Johannes Cronje

A week of writing

2011-09-08T04:10:00.000-07:00

Sixteen members of the Faculty decided to spend the September recess writing. We checked into Goedgedacht Farm on Monday 5 September, and started with a slice of Mic Barnes's "Death by Chocolate" cake to celebrate my birthday.
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 more than a year ago, 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.
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.
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.
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.
It is amazing the levels of concentration people can reach. It is amazing the levels of energy that can be felt in complete silence.
I wish I had done this two years ago when I first wanted to.
I wish I could do one once a month.

The big walk

2011-04-09T23:47:00.000-07:00

So there we were - marching down Roeland Street dressed as Batman.
This was Marian Pike's inspired idea to consolidate the Faculty's participation in projects in "The Fringe: Cape Town's innovation district".
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.
Other highlights of the day included presentations by Mr Pieter Mathews who presented a stunning slideshow of architectural works by his firm, Mathews and Associates. Then there was Prof Matti Tedre who talked about the gentle art of academic publishing. There were also presentations about first aid, photography and learning styles.
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.

You gotta love it when a plan comes together...

2011-01-30T01:08:00.000-08:00

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.
And it is so good to see how a couple of things are beginning to fall in place.
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.
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.
But the most ambitious project is the Design, Development and Research conference planned for 23 - 27 September. Check out http://www.design-development-research.co.za/index.php/DDRC/2011
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. http://shesthegeek.co.za/press-release/wtf-media-conference-cput-october-20-%E2%80%93-22-2010/ 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...
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" http://www.creativecapetown.net/the-fringe-cape-town%e2%80%99s-innovation-district/
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.
Watch this space...

Franci's Tribute to her Mom, Hennie Wierenga (02.10.1937 – 02.11.2010)

2010-11-09T08:44:00.000-08:00

It's in Afrikaans, but Google can translate it for you.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Dankie aan almal wat haar vriende wou wees, wat met haar moeite gedoen het, en probeer het om haar las ligter te maak.

Franci

Hennie Wierenga (1937 - 2010)

2010-11-03T02:58:00.000-07:00

Franci's Mom, Mrs Hennie Wierenga passed away yesterday morning - 2 November.
She had been struggling with her health for many years, and went through a really rough coupe of months lately.
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.

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.

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.

The last two years of her life were very hard for her, and we are grateful that she is at rest now.

What a week!

2010-10-30T10:56:00.000-07:00

This has been aan amazing week in the life of the Faculty.
On Monday afternoon and early evening saw the Cape Craft and Design Institute's Annual General Meeting, followed by the launch of their Creative Enterprises Training Unit.
On Monday night we said goodbye to our two doctoral students, John Room and Nirmi Ziegler who had been with us for almost a year.
Tuesday was E-strategies Africa where I chaired the panel.
Wednesday was Faculty Management meeting and in the afternoon we had a very successful meeting to discuss co-operation between ...xyz Design, the Faculty of Informatics and Design, the East City Design Initiative and Cape Town 2014 bid, as well as the Vega College of Brand Communication.
Wednesday and Thursday also saw the B.Tech presentations of the IT Department. It was absolutely brilliant to see groups of students and lecturers in various venues being very academic!
Friday and Saturday saw a really good Masters' and Doctoral seminar.
And, finally before going home on Saturday afternoon, we set up a little exhibition for the Deans' Breakaway that we will be hosting on Monday.
I am so proud of the Faculty. So much is happening and so many people are doing so much!

CONGRATULATIONS, Amantra Rabe

2010-08-18T00:23:00.000-07:00

The Department of Architectural Technology would like to share the great news that our third year student, Amanta Rabe, achieved finalist status (under the top 10) in the student category of the 2010 Plascon competition!
Well done!
Her work can be seen on her portfolio at http://amantarabe.carbonmade.com/projects/2740926

CONGRATULATIONS Jenni Venter

2010-08-17T05:42:00.000-07:00

Jenni Venter won the national Foschini FAD awards competition last Thursday at the Cape Town Fashion Week.

Jenni is a Fashion 3 student at CPUT.

WELL DONE Jenni

Thank you Salon Music!!!

2010-06-14T00:04:00.000-07:00

I am visiting Pretoria for two weeks to help my mother re-locate to Lamenier retirement village.
So Anneke Lamont invited me to Salon Music's Brooklyn Baroque in Salon Music's new Brooklyn Theatre.
The programme was, indeed as the website said "A concert featuring highly palatable 17th century instrumental music", opened by a splendid performance by 10 year-old Landi Schaap of a Bach Piano Concerto - amazing.
But more amazing than that is the very concept of Salon Music. It is hard to beleive that they have been around for 15 years already - or maybe it is hard to believe that they haven't just always been there. How well I remember those early concerts in the Musaion, complete with "best of" opera, string quartets and all sorts of great fun classics. They filled the gap left when the State Theatre sort of gave up on classical music, and they developed an audience for themselves.
And that was what made Sunday afternoon so amazing - just seeing the relationship between the audience and the company, represented as usual by musical director Willem Vogel. The intimate nature of the new theatre makes one feel like a house guest in Willem and Daniel's living room - and one really appreciates the delicate tact with which Willem reminds us that it is actually quite in order if we don't applaud between the movements.
Thanks to the 10 year-old opening soloist the concert was attended by a number of younger patrons - and their somewhat younger parents. A new generation of Salon Music patrons are being raised.
So, well done Willem Vogel and Daniël Vos and may Salon Music grow, and the Brooklyn Theatre prosper

Moving on

2010-05-07T02:53:00.000-07:00

Today is a week after the memorial service for my late brother Pieter.
It was a touching ceremony with tributes by athletes, musicians, relatives and colleagues.
I would like to thank all those people who attended, but also all those people who have been so AMAZINGLY kind in their support.
We are now ready to move on with our lives and to preserve the good memories - although we will aways be sad that there will be no more new memories.

Here is the picture and words that we put on the bulletin at the memorial service.

PIETER PAULUS CRONJĖ
28 September 1962 – 18 April 2010
Gedenkdiens gehou deur Ds Koos Louw
N G Kerk, Groenkloof, 28 April 2010
Die gedig teen sy hangkas…
A PRAYER ANSWERED
I asked for strength And God gave me difficulties to make me strong
I asked for wisdom And God gave me problems to learn to solve
I asked for prosperity and God gave me brains and brawn to work
I asked for courage And God gave me dangers to overcome
I asked for love And God gave me troubled people to help
I asked for favours And God gave me opportunities

I received nothing I wanted

I received everything I needed

Samesang
Lied 280: 1 & 2

Here, Redder, groot en magtig, U oorskou ons lewenspad.

In u liefde en genade het U ook ons hand kom vat.

Heer u leiding bring bevryding – U het ook my hand kom vat.

U het ook my hand kom vat.

U my Redder groot en magtig, U het my ook raakgesien.

Ek is feilbaar, swak onseker, Tog wil ek U dankbaar dien.

God, my Here – U is Here! Vas kan ek op U vertrou. Vas kan ek op U vertrou.
Skriflesing en boodskap
Teks:

Hiervan is ek oortuig: geen dood of lewe of engele of teenswoordige of toekomstige dinge of kragte of hoogte of diepte of enigiets anders in die skepping kan ons van die liefde van God skei nie, die liefde wat daar is in Christus Jesus ons Here. (Rom 8:38-39)
Huldeblyke

I’ve got rhythm Tshepo Ndlovu (Kitaar)
Geleentheid om iets oor hom te sê
Kom na my toe Mia Otto (Mezzo)

Die heilige stad, Jerusalem Johan Coertzen (Tenoor)

Begeleiding: Anneke Lamont (Orrel), Rachel van der Merwe (Klavier)

What happened?

2010-04-20T23:32:00.000-07:00

The memorial service for Pieter will be held on Wednesday 28 April at 11:00 in the NG Kerk, Groenkloof, 75 Van Wouw Street.
People generally want to know what happened to Pieter, and sometimes it is hard to tell them, sometimes it is hard for them to ask.
In any event, it is useful for me to work through it, so here is how I was able to reconstruct the events that led to the tradgedy of Sunday morning, 18 April 2010.
Pieter had been suffering from thyroid problems for a number of years. It made him very tired, and coupled to his usually melancholy disposition, it was hard for him to bear. Although he was a medical doctor he did not believe in self-medication, and indeed, hardly ever took any form of medication at all. Instead he concentrated on physical fitness, and relied on the endorphins developed in this way to keep himself healthy. He was very strict on himself in every way and, through the nature of his job as an emergency anaesthetist also did not use any alcohol so that he could be called out any time of the day or night.
He worked alone and relied primarily on ad-hoc and emergency calls, although he had a few regular doctors who used his services. Being unmarried he lived with my mother and stayed in the only bedroom he ever knew, which was also his administrative office, his guitar practicing room and his email centre. That's where he lived and worked. His life was as sparse as that of a medieval monk and he had virtually no physical possessions, but a very good investment portfolio. Most of his discretionary income was spent on charity events, on supporting other institutions, attending just about every significant sporting event, walking the Otter trail, or even just spoiling my two sons. He did not have a cent of debt and more spare capital than he could ever use up.
Then, when the economy turned, some of his work slowed down, and, not surprisingly, the value of his investment portfolio virtually halved (still leaving him very comfortably off). Towards the beginning of the year an unscrupulous salesman of insurance policies, calling himself a financial consultant then advised Pieter that he did not have nearly enough money on which to retire. This was the first time ever that Pieter thought about money. He was shocked to the core and developed an obessive fear that, should my mother die, he would be out on the street. No amount of assurance by my mother and himself, that he would inherit her house anyway, and that he would be taken care of, either by myself or my boys, would set his mind at ease. Meanwhile his practice slowed down a little, but not significantly - yet it added to his worries.
He tried to deal with his anxiety by running and exercising and in the process, was proud to tell me, that he had lost 6kg, and now weighed only 64. He was skinny as a rake, and proud of it. He was also fitter than he had ever been.
Yet the anxiety grew and grew. My mother called in various "real" financial advisers who kept on assuring him that he was OK. However, he was still worried about not owning fixed property and some friends and I advised him to buy some.
Then he came down to Cape Town to run the Two Oceans. We all looked forward to his visit - the boys in particular, and, knowing that he was in a very bad space, I cleared my diary and made every effort to spend as much time with him as possible. We invited Elaine over to dinner, he even invited some of his friends to tea.
The day before the race he and I went to the beach in Hout Bay. He wanted me to close the roof of the cabriolet because the sun was bad for our skins, but he relented when I offered him a baseball cap.
We had a long walk on the beach and he shared his troubles. He explained his financial worries and asked if he would be able to pay the mortgage on an apartment. I explained that, firstly, yes he would, and secondly, renting it out would cover almost the whole of the bond and thirdly, should he run into trouble, I would bail him out, although it would not be neccessary, given that the economy was improving. Yet he was not satisfied.
As we walked the other worries came out. He had lost his self-esteem completely. He was deeply remorseful about two patients who died on the operation table when he was a clinical assistant right at the beginning of his career. No amount of discussion from my side - the fact that he was an assistant to the consultant in charge; the fact that there had been no investigation; the fact that he was part of a team and that the surgeon had equal responsibility. Nothing would help. As far as he was concerned the fact that nobody else through he was responsible did not take away the fact that he felt that he was responsible. We walked and walked but the discussion went nowhere. He referred to the blog I had written about him at http://johannescronje.blogspot.com/2009/05/pieter.html . He said he did not know why I thought that any of his activities were worth writing about - or worth any praise anyway. It was very clear that his trouble was not financial, it was one of self-esteem.
He asked about Franci's sister who committed suicide 18 years ago. He asked if Franci was OK now. He told me that he had contemplated suicide while he was doing military service in Askham in the Eighties. I told him I knew. I did not realize that he was contemplating it again. I am just not good at picking up on hints. So I kept on re-assuring him that we were there for him.
Then he told me how lucky I was. I had a good job, a loving wife, good kids, a nice house. I lived in a beautiful city. I loved what I was doing. Then he said that he, on the other hand, had nothing. In fact, he said, he was nothing. He was worth nothing. No amount of re-assurance would help.
Then he returned to Pretoria and signed the contract on a really nice flat in Groenkloof Gardens. He telephoned me and asked if it was the right idea. I kept on assuring him that it was. He said he wanted to cancel the deal because he feared the risk. I told him that if the deal did fall through he could buy two smaller units elsewhere. But, I said, the bank would not lend him money if they thought that there was any risk. I also told him that I would have bought in Groenkloof Gardens if I had the chance.
Then he cancelled the deal. Then he got a fine of R50 000 for cancelling. All this when his biggest worry was his finances. Then he tore a ligament in his ankle and was told he could not work for six weeks. Then it turned out that his professional insurance would not pay out even one quarter of his regular daily earnings. The fact that he had enough cash in the bank to carry him for six months, did not seem to matter to him. More importantly, he could not run. He could not train for Comrades, he would not be fit yet to run Comrades anyway. And he could not work up endorphins from his daily runs. When he went to donate blood, they said his iron count was too low - so they didn't want his blood.
My mother Emailed me to tell me how bad he was, and I telephoned him. He did not want to talk to me. I told him I would help. He told me I couldn't. I emailed my mother telling her that he clearly needed help, and that when I got to Pretoria on the 28th of April, we should sit down with him and get to the bottom of it.
But he got worse. My mother consulted the financial advisers again, who re-assured him. His friends rallied around him. They all knew that he was not well.
On Saturday my mother asked her bridge friends to come and play at her house because she was worried about him. They obliged. He drank tea with them. He sat in his room and played the guitar. They thought my mother was over concerned and that he looked quite OK. My mother thought that he was looking much better. He was coming out of it.
On Sunday morning my mother heard him get up at six. She thought he was probably called out for a case. He pottered about the house a little and then returned to his room and closed the door.
At about seven a friend called my mother saying that he was worried about Pieter. He had called his cell phone over and over, but there was no answer. My mother said that he was in the house and she would go and look. She went into the room, saw him on the bed, and said to the friend over the phone, "he is dead".
He had used his training as an aneasthetist. His abiltiy to put people to sleep, and he had put himself to sleep. But there was nobody who could wake him up again.
The support that we have had from friends and family has been amazing. The news of his death has shaken the Groenkloof community who saw the little skinny guy running though their streets. The Tuks running club has lost one of their most loyal supporters. The medical fraternity has lost a valuable, trusted and amusing member. The list goes on and on. The phone calls, the emails. it has just been amazing.
I keep on thinking - if only he knew, if only he really understood how deeply he was loved, and how many people would hurt so badly...

Pieter Cronje 1962 - 2010

2010-04-18T13:17:00.001-07:00

On 16 May last year I published a tribute to my brother Pieter.
http://johannescronje.blogspot.com/2009/05/pieter.html
This morning between six and seven life became too hard for him to bear and he passed away.
My heart is very sore at the loss of my brother. I am deeply grateful that I wrote a tribute to him while he was alive, and that he could read it.
Over the Easter weekend he and I spent much time talking about life and how we live it - the choices we make and time and time again he kept on referring to that blog - saying that he just does not see himself in that light. He just would not see any good in himself.
No amount of talking and support from me, my mother or any of his friends could work.
Ironically the one who was always there when others were in trouble, simply refused to be helped when he was down.
Ek sal jou mis, Pietieros!

Upon the retirement of Tom Reeves

2010-03-28T06:26:00.000-07:00

So yesterday and the day before I attended the conference celebrating the retirement of Tom Reeves.
Sounds kinda funny, celebrating the retirement of... one would almost think that UGA is happy to be rid of him. On the contrary.
It was really amazing to see how many lives he touches, and the extent of his network. With a 40 page CV this is hardly surprising!
The most important tribute to Tom, however, was the quality of the conference that was put together!
At the conference dinner a number of people told the stories of how Tom influence their lives.
I had already done a little bit of that during my session at the conference as discussant to Susan McKenny, so I thought I'd be quiet (can you believe it) for once.
But I think I should tell my story here. It would be nice if anyone else who has a "Tom Reeves" story to tell, if you want to add it as a comment to my blog.
I first met Tom in November 1993, just before taking up a position as associate professor of Computers in Education at the University of Pretoria. My predecessor, Renate Lippert, had suggested that I attend a conference in Midrand at which Tom would present a workshop on evaluation of educational software. Given that the very first course that I would have to teach was exactly about that, I duly attended, as did Cheryl Hodgkinson!
It is little surprise then, that the course I presented showed a very strong "Reeves" influence. Of course I was meticulous in giving credit (more because I wanted to show WHO I KNEW...)
But so things developed and we corresponded from time to time - even if it was just by acknowledging each other's postings on ITForum.
After some time, and thanks mainly to ITForum I had got to know quite a number of people in the IT community and my students were getting frustrated at hearing drop names, but not knowing which names were worth dropping themselves (ha ha ha) Barry Vorster asked whether there was a "Who's who" in instructional technology that one could consult. I asked Tom, and he confirmed that, indeed, there was none.
THUS it came to pass that I asked Johan Viljoen, Ari Naidoo and Barry Vorster to create one. I will never forget Tom's comment once we launched it. He said it was a very useful site and contributed to breaking the "feelings of isolation" that some of them felt... Imagine that - sitting at UGA - probably the biggest single concentration of "names" in the field, and feeling ISOLATED!!!
Soon afterwards Mari Pete sent me a photograph of herself DANCING with Tom Reeves at a conference in Miami!!!
Nine years ago Tom sent a general invite to people of the South Eastern States to attend a conference in honor of the retirement of Kent Gustafson from UGA. I argued that South Africa was very far SOUTH, and very far EAST, and Tom allowed me to attend too, and I stayed at home with him and Trisha!!!
That's where I met probably the most of the "big trees" that I have in my collection. They are the ones in which I appear in leopard skin here http://www.flickr.com/photos/jcronje/sets/72157610882479991/
Some years later, when Mike Spector invited me to a workshop in Tallahassee, I stopped over at UGA again, and Tom asked me to act as discussant at their departmental retreat. WHAT A PRIVILEGE!
Thus, when I received an invite to attend the conference in honor of TOM's retirement, there was NO STOPPING ME.
My only hope is now that he's retired, he may EVENTUALLY find time to return all my visits...

