nicholas Clarke and Karel Bakker wowed us with the amazing <a href="http://repository.up.ac.za/handle/2263/19871" target="_blank">digital repository of Architecture</a> that they have created for Pretoria. I immediately followed up with Andre van Graan, and we will be continuing along these lines for Cape Town. And now that I know about Geocaching - the mind boggles.</div>
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Dolf Jordaan showed UP's very impressive moble app - which I have now downloaded. I wonder if we have a CPUT mobile app? Interestingly, though, the student feedback on the APP store, shows that what UP gives, and what students want - are still not all that well aligned. Yet, is is an amazing app. Well done, Dolf.</div>
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Tim Walter of Nashua Mobile and Bryan Nelson of Google <google .co=".co" bryannelson="bryannelson"> presented some futuristic stuff that is available now. I am dying to try Google Hangouts, for instance. </google></div>
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So now I have to check out of the hotel and I have only reported on ONE. Thus, rename this post Part 1 and hope that ONE DAY I might report on the Nicosia one.<br />
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Johannes Cronjehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09201193566134950287noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2829386122329128047.post-64480030448823888002012-07-05T13:45:00.000+02:002012-07-05T13:45:31.690+02:00The Rhodes Memorial Double Coincidence<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
This morning I invited Bart Verveckken to share a drink with me at the <a href="http://www.rhodesmemorial.co.za/memorial.aspx" target="_blank">Rhodes Memorial</a>. We met at 09:30. He ordered hot chocolate and I ordered <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earl_Grey_tea" target="_blank">Earl Grey Tea</a>.<br />
As we were winding down our disussion and getting ready to leave, a whole party of people arrived, sat down and ordered, after which one of them stood up, and welcomed everyone of the party to this celebration of the 100th anniversary of the opening of the memorial on 5 July 1912. Turns out it was the <a href="http://www.simonvdstel.org/Outings.htm" target="_blank">Simon van der Stel foundation</a>. Well-known Cape Town architect <a href="http://www.archrsa.com/" target="_blank">John Rennie</a> then presented a highly informative talk about the history of the memorial and the inauguration.<br />
It turns out that the memorial was opened exactly 100 years ago TODAY, by - wait for it - <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Grey,_4th_Earl_Grey" target="_blank">Albert Grey (1851 - 1917)</a> - the Fourth Earl Grey, and grandson of the man after whom the tea was named.</div>Johannes Cronjehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09201193566134950287noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2829386122329128047.post-39400354710205534202011-09-08T13:10:00.000+02:002011-09-08T13:10:18.429+02:00A week of writing<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPqbzuA50-Fwoq42iAuCOjZVmUfNTyLYokJpNbztTVZDNI7pTqXArlqgc4QNFlvsJuoNDqwswxAPlhv-u97_-hm5h4agq7Csb4LmA2fO11OcLhQke_pQHN-IzRGmAc-_-sRQDqzst_RD-_/s1600/goedgedacht.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPqbzuA50-Fwoq42iAuCOjZVmUfNTyLYokJpNbztTVZDNI7pTqXArlqgc4QNFlvsJuoNDqwswxAPlhv-u97_-hm5h4agq7Csb4LmA2fO11OcLhQke_pQHN-IzRGmAc-_-sRQDqzst_RD-_/s320/goedgedacht.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Sixteen members of the Faculty decided to spend the September recess writing. We checked into <a href="http://www.goedgedacht.org.za/">Goedgedacht</a> Farm on Monday 5 September, and started with a slice of Mic Barnes's "Death by Chocolate" cake to celebrate my birthday.<br />
Then we quickly moved into our rooms and before lunch we had all settled down to a good dose of writing. I managed to finish the article that Farivar Rahimi and I received back from Educational Technology and Society <i>more than a year ago</i>, and to resubmit it. Ayesha and Thabisa decided to split their original paper and develop three articles from it. Rael and Jay are converting conference papers into articles for peer-reviewed journals. Mic is working on her proposal. Amanda, Jannie, Diane and Beverley are catching up on their Masters' theses. Eddie is working on multiple papers. Laban is making sense of his PhD and Monica is writing an piece for James Garraway's booklet, as well as for an international journal.<br />
Andy Bytheway provided really valuable insights on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. In fact on Tuesday he ran the show when Rael and I did a workshop on incubation in the Fringe.<br />
Wednesday was one of those rare Cape winter days when the temperature rises to 30 degrees, and we chose mid day for a "Cool walk" through the Eco-village. What started off as a 30 minute stroll ended up taking two hours, but it was fantastic.<br />
