e/merge 2006

Cafe' Forums: In "Our Languages" a Zimbabwean delegate has said "Manheru. Maswera sei ? Good evening. How have you spent the day?" (Shona). Another e/merger has shared two phrases in Arabic: "Assalaamu Alaykum (peace be upon you all)" and "Sabaahan Nur (good morning)" at 12.49 in the morning. In "My e/merge 2006" one presenter is experiencing platform frustration because there is no spell checker for the e/merge discussion forums.

Learning Organisations Forums:

In "Establishing an eLearning Centre" Maggy describes the voluntary and enthusiastic participation of the stakeholders as well as the role that InWent played as respected outsiders.

In "ICTs in Mozambican Education" the narrated Powerpoint by the Minister became available for discussion. The issues under discussion included the importance of collaboration and questions concerning language, responsibility for implementation, teacher training, staff retention and the scope for international partnerships. One message asked about how ICTs could help to reduce the 86% attrition rate in primary education. (More)

Online Discussions: The Learning Organisations phase continues. Nancy White leads discussion on "Loving Your Tools" in the "Emerging Competencies of Online Interaction" workshop. Joseph Novak , the initiator of concept mapping in education is also with us. Don't miss this opportunity to engage with a leading pioneer of transformative education.

Live Events (GMT+2)

Today
11:00 - 11:30 : Teatime chat in the chatroom (in progress)

Tomorrrow
07:00 - 08:00 : Kitty den Boogert and Xavier Muianga on the use of Moodle in Teaching.
11:00 - 11:30 : Teatime chat in the chatroom
15:00 - 16:00 : Barbara Bowen: "Introduction to concept mapping & CmapTools" in the Breeze Meeting room.

Learning Organisations Forums

In "Establishing an eLearning Centre" the discussion has highlighted the need sound national ICT policy for multi stakeholder collaboration to avoid duplication and create synergies. In "Sustainable Computer Use in Schools" participants are sharing what makes their projects sustainable. Herbert emphasises the importance of skills that are "specific to the particular roles fulfilled by the participants in the Project" as well as "critical reflection on the Project" and "a tying together of loose strands". In "eLearning in Universities" participants are discussing their local support structures for elearning and the incentives to educators. In "Professional Development" participants are grappling with the need for both quality and quantity. One colleague is starting to think that "we need to approach change from an ideological/pedagogical stand point and forget about technology until there is a change in the understanding of what ...facilitation and learning, is all about." Ingrid states that "collaboration between members from computer science, education and local teachers is an effect[ive] way of helping introduce and support ICTs in schools."

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Workshops

In "Emerging Competencies of Online Interaction: Online Communications" we consisidered our varied styles of communication and started opening the issue of dealing with information overload. The Jungle Tour got off to a wild start yesterday. The video will soon be available to all in e/merge 2006
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In the "My e/merge 2006" forum a colleague wonders if there is a space for "The little league where people can share ideas and theories they have, but for which they can not give page refs for the sources and list a table full of data." My response is that everywhere in e/merge should be like this but most especially the Open Space forum where you can start a conversation about your elearning passions. This conference is for both practitioners and researchers so I'd encourage everyone to jump into the conversations! This way we can create new knowledge together across sectors, professions and countries.

Today emphasis shifts from the Big Picture forums to the Learning Organisations forums. We will start the new phase at midday (GMT +2) but all the Big Picture forums will remain open for reading and posting until the end of e/merge 2006. Joseph Novak who is the pioneer of concept mapping in education is with us in the Novakian Concept Mapping Workshop. Today the "Eight Emerging Competencies of Online Interaction" workshop features Tolerance for Ambiguity.

Live events today: Teatime Chat from 11.00 - 11.30 if you want to check in with fellow e/mergers. Follow the link from the Events Schedule.

The planned keynote by the Mozambican Minister of Education will be delivered as a narrated Powerpoint since the really bad bandwidth contraints within Southern Africa would make a live event too risky. An announcement will be made as soon as the presentation is available.

As Tony described it, we encountered "some bandwidth problems" during the e/merge 2006 opening event. Kuzvinetsa Peter Dzvimbo, Rector of the African Virtual University was unable to present his keynote speech live because of poor connectivity between the AVU's Nairobi offices and the Breeze Server at the University of Cape Town.

We have had similar problems in tests from the Ministry of Science of Technology in Mozambique, and thus are converting a 2nd possible live presentation from Venancio Massingue, Mozambican Minister of Science and Technology, into a pre-recorded slideshow.

Sad to say, the bandwidth required for this sort of audio conferencing (with a little video) is not much - Breeze has a range of bandwidth options starting from around 25 Kbps. Nevertheless, somehow reliable end-to-end connections that can sustain uninterrupted live audio seem to be hard to come by in Africa.

So it's ironic that in an online conference about e-learning in Africa, it's easier for us to present live sessions from presenters in the US, Canada, Netherlands and Hong Kong than it is to hear African voices from neighbouring countries.

So here's to everyone in Africa working on improving regional Internet connectivity and peering, lowering bandwidth costs and overturning telecommunications monopolies. It can't happen soon enough. Bring on the African telecomms renaissance.

Today in e/merge 2006

Online Discussions
* The Big Picture Forums continue
* The Keynote Presentation by KP Dzvimbo on "The limits and possibilities of e-learning in Africa: A brief expose of the AVU experiences" is available for discussion.
* A conversation with Joseph Novak in the workshop on Novakian Concept Maps
* Discussion of Online Communication Skills in the "Emerging Competencies of Online Interaction"

Events Today
* 11:00 - 11:30 Teatime chat in the chatroom (link from Events Schedule)
* 15:00 - 16:00 Jungle Tour Meeting 1 with Robin Good. Restricted to 10 participants with broadband connections and nerves of steel.

If you need any help to get going with e/merge please contact us on help@emerge2006.net.

There was a good start to the online conversations yesterday and apart from some bandwidth problems between Nairobi and Cape Town the Opening went very well. There are still new faces appearing in e/merge to be welcomed. A special welcome to the 18 delegates from the Limpopo Department of Education in South Africa and to several guests of the Mozambican Minister of Science and Technology. (More)