Wendren's PPC Bag

2010-02-23T10:20:00.000-08:00

CONGRATULATIONS to Wendryn Milford!

Check out this piece of really cool info from Mari Lecanides-Arnott.

Wendren, Wren and the PPC cement bag

The Design Foundation Course in the Faculty of Informatics and Design is most proud to announce that one of its lecturers, Wendren Milford will be launching her new PPC cement bag at Design Indaba 2010, where she will be showcasing her products as an Emerging Creative.
Wendren graduated with a BTech in Surface Design (cum laude, Cape Peninsula University of Technology, in 2006)
In 2008, she started her own business called Wren, after leaving a factory job. Initially she did everything on her own, designing, sewing and marketing. Since then, her business has grown and now she employs two seamstresses, which frees her up to spend more time designing and marketing her products. She does all of this when she is not teaching in the Design Foundation Course and setting up recycling bins in the studios, to encourage the students to become more aware of the environment.
Wendren designed her own website (http://www.thewrendesign.com/ ) where she shares her process and this is linked to her online shop (http://www.thewren.etsy.com/ ). Her bags are sold in many shops around the world in cities like, New York, London, Sydney and Tokyo. Locally, in South Africa, Wendren’s bags are sold in a few select shops and at the Neighbourgoods market in Cape Town.
Currently, Wren products consist of uncycled coffee bags and clutches, antique linen and leather bags, bird purses and the much awaited PPC cement bag, the Wren Cement Laptop Bag.
The PPC cement bag is a laptop bag, with a difference and is 100% South African with the following design features (information supplied by the designer):
This laptop bag is made out of unused Pretoria Portland Cement paper bags. - All the layers of the Wren Cement Laptop Bag are fused with calico, which makes the paper untearable and suitable for the purpose of a laptop bag.- The outside surface of the Wren Cement Laptop Bag is Scotch Guarded to make the surface water resistant and more durable.- The Wren Cement Laptop Bag closes with two magnet snap clips.- The Wren Cement Laptop Bag has two pockets and two sections inside. One pocket is large enough to carry laptop cables whilst the other is the right size for either an iphone or mouse. The divider is padded and separates the laptop from notes or other belongings that would be carried in the bag.- The base and one side of the Wren Cement Laptop Bag are padded for comfort and extra protection for the laptop.- The strap of the bag is made from Organic Hemp. This is also adjustable.

Mari Lecanides Arnott
Design Foundation Course

International fame at last

2010-02-23T10:16:00.000-08:00

And so, inevitably I made it to Youtube. Just like Susan Boyle! (Ha ha ha).
seriously, though, it's actually the Faculty that made it to Youtube. I just had to say what we're about.
Check it out at http://www.youtube.com/user/creativecpt#p/a/u/1/vCo9FVEjbME
Thanks to Zayd Minty who reminded them of us! Long live the East City Design Initiative!

Greetings from Khartoum

2010-01-30T22:29:00.000-08:00

So, here I am in Khartoum AGAIN!
Tomorrow we will be doing a "Computers in Schools" conference.
The exciting thing about the conference this year is that we have so much to show that was done entirely in Sudan.
Abdurrhman and Ezzeldin arranged the conference, and the students will be the main speakers.
I will do a keynote and a summing up at the end.
It is amazing what we have achieved in the past few years!

What I want to achieve this year

2010-01-14T04:53:00.001-08:00

So, these are not new year's resolutions.
They are simply a set of activities that I have to engage in this year to keep up to date with what is going on in the rest of the world.

Initiate the re-design of the FID Design Foundation Course. This needs to be done in order to prepare the faculty for the consolidation of the two graphic design departments on the Cape Town campus, while at the same time providing us a "foundation" for the new degrees and diplomas.
Develop the framework of the B.Design degree, and the B.Design (Hons) degree - so that we will be in line with the new HEQF.
Engage with the Faculty in a reflection on the first year courses of all the design disciplines, and PR. This will be done to find out what all the design disciplines have in common; to find out what makes each design discipline unique, to see what overlaps there are that we can exploit, and also to see what may be falling through the cracks all together. The information that we obtain this way will be very useful in helping us decide what the B.Design degree should look like, and also what the new diplomas in design should look like.
Help with the arrangements of an E-Learning Update in Gauteng. The one in Cape Town was highly successful, and we really should do it in Gauteng - even if it is just a nice way to hold a "Catts" re-union.
Help with raising R1000 000 for Westerford High School. The school with the best results in Maths and Science in the country really deserves an astra-turf hockey pitch!
Help with arranging various IT Update conferences in the Cape and in Gauteng. This will help update me on the goings-on in the field of IT, and it will help put CPUT on the map in the country.
Finish supervising my Sudanese Doctoral students, and hand over the Sudanese Masters in ICT for Education over to my Sudanese Doctoral Graduates.
Institute a group that studies Instructional Technology at Masters and Doctoral studies at CPUT.
Be a loving husband and a devoted father. (9 overrides 1 - 8)

Invitation: Coffee and Muffins with Stephen Hobbs

2009-11-03T05:17:00.000-08:00

The Dean of the Faculty of Informatics and Design, Prof Johannes Cronje invites you to coffee and muffins with Stephen Hobbs at 80 Roeland Street, on Saturday Morning, 7 November, 2009 from 09:00 to 10:00.

Venue: "MARC" building on attached map, see picture for parking.

Stephen Hobbs is currently one of the directors of the "Trinity Session" and independent artist concentrating on art in urban spaces.
Stephen's exhibition "End of Cities" will open at the "Blank Gallery, Sir Lowry Road on Thursday Evening @ 18:00 Check out http://www.blankprojects.com/current.php

Stephen has agreed to talk to us about his work, and the creative process, particularly in terms of the research component of the creative process as it impacts upon his work.

This invitation is open to all who are interested in Design and the City of Cape Town. Admisison is FREE. PLEASE PASS IT ON TO YOUR FRIENDS

Please RSVP to Munira Allie alliem@cput.ac.za before 13:00 on Friday 6 November.

#7Oct09

2009-10-07T11:07:00.000-07:00

We had such a productive day today!

We had a Faculty training day. The theme was "Your career"

Thelo Wakefield explained the University performance management system and cleared up a number of concerns.

We discussed the new degree designators, and I was able to reflect upon my 2 and a half years, and give feedback to comments made by staff.

Chris Lombard taught us how to beg, and Chris Winberg told us about the category of teaching and learning in the performance management session.

Retha did a really nice speed dating exercise.

Finally Charles Gilbert, in his own inimitable way, cleared up some issues about BEE.

I REALLY enjoy spending a day with the Faculty!

Welcome to the Blogosphere

2009-10-06T11:44:00.000-07:00

So, suddenly the blogging has taken off! And that just as I was considering giving up this blog in favour of Twitter (ha ha ha)
Ayesha Toyer tells me her students are all a blogging now. (And some of them are actually following me - NOGAL!). Ayesha is blogging at www.thescienceofcommunication.blogspot.com
All this at the same time as my wife, Franci's students have also started blogging about their "out of body experiences". They have been given an instruction to alter their physical appearance in some way, and live like that for two weeks, blogging about their experience. Check out some of their work at
http://michness-dollparts.blogspot.com/
http://brownpaperbagplease.blogspot.com/
http://shearinsane.blogspot.com/
http://seemybelly.blogspot.com/
http://pyjamarepublic.blogspot.com/
http://stepofftheassemblyline.blogspot.com/
http://masaidamu.wordpress.com/

So, welcome to the Blogosphere

Tribute to Dewald Roode

2009-09-27T00:47:00.000-07:00

(...and he has been most handy with PhDs too! Photo by Bennett Alexander)

My long-time friend and one of my academic role models, Dewald Roode passed away this morning at 07:00.

In tribute to him I copy an email I sent to him after his second radiation treatment last year, as well as his reply.

Goodbye Dewald. You will be sorely missed. And, as you know, the table you fixed during one mentoring session is still holding up well.

29 Jul 2008

Beste Dewald

Die blomme is 'n plesier. Jou epos het my egter voorgespring, want ek

wou eintlik al gister of eergister vir jou 'n epos gestuur het.

Ek probeer altyd wanneer jy hier is 'n tydjie kry dat ons gesels - en

die twee brekvisse wat ons wel gehad het, was vir my persoonlik baie

goed om te h^e en ek waardeer dit.

Desnieteenstaande was dit vir my interessant dat ons by albei brekvisse

so duidelik RONDOM die sentrale issue gekuier het, en dit is dat jy baie

siek is, en dat jy desnieteenstaande nog steeds afkom om met die

studente te werk. Dit verstaan ek nogal. My eie pa het die Vrydag voor

sy dood op 73 nog 'n groot konsultasie in sy hospitaalbed gehad, omdat

hy nie sy laaste klient wou teleurstel nie.(Ok, dis sekerlik meer

kompleks as dit). Ek was daar om hom by te staan, en ons het almal

geweet een van die redes daarvoor, was dat ek die opvolgwerk sou moes

doen wat op die konsultasie volg.

Nietemin, dit is nie werklik ter sake waaroor ons op die brekvisse

praat of nie praat nie. Wat wel ter sake is, is dat ek een of ander tyd

vir jou moet vertel hoe baie ek jou insette in my lewe waardeer - oor 'n

tydperk wat nou al deur jare strek.

Jy weet dit nie, maar ons kontak is voorafgegaan deur Barry Vorster wat

my laat weet het dat "Oom Dewald" een van die skerpste, en mees

humanistiese mense op die kampus is.. ensovoorts. Eintlik kan ek nie sy

presiese woorde onthou nie, maar die positiewe vibe wat hy daargestel

het, was blywend.

Toe was ons werklike ontmoeting toe jy en Roelf van den Heever my

toegelaat het as 'n "adjunct-member" van die toe-nog-informele "Skool

vir IT. Die res onthou jy so goed soos ek.

Ek sal nooit vergeet hoe ons afgekom het op die feit dat ons dieselfde

voel oor die slottoneel van Amadeus waar Salieri homself verkodig as

"The king of mediocrity"

Dan was daar die hele pret met die stigting van die Skool vir IT en die

launch van die M.IT, en die werk wat ons saam gedoen het met die

navorsingsmetodologiekursus in die MIT.

Ek het destyds jou artikel oorgesit in HTML en dit op die MIT website

gesit by

http://hagar.up.ac.za/catts/mit/research/research.html

Dit bly nou nog 'n toonaangewende vertrekpunt in wanneer ek vir

studente 'n oorsig gee oor waar om te begin met hulle navorsing. Hoe om

te verseker dat hul navorsing "grammatikaal" sin maak.

Maar, die belangrikste vir my, is nie jou akademiese en kulturele

skerpheid nie - die belangrikste is jou humanity - die feit dat jy so

duidelik raaksien wat mense nodig het, en dat jy die vermoe"e het om

hulle daarheen te lei - hetsy as departementshoof, skoolvoorsitter,

studieleier, mentor of vriend.

Ek ding gedurig aan jou, en wens jou baie sterkte toe in hierdie swaar

tyd.

Dit is 'n voorreg om 'n deel van jou netwerk te mag wees!

Groete

Johannes

And his always-upbeat reply:

Beste Johannes

Ek sukkel al lank aan hierdie boodskap. Jy het sulke wonderlike mooi dinge

oor my gesê waarop ek geen antwoord het nie - net baie dankie. Ek waardeer

dit geweldig. Dit bly tog maar die rede waarom 'n akademikus 'n akademikus

is en bly: daardie enkele momente, wat jy op 'n hand of twee kan aftel,

wanneer jy in die oë van 'n student sien dat jy êrens in sy of haar binneste

iets aangeraak het. Seker, hoop 'n mens, is daar baie ander waar dit

ongesiens verbygegaan het, en dit gee verdere vertroosting vir 'n "lewe van

opoffering". Maar die momente waar dit sigbaar is, het so 'n impak dat dit

opmaak vir baie dinge. Wat jy nou oor my te gesê gehad het, tel onder

daardie momente, en ek sê nederig (regtig!) baie dankie daarvoor.

Die tydjie van rus wat ek vir myself ingeruim het, is besig om dividende af

te werp. Ek voel elke dag bietjie beter, en is seker dat ek binnekort weer

volstoom sal kan werk. Nou vat ek dit maar rustig en doen soveel ek kan op

'n dag - nie alles wat MOET gedoen word nie. Dis nogal 'n aanpassing, na 'n

lewe van totale miskenning van tydgrense en tydlimiete - daar is altyd nog

tyd!

Retha sê my dat dit hierdie week Quality Review tyd is. Ek kan glo dat dit

vir almal 'n stresvolle affêre moet wees, en baie sterkte daarmee.

Beste wense, ek hoop ons kan binnekort weer 'n brekfissie inruim. Hierdie

keer behoort jy darem nie te verdwaal nie!

Groetnis

Dewald

Elearning Update - Cape Town 3,4 September, 2009

2009-08-01T02:40:00.000-07:00

So, having been sort of outside the mainstream of elearning in South Africa, I thought it would be useful to "Stir the Pot" a little again!

So, together with SSIR Schools Internet Resources, EpiUse learning, and a number of other friends, former colleagues and former students I am arranging an ELEARNING UPDATE in Cape Town.

The programme is coming on really nicely.

You can check it out at http://tinylink.com/?RJ557cAy9r

The beginning or the third year!

2009-07-22T02:58:00.000-07:00

This month marks the beginning of my THIRD year at CPUT.
I find it hard to believe that we have survived two years together.
What troubles me, though is that, although I arrived here with stars in my eyes and high hopes for the future, after two years I get the idea that nothing has changed. That, instead of changing the Faculty, the Faculty has changed me.
Furthermore, I need to know if I am on the right track. I started here saying that my main job is to ensure that the Faculty staff achieve their objectives.
So, I need to meet with you and your department as soon as possible during a regular departmental meeting.
I need you to put three things on the agenda.
a. What has changed in the last two years? (What are we doing differently, what are we experiencing differently - for better and for worse).
b. What are your plans (each individual, or the department - I leave that to you) for the next three years?
c. What must the Dean do next?

I look forward to an open and frank, yet positive discussion.

What is it with conferences

2009-07-10T01:56:00.000-07:00

So here I am sitting in a conference and spending the time updating my blog, my Facebook page, my Twitter, and even re-arranging my hard drive - while up in front a sequence of pretentious people are READING out loud a lot of pompous generalisations that they are presenting as science.

Moreover, not only do they read in boring monotone, they also stumble over their words.

And I could have read it all in about a quarter of the time.

Why do people do this!

How can one revise what happens at conferences that it actually becomes interesting!!!

Swakop

2009-07-08T02:14:00.000-07:00

We are staying in the most beautiful place - the Swakopmund hotel, which used to be the railway station.

I am working with sixteen delegates from Namibia and Kenya and we are working on developing e-learning strategies for about four or five institions.

What I am enjoying most about it is testing my model that integrates the Balanced Scorecard and the ADDIE model.

I will be reporting on it during the E-Learning update on 3/4 September.

Brussels

2009-07-07T09:13:00.000-07:00

Prof Piet Kommers of the University of Twente in Enschede, the Netherlands was instrumental in getting me to Brussels last week.

He asked me to be the respondent for a document that he had written for a European Union-sponsored report on the social impact of ICT (Information and Communication Technologies). Piet wrote the section on lifelong learning.

This commitment required some juggling of my diary. I had agreed to go to Kartoum, Sudan, and Swakopmund, Namibia, and finally Johannesburg. I thought I could combine all three. Turns out that the costs involved would be enormous. The result was that I postponed Khartoum, and separated all the trips.

It turns out that the fastest, and cheapest way to get from Johannesburg to Brussels, is on Ethiopian Airways via Addis Ababa and Paris - 16 hours and your're there.

