Tag: africa

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Twitter Weekly Updates for 2011-08-22

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Twitter Weekly Updates for 2011-06-20

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Twitter Weekly Updates for 2011-06-13

  • @mpascoe Thanks for pointing that out, here’s the link http://bit.ly/jcxBNr #
  • Tech-savvy doctoral students increasingly look to open web technologies http://bit.ly/jcxBNr (prev tweet has broken link) #
  • @mpascoe wrt students and lecture capture, study was done by a company selling devices for lecture capture…have to wonder about results #
  • One year on « The Thesis Whisperer http://bit.ly/jf84Rw. Interesting comments on what research students came looking for #
  • @sportsdoc_chris Thanks for the FF #
  • @simtho001 Who’s giving the course? What you covering? Would love to know what you thought of it when you’re done #
  • @romieh Great question. On looking further, it seems that the paper was released by a company specialising in lecture capture! #skeptical #
  • BioMed Central Blog : Exploiting the advances of multimedia technology in medical publishing http://bit.ly/l186Ad #
  • BioMed Central Blog : Bringing open access to Africa: BioMed Central announces far-reaching program http://bit.ly/jIktNm #
  • Cultivate your Personal Learning Network http://ow.ly/1tEHl6 #
  • Who Really Owns Your Photos in Social Media? http://ow.ly/1tEHib #
  • Students Rank Lecture Capture ‘Most Important’ Blended Learning Resource http://ow.ly/1tEH8t #
  • Tech-savvy doctoral students increasingly look to open web technologies http://ow.ly/1tEGVJ #
  • Why Augmented Reality Is Poised To Change Marketing http://ow.ly/1tEGOM #
  • Periodic Table welcomes two new, ultraheavy elements, jury still out on the names http://ow.ly/5eHZe #
  • United Nations Proclaims Internet Access a Human Right http://ow.ly/5eHIT #
  • Daily Papert http://bit.ly/muCVu1. Many do not appreciate fully the ways in which digital media can augment intellectual productivity #
  • @RonaldArendse need something to do while waiting for kettle to boil 🙂 #
  • Pic du Midi de Bigorre cloudy Wikimedia Commons.jpg [POTD for June 08 from commons.wikimedia.org] http://ow.ly/5ex2S #
  • Pic du Midi de Bigorre cloudy Wikimedia Commons.jpg [POTD for June 08 from commons.wikimedia.org] http://ow.ly/1tE5Rk #
  • Scottish university to introduce comic studies degree http://ow.ly/1tE5QP #
  • Wikipedia Is “Making the Grade” With More & More Academics http://ow.ly/1tE5Q4 #
  • A few improvements to discussions in Google Docs http://ow.ly/1tDvEU #
  • UCT open educational resource wins 2011 Award for OpenCourseWare Excellence http://ow.ly/1tDvEJ #
  • Introducing: Zotpress http://ow.ly/1tDvrH. Pulling Zotero libraries into WordPress blogs #
  • Daily Papert http://bit.ly/kgoatr. Children’s thinking “has its own kind of order and its own kind of logic” #
  • Technology in Schools: Local fix or Global Transformation? : The Daily Papert http://bit.ly/mIogF8 #
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Twitter Weekly Updates for 2011-03-21

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education PhD physiotherapy research social media teaching

SAFRI residential session

I’ve recently finished the second residential session of SAFRI, a programme for the development of research in medical education in Africa. I spent a big part of 2010 working on my SAFRI project (link to project notes), which I’ll be presenting at this years SAAHE conference in Potchefstroom. One of the main assignments for this session was the development of a poster presenting the results of my research project.

We spent most of the first day assisting the first year (2011) Fellows with the research projects that they’ll be implementing this year. I was surprised at how much more confident I felt in terms of being able to give feedback this year. Last year I felt a bit lost a lot of the time and wasn’t really sure of myself. It’s funny how you don’t really notice personal development until you’re in a similar situation as you were before and can compare your previous responses to current ones.