Today, (Thursday) is cold, rainy and misty. So we are all crammed into the living room of the main house and working in deathly silence, except for the furious rattle of notebook keys.<br />
It is amazing the levels of concentration people can reach. It is amazing the levels of energy that can be felt in complete silence.<br />
I wish I had done this two years ago when I first wanted to.<br />
I wish I could do one once a month.</div>Johannes Cronjehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09201193566134950287noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2829386122329128047.post-78383959067234939762011-04-10T08:47:00.000+02:002011-04-10T08:47:13.422+02:00The big walk<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">So there we were - <a href="http://www.gate5.co.za/quickview.aspx?s1=13065136&s2=15792183&s3=22209&s4=PR&s5=P">marching down Roeland Street dressed as Batman</a>.<br />
This was Marian Pike's inspired idea to consolidate the Faculty's participation in projects in "<a href="http://www.creativecapetown.net/the-fringe-cape-town%E2%80%99s-innovation-district/">The Fringe: Cape Town's innovation district</a>". <br />
It was part of the revamped Faculty Training Day. The Faculty has six training days per year. The purpose of these days is for us to get to know each other, to find out about events at the University and to improve our skills levels related to our jobs.<br />
Other highlights of the day included presentations by <a href="http://artefacts.co.za/main/Buildings/archframes.php?archid=2351&countadd=1">Mr Pieter Mathews </a>who presented a stunning slideshow of architectural works by his firm, <a href="http://www.maaa.co.za/">Mathews and Associates</a>. Then there was <a href="http://www.tedre.name/">Prof Matti Tedre</a> who talked about the gentle art of academic publishing. There were also presentations about first aid, photography and learning styles.<br />
The next training day will centre around improved teaching an learning, to prepare us for the re-curriculation and restructuring of the faculty as well as the the next round of Institutional Reviews by the Higher Education Quality Committee. Once again, though, the focus should be on keeping the training days exciting and meaningful. Thanks to all involved in making this one so special.</div>Johannes Cronjehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09201193566134950287noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2829386122329128047.post-7687927556123726932011-01-30T11:08:00.000+02:002011-01-30T11:08:22.417+02:00You gotta love it when a plan comes together...<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">This is the beginning of my 4th calendar year at CPUT. I arrived in July 2007, so although I've only been here for three and a half years, it is technically the beginning of year four.<br />
And it is so good to see how a couple of things are beginning to fall in place.<br />
From the outset there was just one aim - increasing research output. There were two constraints - knowledge of how to do research, and time in which to do it.<br />
We starded with increasing the knowledge about doing research. The first initiative was a Faculty research day in 2007. On this followed the creation of the Postgraduate Research Programme (PRP) which started its life as an evening programme, and now lives on as a hybrid of evening programmes and block sessions. A number of supervisors have started seeing their students on a Monday or Thursday evening every week to engage in community-building and peer-support activities. The STING group, staff working on post-graduate studies, which has been going strong for a some years now has a sister in DRAW - the Design Research Action Workshop, run by Alettia and Mugendi. Then there's also Muthoni's group in Grahpic Design.<br />
But the most ambitious project is the Design, Development and Research conference planned for 23 - 27 September. Check out <a href="http://www.design-development-research.co.za/index.php/DDRC/2011">http://www.design-development-research.co.za/index.php/DDRC/2011</a><br />
In terms of teaching and learning Graphic Design led the way by harmonising the offering on both campuses, while IT led the country in developing a suite of programmes aligned to the new HEQF. Next steps will be re-designing the whole faculty offerings. Work on this started last year with wide consultation in the Faculty. Now industry consultation will follow. On 17 February there will be a Faculty training day dedicated to Curriculum Design, and on 7 and 8 March there will be a two-day curriculum design workshop for selected delegates. The highlight of the teaching and learning project in the Faculty was undoubtedly the WTF Media conference run by PR. <a href="http://shesthegeek.co.za/press-release/wtf-media-conference-cput-october-20-%E2%80%93-22-2010/">http://shesthegeek.co.za/press-release/wtf-media-conference-cput-october-20-%E2%80%93-22-2010/</a> This was an excellent example of breaking the barriers between academic and industry and of allowing actual practitioners to share with students some of their experiences of real life...<br />