Meanwhile Jolanda de Villiers Morkel of CPUT department of Architecture put me in contact with Dolf Wieers, a retired architect, who has had a long-standing relationship with our Department. Dolf thought it would be a good idea to take me on a trip to Ghent, and his brother, Paul was kind enough to lead me around through Brussels. I took myself on a trip to Antwerp.

You can see the pictoral evidence on my Facebook profile in an album called Belgium 2009.

Paul Wieers speaks no English, so it gave me the opportunity to learn Flemish in a great hurry. You just speak Afrikaans slowly and with a terrible accent (ha ha ha). It was great to get to the stories behind the stories of all the institutions and constructions in Brussels, and Paul, a trained tour guide and teacher at heart was careful to stop from time to time and to quizz me to ensure that I was learning. (In what year was the main square bombed? And what are the dates on these buildings...)

Ghent is an amazingly beautiful city, and having an architect take you around and point out sites of historical and architectural importance was a rare privilege.

Then it was on to the European Union. As I was getting ready to sit down the chap next to me was fiddling with the plug of his computer, and I saw a little bit of his name tag. His surname was Van Oranje. This, I thought, was rather a grand surname. Then his name became visible and it turns out to be Constantijn. Oh gosh, I thought. How funny, a really grand surname like Van Oranje, matched with a really grand sounding name of Constantijn. So I asked the chap if he was related to the Dutch Royal Family whom I know to be called Van Oranje. "Sort of" he replied. I then mentioned to him that we had a whole provinde named after them, but that we changed the Orange bit after 1994.

Then it dawned on me that he might well be PRINCE Constantijn of Orange. When I looked more closely at his name tag, I notice he had blacked out the word "Prins"! Piet Kommers took a picture for my "Big Trees" collection.

The presentations at the EU were very interesting, and I will be reporting more closely on what I have learnt - once the report has been published.

All in all it was a tremendous experience, and the only thing that I regretted is not taking some or all of my famliy along to share it!

Pieter

2009-05-16T02:45:00.001-07:00

I have devoted quite a bit of space on this blog in celebrating some kind of award. The very post preceding this one is in praise of our Faculty winning the best stand at open day. Somewhere earlier I praise myself for winning the ICT achiever award, and so it goes on.

But if ever there is someone who strongly deserves an international award, then it is my brother, Pieter.

But he does not live in a realm that gives awards, and, although he does so much for which he deserves awards - there simply are not institutions that have awards for people who do exceptional things, do them well, and go unrecognised.

Professionally he is a medical specialist - an anaesthetist. He spends his days in an operating theatre keeping people alive, while the surgeon, the dentist or the gynaecologist performs a procedure. Then, when the operation is done, and the patient is awake, he goes away, unrecognised, and unsung.

Otherwise he spends his time keeping the bodies of brain-dead people alive while the doctors harvest their organs for transplant - so that other people can live. While we celebrate the new life that other people receive, we seldom recognise that someone has to be there to assist the dying person in giving the ultimate gift. And again, while we know that there is a surgeon who harvests the organ we fail to remember that there is an anaesthetist who cares for the donor.

He is not married and has not kids. So he does not get the automatic praise that goes with being a dad (My dad is stronger than yours). Nor does he get to be elevated on Father's day - my kids sometimes even forget that he is their godfather! But on windy days he is out on the sportsfields of the Groenkloof Campus teaching some kids from the Bramley home to build and fly kites - that act of family togetherness that was made so special in Mary Poppins.

He is the vice-chair of the Tuks Road Running Club. Not the chair - the vice chair. The one who works in the background, seeing that the tent is up, the beers are bought and the phyisotherapists are lined up. The medals he gets are silver and bronze - the same ones that everyone gets.

If he is not knitting the most difficult, elaborate aran pattern jerseys, working out the design as he goes along, then he picks away at his silent guitar - working away diligently at really complicated pieces, but not intending to take it to the stage - preferring to work in the wings, and to put others, like James Grace, on the stage instead.

Arranging concerts has become a way of life for him over the past few years. His first concert had two aims - to expose new talent, and to raise funds for Bramley Children's Home. It was a huge success, and it launched the careers of a couple of classical musicians. Then he did one with Helena Hettema to unite with old friends. The venues, like him, are the unknown jewels, hidden away somewhere in Pretoria - the Nazareth House Chappel, the Groenkloof Campus Auditorium. He covers the basic costs himself, and donates the proceeds to charity. His Christmas concerts have become eagerly anticipated events.

Last Saturday and Sunday he was responsible for two concerts by Laurika Rauch - a personal triumph for him - and at the same time a nerve wracking experience for his closest supporters - our mother, and Lucille Weyer of the Groenkloof Campus. And both concerts were hugely successful!

Over the years he has donated almost R100 000 to various institutions. And none of them have ever tought of having a dinner in his honour, or even to present him with something as simple as a certificate of thanks.

And so I felt it is necessary to change that. He deserves a medal of honour - he deserves a poem to be read like Barack Obama. So, here is a medal of honour, and here is the poem.

Way to go, Bro, ek is trots op jou!

PRAISE SONG FOR THE DAY

A Poem for Barack Obama's Presidential Inauguaration

by Elizabeth Alexander

Each day we go about our business, walking past each other, catching each other's eyes or not, about to speak or speaking. All about us is noise. All about us is noise and bramble, thorn and din, each one of our ancestors on our tongues. Someone is stitching up a hem, darning a hole in a uniform, patching a tire, repairing the things in need of repair.

Someone is trying to make music somewhere with a pair of wooden spoons on an oil drum with cello, boom box, harmonica, voice.

A woman and her son wait for the bus.

A farmer considers the changing sky. A teacher says, "Take out your pencils. Begin."

We encounter each other in words, words spiny or smoooth, whispered or declaimed; words to consider, reconsider.

We cross dirt roads and highways that mark the will of someone and then others who said, "I need to see what's on the other side; I know there's something better down the road."

We need to find a place where we are safe; we walk into that which we cannot yet see.

Say it plain, that many have died for this day. Sing the names of the dead who brought us here, who laid the train tracks, raised the bridges, picked the cotton and the lettuce, built brick by brick the glittering edifices they would then keep clean and work inside of.

Praise song for struggle; praise song for the day. Praise song for every hand-lettered sign, the figuring it out at kitchen tables.

Some live by "Love thy neighbor as thyself."

Others by "First do no harm," or "Take no more than you need."

What if the mightiest word is love, love beyond marital, filial, national. Love that casts a widening pool of light. Love with no need to pre-empt grievance.

In today's sharp sparkle, this winter air, anything can be made, any sentence begun.

On the brink, on the brim, on the cusp -- praise song for walking forward in that light.

We won again

2009-05-16T02:30:00.001-07:00

Congratulations to the Department of Public Relations!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

They have made the Faculty proud.

They ran our open day as a project. They raised funds, build stalls and produced information for almost every department in the Faculty.

AND they won first prize for the best stand, which they built for Interior design, and they won second prize for the stand of their own Department.

I walked though our entire exhibition and interviewed the students that did duty. I found them knowledgeable, enthusiastic and helpful. It was amazing the way they seemed to sound as if they were actually students of the courses that they represented.

Of course, the other side of the coin is that they now know the Faculty very well. They know which departments come up with the goods, co-operate, and appreciate what they are doing. And they know which departments are more lazzais-faire about what should happen at open day.

Aysha Toyer did a phenomenal job project-managing the whole thing, and Johann van der Merwe did a great job motivating heads of departments to cooperate.

Thanks to all who participated.

Intonga - The Stick Fighter

2009-05-07T06:58:00.000-07:00

Last night I was absolutely blown away.

I attended a screening of a brand-new feature film in isiXhosa (with English Sub-Titles).

What made this movie fascinating is that it was a co-production between a professional movie house Swayani, and the Cape Peninsula University of Technology.

The movie was written and directec by JJ van Rensburg. He Swayani provided a skeleton crew, and CPUT students had to learn the ropes to take part en every facet of the production, including cameo acting.

The movie is a nice "feel good" film that is really well made in an African idiom showing great sensitivity for its people and its natrue.

This was an amazing feat, considering that the shooting took a mere 10 days.

I really hope that we can go this route not only with film production, but also with various other projects.

I have encouraged Jared Borkum, head of the Film section and the spearhead of the project from the CPUT side to consider writing his Doctoral Thesis on what he learnt in the process. I hope that in this way we can learn valuable lessons of how to do the same in other fields.

Go and see it.

Hair today, gone tomorrow

2009-03-09T04:32:00.003-07:00

So here is visual evidence of the great shave.

THANKS so much to those who contributed!

The Design Indaba Award

2009-03-03T11:55:00.000-08:00

This year the Faculty of Informatics and Design won the prize for BEST STAND at the Design Indaba.

And that after last year I was wondering why we were not exhibiting at all.

So, the faculty went from Zero to Hero in ONE YEAR!!!

And all that is thanks to Roxanne Spears and her winning team who did STERLING work.

WELL DONE ALL!!!

After a hectic first month

2009-03-03T01:38:00.000-08:00

So this is the end of the first official month of term.
And what a hectic month it has been.
Very exciting for me personally was a visit to the Faculty by Anthony Marks who presented a one-day workshop on "Teaching students to think"
Anthony's introduced the term "Lecturer efficiency" and showed how he used various techniquest to "replicate" himself so that he could serve his students more efficiently without it costing him more time. The most amazing thing, though, was to experience his passion.
I believe that the Faculty of Engineering have invited him to address them too, and I hope to arrange a follow-up with him later.
Then there were the appeals. We had quite a large number of appeals against exclusion, and a few appeals from late walk-ins. It was encouraging that the SRC was well represented in most of these appeals. Even more encouraging was the high level of maturity with which they handled themselves. I think we have come a long way, and I am proud of the faculty.
Speaking of pride. We took part in the Design Indaba this year and Our stand won!!! What a great tribute to our staff and students that we, who are the teachers of designers, can actually compete with "real" designers who have real budgets to work with.
The main tribute here must go to Roxanne Spears who work most energetically to extract contributions from the faculty - much the same way in which a dentist extracts wisdom teeth. And then of course, her talent as a trend spotter made the whole thing spot on. She did a real-life interpretation of what the international speakers at the Indaba were all saying - a blend of high-tech and low-tech, with specific emphasis on craft and on people. Well done Roxy. As soon as you send me some pictures, I will post them here.

The Achiever Award

2008-12-02T23:52:00.000-08:00

On Friday night I received the Forgeahead/DOC African Achievers Award in the category Top ICT Educator in Africa. There's more information at http://www.integr8it.com/INTEGR8ITNewsPage/tabid/90/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/458/ITWEB--Call-for-innovation-collaboration.aspx

Last year I was one of the runners up.

I received the reward in recognition of the sort of stuff that I have been doing all over Africa for ICT in Education generally.

In my acceptance speech, however, I made it very clear that I received the award ON BEHALF OF the 35 Doctors, and 150 Masters who graduated under my supervision, as well as the students from Ghana, Uganda, Kenya, Mozambique, Sudan and Ethiopia. The point is - I did very little myself, except to get some masters' and doctoral students enthusiastic about using Computers in Education, and writing up what they had learnt. Again at the Faculty I see myself as a file server or a hub, connecting various nodes and keeping the information flowing. Ironically, though, in the "blurb" about me in the booklet, many of these initiatives are listed as if they were my initiatives rather than those who work or study under my guidance. Thus, my gratitute for the award goes out more to those of you who helped me get it, than to those who awarded it.

And thanks so much to all of you who sent your condolences!

Year End Exhibition

2008-11-12T00:21:00.000-08:00

Don't miss it.
Here is your invitation

Marlon Parker hits it big time

2008-11-07T07:24:00.000-08:00

Check out
http://www.dieburger.com/Stories/Opinion/Columns/18.0.1052694598.aspx

Design4Life

2008-11-06T07:35:00.000-08:00

Sorry Bryan! I should have splashed this on my blog long ago.
Check here everyone
http://styleguidecapetown.blogspot.com/2008/10/d4l-fashion-show-winners.html
Two students from Cape Peninsula University of Technology came in the top three.
Well done!!!

Oh yes, and while I'm about it. Look who's featuring on Style Guide Cape Town
http://styleguidecapetown.blogspot.com/2008/11/loving-look.html

What a week!

2008-11-05T22:45:00.000-08:00

This has been an amazing week so far!
Firstly we heard that we may be getting some extra money from the Department of Education so that we can add to our buildings.
Then we had some good meetings to clear up misunderstandings over some years.
On Tuesday night Juana, Retha, Andre and I had dinner with Dewald Roode. What fun it was picking just relaxing with a long-standing friend, colleague and mentor.
Wednesday was amazing. We are in the process of forming our academic clusters that I spoke about in my inaugural address. Wednesday consisted of Colin and myself sitting and listening to delegations of senior staff in every section, hearing their plans and aspirations. This was an exceedingly worthwhile exercise. Two things happened. Many sections saw how they could improve synergies among themselves, and Colin and I saw what sort of synergies could arise throughout the Faculty.
Tonight Melius Weideman will be presenting his professorial inaugural lecture, and tomorrow afternoon the new SRC president is being installed.
A phenomenal week!

Your responses to "Bootcamp"

2008-10-31T07:20:00.000-07:00

The responses to the "Bootcamp" idea that I have received either on the blog or via email have been overwhelmingly positive.

It's too late on a Friday afternoon for me to do the topic justice, but here is a foretaste:

The two concerns are
a. The name "Bootcamp" may sound too military, and may have negative connotations, and
b. The programme should be marketed as highly positive, and not be associated with punishment or fear.

To that I have added a few concerns too
a. Maybe it is too early in the year. Students don't know what they don't know.
b. Maybe it is too long an interruption in one go.

So, I have thought that maybe we should spread it thus
a. Two weeks at the beginning of the year.
b. Two weeks towards the end of the first term (i.e. just after assessment - maybe during moderation

Finally, I thought we could include the whole thing in the current discussions that I am having about Prof Prac - and actually include it in there.

I will, however go very carefully through all the suggestions and then put it to a working committee.

Bootcamp

2008-10-23T23:42:00.000-07:00

The most common recurring theme about teaching and learning to reach my ears is the one about UNDERPREPARED FIRST YEARS.
So now I am thinking
How about a SIX WEEK Bootcamp to get ALL our first years on the same page.
The idea would be to remedy their mathematics, their English spelling and grammar, their budgeting skills, their time management skills, and their interpersonal skills.
Much like "Basic Training" in the army is able to convert ANYBODY from a civilian to a soldier in six weeks, I want us to convert a matriculant to a student in six weeks.
The purpose of this sort of exercise would be to give ALL the students in the Faculty the opportunity to
a. Develop academic literacy
b. Get to know ALL the other members of the Faculty.
What are your thoughts?

And the winners are...

2008-09-08T06:14:00.000-07:00

Congratulations!!!

Marten Feiter, David Robertson, Philip Robertson, Naeem Cassim andMathew Hoepner (1st year students)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCo6T2WJpes

This is Design - The Finalists

2008-09-05T02:40:00.000-07:00

HERE are the finalists of the THIS IS DESIGN competition.
The winners will be announced once they have been notified.

Johan Uys (1st year student)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z02HryqJ0WM

Daniel Barnard (1st year student)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGnZ6YldZT0

Dirk Loots, Brent Ismay (1st year students)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_uKKHBJ7YQQ

Marten Feiter, David Robertson, Philip Robertson, Naeem Cassim and
Mathew Hoepner (1st year students)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCo6T2WJpes

Gerhard Coetzee (1st year student)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KoQkddPy0fA

Luke Slabolopsky, Johan Fourie, Jacque Bredell (1st year students)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7jWFJZ_eCU

Jacques Fabre, Max Basler, Tyran Cooper, Cara Esterhuysen, Matthew
Cheetham (1st year students)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6eENzvH6loA

Kegan Ross-Smith (1st year student)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1cDyie4Fa0

Topher, Anine, Justin, Clif, Karl (1st year students)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GVjFWsPNTE

Lize Lize Loftie-Eaton
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hWzl3zqYuw

The Banknote Competition - Yet another winner

2008-09-01T23:17:00.000-07:00

So, this time it was Samantha Apollis from Graphic Design who did it! She WON the South African Bank Note Company's Banknote Design Competition.
This is only the second year that we entered the competition.

WELL DONE to all concerned.

Here are pictures of the winning design, the winner getting her prize, and the team who made it happen.

Samantha Apollis's winning design for the banknote competition

Mr Musa Mbhele (MD SABN and Chief Adjudicator) and Samantha Appolis

The Team: S. Baza, JC Coetzee, L Franciscus, Winner- Samantha Apollis, Z Hendricks and E. Simon

This note from Lionel Franciscus:
This is only the 2nd time we CPUT Graphic design, participated in this competition to redesign a full set on south african bank note. All main institutions offering graphic design as a course, all provinces in south africa, partakes in this competition. This year there were 300 entrants of which we were in the final 10 namely, Shameeg Baza, Ziyaad Hendricks and the winner being Samantha Apollis. In 2007, we entered for the first time even though this competition has been running for a couple of years. Last year we reached the final but have not even reached 3rd place. It was won by VEGA design and advertising.

