Introductions - New Zealand
Logan Moss, New Zealand - lmeduc@waikato.ac.nz
Hello fellow participants,
As you will have seen from the mail header, my name is Logan Moss and I am from the University of Waikato which is in Hamilton, New Zealand. I am the chairperson of the Education Studies Department in the School of Education.
My teaching and research interests (at times they seem to me more like passions than merely interests) are the history of educational ideas and the integration of computers into teaching and learning.
My interest in computers arose out of my teaching and research in history, particularly as I began to explore the possibilities of storing both documents and research notes in electronic form. (That was back in the days before MS-DOS had become ubiquitous on PC's or Steve Jobs at Apple had built the first Macintosh; I first worked with DataStar on a machine running CPM!) My current teaching etc was a natural progression from that, or at least it seems to me to have been a natural progression but many people still find it difficult to reconcile such apparently disparate interests in one individual. However, I am sure that if indeed there is disparity, it will appear far from strange to people drawn to a workshop such as this one promises to be.
I am currently teaching an undergraduate course in which the possibilities of the Internet for the classroom are examined. Amongst other things, the students are required to develop a set of web pages, focussing on a single area within the curriculum (each individual chooses their own area/topic) that could be used to aid or extend classroom teaching. I also have several graduate students working on similar, though far more extensive projects. I think it is important to note though, that my courses focus as much on the limits the Internet might impose on both educators and the educational process as they do on its potential benefits. In what they produce, the students are expected to demonstrate that they have understood the broader social issues associated with the introduction/use of the technology with which they are working.
I also continue to teach courses in the history of education and am presently putting together materials for an undergraduate course that will be taught/delivered during our second semester (beginning late July) exclusively by electronic means. For this year the course will be available only to our on campus students but provided it runs without major technical problems, we hope to make it more widely available next year via the Web.
This year our school has also begun offering parts of our teacher training program via the Internet. This is to cater for small groups of students in towns several hundred kilometres distant from Hamilton who, for one reason or another, are unable to move away from their homes. To date my involvement in this has been restricted to an advisory capacity, but from next year it is likely that I shall be involved in teaching on at least one of the courses delivered in this manner.
Hopefully the preceding comments have served both to introduce me and to explain my interest in being a participant in this workshop. I look forward to interacting with a number of you over the next few weeks.
Logan.
Logan Moss | Phone: +64 7 838 4354
Education Studies Department | Fax: +64 7 838 4434
University of Waikato | Internet: lmeduc@waikato.ac.nz
Hamilton, NEW ZEALAND | Compuserve: 100241,3202
Nathaniel Robson - tanaka@powerlink.co.nz
Hi ... I am Nathaniel Robson from New Zealand. I saw a message about this list on another list, belonging to AIESEC International. I am a 5th year (international, macro) economics student and have also been a member of AIESEC (a worldwise organization which organizes graduate exchanges to promote cultural understanding) for 5 years. In 1998, I hope to work in Japan on an AIESEC traineeship, and a life goal of mine is to work in an organization like UNESCO, the IMF, etc. promoting peace and internationalism. Higher education is something which AIESEC is concerned with, since it is the building blocks of the future. I also have a keen interest in information technology (esp. the Internet) and the impact this will have on equality (and equity) across countries. I look forward to discussing the issues relevant to this list with the learned reader of it.
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Nathaniel Robson
AIESEC International LC Auckland
Publications Team New Zealand
Visit the AIESEC Home Page:
http://www.aiesec.org/
AIESEC Global Theme 1996-2000
"Interdependence - learning and acting for a shared future"
"One by One we exChange people"
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