Of course, one cannot talk about streamlining teaching and learning without considering workplace learning and here again great strides have been made with IT running a pre-incubator in Roeland Street, and various community engagement, work-integrated learning co-operative learning and service learning projects. The highlight of the Faculty's community engagement is undoubtedly the East City Design Intitiative, a partnership between the Faculty and the City, through the Cape Town Partnership and Creative Capetown. The first phase is now complete with the naming of the area as "The Fringe: Cape Town's Innovation District" <a href="http://www.creativecapetown.net/the-fringe-cape-town%e2%80%99s-innovation-district/">http://www.creativecapetown.net/the-fringe-cape-town%e2%80%99s-innovation-district/</a><br />
With the Cape Craft and Design Institute, the Bandwidth Barn and the Fashion Council already in the Fringe the Faculty's presence is being consolidated. This must lead to amazing synergies in future.<br />
Watch this space...</div>Johannes Cronjehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09201193566134950287noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2829386122329128047.post-82858394826117205072010-11-09T18:44:00.000+02:002010-11-09T18:44:30.666+02:00Franci's Tribute to her Mom, Hennie Wierenga (02.10.1937 – 02.11.2010)It's in Afrikaans, but Google can translate it for you.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixb3CVGdz2-fzqa_s5ensIjGHGHuSPWzVvaOAKb0s_4d3hyzivoVJx3zKKi2QcrtYM5iRTu_FzEIiA84F8dogGG1feXvjXlmwAa9d38nSfZDe2_5XsyZIhwd2W0LVCX50zni5kO6NdBMtr/s1600/ma-as-jong-vrou.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" px="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixb3CVGdz2-fzqa_s5ensIjGHGHuSPWzVvaOAKb0s_4d3hyzivoVJx3zKKi2QcrtYM5iRTu_FzEIiA84F8dogGG1feXvjXlmwAa9d38nSfZDe2_5XsyZIhwd2W0LVCX50zni5kO6NdBMtr/s1600/ma-as-jong-vrou.gif" /></a></div>Ouma het altyd vertel hoe sy die buurvrou geroep het om haar te help om die eersgeborene te bad. Sy was te bang sy breek die brose ou lyfie as sy dit self moes doen. Teen die tyd dat Hennie haar vingertjies kon strek, het die klavier in die voorkamer gestaan. Ouma het al van haar eie tienerdae gespaar daarvoor, vir haar blondekopdogter wat sy eendag sou hê. So het alles begin. <br />
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Sy is gekoester en geleer om mooi te lyk en aanvallig op te tree. Sy het leer tennis speel en het altyd bekoorlik aangetrek. By die skool was sy besonder skrander, en het gaan onderwys studeer. Na haar kinders se geboortes het sy gaan skoolhou by Transoranje Skool vir Dowes in Pretoria, waar sy jaar na jaar departementele merietetoekennings vir goeie werk ontvang het. Sy was geliefd onder die sesjariges. Ek onthou goed hoe die een outjie altyd onder haar lessenaar ingeklim het en oor haar sykouse gestreel het, soms vir lang tye aanmekaar. Hy was outisties én doof. Sy het instinktief geweet wat hulle nodig het. Dit neem ‘n besonderse mens om twaalf dowe sesjariges dag na dag te versorg en op te voed. Meeste van hulle was in die koshuis en het hul ouers net vakansies gesien. Sy was ‘n warm instaan-ma.<br />
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Ek is elf maande na Arina gebore. Dit was sekerlik nie vir haar maklik nie. Selfs die mees georganiseerde vrou moet hare op haar tande hê om twee babas in doeke te versorg. Ons het soos ‘n tweeling grootgeword. Twee willewragtig-dogtertjies wat hulle soos seuns gedra het. Om te keer dat ons soos Tarzan aan die binnegordyne swaai, het ons so nou en dan ‘n skerp waarskuwing van ‘n goedgeplante speld in die soom gekry. <br />
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Sy het ons eenders aangetrek met rokke wat sy self gemaak het. In die winter het ons ‘n rits truie gehad wat sy self gebrei het. Haar huis was altyd onberispelik versorg; ‘n vrou met waarde ver bo korale. <br />
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Maar mens kan nie altyd kies wat die lewe jou opdien nie. Ma se veertigerjare het haar getref met depressie en migraine. Sy het al meer in haarself gekeer. Toe ek en Arina die nes verlaat, het sy haarself alleen bevind. Sy was skielik sonder man én kinders.<br />
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Een goeie aand hoor ons Ma gaan op ‘n ‘date’. ‘n Engel met die naam van Albie raak toe verskriklik lief vir haar. Die gevoel was wederkerig. Sy het weer gelewe. Albie het haar op die hande gedra, en sy het hom versorg met elke greintjie krag wat sy gehad het. Twintig jaar se daaglikse liefdesbriefies en kaartjies vertel die storie van twee mense wat onvoorwaardelik vir mekaar gegee het. Die lewe saam was genoeg. <br />