And some legal stuff from the sponsor:

NB. While the South African Reserve Bank is keenly interested and very supportive of the currency design competition, this competition is a South African Bank Note Society initiative and the fictional currency brief is deliberatively formulated to achieve certain graphic design objectives minimising restrictive influences. The competition brief is therefore completely independent, totally unrelated and not reflective of any current economic forces.
While the SABNS requests written permission to publish the students final currency design in the copyright protected bimonthly society SABNS Review the designs and intellectual property resides with the student graphic designer.

Bruce's Proposal

2008-08-22T00:18:00.000-07:00

Hi All
Below is Bruce's proposal for the way forward in the merger.

Graphic Design merger - August 20th 2008
A proposal for the way forward
This is a proposed framework and time line for the merging of the two Graphics programmes currently offered at the CPUT.
This proposed framework has come about through some inter departmental discussion and is an attempt to identify a possible way forward for the merger, while considering the logical steps that may be required to set this in motion.
My aim in making this proposal is to spark debate and to encourage all staff to engage with the process of generating ideas.
Key considerations:
1. minimize disruption to both programmes.
2. keep staff happy and stress free by having CLEAR planning for the years ahead that is based on point 1, and developing
realistically time tabled joint teaching events.

2009
In short, we dedicate 2009 to building a common educational culture, where we actively engage in jointly offering a number of key projects at all levels without jeopardizing the key considerations above.
This would mean very careful planning in November 2008 to facilitate this joint offering.
Both programmes would need to be use the same number of evaluation points and both time-tables would have to be designed to accommodate the key projects at the specific levels. This would literally mean opening up slots to allow for the joint projects to be offered. At the moment I am not suggesting we try to develop one time-table for both programmes in 2009.
Re-curriculation would be an ongoing process throughout the year – a time-table would need to be set up and worked to where task teams engage with designated research activity and workshops (see rough plan for 2008 at end).
As far as the Learner Guides are concerned, these joint projects would be written into the workscheme/syllabus for each subject.

Aim of joint project offerings:
ØØto allow staff on both campuses to plan and teach together.
ØØto encourage inter campus sharing of ideas.
ØØto break down issues of mistrust.
ØØto be actively trying out what we will be doing in the near future, which is teaching together!
ØØto expose students on both campuses to staff and teaching methods currently housed in CT and BV.
ØØto explore the curriculation debate from a shared experience rather than from a point of difference.
Key projects could be driven from the following:
ØØsubject needs (drawing, comm. design, history, prof prac etc)
ØØlevel needs
comm. design integration with photography or drawing
- history/prof prac integration into comm. design
SAPPI ITM is a core event that could be jointly taught and co-ordinated
portie prep/presentation methods
BTech seminars (i.e. proposal presentation stage)
ØØdigital training needs
ØØDesign Indaba
ØØlive competitions
Big Blue T-shirt
Bank note
Trident Golf Day
Antalis Corporate ID competition
Music Band Brand (cross level team work) etc
South
ØØØDesign Achievers Awards, Think Ahead

In addition, to further build a common educational culture:
ØØstaff can moderate across the two campuses
ØØØorganise teaching and Learning seminar

These key projects would entail the following kinds of activities:
The idea being that the briefs for these projects would be conceptualized and co-written by a CT and a BV lecturer.
They would work out the timing required for the project to run (Nov/Dec planning phase) plus co-ordinate any outside/industry input required.
These staff would then duplicate their briefing phase for the project in CT and BV.
They would then plan appropriate review and assessment methods for the project. At level two and three a combo of live (i.e. both lecturers present) review and assessment methods or emailing of pdf’s could be considered. At level one a live option may work best.
Getting students to participate in cross campus activity should also be planned. For example student talks, seminars or workshops could be planned for all or within certain subjects/levels.

2010
Physical merging of both departments on the CT campus on top floor of Design Building.
Aim of doing this earlier than 2013/14:
ØØto eradicate the time consuming issue of cross campus teaching.
ØØto eradicate issues of miscommunication (not being on the same page) and wheel spin due to planning lags.
ØØto explore the curriculation debate from a shared experience rather than from points of difference.
ØØto facilitate the proximity necessary for staff to genuinely forge the design education culture required for a world class offering of Communication DesignØ.
ØØto enable staff to work towards a time frame that is driven by us and not the institution (dates may change!).

In order to do this we need to:
ØØthink creatively with regard to teaching methods, modes of delivery and use of studio space.
ØØbe accommodating and acknowledge that this is an interim measure until the extra floors are built on to the Design Building in 201?
ØØhave one HOD that has clear line function (from within the department up to faculty & institution management) and a job description that details all operational responsibilities along with the mandatory HOD tasks.
Reality of Space constraints:
Students
We would have to reduce 2009 student intake (CT and BV campuses) to keep numbers of second years in 2010 manageable.
Approx student numbers for 2010:
First years (2010 intake) ±75
Second years (2009 intake) ±80
Third years (2008 intake) ±110 (60CT + 50BV students currently in first year)
Fourth years ±30
I have not factored in the Foundation programme as I am unsure of the student figures. The proposed Design cluster, of which Graphic Design would be part, should define our thinking around how access, under preparedness and diagnostics are applied to the concept of a Foundation Year within such a cluster.
Possible action:
ØØØMore desks into the available studios to accommodate extra students.
ØØØrun programme on more of a rotation system i.e. students are put into morning or afternoon groups and the studio space is shared in this way.
ØØØAdapt to a modular system of course offering.

Staff
Need to accommodate ±six permanent academic staff from BV plus one technician.
Possible action:
ØØØMove physical BTech studio space to Roeland Street. Students still consult with staff in Design bldng but would benefit from proximity with Masters students and research hub in Roeland St.
This would open up the current BTech studios for adaptation into staff office space or possible third year studio space.
ØØØbuild temp offices against first year studio (within current open plan space).
ØØØ convert store room opposite staff room for technician or admin staff.

2008
I have put a very rough plan together for what we would need to do in the last months of 2008 IF we were to go with the proposed model.
September
ØØØMid month - Joint staff meeting to establish which would be appropriate joint projects for 2009 (focusing on first year).
Target population analysis report back by Janet and Edwine.
Synthesis into curriculation plan done by task team leader.
ØØØCompletion of, or second phase of DACUM process.
Synthesis into curriculation plan done by task team leader.
ØØØTask team established to analyse current educational landscape that we are occupying. This entails researching existing programmes i.r.o, fee structures, course content, research standing, industry standing.
Report back end month. Synthesis into curriculation plan done by task team leader.

October
ØØØStart planning for joint projects for 2009
ØØØStart work on the Learner Guides for 2009 Ø move toward producing a template that
is student friendly
represents the work ethos and behaviour expected on the programmes
identifies the joint projects to be taught (when, assessment methods etc).
November & early December
ØØØAgreement on Learner Guides wording for 2009 Ø first to third year.
ØØØ Joint Graduate Show as part of Faculty Exhibition in CT.
ØØØ Complete planning for joint project offerings for 2009.
In conclusion
This model proposes a more organic merger process rather than the linear one where we first adapt/recurriculate first year and then progress through second and third year.
This model is an attempt to allow for good teaching practice and proximity (of staff and students form CT and BV) to form the basis for discussion and change.
I believe that the sooner we can remove the issues of separate locations, separate time-tables and assessment practices, and different content and methodologies, the easier it will be for us to:
ØØØ offer one course called Graphic Design (one day this should change to Communication Design) at the CPUT.
ØØØ start to competitively position this course in the minds of our target population and our industry.
ØØ eradicate issues of miscommunication and wheel spin due to planning lags.
ØØ explore the curriculation debate from a shared experience rather than from points of difference.
ØØ facilitate the proximity necessary for us to genuinely forge a design education culture together.
ØØ start to budget for the long term needs of the programme i.e. computer upgrades, photography unit upgrading, staff recruitment, space requirements, and the list goes on.

Possible negatives for this proposal:
ØØØ 2010 - staff disagreements could adversely affect the programme offering Ø strong leadership required to avoid this.
ØØØ 2009/10 - reduced income due to reduced intake - reduced subsidy can be accommodated within FID as a whole, some depts. must increase intakes where possible.
ØØØ 2010 Ø very careful planning and co-ordination required to avoid overcrowding and frustration due to double bookings.
ØØØ 2010 - unresolved baggage (emotional etc) Ø would need to have resolved as much of this as possible during the sharing experience of 2009.
ØØNOTE: I am using the term Communication Design rather than Graphic Design as it is more descriptive of the field we teach in.

Bruce Snaddon
Course Leader - Cape Town Graphic Design department

The Great Graphic Curriculum Design Project

2008-08-13T06:55:00.001-07:00

So, we have the results of the goal analysis - the completion to the sentence:

A graphic design finalist who obtains a diploma from us after three years must me able to...

What we have to do now, is to detemine what makes that person a GRAPHIC designer, and wat makes US different from our competitors.

Thus we are aksing the questions that follow

A graphic design finalist who obtains a diploma from us after three years must me able to

2008-08-13T06:53:00.000-07:00

Conduct research
Work with a client brief from onset to production, and when the project goes live
Generate original concepts
Work in a team
Present themselves and their work confidently
Think strategically
Use appropriate technology and media

1. how deep determines the level

2008-08-13T06:52:00.000-07:00

Please post your contribution as a comment

2. what is that we do that makes it graphic design ?

2008-08-13T06:51:00.000-07:00

Please post your response as a comment

3. how does what we do differentiate us from the other disciplines

2008-08-13T06:50:00.000-07:00

Please post your work as a follow-up

4. what separates us from the competition

2008-08-13T06:48:00.000-07:00

Please post follow-ups with your comments

Two movies

2008-08-08T06:28:00.000-07:00

Last night the Photography Department hosted an exhibition of their work to the public at a screening of "Annie Liebowitz: Life through a lens"
This afternoon PR showed their first years "The lord of the flies"
One year and one month since I got here, things are beginning to happen.

Weclome to PR

2008-08-07T02:34:00.000-07:00

Good news is that the Department of Public Relations has joined us since 1 August.
I had a really good afternoon with them yesterday and I look forward to really exciting stuff.
I am going to ask them to play a significant role in a project called "From 0 to a brand in one year"
Welcome then to Prof Johann van der Merwe and his team. We look forward to an exciting time of growth together.

One week, two prizes

2008-08-01T09:22:00.000-07:00

So, on Saturday night Megan Barnfather won a LOERIE with her "Wellies Shoebox".
And then we also won one of four SAPPI "Ideas that matter" awards.
Here are pictures of Megan, the product and the prize. Well done to student and supervisors.

And here is the SAPPI team

After the DACUM

2008-07-31T09:20:00.000-07:00

Lynn Colemand and Mari-Therese Lewis facilitated an EXCELLENT two-day workshop with eight members of the Graphic Design community, and a number of interested observers from the Department of Graphic Design.
AND WE LEARNT SO MUCH.
I am really enthusiastic about what we can do from here forward.

Do it together

2008-07-31T09:18:00.000-07:00

Just a thought. Johann van Niekerk just let me know how useful it is for him to work with Mugendi on a paper.
Excellent idea, mentorship between more, and less experienced writers of articles.
HOWEVER, I have found it is also a good idea to write WITH someone. That way, when you get tired, the other party is fresh again, and somehow between the two of you, you get the job done.

Merging Graphics - A proposed way forward

2008-06-24T03:40:00.000-07:00

It is operationally essential that we merge the two sections of the department of Graphic Design across the two campuses.

Meanwhile we also have to consider the re-design of all our curricula to be in keeping with the Higher Education Qualifications Framework.

I Believe that this gives us a unique opportunity to be pro-active in how we design for the future of Design in Higher Education.

What is at stake here is much more than just "harmonising" what we are doing in Cape Town and Bellville. What we should do, is take a fresh look from the start at what it is that we are doing. Moreover we should do this completely independently from what we are doing now. We should start with an entirely fresh third-party perspective.

We should be approaching this process in two phases. Phase 1 will determine what we are going to teach and phase 2 will be about how we are going to teach it.

Phase 1

I recently attended a DACUM curriculum design workshop arranged by Fundani. Dacum is Canadian-developed process widely used by the vocational education sector to determine what it is that experts in a specific field actually do. Check out the Dacum Website to get more details.

What it boils down to is this: We get in an outside facilitator and we invite actual industry expert practitioners. The outside facilitator then actively debriefs the actual industry practitioners to determine the Key Performance Areas in which they work. Then they go on to populate the expertise required to function in those areas. The end product of a Dacum exercise is a Task Chart, that tells us exactly which tasks are done by expert workers, and to what level of competency they need to do this. Selected lecturers take part in a Dacum exercise, but only as observers. They sit at the back, and may communicate with the facilitator in writing. In this way the process remais objective, but on track. The purpose of the Dacum chart is for us to know exactly what industry expects of us. We therefore know what our third-year student should look like, and based on that, we can determine what we should be giving the first-year student.

Once we have the results of the Dacum, we as a unified department need to consider all the other variables. Here we ask questions such as

What do other institutions offer internationally, nationally and locally?
What are the uniqe shortcomings of our own incoming students that need to be worked on before we even get to the Dacum?
What are the deeper core skills and values that we want to instill in our students that are not covered by the Dacum.

Once we have exhaustes those questions, we break the field down into its logical components, and specify specific learning outcomes, as well as critical cross-field outcomes.

Then we suggest content and exercises that may be required to reach those outcomes.

Only then do we go back to our original Cape Town and Bellville curricula, and then only to determine if there is anything that we left out. It is essential that, throughout the initial process we ignore and even actively reject our current curricula, otherwise they will interfere with the process of innovation. We know that we will re-visit them at the end, thus we must not allow them to cloud our thinking at the beginning.

The deliverable at the end of Phase 1 will be a Study Guide.

I envisage that Phase 1 will take the greater part of the second semester.

Phase 2

Once we know what we are going to teach, we need to decide how we are going to teach it.

Here is where we will then do an analysis of our own individual strengths and weaknesses, and finally take a look at the possibilities and constraints. The idea is to build on our collective strenghts, and to work our way around the constraints. Remember, at this stage we will have just one curriculum. Thus there will be no question of "Belville stuff" and "Cape Town" stuff. It will all be new stuff, and we then need to make the best match between what we need and what we have.

I am hoping that, by the end of the year, we will at least have an in-principle agreement upon what it is that we will be doing where. I know that there is a great deal of discomfort with some of you about "busing students between Cape Town and Belville" and "dealing with time table clashses". There is no need to concern ourselves with these questions at this stage, because we still have no idea what it is that we want to teach, or how we want to teach it. This it would be silly to worry about where we want to teach it.

I must tell you that I am very excited about what we are about to undertake. I must also say that I am very optimistic about the outcome. I trust in your professionalism and creativity, but also, it has been my experience that in this Faculty, if we give it time and space, things tend to fall into place almost automatically.

Finally

I am really concerned by the lack of response I get from my blog. It could be because you are shy to post here, or that you simply don't know how. So, feel free to contact me directly via Groupwise if you wish to discuss your concerns.

Feedback from the Dean - At the end of the first year!

2008-06-16T01:34:00.000-07:00

So, this month marks the end of my first year at CPUT.

To this end I have written up a short history of the first year.

I put it here as a call for comment, particularly from staff in the Faculty.

I look forward to your responses.

Feedback from the Dean
On 22 August 2007 I made my first presentation to the Faculty of Informatics and Design. Firstly I shared the slideshow that I made during my appointment interview. That slideshow I consider as the promise I made to this University. Then I continued with a slideshow outlining how I planned to deliver upon that promise. After that we had lunch. My presentation was 90 minutes long, and there was no question time.
Sixteen April 2008 saw the first Faculty Board meeting since I have been here, and represented the first opportunity for the Faculty to ask questions. I spent 40 minutes updating the second half of the 22 August presentation, sharing what has happened since our first meeting. Then we broke for questions. Generally the feedback from the Faculty was positive. The most significant area for improvement for me was the provision of feedback. I agree wholeheartedly, and this document serves as my written response to the faculty request for feedback, and serves as a backup for those who were unable to attend the Faculty Board meeting. It will serve as the basis of discussion for my meeting with the Faculty on the Bellville and Cape Town campuses in July 2008.
The document will follow the outline of the slideshow of 22 August and 16 April 2008, but will probably be more detailed.
Professorial English 101
My sense of humor is based on irony and exaggeration. The result is that people sometimes get angry because they don’t realize that I am not all that serious. My training and experience as an academic has had the result that I have enormous respect for academic debate and academic freedom. I therefore tend to engage in the discourse of the traditional academic, which is sometimes misunderstood.
Always do X. Never NEVER, ever do Y EVER in your life ever…
When a professor makes an absolute statement he is clearly challenging a student to find an exception. If the student is then able to argue a case for the suspension of the always or the never, then a responsible academic would back down, and admit that there may well be merit. I must admit that I sometimes think I am in the minority here. Between my actual presentation to the Faculty and the writing of these words, I have actually had the occasion to remove a doctoral supervisor from a student, because it was clear that the supervisor was not prepared to give the student the benefit of the doubt. It is the student’s responsibility to formulate ideas and to learn from mistakes. If the supervisor advises certain actions just because it would make the supervisor’s live easier if all students were to think the same, then that is poor supervision.
It might just be a good idea to…
A sentence such as “It might just be a good idea to look at Chapter five” means “The whole test is about Chapter five”. A professor may not spoon feed. Therefore a professor hints. If the student is too stupid to catch the hint, then the student is not wise.