Over the course of the next few days we spent a lot of time discussing the following main topics, often using our individual projects as a foundation:

  • Various aspects of effective leadership
  • Research dissemination in the form of oral and poster presentations, and abstract development
  • The scholarship of teaching
  • Programme evaluation
  • Creating a portfolio of professional development

During the course of the session I had some really interesting conversations with other fellows around their research projects, which I’m hoping will lead to some interesting projects.

One of these is the possibility of introducing a clinical placement for physio students into a rural clinical school in Worcester. Some of our students want to go back to practice physiotherapy in small, rural villages in remote parts of the country, and a rural clinical setting would better prepare them for this.

The other project was one implemented by a palliative care physician who introduced an integrated tutorial on palliative care with small groups of students. Since I had a few students who shared personal experiences around patients with terminal illnesses, and their struggles around related issues, I thought I could learn a lot from attending the tutorial with the medical students and seeing if there’s anything that could translate to our students. I teach a section on Death and Dying in the Professional Ethics module, and this tutorial sounds really inspiring in terms of changing my approach.

On the whole, this session has been far less intensive than the first one, although I didn’t have much free time. I found that I spent a lot more time in discussion with other fellows, which was a great learning experience.

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Twitter Weekly Updates for 2011-03-07

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Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-09-20

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diigo

Posted to Diigo 09/19/2010

Africa: Millenium Development Goals
  • Knowledge in complex settings is a process of negotiation…an interplay of entities…a dance. And being knowledgeable in these settings requires an awareness of process and flow, not of being in possession of “knowledge”
  • What has happened in journalism will also happen in education: breakdown of a single controlled narrative, increased role of amateurs, challenges to the existing business model, etc
  • How should teaching and learning be structured in a networked world?
  • Should Africa (or any region of the world) duplicate the educational system of Europe or North America? Should Africa adopt the curriculum of these regions? How should teaching and learning be delivered? How many schools should be built? What is the cost of building the physical support structures for learning and knowledge for a region like Africa? Is there a better way? What are the costs of building a technological infrastructure – internet connectivity and computers – in comparison to building schools and purchasing textbooks? (it’s not an either or question – effective learning with technology from my experience, involves a blend of online and face-to-face).
  • We need to throw out most or our assumptions of learning systems, content, learning design and delivery in order to build the future of Africa’s learning and knowledge infrastructure
  • Ingenuity and creativity from within Africa will address this challenge – it’s not something that development agencies should “do for Africans”
  • The learning process is less uncertain. How will the next generation of Africans be educated? What is the learning model that will fulfill this urgent, foundational, task?
  • Right now, educational content flows into Africa which creates an external cultural injection. African educators have an opportunity to create a content/cultural outflow from Africa by increasing collaboration with each other and producing open content for other educational systems in the world to utilize. Open content is not enough. We need to open up the learning system as a whole to the benefits of participation, socialization, networks, and peer interaction
  • Education in Africa, like many other systems in the world, would benefit enormously from a shift to social participative networked learning
  • Two-critical questions need to be answered by anyone who wants to adjust the education system: 1. What does technology now do better than people can? 2. What can people do better than technology?
  • Content duplication, scaling, and reproduction are far better managed by technology. One recorded lecture can be seen a thousand times online without significant increase in expense. The content broadcast of any course can be opened and shared online fairly easily, using simple tools like Skype, ustream, or Elluminate. Duplicating content – where we are now with open educational resources is easy and cheap.
  • the social dimensions of learning are still best managed by humans
  • Sugata Mitra has demonstrated the value of peer and self-directed learning in India
  • In Africa, the foundational learning and knowledge development that must take place to break the cycle of crisis and urgency can best be met through social participative networked learning. In this model, educators can take advantage of the scalability of open content, the broadcast potential of lectures and recordings, and the social interactive potential of large-scale peer-based learning
  • Traditional educational models simply cannot scale rapidly enough
1. It should be based on a unit of influence that is at the control of each individual (i.e. connections not networks)
2. Scale social interactions (not only content) so large network learning occurs, but in a way that permits various group/collective sizes
3. Promote and benefit from learner autonomy, helping learners to building skills and capacity for ongoing learning
4. Use distributed, decentralized technical infrastructure (p2p not centralized)
5. Extensively use learning analytics, preferably blurring physical and virtual interactions
6. Use curriculum intelligently (linked data/semantic web) in order to provide learners with personal and adaptive paths
7. Allow information splicing so that flows can be adjusted and organized to reflect different learning and social tasks
8. Enable easy variance of contexts – or as my colleague Jon Dron states – “context switching”.
9. Offer varying levels of support and structure, under the control of the learner. If a subject is too challenging, learners can choose a structured learning path. Or, if learners prefer greater autonomy, more flexible paths can be adopted.
10. The system needs to learn from the learners (Hunch is a good example)
11. Integrate activities from various services so learners can centrally interact with data left in other services (Greplin)
12. Provide learners with the tools to connect and form learning networks with others in a course and across various disciplines (diversity exposure to ideas and connections needs to be intentional)
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Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-08-23