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Hulle het ‘n tuiste gemaak; hulle was albei ewe lief vir mooi huis-goed. Elke item het ‘n storie gehad. Hulle het soos kinders gegiggel en Albie het vir Ma rondgery waar sy ook al wou heengaan. Met haar weeklikse haarafspraak sou hy en die miniatuur Toy Pom-hondjie Mitzi, voor die salon in sy motor sit en wag. <br />
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Toe Albie siek word, was dit Ma se beurt om te versorg. Sy gesondheid het akuut agteruitgegaan, en sy het saam met hom in die Kaap kom wag vir nuwe hart. Ses maande het hulle gewag. Sy het hom ondersteun en rondgery en die Kaapse wind verdra. Na ‘n suksesvolle oorplanting was die lewe weer mooi. Vir ‘n geruime tyd het alles goed gegaan.<br />
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In wat ‘n klein operasie sou wees, het ‘n mislukte mediese ingreep Ma se lewe vir altyd verander. Na ses maande in ‘n koma het sy wonderbaarlik genoeg herstel om huis toe te gaan. Alhoewel sy oënskynlik gesond was, het haar liggaam ingewikkelde sorg nodig gehad. Onooglike operasieletsels het haar selfbewus laat voel, en die koma het onomkeerbare skade aan haar breinfunksie veroorsaak. Sy kon nie meer brei nie en daaglikse roetine-takies soos kosmaak was nie meer vir haar lekker nie. Albie het haar vir jare vertrou versorg. Hulle het nie meer funksies bygewoon nie. Ma was selfbewus en Albie het daarmee empatie gehad. Altwee was redelik sieklik. <br />
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Na Albie se heengaan het Ma alleen in die huis aangebly. Dit was vir haar moeilik om nuwe vriende te maak. Sy het vereensaam en haar hondjie was die enigste geselskap. Na ‘n ernstige terugslag twee jaar gelede het ons besef dat sy nie meer op haar eie kon funksioneer nie. Alhoewel sy nog nooit regtig van die Kaap gehou het nie, wou sy nader aan my, haar enigste oorblywende dogter, en haar broer Manie wees. Desnieteenstaande het sy altyd gehunker na die dae saam met Albie.<br />
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Avondrus het haar tuiste geword. Die personeel het haar met deernis, respek en liefde versorg. Selfs in die tye toe sy maar moeilik geraak het, was hulle geduldig. Desiree en Suster Jonkers het haar laat sit en gesels in hul kantoor. Wanneer die werk oorweldigend baie geraak het, het hulle nog steeds haar vertroos en tot op die laaste haar ongemak probeer verlig. Ek sal hulle altyd dankbaar bly.<br />
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Dankie aan almal wat haar vriende wou wees, wat met haar moeite gedoen het, en probeer het om haar las ligter te maak. <br />
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FranciJohannes Cronjehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09201193566134950287noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2829386122329128047.post-54831917429446401192010-11-03T11:58:00.000+02:002010-11-03T11:58:09.783+02:00Hennie Wierenga (1937 - 2010)Franci's Mom, Mrs Hennie Wierenga passed away yesterday morning - 2 November.<br />
She had been struggling with her health for many years, and went through a really rough coupe of months lately.<br />
We had to bring her down from Pretoria two years ago, and we put her in a really splendid home called Huis Avondrus, who cared for her very well, given that she had very specialized requirements owing to her health and medication.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqj78_fUxjlxq1Wxz4r8J0PHc1DU1Az0GwlUKPmrLlVZilrUaK3wq7ici446v02HxVN6sEwYTHPQuY4mG4HDJY0JLxpEYyQ6ohkerc97Nc_25oKtfzevdtCsRqKLlIyao3uRE9loO4YLsG/s1600/hennie.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" px="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqj78_fUxjlxq1Wxz4r8J0PHc1DU1Az0GwlUKPmrLlVZilrUaK3wq7ici446v02HxVN6sEwYTHPQuY4mG4HDJY0JLxpEYyQ6ohkerc97Nc_25oKtfzevdtCsRqKLlIyao3uRE9loO4YLsG/s320/hennie.jpg" width="217" /></a></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">About a month ago she had to be hospitalised when she developed pneumonia, and although she recovered from the illness, she remained dazed and confused.</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">A week and a bit ago she had to be hospitalised again with suspected kidney failure. Although she recognized Franci the night when she was admitted, she never regained consciousness and had to be kept on a drip and given an oxygen mask to help with her breathing. Franci visited her every day, but there was no clear improvement and she just faded away. </div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">The last two years of her life were very hard for her, and we are grateful that she is at rest now.</div>Johannes Cronjehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09201193566134950287noreply@blogger.com0