In the spirit of design, I will now proceed following the well-respected ADDIE (Analysis, Design, Develop, Implement, Evaluate) model as a structure.
Analysis
In the first seven months that I have been here, I have been able to do a little SWOT analysis of the Faculty. I will next discuss the obvious strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats to the Faculty.
Strengths
Staff
The faculty has dedicated, long-suffering members who have been through troubled times, but have come out stronger, and have a fierce loyalty to the new institution. There is very little evidence of legacy fights still creating a divide. The staff are enthusiastic about their work, and in most instances do more than what is required of them – sometimes to their own detriment. There are very few senior staff which means that, in budgetary terms, we get away cheaply, but on the other hand we suffer in terms of academic leadership.
Students
With the exception of one or two departments the students that we have are the best that we could select. The courses are generally oversubscribed, and we can actually pick the best that there are, within certain constraints. An extended first year allows us to accommodate those students who would not usually have qualified to enter some of our courses.
Facilities
We are seriously over-resourced. Of course people will tend to disagree with me and say that we do not have nearly enough computers, workstations, machines, or even physical space, but in my walking around through the Faculty I have seen plenty of unused machines and plenty of unoccupied space. If you need extra space and machines, I can give you as much as you want – particularly on a Friday after 13:00.
Diversity
The faculty benefits from a hugely diverse staff complement. This means that we need to be incredibly careful when we plan anything to accommodate every culture, belief, colour and size. It also means we have to think very carefully about everything we do. The diverse strength lies in the diversity of our academic offering that spans through all seven the design disciplines, and then also includes media and informatics. The connections that happen when IT speaks to Journalism, or when the Film Department speaks to Multimedia, or Surface design to Town and Regional planning make are amazing.
Weaknesses
Diversity
Ironically our diversity is also our biggest weakness. It is very difficult to move forward with any idea if it has to be filtered through so many cultures and academic disciplines. Something as simple as a year-end party becomes a logistical quagmire of cultural pitfalls. From the Dean’s perspective, of course, the very diverse nature of our offering makes the Faculty really hard to manage. There’s so much going on – it’s like herding cats.
Spread across two campuses
I thought the Faculty was spread across two Campuses, Cape Town and Bellville. Turns out I am wrong. In Bellville we are in at least four buildings, in two distinct sections of the campus. In Cape Town we are in four distinct locations on the Cape Town campus, then we have a section in Roeland Street, a section in the “e-learning” building and two sections in the Thomas Pattullo building on the Foreshore, and, oh, yes, the ICT Academy is in Wale Street. A little relief will happen when Interior Design moves to the Foreshore and the Fashion B.Tech move to Roeland Street. Oh, yes, and I forgot, I am in the Admin building – away from all academic activity save language. As soon as the roof in Roeland Street is repaired, I will move there so that I can be closer to the research hub that has been created there.
Overlaps
When I speak to staff they all call themselves “designers” be it Graphic, Interior, Fashion – whatever. They are designers. Yet, when I ask why I don’t see students grouped together in larger groups I get told “no, we’re different”. We will all have to sit down at some stage and re-design the curriculum so that we can group together that which makes us the same, and develop that which makes us different. Of course another main overlap lies in courses that are duplicated (all be it in slightly varied forms) on Cape Town and Bellville).
Understaffed
It can take more than eight months to get a new person appointed. If someone leaves, the rest of us simply have to absorb the load. The staff shortage is particularly critical with IT. We make good use of hourly part-time staff, but part timers do not do research, and do not take kindly to extra administrative work. Once again, though, I really believe that in many ways we are not so much understaffed as we are poorly deployed. If we sort out many of the duplications that are still occurring
Lack of research confidence & experience
I have seen any number of really excellent B.Tech essays that lie unpublished. All it would take is for someone to beef up the literature review, and do a more careful analysis of the findings and there will be a publication. There is still a mindset that research is something that we do “at the expense” of our teaching. Research is built into what we do – we just tend to ignore it. The result is that piles and piles of knowledge leaves our institution every year, safely tucked away between the ears of our departing students. We need to get this information published in recognized journals so that we can claim the intellectual ownership of the University – as we are entitled to do.
Perceived “Cinderella” faculty
There seems to be a sort of perception with some staff that this faculty was assembled of what remained when the other faculties took what they wanted. We are the “leftovers”. This perception is emphasized by the fact that the two large faculties have to move fist in terms of consolidation across the two large campuses. That means, that, in order for Engineering and Management to consolidate, Architecture has to be moved. So, we are moved away, so that others can be moved in. Furthermore, the institutional consolidation plan shows fairly detailed plans for the consolidation of all the other faculties, while it points out that, right at the end of the consolidation process, Informatics and Design will be mostly in Cape Town with some presence in Bellville. Of course, on the other hand the possibilities that our diffuse presence has should be recognized. We can spread like a virus and benefit from our proximity to our neighbouring faculties.
Opportunities
Co-operation with industry – THRIPP
For many years technikons benefited from close ties with industry. In the past fifteen years or so that relationship has gradually been eroded. The shift from technikons to universities of technology has led to a further weakening of the bond. We still produce work-ready students for the market out there, but we get very little support from that very same market. Admittedly a number of departments have shown me that they have very close relationships with industry – but on closer inspection I find that the relationship is pretty much one in which industry are the chickens that contribute the eggs, while we area the pigs who sacrifice ourselves for the bacon.
I want us to move into a much more collaborative situation where industry plays a role all the way from recruiting students at school level, through to employing and sponsoring them while at university, to providing the research bases for the masters and doctoral studies. In the spirit of universities of technology it should really be quite difficult to separate out the research from the practice.
The main point is this. If industry asks us to help them in solving a certain problem, and if they are prepared to pay for the work that we do, then it is possible for us to apply for additional research funding through mechanisms such as THRIPP, to ensure that we have adequate resources to develop our research capacity even further.
International research cooperation: Finland, Holland, Sweden, Germany
We have really good co-operation with Kuopio University in Finland. I have strong links with the University of Joensuu. Interestingly enough those two institutions have now merged to form the University of Eastern Finland. We are thus now able to pool our resources in this partnership. The very beneficial relationship between the Malmö University of Sweden and the department of Industrial Design has just been renewed for a second term and the benefits of this cooperation are getting very clear. I hope that we can strengthen that even further with the formation of a much closer partnership between Industrial Design and Information Technology – particularly at the B.Tech level.
Journalism continues to benefit from its close cooperation with Algonquin university in Canada, while Graphic design have a mutually beneficial relationship with the London College of Communication. I am hoping for interesting developments between Photography and the Multimedia college of Rotterdam, but I have not seen much happening on that front.
We have to remember that Cape Town is a prime tourist destination and we have much to offer by way of draw-cards!
Coordinated Masters’ and Doctoral programmes
The establishment of a coordinated post graduate research programme across the Faculty was my most important priority when I arrived here. That is why I jumped right in to make it happen from February 2008. We advertised the programme in September 2007 and on our first evening had a turnout of more than 60 post graduate students and supervisors. We meet every Thursday from 16:00 to 20:00, discussing issues of interest to masters and doctoral students alike, and ensuring in some way or another that student progress is channeled efficiently, and that we stick to institutional deadlines.
Feedback is enormously positive. Nevertheless, the process is still in its infancy and we tend to have quite a few programme changes. We are also still in the process of figuring out a balance between design and IT in terms of our guest speakers. Nevertheless, what is emerging from the evening programme is a strong discourse among scholars and I can already see the intellectual and academic growth of the students after a mere three months. Class attendance on Thursday evenings have averaged on about 50 students and supervisors.
Establishment of a community of scholars
The evening programme is the basis for the community of scholars, but this has also been augmented by the formation of a group called “Sting” which consists of staff doing doctoral studies. We are in the process of re-working the top floor of the Roeland street building to make that the official seat of research in the Faculty and by the middle of the year the results should be visible.
Threats
Cherry-picking by private providers
There are a few really good private institutions who compete with us for students. Then there are any number of highly questionable characters who provide a really poor education at a really high price. These shady operators use the glamour of their profession to steal away our potentially best students, while robbing their parents of vast amounts of money. Then, when the parents realize what has happened, they send their children to us anyway – or they simply abandon the education of their offspring. We need to counter this by a much more aggressive marketing campaign so that we can reach our target population directly and get the best students who deserve to study with us.
Industry don’t know what we do
I am constantly amazed at how completely unknown we are to industry. The merger has robbed us of the two very strong identities of CapeTech and Pentech, while the unfortunate choice of acronym for our new name has led to our being called KAPUT. If there is one thing that we must do as individuals then it is to engage in a furious struggle against the negative perceptions that go with our name. I have called for a marketing campaign to rectify the situation, but thus far nothing has happened. As individuals we need to correct every person we find who talks about C-put or KAPUT, and explain that we want to be called C.P.U.T. I have asked for a “jingle” to be composed so that we could use it in radio commercials or have it made as a ring tone on our phones.
Industry don’t know what we are worth
We seem to be so desperate to have ties with industry that we allow our students to work for them for free – or for a little bit of pocket money. We thus provide a free or cheap service – which means that industry believes we are cheap. Now, of course, in a world of supply and demand, and in a world in which we do not have much of a brand or a reputation, it is essential that we engage with our industry much more aggressively. To that end I have started working on the concept of “Design Breakfasts” where we invite key figures from industry to address us, and we invite key role players to attend the breakfast. In this way we will soon create a brand for ourselves and develop much stronger links into the industry.

Design

There are as many definitions of the word “Design” as there are people working in the industry. Everybody claims to know exactly what it is, and nobody is able to give the ultimate definition.
Figure 1 The Rietveld chairI am not going to hazard a definition here, but for the purpose of my argument here I will concentrate on two aspects inherent to design that are most vividly shown in Gerard Rietveld’s famous Red Blue and Yellow chair (Figure 1). Those two aspects are firstly to remove anything that is unnecessary, and secondly to emphasize that which is unique. I must admit that personally I think Rietveld’s chair is quite ugly, and even Rietveld himself admits to not liking the chair as the bottom cross beam hurts your ankles when you get up. Nevertheless it goes well to illustrate my point of removing redundancies and emphasizing uniqueness. I believe that the first and most important step in the design process is to reach absolute clarity on the goal of the design. If you don’t know why you do something, it is hard to figure out how to do it.
The goal is “To grow research capacity”
Let me make this clear from the start. I was appointed by this institution to grow research capacity in this Faculty. That is my one main goal. I have other tasks – all connected to running a Faculty well. But I have only one goal – and that is to grow research capacity. In understanding the design process it is useful to work from some theoretical background. The process theory that appeals to me most is Ely Goldratt’s (1984) Theory of constraints. The theory can be explained in six steps that are executed once you have clarified the goal:
Identify the constraint
Decide how to exploit the constraint
Subordinate all other processes to the above decision
Elevate the constraint
If the constraint moves as a result, go to step 1
Don’t let inertia become the constraint (Goldratt, 1984)
Let me admit up front that I fully realize that given this very clear, but single-minded goal, my design may well appear “ugly” to some of you – just as Rietveld’s chair is ugly to me. But I make no apology for that. It is inherent to the system and a matter of taste. The fashion, at the moment, demands research, and as designers we cannot ignore fashion – we should lead it. And the direction into which we should lead it, is the direction of design research – which is an integration of the design process and the research process, so that research becomes design, and design becomes research.

Constraints identified:
There two constraints in our system and they are time and space. We teach too much and our rooms are too small, so that we do not have enough room for larger classes to be able to do batch processing. So, actually, the space constraint is a subset of the time constraint.
In determining ways to exploit the constraint we therefore have to ask one question which is: “How do we make time for research?”
How to exploit the constraint
Now here’s where the system works so well. In order to make time for research we have to re-visit everything we do (including research itself). Now you will notice that I am not saying we must put less emphasis on what we do already. Neither do I say that what we are doing already is not important. What I am saying is that we need to improve the efficiency of what we are already doing, in order to get through those processes more easily – thus saving time. The things that we need to do better are administration, teaching, supervision, research and community service – the five key activities of a university.
There are a number of things that waste our time. The most important ones are
1. Waiting for others to do their stuff so that we can get around to doing ours
2. Doing things too slowly because we don’t know how to do them, or we simply do not have the talent or ability to do those kinds of things quickly
3. Doing things over again because we did not do them properly in the first place
4. Doing the same thing again and again because we do not have a machine that automates the process

So, let us consider the time wasting constraints in our various activities, and ways in which to elevate them.
Administration
I have found the faculty to be particularly prone to “crisis management” and I marvel at the number of times that Jenny Penfold has to ask for simple, routine, everyday returns of information. On the other hand at University level the merger has resulted in a lack of clear, uniform processes by which we do things.
Advance planning
How many times do we say to our students “But you knew at the beginning of the term already that you had to hand this in today…”? And how many times do we ignore that statement when we do not meet our own deadlines. We queue for a photocopier to run off 30 copies of work quickly for a class – when we knew at the beginning of the year already that they would need that page on that day.
Streamlined processes
The University processes are notoriously slow. Policies are still under development, which means that the processes underpinning those policies have not been clarified. Never has this been as clear as in the recent process of Ad hominem promotions, and I have to apologize personally to the numerous members of staff who were hurt in various stages as the process broke down. The up-side of this, though, is that we actually did run the process for the first time and, had we waited until the process was smoothed out completely, we would not have had a round of promotions this year, and we would still have had a number of errors next year. This way at least we were able to learn from our mistakes.
To elevate our administrative constraints we need to accept the fact that the University does not have everything in place yet – and that therefore it is our responsibility to create backups and emergency plans that will kick in whenever anything goes wrong. To this end we will look to our assistants, our class captains and the newly-appointed Faculty Manager.
Assistants
It is my firm belief that lecturers are asked to do too much non-lecturing work. Lecturers who deserve help – because they are productive – should be afforded all assistance they need. This includes assistance with photocopying, typing, proof reading, adding up of marks, processing of attendance registers, in fact, everything that does not amount to teaching, learning and research. But then the lecturers have to manage the process themselves. We can only assist when we are told what assistance to give, and why.
Class captains
I have been engaged in a number of discussions with the Students Representative Council (SRC) about their responsibilities towards their constituency. What concerns me is that the SRC only come to see me when they represent a student who underachieves, or when they have run out of money.
I believe that there should be a much clearer line of representation for students. Each class should have a class captain. The class captain should report to the lecturer, the HOD and the SRC representative. The class captain should have a clear job description that includes taking roll call, circulating lecturer evaluation forms, reminding students of deadlines, and identifying students who are at risk of failing for reasons other than their grades. The SRC representative should attend every Faculty management meeting.
Faculty manager
Our organization suffers from “middle-age spread” in terms of administration. What I mean here is that too many people have been promoted (or have promoted themselves) into positions where they “manage” administrative work, rather than to do it. The delegation chain has developed to the extent that assistants have assistants. A further problem is that our administrative work is greatly seasonal and cyclic. What I mean is that at the beginning of the year there is an enormous administrative load when thousands of students come to register. Then nothing happens for about two months until there is the flurry of mark returns. I have asked our admin staff, under the supervision of the newly appointed Faculty Manager to come up with a clear strategy of taking up the load.
Teaching
Diana Laurillard (Laurillard, 1994) former Deputy Vice Chancellor of the UK Open University, in her ground-breaking work Rethinking university teaching bases her whole book on the premise that lecturers are responsible for student learning, and that students are responsible for making the most of the opportunities provided by lecturers. I am an unwavering supporter of this statement.
Lecturers are responsible for student learning.
Let me explain this from the other end. If a student fails an assessment, then there is only one reason for it. The student was not properly prepared. If a student is not properly prepared, then there are two reasons for it. Either the lecturer did not prepare the student, or the student did not prepare him/herself. If the student did not prepare him/herself, then there are two reasons. Either the student has personal problems, or the lecturer did not motivate the student properly. The problem of student failure can be seen in Figure 2.