  • Cheating in online learning. Balanced viewpoint from Tony Bates http://bit.ly/adFoXT #
  • Went back 2 Thunderbird after using Kmail for a few years. Really impressed with how it’s developed, I’m actually enjoying managing my email #
  • RT @alastairotter: How the Internet is changing language http://bbc.in/95XmAo #
  • @nlafferty Used 2 use Zotero until I tried Mendeley, which supported PDF import at the time. I’d love 2 try it again, but no chromium plugin in reply to nlafferty #
  • Sadly, it looks like there’s no intention to port Zotero to #chromium & I’m not switching browsers just to get it http://ht.ly/2r9do #
  • Zotero Basics: Getting Stuff Into Zotero http://bit.ly/97IHMV. I’m always intrigued with Zotero, I just can’t get into using it #
  • Some simple points of advice on professional online behaviour for health professionals, from @rachaellowe http://ht.ly/2r8CZ #
  • Teaching Professor: Thinking constructively about teaching problems http://ht.ly/2r8BJ #
  • Beautiful drawings / paintings on the iPad. So much for the notion that it’s not a device for creation http://ht.ly/2r8sV #
  • Technology for 21st Century Learning: Part 2 (But is it a Literacy Machine?). Using the iPad in education http://bit.ly/cwIuEx #
  • @paulscott56 “Major design flaw upsets millions”. Could be a story about Facebook or twifficiency #
  • 17-Year Old Twitter Spammer Scores Facebook CEO as New Friend http://bit.ly/9pGmWA #
  • 08/9/10 PHD comic: ‘The Repulsor Field Explained’ http://bit.ly/cMmImF (humour) #
  • Dissertation Myth # 9: It Will Ruin Your Life. Great points to put your research into perspective http://ht.ly/2qELR #
  • RT @jamescun: OK. Twifficiency shouldn’t tweet your score automatically :/ Error on my behalf, I was just learning to use oAuth 🙁 #
  • RT @allankent: you know what would be awesome? If #twifficiency prompted me before sticking crap in my timeline. #fail #
  • @cristinacost I spent some time in Hay-on-Wye when I was in the UK a few years ago. Really beautiful walks in & around town in reply to cristinacost #
  • Sadly, Twifficiency is a trending topic on the home page, we can probably count on a lot more spam coming through 🙁 #
  • I don’t think I’ve ever seen an app (#Twifficiency in this case) generate so much bad feeling in such a short space of time #
  • RT @andrewspong: Deleted the Twifficiency tweet from my feed in case others see it later, & amplify the spam. You may wish to do the same. #
  • RT @cwcrawley: So all of you who did twiffiency – Go into profile & ‘revoke’ access to the app. That’ll stop it spamming in future #security #
  • Facebook, By the Numbers. Interesting infographic looking at the rise of Facebook over the past few years http://ht.ly/2qCvS #
  • I *hate* it when services / applications tweet on my behalf without asking me, as was the case a minute ago with #Twifficiency #
  • My Twifficiency score is 43%. Whats yours? http://twifficiency.com/ #
  • RT @wesleylynch:RT @shapshak: Africa’s tech start-ups break ground: iSigned (@garethochse) & Cognition (@patrickkayton) http://bit.ly/avauYZ #
  • Looking 4 Buddypress-Activity-stream-type threaded conversation tool. Must be hosted & not need registration. Suggestions? #
  • RT @sharingnicely: RT @myzt: The main idea of “Inception”: if you run a VM inside a VM inside a VM inside a VM, everything will be very slow #
  • @weblearning Just had a look now, thanks. Not sure if it “fits”. I already follow everyone I email. More likely to “find” people elsewhere in reply to weblearning #
  • @weblearning Installed #Rapportive a while ago & it has yet 2 return any info behind the email…maybe that says more about who emails me 🙂 in reply to weblearning #
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Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-08-16

