Monday, October 24, 2011

Alisons feedback on survey...

Who am I?

I have been at UCT for 3 and a half years, teaching Professional Communication to under-graduate and post-graduate Engineers. I have a background in teaching high school Mathematics and English and a Master's degreee in Education and Development specialising in Curriculum Design. I have been involved in community development projects with Hope Africa and in educational research through WESGRO and, before that, in creating and producing english language radio programmes for the BBC (Radio English Direct) when living in London in the early 1990's.
I am passionate about development and improving educational and performance standards in South Africa. I love the way that teaching Professional Communication enhances what students get out of - and can contribute to - their various disciplines. I have recently started teaching professional communication skills to a small group of Masters students at UWC and have seen them respond enthusiastically to this. I hope to contunue this next year!
Since starting at UCT I have had a steep learning curve as regards my own skill in and use of ICTS. At Professional Communication Studies (PCS) we use powerpoint slides on a regular basis to enhance teaching and learning, and occasionally support lectures with video snips - as well as using video recording and playback when assessing students presentation skills. In addition, I have recently been involved in creating a short movie through the UCT Centre for Educational Technology (CET). CET offers wonderful support to staff and students and braodens their horizons by providing platform to profile new technological developments.
I look forward to incorporating the iPad as part of my technological tool-kit!

Alison's experiences with the survey

I was really impressed by the survey produced by the Emerging ICT survey. I personally found it extremely informative and well laid out - and I found the supporting information helped expand my vision of what is possible in terms of incorporating technology in the teaching and learning environment.
Without knowing what is out there it is difficult to be adventurous...
I have found technological proficiency helps me to connect better with students and that they are then predisposed to be receptive to what else I am going to present!
Hope this covers what you intended? I look forward to expanding my own experience of "blogs"...

It was great to meet you and Andre and I hope to see you next year.
Regards
Alison Gwynne-Evans

Friday, October 21, 2011

iPad handover

This week the lucky winners of our survey were handed over their iPads:


Alison Gwynne-Evans, Junior Lecturer, Professional Communication Studies
University of Cape Town
and
Vivienne Bozalek, Director Teaching and Learning,
University of Western Cape




Juan Clark, Lecturer Engineering Department,
Walter Sisulu University of Technology and Science

Monday, October 10, 2011

Emerging Technologies in SA Higher Education - SAAIR presentation


This is our first presentation we did at a conference on the NRF project. It is entitled: Emerging Technologies in South African Higher Education Institutions and was presented by Vivienne Bozalek, Dick Ng'ambi and Daniela Gachago at the SAAIR conference, held at UCT from the 11th - 13th of October 2011.



Friday, October 7, 2011

And the winners are...

After our "Emerging ICTs in Higher Education" survey closed on the 30th of September 2011, we selected two winners of the iPad 2. The winners were randomly selected amongst all participants who completed the survey.

And the winners are:

Alison Gwynne-Evans
Junior Lecturer
Professional Communication Studies
University of Cape Town

Juan Clark
Lecturer
Engineering Department
Walter Sisulu University of Technology and Science

Congratulations to the winners from the Project Team!

Thursday, October 6, 2011

30th of September 2011: survey closed

On the 30th of September 2011 our Emerging Technology survey closed down.

These are the first figures:

Total number of respondents: 258
Total number of HE institutions: 21
Total number of completed questionnaires: 162 (63%)


Looking forward to the results!

Blackboard Collaborate meeting 06 10 2011

Today we had another online meeting.

Agenda and minutes can be found here and the recording is here.

In this meeting we selected the two winners of the draw for 2 iPads for participants in our survey, which closed on the 30th of September 2011.

The two winners will be informed soon!