Student fails
Lecturer did not prepare student
1.
2.
Student did not prepare self
3. Lecturer did not motivate or support student
4. Student has personal problems
Figure 2 Problem-solving diagram for student failure
From figure two it can be seen that the lecturer carries a three out of four position responsibility for student failure. Now, before you get started on “this is a university, not a high school” let me point out that the logic of the above diagram holds for whatever training institution we are talking about – all the way from grade 1 through to doctoral level. It is just the degree and level of preparation that differs. And before you fall into a deep sulk about this fact, let me remind you that our salaries come directly from the subsidy generated by students who pass. Student fees pay for the facilities and running expenses of the university. However, I am not saying that we must simply pass students so that we get salaries. I am saying that we must remember where our money comes from.
Now, while we are on problem-solving diagrams. If the lecturer did not prepare the student properly, then there are four reasons for that: no knowledge, no need, no help, and no time. Given that the lecturers are appointed specifically for their knowledge, and given that they need to (or want to) teach, the chances are that the problem will come in with help, and time – which takes us back to administrative support, and improved methodology. Nevertheless, knowledge also includes knowledge regarding most recent developments in the field, and of course knowledge of the systems and processes of the university. To this end I have asked for a one-day training workshop to be presented to familiarize staff with all the policies and procedures of the University. I have had comment from staff that they have been to policy workshops before, that the University does not run by its own policy and that therefore they will not go to one again. This would be sad. The University has been developing a whole lot of new policies that have gone through almost unchallenged. This is because staff do not know or read these policies, and do not realize their implications. I hope to empower staff by getting them to receive training from the very people who wrote the policies. At the same time those of us who attend the policy workshops may decide how we as a Faculty plan to implement these policies, and how we plan to interpret the vaguenesses.
Students are responsible for making the most of the opportunities provided by the lecturers.
Here again we need to ensure that students know their responsibilities, and take those responsibilities seriously – which is why I want to make items such as roll-call and progress-monitoring the responsibility of the students themselves. Furthermore we need to make the best use of the tools and techniques available to us. We need to improve what we are doing.
What is happening at the moment is that we give students a whole lot of responsibility, but we do not have systems in place to ensure that the students take up that responsibility. Then the students default on their responsibilities, but it becomes our problem. An example: student attends hardly any classes, submits assignments late or not at all, obtains extension from lecturer on humane grounds (without doctors’ certificate or anything else). Student fails first year – but only just – and is allowed to re-do first year. Student shows very little improvement in next first year, but eventually passes. Now student arrives in second year – performs poorly, submits late, always has excuses, and lecturers accommodate where possible. However, student fails second year – outright. Student asks to repeat second year. We allow that. Halfway through second attempt at second year student disappears. A year later student wants to enroll for third year. Student claims that she has been poorly treated for years now. Lecturers were mean to her, which is why she failed first year. Lecturers were still mean to her in the second attempt, but she passed despite their attempts to hijack her career. Then, when she came to second year lecturers failed her again. When she re-did second year she discovered that lecturers had not changed their attitudes, and thus went away. Now, she believes that, if we combined both her attempts at the second year it should allow her to enter into third year. Lecturers refuse. Head of Department refuses. Dean refuses. Student appeals to SRC and Top Management. Their argument is: A student who has worked so hard, and suffered for so long, deserves another chance.
Now the Dean is angry. His staff is being abused. Dean wants to defend his staff and terminate student. Dean asks for evidence that the student has defaulted. Staff cannot produce any roll call lists. Staff cannot produce any evidence of meetings with student in which they discussed her performance. Staff cannot produce witnesses to defend themselves against student claims that they were rude to her. Thus, Dean cannot defend staff against student, and student is back, taking up valuable space that could have been taken up by other, more deserving students.
We present countless opportunities for students to learn, but we do so from the traditional teacher-centered perspective. We believe we do so because we are good people and we do so expecting nothing other than that the student should respect us for what we do, and cooperate with us for who we are. Learner centered education does not work this way. Learner centered education means that it is the responsibility of the learner actively to seek out learning experiences. But that means that the lecturer has to spend a whole lot of time collecting evidence whether the student is, or is not, doing that.
There is a simple heuristic for this sort of thing. If class attendance is optional, then roll call must be compulsory. Why do I say this? If class attendance is compulsory, then, after three spot checks show that a student was absent, the student can be disciplined. If attendance is optional and a student claims not to have received sufficient help from a lecturer, then the register is the lecturer’s only defense.
Supervision
The faculty has a critical shortage of experienced supervisors of masters and doctoral students. I plan to address this need by a system of supporting and training supervisors, and by appointing doctoral students as co-supervisors to masters’ students, and masters’ students as co-supervisors to B.Tech students. The reason for this is that there is nothing that helps you recognize your own shortcomings as a writer than having to read someone else’s writing.
Moreover the system will assist with the building of a community of scholars.
A community of scholars
On Thursday evening 21 February we launched the Thursday evening Post-Graduate research programme. The main purpose of the evening programme is the creation of a community of scholars. The idea is that students and supervisors meet once a week, on a Thursday evening to discuss matters of mutual importance. Thanks to the system of cascading supervision, many staff who are doctoral students, are actually also supervisors of Masters’ students anyway and thus when they attend the Thursday evening workshops they do two things at once. As the evening programme is progressing we are learning the words of research, we are entering into discourse, and we are discovering what exactly is meant by research at universities of technology.
The community of scholars is further augmented by a group who call themselves “Sting” – a spontaneous grouping of Doctoral students in the Facutly.
I have had complaints that not all staff are able to attend Thursday evenings. However, a show of hands on the first evening showed that graduate students who are not full-time staff can’t come in daytime. So we have had to stick with Thursday evenings. Nevertheless, in keeping with what I said previously attendance is voluntary – which, of course, holds that roll-call is compulsory. We have an average attendance of 50 people of an evening.
Graduate committee (Subset of research committee)
This committee, now loosely consisting of Proff Pieter van Brakel, Vesper Owei, Shaun Pather, as well as Retha de La Harpe, Corrie Uys and Amelia Smith are the drivers behind the evening programme. Prof Owei is the co-ordinator of the evening programme, Prof Van Brakel is the Faculty research support coordinator.
Research
Research has become a key driver in the Faculty. I put research promotion as my key driver when I got here. A number of initiatives are beginning to bear fruit. The Faculty research committee has benefited greatly from the incorporation into the Faculty of the E-IA.
Establishment of a research development unit
Retha de La Harpe and Johann van der Merwe have been doing excellent work stimulating research in the Faculty. Their efforts have now been strongly supported by the incorporation of the E-IA into the Faculty. Their key activity in 2008 has been to arrange a highly successful research day, which was well attended in spite of the fact that the higway was closed on account of an accident.
One-stop research stop
A very recent addition to the Faculty is Dr Helene Coetzee. She has been tasked to help staff, who spend most of their time teaching, to change their conference papers into journal articles. She has been appointed in a post-doc position in the Faculty and I hope to see about one publication per week once her shop starts working.
Research professor
At this stage this position is vacant, although Prof Pieter van Brakel is keeping the door open.
Research editor
Dr Maurice Dassah has been assisting staff in the final draft of their work. In the course of the year, I hope to have this function formalized.
Research teams
Lecturers from various design disciplines have started working closely towards developing a common platform for the B.Tech students’ research proposals.
There is also increasing cooperation between the IT-related disciplines and the design disciplines.
Research networks
We have a strong network with the Finns. I am hoping that the relationship with the Canadians and the British will also grow towards being research networks rather than teaching networks only.
Community service
The Faculty is constantly approached by people wanting to work with us. After some discussion, however, it often becomes clear that people want us to work for nothing. It needs to become clear that community service does not mean charity.
Community service needs to be in support of the mainstream academic processes. It should make use of excess capacity and be integrated with our current research.
Community service should also be an opportunity for us to find external sponsorship, and as a recruitment tool.
One vehicle to integrate community service, using excess capacity and contributing towards research, while remaining in our mainstream activity, is the Winter School.
Janet van Graan and her team have put together a number of short courses whereby staff will use their own excess capacity (i.e. recess time) to present some of their mainstream knowledge to the community on a cost-recovery basis. In this way we are automatically doing market research and we are in a position to recruit talented students.

Development: Putting it all together
In the following section I will consider some plans that I have for the Faculty, and then suggest some plans that you should make for yourself.
Plans for the Faculty, plans for you
Save time by reducing overlaps
From the Faculty strategic planning documents I notice that everybody is worried about the “silo effect” where we all work in isolation, often doing the same stuff. One of the main reasons for this lies with the Technikon approach of vocational specialization. This means that every department is attached to a specific job outcome. Thus we have a department making fashion designers, a department making graphic designers, a department making industrial designers, etc. Within those departments the individual skills are often duplicated, and often superficially. What I mean is this. Regardless of whether we are producing a graphic, fashion, jewelry, interior or architectural designer, they have to learn how to make sketches, they have to learn how to write reports, they have to learn about colour, shade, perspective, line, photography, computers and so on.
We tend to have all those generic items taught by individual (often part time) lecturers on a per-department basis.
The result is that we have lots of small groups taught and no standardization occurs in the Faculty. I need us to tighten this up so that these sub-skills of all the vocations can become areas of expertise. If we do this, then we save preparation time, teaching time and research time.
A first step towards doing this would be to create groups with common interest.
Four special interest groups
At the moment the Faculty is arranged in 12 departments, with a number of other units that all report to the Dean – 20 in all. This is untenable. The large structure means that the academic offering is fragmented (see above) and also that individual heads of departments or sections have relatively little power and very small constituencies. I need to empower sections by making them larger. The additional benefit of this will be that information flows more quickly to relevant sections.
The Faculty is beginning to group itself naturally into four units, ICT design, Environmental design, Media design, and Environmental design.
ICT design
At this stage ICT design is the largest single section in the Faculty. However, this in itself is leading to problems, and it would seem that, given some further growth it could be divided into three.
Environmental design
Merger-related needs in the University have led to three sections being moved into the Thomas Pattullo building on the Foreshore. These departments are Town and Regional Planning, Architecture and Interior design. Already there are some interesting cooperative developments under way – at this stage mainly in terms of collective bargaining, but I should hope that it will soon develop into team teaching, particularly in the shared “service” subjects such as history, ICT and business studies.
Media design
The departments of Journalism, Film & Video, and Photography have much in common in what they do. I have been approached by another Faculty suggesting that one of their departments should also join us. This could be exciting. The strongest point of commonality in these departments lies in the field of the documentary, and I believe we are very well positioned to exploit this considerably.
Artifact design
I see Graphic design as the foundation of the design disciplines. It is where it all started – drawing things. Then, if you draw things on other things, you move to surface design, if you start bending and folding it, you can wear it as fashion or jewelry, or you can use it – as an industrial artifact. When I walk through the design building I keep on seeing projects produced by students on the various floors, and saying to myself – they’re all doing the same things – but in different accents. There is much room for streamlining and strengthening here.
Developing a strong central core
We have an amazing group of people who work in the extended programme. In this section they teach across all disciplines and allow students to specialize in the field that is best for them. In this way they can demonstrably improve throughput rates. My biggest problem is that their services are limited to approximately eight students per section. Only 50 students per year may benefit from this service. That is a pity. We need to find a way in which just about all students receive some foundational work.
We also have a well-functioning “History” department, whose name, I think, is wrong, and a Language coordinator. At this stage, however, all these sections function as “add on” features, rather than a central core upon which the faculty is built.
What we need here is an industry audit by so that we can find out very clearly what it is that our students will be doing out there. When I walk in our passages I hear everyone calling themselves “designers”, but none of them can really tell me what that means.
We need to develop a central theme of design based upon our commonalities. I am not calling for a common first year – as has been done in the past. I am calling for common modules to be presented to all students of a specific cluster – throughout their tenure with us.
What I have in mind is a model that resembles the “farm schools” of which we had so many in the country. In such a school there are learners from various school years, studying various subjects, all in the same room, with the teacher facilitating learning, and concentrating on motivating the learners to achieve outcomes through guided self-study.
An example. Instead of teaching “History of Architecture”, “History of Interior design”, “History of Fashion”, “History of Industrial design” etc. I could quite comfortably put all the students in one group, and give the following brief: “Consider the period between the first and second world wars and a few years thereafter. Investigate the period in terms of economic factors, technological development, and ideological perspectives. Then go to the items produced in your discipline and show how the spirit of those times is reflected in them.” Then I would put students from the various disciplines in groups and ask them to find the similarities in the work, and also the differences across various countries. In this simple example the lecturer presents the problem, and the students customize that problem for their own particular field.

Implementation
So, then we have to see how we go about implementing this plan. We will take a look at your job, and then at my job.
Your job
According to McGregor’s “Theory X and Theory Y” managers believe one of two things. Either that their workers are lazy, incompetent and potentially corrupt, or that their workers are hard-working, competent and basically good. I subscribe very strongly to the second view. I have much reason to believe that by far the majority of you are here because you want to be here, and that you enjoy your work mainly because you are so good at it. The Technikon tradition into which you came, has ensured that you are expert practitioners with a passion for the field. I am therefore not going to concentrate on that which you already do well. Instead I am going to urge you to develop your own careers so that you can play on the International stage and participate in the world-wide phenomenon of the development of Universities of Technology.
What you need to do, is a personal audit. What is it that you do better than anyone else you know. Then ask yourself – why am I so good at this – what do I understand that other people do not. THAT is your research question. Then, develop a passion for improving that skill. Ask yourself, “what are the key issues and debates in this field?” and take a stand regarding those debates. What is your perspective, with what do you agree, to what knowledge can you add your own experience? And better still, with what do you disagree? What are the “common wisdoms” that you have proved incorrect, that form the key to your success – in short, what do you do differently, that makes you the best in your immediate circle. THEN go out and find other people who think and do like you do. Find a mentor and a research partner. Develop a passion for research that feeds directly into your passion, so that your expertise becomes nationally, and then internationally recognized. Then register your CV online with the NRF, and start populating it whenever you have achieved another milestone.
Let me make it clear again. We are a University. It is not good enough for us simply to pass on knowledge. We have to create knowledge, and in an academic field, nothing has happened until it has been published.
I am not saying you need to do research and publications instead of, or at the expense of your teaching, but in support of it.
So, how does one go about making research time? Firstly by ensuring you use the resources already available to you. Do you have a partnership agreement with other lecturers? Is there someone who can share your teaching? Have you timetabled your life in such a way that you can take unbroken time to reflect upon what you are doing, and write it down?
Have you put all your courses on WebCT so that students can access it online without having to interrupt you? Have you scheduled a research day for yourself? Are you making use of your recess?
Use your recess:
I find that people still refer to the time between terms, when there are no students, as holidays. This is a problem. These times are called recess. There are three things that you can do with your recess. You can Lie in the sun and tan, do private consulting or do research and publish. In each of these cases the result of your effort will begin with a C. If you lie in the sun and tan, the result will be Cancer. If you do consulting, the result will be Cash. If you do research and publish, the result will be a Career. You must decide.
My job
My job is to create an environment in which you can do your job. Thus, I work for you.
What I hope to do
In my opening talk, I undertook to do the following things.
· Create stronger HOD positions to bring decision-making power closer to you.
· Develop admin processes and policies in association with the new Faculty Manager.
· Create a winter school to allow you to make your own research money.
· Stimulate industry partnerships.
· Develop international partnerships and invite international visiting scholars and adjunct professors.
· Create opportunities for you to be trained – if you don’t train them, you can’t blame them.
· Develop an incentive system – tangible and intangible.
· Increase transparency.
· Focus our energy to create a community of scholars.