  • Pepsi spill causes sticky mess in science blogging ecosystem http://bit.ly/8XiQ3N #
  • Just started reading “Unseen academicals”. I love Terry Pratchett #
  • Plagiarism Is Not a Big Moral Deal. I teach professional ethics in practice, and I agree with this http://bit.ly/b37kfw #
  • Mobile Phone Learning on the Move in Africa. http://bit.ly/aVpdV3 #
  • Juxio – combine image and text into visual streams. Could be useful for creating small learning resources http://bit.ly/9Vgswz #
  • Comparing Books & E-Books. I’m still not sure where I stand http://bit.ly/9lOtGv #
  • @tony_emerge nice to see I’m not the only 1 still up 🙂 was good to chat at the colloquium on Friday #
  • Do New Tools = New Learning? I don’t think using new tools automatically maps to new learning http://bit.ly/9x4ST6 #
  • What You Need To Know About Data Portability http://www.downes.ca/cgi-bin/page.cgi?post=53116 #
  • Social networking and loneliness. See this in some of my students…the pressure of living for an audience http://bit.ly/d1HQOM #
  • @ianuct Wow, I’d love to have a look at how you do it. Maybe I can meet up with u sometime during the week? Do you have the desktop version? in reply to ianuct #
  • @ianuct What are you thoughts on #Prezi I’ve played with it but actually find the lack of linearity hard to work with in reply to ianuct #
  • Thank you. RT @ianuct: Drew the keynote “Experiences in personal learning”. Find a balance between consuming & sharing http://bit.ly/92CwDd #
  • Battery getting low, so in case phone dies before the end…thank you #Maties for awesome #TEDxStellenbosch #
  • Weird…they handed out #vuvuzelas during intermission at #TEDxStellenbosch & are surprised that people are blowing them? #
  • @jpbosman hey man, how come you’re not at #TEDxStellenbosch Thought this would be the sort of thing you’re interested in #
  • @geekrebel where are you? #
  • Vegetarian meals only at #TEDxStellenbosch I’m not a vegetarian but…what a great idea when promoting sustainability #
  • #TEDxStellenbosch We’re moving from an era of “me”, to an era of “we”. Similar ideas in education with social learning #
  • Comment from earlier speaker at #TEDxStellenbosch “Africa isn’t poor, we just don’t have a lot of money” #
  • @geekrebel Thanks for organising access, #Skyrove doing an awesome job again 🙂 #
  • @elodiek I’m going back to obz so can help you guys out if you still looking (i know henk) #
  • @geekrebel I just got here and am 1 of those 4 🙂 I’m right at the back and can’t see any screens #
  • At #TEDxStellenbosch so impressed with setup, thank you #Skyrove for wireless, always appreciated #
  • Just got home from #ipex had a good 2 days, learnt a lot. Leaving in an hour for #TEDxStellenbosch (http://tedxstellenbosch.org/) #
  • Spent most of yesterday marking tests & assignments, same again today…sigh #