Reflective space, or the merits of social detachment (Michael+ as Google-)
Something struck me just a moment ago as I was furiously scrambling between tabs and Google Analytics to check usage of one of the umpteen sites I seem to be writing for (mostly blogs, etc.). Part of this are the blurred lines between my professional and personal selves, but stay with me for a bit. […]
Teaching and Learning in Decentralized Spaces
I enjoyed this presentation from George Siemens, Athabasca University, on teaching and learning in decentralized spaces. I have heard similar arguments before and concur generally. There seems to be a juxtaposition between how students learn online in social, disaggregated spaces, and how institutions provide environments for learnings (Blackboard, WebCT) that do not always mirror this […]
James Gale, Old Korea, and Google Books
I went back to my wife’s university library to grab more of the Korean History books that are so obsolete as to be primary sources. I stumbled across a few from James Gale, who was one of the earliest Protestant missionaries to Korea and did quite a bit to translate the Korean language. For a […]
eLearning Africa 2010 in Lusaka, Zambia: Conceptual, strategic, policy before technology
The eLearning Africa 2010 Conference planning seems to be in full swing. This year it will be in Lusaka, Zambia, on May 26-28, 2010. In general, this conference has been a big success and there does seem to be significant growth each year. eLearning Africa 2010 is gearing up for another exciting conference filled with […]
Scholarship in developing nations: INASP
Further to my previous post about the difficulties encountered by many researchers in developing nations, I feel it is necessary that the situation is not all that bleak. In fact, I do sense some momentum in improving this situation. The way I see it from my limited perspective is that the challenges facing developing nations […]
Vannevar Bush, Information Overload, and Scholarship in Developing Nations
Vannevar Bush, as quoted by Levy (PDF), described the notion occurring even in the early part of the 20th century of the various disciplinary silos rising up in higher education as disciplines grew more and more specialized. This seems a natural enough process but it is not a terribly efficient one. This encourages minimal collaboration […]
African Anthropology: Khoisan language, Asante Stool Histories, Ceremonies
This is a video I created in 2008 to highlight some of the materials available in the collections here. It highlights some fairly amazing content and most of it hadn’t been available digitally before. The video highlights three of my favorite collections as listed below, but I include introductory text as taken from the site […]