Having come to the end of my first year here, I need to look at which of these I have managed.
I have not yet been able to re-structure the faculty to create stronger HOD positions.
I have asked Jameson Cona, the new Faculty Manager, to develop a strong administrative system whereby lecturing staff are freed from much of the grind involved in day-to-day provision of information which we already have on the system.
I believe that the most important single event in terms of getting our administrative functions up to speed had nothing to do with me, but everything to do with the Quality Assurance effort that is being put in place by the University in terms of our Institutional Audit by the Heigher Educaiton Quality Audit. Here Colin Daniels is taking the lead to ensure that what we do is built upon all the quality criteria to which the institution should adhere.
I have asked a team led by Janet van Graan to arrange a winter school. We currently have fourteen courses registered. Ironically only six permanent staff are involved. The rest are on contract, or on hourly appointments. I don’t know how successful this year’s event will be, since it is our first attempt, but I see it as a learning exercise, rather than a money-spinner. What we learn this year will enable us to develop a better one next time.
We have a number of strong links with friends in the industry, but I feel that they are not coming to the party. I keep on getting the idea that they are benefiting more out of the relationship than we are. Yes, they give work to our students, but they are benefiting from cheap labour – and we get nothing in return. I have not really established any strong links yet, but I am in discussions with a number of people who are interested in joint ventures.
In terms of visiting academics from overseas, I have invited Proff Piet Kommers and Erkki Sutinen, while a number of you have also invited quite a number of visiting academics from universities in the UK, Sweden, Finland, Norway and Canada. We have signed international agreements with universities in Sudan and Ethiopia, and renewed agreements with Malmö and Algonquin.
I ran a number of paper-writing workshops. Dr Maurice Dassah ran an extended article writing workshop. The Research Committee presented a research day and Prof Kobus Maree of UP presented an inspirational talk. We have a Thursday evening Post Graduate Research support programme and we have a group of our own staff who are working on their Doctorates supporting one another.
The University has engaged in a system of Ad-hominem promotions. A number of staff have had their efforts realized. Unfortunately it would seem that the damage done to the morale of staff who were not promoted, outweighs the joy of the staff who were. I will have to find better ways of motivating staff.
I have tried to make very clear what it is that I want to do in the Faculty. I have no hidden agendas. I am trying to find more informal opportunities for people to engage in discussion with me about issues concerning their careers, their aspirations, and those of the Faculty. To do this I have invited some departments to lunch at my home. We had a tremendous sushi-making afternoon under the tutelage of Jay Barnes. Roux Rossouw will be training Faculty management And I am open to suggestions of other ways of getting information to flow better. Roux Rossouw will be training the HODs in the use of groupware and social software so that we can disseminate information and do collaborative work more efficiently that through our usual two meetings per month.
The Thursday evening programme has been my single biggest attempt at creating a community of scholars. I find people’s attendance of this event encouraging, given that it is not compulsory, and given that there is an average attendance of about 40 people, half of whom are staff.
And finally
I did not come here with any career ambitions. One night I went to bed as a full professor and supervisor of Masters and Doctoral students. The next morning I woke up as the Dean of a Faculty in another city. I saw it as a privilege and a pleasure. I keep on being amazed at the energy and professionalism with which I am surrounded, and I realize that the most important thing that I have to do is to focus that. All I need to do, is work on your careers, then MY Faculty will look good. It is an automatic win-win situation. I know that there are some people who are suspicious, some people who think I am naïve, and some people who think that things are going really well and “if it aint broke, don’t fix it”. Some people think that I want to move too fast, and am pushing too hard. Others think I am moving too slowly.
I believe that in one’s first year you should do very little else than learn the job, and to see what works and what does not, before ripping everything apart.
I have tried to follow an approach of not tampering unnecessarily with what we are already doing, but to concentrate heavily upon what we were not doing – research.
I believe that, with the incorporation of the E-IA, with the move of the B.Tech fashion to 80 Roeland Street, with the strengthening of your research efforts through the efforts of Dr Maurice Dassah, and with the arrival of Dr Helene Coetzee, post-doc specializing in bringing your articles to the press, I have, for the time being, done enough in one year to get the research effort running.
For my second year I plan to move my focus to what you feel is the most important, our teaching and learning. I have been accused of neglecting teaching – of even scoffing at it as if it is not important. Although, in fairness to the accusers, they do realize that I am deliberately erring on the side of research.
Nevertheless, let me state this clearly. I believe that our first business is teaching. Thus we need to take a careful look at how and what we are teaching. I believe that this is essential, particularly in the light of the new Higher Education Qualifications Framework. We need to redesign all our curricula anyway. We might as well get it right from the beginning, and use the effort to ensure that we streamline our activities and emerge as a strong, focused faculty. So, the second half of 2008 and the first semester of 2009 will be the year of teaching, learning and curriculum development.

Evaluation
Finally I said that I wanted to…
Have enormous fun!
There’s no point in working if you don’t enjoy it. I can only enjoy my work if you enjoy yours – otherwise you will make my days miserable with your complaints.
I am happy to say that every morning I drive to work with a song in my heart. And every evening I go home with the joy of an excellent day – and that’s not just because in the morning I see the sun rise on the mountain, and in the evening I drive through the obscene luxury of Newlands Forrest.
I am enjoying my work because YOU are making it enjoyable.
References
Goldratt, E.M., & Cox, J. The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement. North River Press, Great Barrington, MA.
Laurillard, D. (1993) Rethinking University Teaching: A framework for the effective use of educational technology. London: Routledge.

What open source software do you use and why?

2008-06-13T05:34:00.001-07:00

Hi all
I am sitting in a meeting about open source software for academics.
So I was wondering...
What open source software do you use and why?
Please post a follow-up
Joannes

Exhibition time

2007-11-22T07:15:00.000-08:00

It is now coming close to the end of my first semester here.
The really exciting thing is that I have been able to visit the year-end exhibitions of a number of departments, and also the year-end seminar of Informatics B-Tech.
Of course not all exhibitions have been without the nerves and emotions, but I believe that we are beginning to grow together as one Faculty, and that may well result in some growing pains.
The year is also seeing some retirements and some people leaving for promotions - which is always good. Particularly pleasing to me is that Babalwa Sepete, our Admin Assistant for IT, has got a promotion post within the institution. So thus the institution is not losing her bright personality and her expertise. WELL DONE BABALWA.
Some departments have been requesting to meet with me to discuss their position, and that has been exciting. I wish I could do more of that and less putting out of fires. But with Jameson Cona having joined us as fire-prevention officer (read Faculty Administrator) I hope that things will settle down to a simmer.
Maurice has been conducting a writing workshop for staff who want to start publishing, and that is exciting.
Johann van Niekerk has suggested that he invite his students to Facebook. I really hope this leads to something. Meanwhile Chris de Beer from DUT is also interested in this sort of stuff.
On the down side, staff are tired. It is the end of the year. Students are nervous.
But the days are getting longer, and winter is almost over

Middle of September

2007-09-14T09:09:00.001-07:00

So, a month has past since my introductory talk to the Faculty.
Everyone has been remarkably quiet.
Interesting how, however, messages seem to get lost in the re-telling.
People are worried about the re-structuring of the faculty - worried specifically about their jobs and their careers. Point is, maybe restructuring is too strong a word.
My main idea is that people who have things in common, should work closer together.
In my discussions with staff I keep on hearing of overlaps. I keep on hearing that some people have shortages in certain skills, while other people tell me that they teach those. So, if I can get those groups to work closer together, then we may be able to eliminate much of the duplication and get a lot more work done.
Four "houses" if you read Harry Potter, have already seemed to emerge. What I want to do, is to see how this grows. The creating of new structures is not a priority with me. My priority is getting research to happen, and streamlining teaching and learning to enable that. If in the process of such streamlining some groups work more closely together, then I have achieved my aim.
Today I had lunch with the Department of Fashion (I knew it was fashion because most of them wore black). And what fun we had!!! It was really great to discuss what it is to be and Academic - rather than a lecturer.
There's a whole lot of strategy and skill.
What people need to remember is that the currency that I work with, is people's careers. And I pledge myself to help every one who wants to work with me, to develop their careers - whether it be at CPUT, or outside.
Now, back to the budget proposals.

After the Party - 17 August

2007-08-22T04:16:00.000-07:00

So, this morning we had the long anticipated "Dean meets faculty" meeting.
It was TREMENDOUSly encouraging to have to many people attend.
It supports my initial gut-feel that the Faculty Staff are HIGHLY MOTIVATED and DEDICATED people. I also know that they are curious. (Unless some were just there for the food - which was good - even including Sushi!!!)
What was great was the response afterwards. Once again, there are three distinct reactions.
a. The cynics, who say, well, he'll soon learn that it just doesn't work that way here.
b. The silent majority who say, ok, so let's see what happens.
c. The enthusiasts who say - this is just the sort of push we need.
Ok, so the encouraging thing was that the cynics qualified their cynicism by adding - "but at least he is going to give it a try.
And, the silent majority is definitely positive about it.
Then, of course, I love the enthusiasts. They are good for the ego. BUT it was Matti Tedre who pointed out to me that there is NO relationship between enthusiasm and effort. Some enthusiasts use their enthusiasm to get the job done. Other enthusiasts feel terribly envigorated dream up huge schemes, and then get scared by the size of their own thoughts and do nothing.
So, my reaction to all this - I am sticking to my guns. I am continuing with a phased approach. I will think big - but I will start small.
It was such a good morning.

The department of Film and Video made a recording of the whole thing, and we'll put that on a DVD so that you can hold me to my promises (ha ha ha - unless I edit out the promises)

I was going to upload the PowerPoint here, but, alas I don't seem to be able to get Blogger to do that. So, here is a bulleted list version of the whole thing.

Informatics and Design: Towards an integrated future…
By Prof Johannes Cronjé

The Brief
•Your views pertaining to the challenges affecting or likely to affect the future operations of the Faculty
•Your plans for the Faculty
•Approach to maintaining and improving the teaching and research effort of the Faculty, and
•Approach to academic and administrative leadership and management
The Execution
•Use the ADDIE model that most designers know, and
•Combine it with Kaplan & Norton’s “Balanced Scorecard”
•Consider my own potential contribution
•Suggest a way forward

The ADDIE model of design and development
The balanced scorecard
•A tool for decision-making

The balanced scorecard
The design scorecard
Vision and Mission
•To be at the heart of Technology Education and Innovation in Africa
•Our mission is to develop and sustain an empowering environment where, through teaching, learning, research and scholarship our students and staff, in partnership with the community and industry, are able to create and apply knowledge that contributes to development.

Financial perspective
•To succeed financially how should we appear to our shareholders?
•Goal:
–Grow
–Sustain
–Harvest
•Question: Who are our shareholders?
Answer: Those who pay us
•Government subsidy on enrolments
•Student fees
•Government subsidy on research outputs
•Funds generated by continuing education
•Grants and donations
The design scorecard
Analysis (SWOT)
•Strength: Unique combination of art and science
•Weakness: Uneasy fit of different backgrounds, multiple campuses
•Opportunities: The rise of the creative class
•Threats: Michaelis, Stellenbosch, Independent colleges, e.g. Hugenot, Intec; Potential loss of focus through institutional drift
The design scorecard
Internal perspective
•To satisfy our shareholders and customers, what processes must we excel at?

Internal business processes
•Customer need identified
•Innovation process
•Operations process
•Post-sale service process
•Customer need satisfied
Identify customer need
•Short-term needs: Short courses, internally adjustable curricula, conferences, syllabi
•Long term needs: Sustainability, Masters’ and Doctoral studies, long-term development research
Innovation
•Combining resources
•New ways of teaching and learning
•Integrating research, teaching and supervision (the cascade system)
•Design and development research as a way of integrating art and science
Operations (teaching, research and community service)
•Constructionist teaching makes students researchers
•Web-based teaching and learning to integrate art and technology
•Emphasis on local relevance and international application
•International guest lecturers and researchers
•Development research as integrative factor between community needs and academic activity
The design scorecard
Design
•Remove the unnecessary
•Emphasize the unique
Design
•Iterative design – do what we are already doing but do it better
•Collaborative design – do things together to get different perspectives
•Participant design – share roles and responsibilities
•Community involvement in design projects
Learning and growth
•Employee capabilites
•Information system capabilities
•Motivation, empowerment & alignment
•Organisational learning
•Designing effective teams
Employee capabilities
•Training staff to operate in an improved model for teaching and learning in a technology-rich environment, with more emphasis on students learning by doing
•Capacitating staff to do independent research, in teams and to write research grant proposals
•Concentrating on reducing individualist behaviour that comes with the pressure of a radical change in the workplace
Information system capabilities
•“Grow your own corn” by designing IT systems to enable cooperation and management
•Optimise use of existing University infrastructure for better teaching, learning and communication
•Use free social software to enable international cooperation

Motivation, Empowerment and Alignment
•Performance management systems easily turn into de-motivators (extrinsic, anticipated, tangible, delayed)
•Need to find intrinsic motivators (Challenge, curiosity, control, fantasy)
•Empowerment of staff by increased use of committees – particularly composed of junior staff and senior students
•Aligning individual and organisational goals. E.g. staff who research and publish more, are more promotable – thus organisation and individual benefit
Organisational learning
•Kurz and Snowden
•Cronjé
Designing effective teams
•Mutual goal
•Individual accountability
•Positive interdependence
The design scorecard
Development and implementation
•Phased approach rather than turnkey
•Done together with a continuous analysis
•Creating a positive corporate culture
•Encourage ownership (“We” rather than “You”)
•Finding and keeping enthusiasm
•Steering committee
•Consultants: Internal and External
•Deal with critics early before they poison the system
•Look for angels in the executive office
•Honesty is the best policy
http://members.aol.com/AllenWeb/ERP_PM.html

Customer perspective
Who are our customers?
•Government
•University management
•Students
•Parents
•Employers
•Community
Customer perspective
•Market share
•Customer acquisition
•Customer retention
•Customer satisfaction
•Customer profitability
Evaluation
•Institutional Audit
•Departmental evaluation
•Employee performance assessment
•Evaluation of learning
Institutional audit
•Huge additional workload on all staff
•Requires meticulous slave driver to lead
•Committee to ensure deep penetration
•Every scrap of paper counts
•Internal audit before external audit
•Close support and monitoring
•A huge learning experience
Departmental evaluation
•Primarily a learning experience
•Encourage brutal honesty
•Use as a networking and marketing opportunity
•Way for the Dean to get to know the faculty
Employee performance assessment
•Huge dilemma in terms of fairness, remuneration and motivation
•Really de-motivational for those who are almost good enough
•Faulty assumption: The level of utilisation of a worker is determined by his own potential. Reason: Dependency (Goldratt)
•Correct attitude: to ensure you are used where you fit best
•Result: the 4 T’s Tolerate, Train, Transfer, Terminate
Evaluation of learning
•More than just counting the passes
•Kirkpatrick
–Response
–Learning
–Behaviour
–Organisational impact
–Return on investment ... That will bring us back to…
The design scorecard
So what do I offer?
•Teaching
•Research
•Community service
•Management
Teaching – wide range of:
•Experience: high school, first-year “Technikon”, undergraduate, masters (100+), doctoral (30+)
•Subjects: language, writing, public speaking, business communication, organisational behaviour, computers in education, instructional design, practical teaching, visual design, end-user computing, multimedia production
•Methods: Face-to-face, daily, evenings, blocks; Web-based, Video, Broadcast
Teaching: Visiting professor
•University of Bergen, Norway: Educational Management
•University of Joensuu, Finland: Computer Science
•Addis Ababa University: Education
•Sudan University of Science and Technology: Education
Teaching – Awards & Achievements
•Winner of first UP award for Education Innovation
•Winner of University of Pretoria chancellors’s Medal in the category Teaching & Learning for 2004
•Four of my alumni are professors
•One alumna is the Head of UNISA library

Research
•26 publications in accredited journals
•3 Chapters in books
•Partner in jointly funded projects with
•University of Bergen
•University of Joensuu
•CSIR
•SITES

Community service
•Director: Cornwall Hill College
•Reviewer: 4 International, 3 National journals
•Founder member SANTEC network
•Continuing Education @ UP – short courses. Turnover in 2006 half a million
Management
•Administration
•Leadership
•Consulting
•Networking
Administration
•Co-ordinator M.Ed (CIE)
•Founding co-ordinator M.IT
•Co-ordinator – Doctoral programme in Computers in Education (PhEdUP)
Leadership
•De facto Head of section for Computer-integrated Education
•Head of Residence: Kiaat
•Chair: UP Residence Council
Networking
•Alumni, current or provisional students at just about every university in South Africa, Namibia, Angola, Mozambique and Botswana
•International links with
–Addis Ababa University
–Sudan University of Science and Technology
–University of Bergen, Norway
–University of Joensuu, Finland
–University of Georgia, USA
–Florida State University, USA

Consulting – Clients include
•Anglo
•De Beers
•Deloitte
•Standard Bank
•Absa
•Eskom
•BHP Billiton
•PetroSA

Way forward: Theory of Constraints
The Goal – is “to make money” (Goldratt)
•Identify the constraint
•Decide how to exploit the constraint
•Subordinate all other processes to the above decision
•Elevate the constraint
•If the constraint moves as a result, go to step 1
•Don’t let inertia become the constraint

The Deliverable
•Your views pertaining to the challenges affecting or likely to affect the future operations of the Faculty – Balanced Scorecard
•Your plans for the Faculty – ADDIE
•Approach to maintaining and improving the teaching and research effort of the Faculty – TOC
•Approach to academic and administrative leadership and management – What I offer
So, let the future begin…
By Prof Johannes Cronje

For:
Professorial English 101
•Always do X. Never NEVER, ever do Y EVER in your life ever…
•It might just be a good idea to…
Analysis
•Strengths
•Weaknesses
•Opportunities
•Threats
Strengths
•Staff
•Students
•Facilities
•Diversity

Weaknesses
•Diversity
•Spread across two campuses
•Overlaps
•Understaffed
•Lack of research confidence & experience
•Perceived “Cinderella” faculty

