Welcome to the Blogosphere

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

(...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

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!

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

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

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

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!