Introductions - Australia


Patsy Clarke - CLARKE@cc.und.ac.za


More greetings from Durban, South Africa.

My official position is Academic Computing Consultant, responsible for training, support and trouble-shooting with respect to statistical software used by staff and postgraduate researchers on the Durban campus of University of Natal.

This is currently somewhat eclipsed by the exciting M Ed in Computer Assisted Education that I have been doing at the University of Pretoria- same as another conferee who has already introduced himself, Ari Naidoo, and with whom I have worked on a number of collaborative projects on the course.
(We live in the same city).

One of the modules of this course was studied via a combination of a 'Virtual Classroom' on the WWW and a listserver. My home page on the Web has a number of links to projects, including the virtual classroom, and more details on my background, qualifications and experience - (requires a Java aware Web browser to read optimally). The URL is: http://www.und.ac.za/users/clarke/patsycl.html

My interest - and Master's thesis project - is on delivery of training material via the World Wide Web (WWW). My reason in signing up for this on-line conference is to get and keep in touch with what is happening in the field. The diversity of the conferees that have already signed up already indicates to me that this will be a very worthwhile exercise indeed.
regards from Patsy Clarke
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Patsy Clarke
Homepage:http://www.und.ac.za/users/clarke/patsycl.html
Academic Computing Consultant (Statistical)
Computer Services Dept. University of Natal Durban 4041 South Africa
Tel: 27-31-260-1435 Fax: 27-31-260-2125 email: clarke@cc.und.ac.za
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"One person- one Internet connection", Jay Naidoo (1996)
Minister of Telecommunication, New South Africa
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N. Ari Naidoo, South Africa - anaidoo@pixie.udw.ac.za


San Bonanani
(the traditional Zulu greeting of "San Bonani" {plural and polite form == I see you} is used to acknowledge the _presence_ of the other person/s regardless of the frequency of the greeting - unlike our `Good Morning'.)

I am Co-ordinator of the Division of Language Usage, at the University of Durban-Westville, KwaZulu-Natal, on the east coast of SA. We're involved in curriculum design & development, immersion of skills into content and research and development of context-embedded Academic Writing skills using word processing.

When we started in 1991 my four colleagues and I were asked to create short, adjunct, computer-assisted courses for students, the majority of whom speak English as Another Language. We have since realised that one has to integrate language & content to facilitate transfer of skills: CO-designing and CO-developing (try telling that to some of our 'over-worked' academics).

I am in the second year of an amazing Masters degree (my first was in Drama)(sigh!) in Computer Assisted Ed. at the University of Pretoria. This has also got me very interested in computer managed communication/education, especially on-line writing facilities. I have had 'champagne in the blood' since last year. -- visit the site --

Two years ago I started teaching word-processing courses at lunchtimes and now have a group of post-graduate students doing this with me (a covert attempt at peer-modelling). I am also interested in collaborative learning techniques with in teaching word-processing and have developed one of my "own" strategies - until one of you write about it...

The DLU's teaching/training facilities are still a non-WINDOWS environment, and there's a growing number of students who are not competent communicators. But then there is _also_ a growing number of those students who have been empowered by the DLU's small-group teaching and exposure to technology...

I look forward to networking at our URLiest convenience.

Bye

Christel Troskie - ct1@maties.sun.ac.za


Being an educational advisor at the Bureau for University and Continuing Education at the University of Stellenbosch, as well as a part-time lecturer in Higher Education (a combined distance-contact post-graduate course) at the Faculty of Education and a doctoral student, my interest in the discussions on Higher Education during this conference is from different perspectives. I am mainly involved in staff development programs for academic staff and consultation relating to teaching, and to a lesser extent in academic development of students. The theme of my doctoral studies is the identification and development of potential in both prospective and current students and I am especially interested in the influence of cultural factors on cognitive development and students' integration into the higher education environment.

Christel Troskie

Onderrigadviseur Educational advisor
Buro vir Universiteits- Bureau for University
en Voortgesette Onderwys and Continuing
Education
Universiteit van Stellenbosch University of
Stellenbosch
Privaatsak X1 Private Bag X1
7602 Matieland 7602 Matieland
South Africa

Tel: (021) 808 3082 Int. Tel: 27-21-808
3082
Fax: (021) 887 6763 Int. Fax: 27-21-887
6763

Jason Whitehead - jasonw@is.co.za


Greetings,

I'm Jason Whitehead.

I work for an Internet Service Provider and recently have been enquiring about using the Internet as a solution or part of the solution to education problems we have in SA, including access to rural scholars etc. Also of interest is how to help SA children get computer literate and use computer technololgy to the utmost. Surely the Interent must be an invaluable resourse in this respect.

Not being an educationalist myself, I'm not sure if I'll be able contribute much to the discussion at hand, but will appreciate any advice I can pick up on my interests, above.

With Greetings from Johannesburg
Jason.

[speaking only for myself]
____________________________________________________________
Jason Whitehead jasonw@is.co.za
The Internet Solution (Pty) Ltd - Internet Service Providers
Network Operations Centre Tel.: +27 (11) 447-5566
Johannesburg, South Africa Fax.: +27 (11) 447-4250