Opportunities
•Co-operation with industry – THRIPP
•International research cooperation: Finland, Holland, Sweden, Germany
•Co-ordinated Masters’ and Doctoral programmes
•Establishment of a community of scholars
Threats
•Cherry-picking by private providers
•Industry don’t know what we do
•Industry don’t know what we are worth
Design
•The goal is “To grow research capacity”
•Constraints identified:
–Time (Too many contact hours)
–Space (Not enough room for larger classes and other “batch processing”)
How to exploit the constraint
•Administration
•Teaching
•Supervision
•Research
•Community service
Administration
•Advance planning
•Streamlined processes
•Assistants
•Class captains
•Faculty manager
Teaching
•Lecturers are responsible for student learning.
•Students are responsible for making the most of the opportunities provided by the lecturers.
(Diana Laurillard – Rethinking University Teaching)
Teaching by improved…
•Strategies
•Techniques
•Technology
Improved strategies
•Set the exam first and then ensure that students are equipped to pass it.
•At the end of the year, reflect upon what worked and what didn’t.
•Consider: Batch processing, Team teaching, Subject integration, Internships
Improved techniques
•Peer tutoring
•Ask three then ask me
•Firms
•Big group, small group
•Rotated workstations (hot desks)
Improved technology
•WebCT
–24X7
–Testing to teach
–Communication
–Record keeping
–Student tracking
•SMS
•DVD
•PDA
•Podcasting
•Web 2.0 – Mxit, Facebook, Linked-in, Del.ici.ous, Blogger
•Teaching and learning committee
Supervision
•Cascading supervision
•A community of scholars
•Graduate committee (Subset of research committee)
Research
•Core function of a university.
•Yes, but…
–I was hired to teach…
–My field is not a research field…
–Nobody knows what research should be done at a university of technology – nobody knows what a university of technology is…
•Homo sapiens non urinat in ventum.
Technology research – A taxonomy
•How do we teach this technique?
•How do we improve this technique?
•What are the philosophies that underpin this technique?
Research philosophy
•Socially responsible research
•Pasteur’s quadrant
•Actor network theory
Research methodology
•Design research
Oberholzer’s Design Research Study
Oberholzer continued
Research strategy
•Establishment of a research development unit
•One-stop research stop
•Research professor
•Research editor
•Research teams
•Research networks
Community service
•In support of mainstream academic processes
•Use excess capacity
•Integrated with research
•Not charity:
–Opportunity for external sponsorship
–Recruitment tool
•Winter school
Putting it all together
•Plans for the Faculty, plans for you
•Save time by reducing overlaps
•Four special interest groups:
–ICT design
–Environmental design
–Media design
–Artifact design
Develop a strong central core
•Central theme: Design
•Commonalities – not a common first year, but common modules throughout
•Think “Farm School”
Your job
•Find a research question
•Develop a research passion
•Form creative partnerships
•Develop a career of scholarship
•Live your CV – Register it on NRF online
•Streamline your teaching and admin
Making time for research
•All courses on WebCT
•Schedule a research day
•Use your recess:
–Lie in the sun and tan
–Do private consulting
–Research and publish
My job
•To create an environment in which you can do your job.
•Thus, I work for you.
What I hope to do
•Create stronger HOD positions to bring decision-making power closer to you.
•Develop admin processes and policies in association with the new Faculty Manager.
•Create a winter school to allow you to make your own research money.
•Stimulate industry partnerships.
•Develop international partnerships and invite international visiting scholars and adjunct professors.
•Create opportunities for you to be trained – if you don’t train them, you can’t blame them.
•Develop an incentive system – tangible and intangible.
•Increase transparency.
•Focus our energy to create a community of scholars.
And finally
•Have enormous fun!

The beginning of the second month

2007-08-03T09:45:00.000-07:00

On 1 August I signed an offer to purchase an old, rambling house in Newlands. So now we are committed. The kids can cycle to school, and it is ON the highway to work. Of course it is still a whole adaptation to realise that I cant just stroll over to the office if I forget something. Now, once you hit the highway, you must persevere.
I had a number of interesting meetings. Firstly there was a Dean's meeting. I find it a really nice, reassuring place. Once again, I am new, but still, I feel welcomed, and accepted. Then there was the Executive Committee of the Senate. Here's where the BIG GUNS are represented. I felt more than a little out of my depth, but the Vice Chancellor was very kind, and even explained to me the things that I was supposed to explain to the meeting. My instructions from Colin were to "Just sit there and act stupid". I promise you I did not have to act at all. I came over quite stupid enough. THEN, the exciting one was the Faculty executive. The energy is astounding. We did not get through half the agenda, even though Colin, who took the Chair, tried his level best to keep the thing brief and to the point. We will have to consider how we make that meeting more meaningful, though.
Last night there was the launch of the Environmental Resource Centre. It was highly exciting, and I can see that the departments of Multimedia, Film & Video, Photography and Journalism could have an absolute field day working in that centre. I took lots of business cards, and will soon be getting some stuff off the ground.
More importantly is that, there, I met just about the whole of the research section, and discovered that the University already had in place many of the things that I wanted to create. THUS, all we have to do is harness them. I have asked Juana to schedule a meeting to get the research initiative up to speed.
The really nice thing is that we are all very much looking forward.

End of week three

2007-07-26T23:03:00.001-07:00

So this is me in my office. The Department of Interior Design has done an EXCELLENT job of hanging my paintings and generally making the place look good.
I HATE my I-Mate phone and its camera. In fact I hate EVERY PART of my I-Mate K-Jam phone. I am putting it here on my blog so that the whole world will know NEVER to buy one.
The camera is dreadful, the phone is unreliable.

Now that that is out of the way, back to the week. On Thursday we had a writing session to work on our papers for the Conference on Interactive Design to be held during the Design Indaba next year.
It was a really good opportunity for me to meet with some of the staff, and to engage in critical disucssion. Although, I did make at least one person very angry.
Now, now, CATTS and others who know me - you're not supposed to say "Gosh, did it take so long?"
Anyway, we made peace. And I am very glad that the person was brave enough to confront me and set the record straight immediately. I really hate it to learn days, months or even years later that I had offended someone, when, if I had known immediately, I could have made reparations!
Nevertheless, what I learnt from the occasion, is that we, as a faculty, need to learn the elements of academic debate. If we are going to get onto the international stage, we must learn to give and take sharp criticism - and also leant to do so without giving or taking offence.

Thursday afternoon

2007-07-26T09:12:00.000-07:00

Today we had a writing workshop. I met a number of lecturing staff who are not on the executive committee. That was good. I made one person angry. But I apologised. Now, now, CATTS and other people who know me - I can already hear you say - gosh, did it take that long. But, seriously, I was insensitive, and I am just glad that the 'victim' was brave enough to confront me. I really hate it when I upset someone and they don't let me know - and then I learn about it 10 years later, when things could have been cleared up immediately.
Anyway, we managed to do a bit of discussing about what would constitute a good article, and a number of people are on their way to a good beginning.
Tomorrow is the first REAL Faculty executive meeting and I am looking forward to it.
It will be TWO HOURS long, but I have asked Colin to chair it, because if I were to chair it, we would be there all week.

A week and a half later

2007-07-25T04:22:00.000-07:00

So last week I spent in Mafikeng and Pretoria tying up loose ends - and using some time reflecting.
I did not take my "blue" book with me, so unfortunately much of the reflection is gone.
Monday 23rd was my first "Real" workday since the academic semester had started.
I began with taking William to school on my way. Imagine my shock when I discovered that I would end up driving to work IN THE DARK!
I thought I would be at the office hours before the rest, but ended up being there last. This is the dedication that the people around me have.
I had two meetings on the Bellville campus - a luncheon meeting with the Vice Chancellor, DVC, donors and the other Deans. Funny thing that - sort of felt like a fly on the wall watching all these people that I don't really know at all, but knowing that actually I was one of them!!
Second was a focus group about educational media. Had to work very hard not to take over the meeting. Did use it to recruit a number of potential students for an M.Tech in Educational Technology!
Then on the way home from Bellville I got lost and spent an hour battling rush hour traffic trying to fight my way home.

TUESDAY I was introduced officially to the Faculty Executive.
I came away from that meeting with a song in my heart. This is absolutely amazing. There are people there all ready, willing and able.
I know I am still starry eyed and maybe a little naive, but I really BELIEVE in this place.
After the introductions three members of the Department of Interior Design came along to hang my paintings and re-arrange my office. I thought it would be a good idea to consult the in-house experts - and it was. Watch this space for pictures!!!

WEDNESDAY I spent in Bellville again, and met some people. I am beginning to get regular feedback about this blog. Some about the content - and some just because they hate the colour from a design perspective.
So, clearly I need to consult again.
So, let me do it here.

PLEASE post suggestions abou improved colour combinations for this blog.

Friday 13th. The end of the second week

2007-07-13T02:13:00.000-07:00

Once again, when I drove to work this morning I thought how lucky I was.
I spent the first 15 minutes of the morning with my new doctor, getting feedback on my medical (I'm over 45, you know) and he says EVERYTHING is cool.
Then the sun basked the mountain in crisp kitch chocolate box light as I drove straight towards it to joint the highway, and then there was no traffic on the N2 and I could coast all the way into the office.
This week I met two new people - David Boonzaier and John Hill - essentially from different ends of the Faculty, but with all the same things in common.
I sort of get the feeling that Mel and the rest put together this excellent Ferrari, parked it at the starting blocks, and said to me: "Now you drive it!" How lucky can one be. Yes, maybe I am naive, maybe I am rushing in where angels fear to tread - but I can't think of a nicer job at the moment.
Our move arrived on Tuesday, and we spent Tuesday and Wednesday in continuous unpacking mode. NOTING was broken. Amazing. The only thing that broke, was a glass that we broke ourselves while unpacking it.
HOWEVER, what set me thinking was how much STUFF we have. And that after everything that we threw away! And a lot of that stuff that we threw away (either in Pretoria or Cape Town) was stuff that we thought we could actually not live without. It reminded me of a research project done by two of my M.Ed students some years ago in which they discovered that in one week a family in Sandton threw away more in kilogrames, than a family in Diepkloof brought in.
Which then becomes a common denominator in my discussions with both John and David.
How much are we as a faculty spending, that we do not have to spend. What sort of duplication are we doing, what sort of unnecessary things are we doing - either just becuase we've always done it, or because we have not thought how to do it better.
There are video cameras lying around only slightly used, by at least four departments. There are subjects taught in various courses that, with a little thinking, can be replaced by one generic course.
I can think of nothing more exciting than to do a major audit of all our stuff, and all our intellectual property, and to see how we can align all that better.
Next week I will be in the greater Tshwane area all week. More time to reflect upon the stuff that awaits.

Friday - One week already!

2007-07-06T06:59:00.000-07:00

This morning when I drove in to work I was just amazed at the scenery the crispness, the mountain, the sea.
How privileged I am to get such a nice job in such a city with such scenery.
My first appointment was a deputation from the Faculty secretariat wanting to know when I was going to introduce myself to the whole Faculty staff. The answer is that we will decide upon that date at the HOD meeting on 24 July.
The venue (I hope) will be the Hotel School in Granger bay.
I will spend about an hour doing the presentation that I did to the interview committee who appointed me. I believe that that is the promise I made to the University.
Then I will spend another 30 mins explaining how we will go about fulfilling that promise.
Then we will party.
Of course, all that is subject to what is decided at the HOD meeting.
The morning I spent battling with technology to set up the new computer, and the afternoon we went to Ganger bay for lunch at the Hotel School AND saw the new boat AND saw the rescue pool etc.
This University is going to be a tremendous place to work for.

Day three and four

2007-07-05T04:01:00.000-07:00

People are on holiday, so there's very little that I can do about getting to know my new job.
So I am using the time getting to know the way here, and shifting furniture.
I have moved the desk through 90 deg. so that I don't sit with my back to the wall.
It's one of those funny things about a new office, you have to shift the furniture - you simply cannot live the way the previous person had it. No matter even if it is the best possible configuration. It must change. So, now mine is changed.
I am reading through two documents Mel left me - one about the future of the faculty, and the other about its structure. I am excited about that. I am tired of hearing about the history of the faculty - the future is much more exciting.
On Wednesday Mari Lecanides-Arnot came and had lunch with me - pizza from a box in the office - and we disucssed the future of the foundation programme (or extended programme). There are two different programmes running on the Cape Town and Bellville campuses respectively. So, there I have had my first post-merger discussion. Once everyone is back from holidays we will have to settle this one.
On Thursday I had lunch with Pieter van Brakel and we picked up on old friendships, and discussed various aspects of future cooperation. I am very excited about what we can achieve together.
On a personal note, Elaine has painted the house. She also accompanied me on a clothes shopping spree - which turned out to be a good idea, since I have just learnt that our move does not arrive till TUESDAY. Which means an empty house. So now I am booking us into a timeshare for the week!!!

Reflection on day two

2007-07-04T02:21:00.000-07:00

This is why one has to have a blog. SO many things happen so quickly that unless you write it down you forget.
So, on Tuesday I found a new way to get to work - and other queues in the traffic.
THEN I drove over to the Bellville Campus for a meeting with Colin Daniels.
THe qualitative researcher in me is enjoying this. Talk about crystalisation. I am hearing the same stuff, but from a different angle. New facets every time. Some of the data is saturating already. I think that much of what is being written in my big black book (oh yes, I must actually change its cover to a more friendly colour) will make for really interesting research).
From Colin I learnt a whole lot about the processes that are already in place, and the processes that still need to be followed.
Then I had visits from HR and Health and Safety. So I know that I am now human and safe.
I have also had another look at the whole entrance and back office thing, and all those of us in the office had a major discussion about it ...
Turns out we would do well to re-look at the whole layout, and possibly get in some interior designers (we have them in the Faculty, after all) to look at the whole thing. Point is I want the entrance to have a friendly face.
My daughter Elaine came to visit and look at my office, which she pronounced to be cool. And then it was off to Cavendish square for some serious clothes shopping.
Driving home there was this strange feeling that came over me. For the first time ever I was a guy in a car driving home after work in peak traffic. For the first time ever I am an office worker, made out of tickytacky ... And what a funny feeling that was. When I worked at the Technikon in the eighties I drove to work and back sometimes when I did not use the bicycle, but that was to class, not to the office, and never in peak hours. My classes always started before or after peak times. And of course for the past six years I have been working from home on Campus. Now I am a regular commuter and it's quite strange. Only difference is that I should have been driving an Audi, BMW or Merc, not a little red cabriolet with the roof down...
Poor Franci had a TERRIBLE day yesterday. Picfords could not get all the stuff out of the house, and although they promised an extra vehicle, it only took one load and then they went home. We ended up phoning all over to try and get the renovators to move into the apartment a day later, but to no avail. So, Wednesday is going to be a day of chaos for her.
Cavendish has NICE clothes.

Reflection on day one

2007-07-03T04:24:00.000-07:00

Monday 2 July was my first day as Dean of Informatics and Design at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (http://www.cput.ac.za/). Like Jan van Riebeeck I am also keeping a diary of my voyage to the Cape of Good Hope. The purpose of this blog is to keep a record of what is happening in the first few days. Also there may be some of my friends, past students and colleagues who might want to know what is happening. Then of course it is for those who will be working with me now - to give them an idea of what is happening so that they can plan, and comment, and generally engage in discussion about the future of the Faculty.

So, the first day is over, and what an exciting experience it was.

It started with an SMS from Juan pointing out to me that there was an amazing sunrise, and a full moon. They had even arranged a break in the wet Cape winter for the Pretorian.

Juan and I greeted with a hug - considering that we had already been corresponding for two weeks, and she had had to do a huge amount of phoning and organising.

She had already put me into contact with Retha, Johann, CV and Colin.

The view from my office is amazing!

Then I got a hug from Mel. She was just happy to see me and couldn't believe I could start so quickly. Both vice rectors came to call! Mandla Tshabalala and Anthony Staak came to welcome me, and it was good to hear of student affairs, and also to get an initial briefing of how things work.

Then we got to do real work, with a long meeting with CV Botha.

The good news is that the Faculty is running well. There are still some post-merger blues to deal with, but they are less, rather than more, and they are administrative rather than "political".

The most encouraging aspect of the day was to learn that the staff are ready for, and looking forward to, embarking on the challenge of developing a research tradition in the faculty. There's none of this "I was appointed to teach, why should I do research" stuff.

Then there's the question that everybody's asking: "What are you going to do with the Faculty?"

So, here is my end of day one reply:

1. I am going to work very hard to establish a culture of research.

2. I am going to re-examine the work loads of lecturers, particularly in terms of teaching and admin, to free up research time for them. The workload will be reduced if we re-think our teaching practices and make it more efficient. We need to think DVD, iPod, SMS, Web. The admin will be reduced if we can automate systems, and make use of more assistants. And the money for the assistants will come form ... subsidies generated from research outputs!

On a more personal note. I am sleeping stoksielalleen in the little 3 bedroomed cottage, with a duvet and a pillow, and my sleeping bag as only cover. And it gets so cold that the cold actually sticks to your skin. But when the move arrives the heater will arrive with it and then I will be able to thaw.

The car arrived late on Monday evening, so now I can drive with the top down when the sun shines, and enjoy the luxury of the ever-present Cape scenery.

And that is the story of Day One. Tomorrow: The great entrance lobby debate...