Collaborative LearningCollaborative Learning news and updates by Martin Terre BlancheSouth African open access academic publisher- (Found June 19, 2008 ) Some months ago I published a rant about the fact that one has to pay a hefty sum to get access to the Final Report of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission. But there's also a lot of good stuff going on in South African publishing. I have just been reminded, for example, that HSRC Press (the publishing wing of the Human Sciences Research Council) make all of their books available as free downloads (in addition to selling printed copies in the usual commercial way). This makes...http://www.criticalmethods.org/collab/2005/9/news.htm#1126798148812 A tale of two learnings- (Found June 19, 2008 ) Here's an interesting news story - EDUCATION-SOUTH AFRICA: From Blackboard to SMARTboard by Bate Tabi Tabe. The first is about a project involving "Gatang High School in Mamelodi, a poor, black residential area outside the capital of Pretoria" and "St Albans - a well-to-do private school in the city". Teachers at St Albans communicate with students at Gatang via web cameras, video screens and an electronic whiteboard. This is how Tabe describes the interaction: "The electronic board in front of.http://www.criticalmethods.org/collab/2005/9/news.htm#1126853832921 Plagiarism- (Found June 19, 2008 ) Will Richardson relates a story about school kids using blogs to post answers to tests in between periods so others who haven't yet written the test will know what's coming. While he of course doesn't approve of cheating, he uses the incident to highlight the pointlessness of much of what students are still being assessed on. He also argues for a re-think about plagiarism: "The answer, I think, lies in teaching our students how to correctly and ethically borrow the ideas and work of others and.http://www.criticalmethods.org/collab/2005/10/news.htm#1130316868100 Online teaching case studies- (Found June 19, 2008 ) The Institute of Teaching and Learning at Deakin University (where James Farmer hangs out when he's not doing other things) has released a wonderful collection of online teaching case studies. The case studies are incredibly slick, with audio recordings, video clips etc. and the categories for browsing among case studies make a lot of sense. In browsing through half a dozen of these, the best part for me was getting a sense of the personalities involved and of the everyday bits of teaching...http://www.criticalmethods.org/collab/2005/10/news.htm#1130320338780 Edubloggers map- (Found June 19, 2008 ) Check out the the edubloggers map at frappr. Great use of the google maps. Amongst other things it shows very nicely where the geographical gaps are. I suspect that maps of most other communities that I (sort of) identify with (e.g. critical psychologists) would show a similar pattern - i.e. most everybody clustered together in North America, Europe (especially the UK) and Australasia. Makes one think. By Martin Terre Blanche 27 Oct 2005http://www.criticalmethods.org/collab/2005/10/news.htm#1130403429300 Still setting up the new blog- (Found June 19, 2008 ) I'm still in the process of setting up the new version of this blog. Changing address is a pity, but I'm hopeful that once I have the initial difficulties sorted out it will be worth having more control over the technical side of things. Some advantages: Posting is faster and more intuitive than at Blogger. An RSS feed (I can in fact specify which of any number of channels a posting should go to, although I'm currently only using one). Visible comment sections next to each post (will have to...http://www.criticalmethods.org/collab/2003/10/news.htm#1065147512990 |