::eLearning Fundi::

James

The last two days have been very informative for me. I attended a Teaching and Learning colloquium where academics and stakeholders were exchanging ideas around and on issues of teaching and learning. Although I left the the venue with more questions and answers, I learnt one or two things. For now, I will just post the questions that came up in my mind, and hope in the subsequent discussions I will elaborate on them. The questions not in any particular order.
Is the teaching and learning field broken? Does it need fixing? What need to be fixed? Who should fix it?

Are educational institutions fighting for freedom through education or freedom for education?

What is the importance of teaching and learning? What is the importance of scholarship of teaching? What is the importance of the culture of teaching? What is the importance of learning materials?

What should students know in order to ask questions about the future? How would students be encouraged to define and create their world views? How do students learn? How do we teach? What is defined by the culture and heritage? How are we encouraging students to drive innovation in Higher Education? How are we realigning the teaching and learning in the wake of technological innovations?

Is good teaching a skill that can be taught? how?

How do we shape our schools and teachers for teaching and learning?

What are we using to evaluate the success of teaching and learning? Can we justify the use of the evaluation tool?

If marks are what motivates students to learn, then why don't we link evaluations to mark?

Why do academics fail to use or adopt elearning? For those who do, why do they use it?


What is the role and responsibility of government in improving the quantity and quality of educational output?

Tags: colloquim | learning | learning materials | scholarship | Teaching | Teaching and Learning

James

Why the name Fundi?

Fundi is a Zulu and Swahili word for an expert or specialist or a skilled craftsman. I have been in eLearning, in the context of Higher Educaiton both in the Kenya and South Africa. I have worked in many eLearning projects, and being a strong believer in my potential, I thing I rightly deserver the title eLearning Fundi. I believe that eLearning specifically in Higher Education in Africa is a reality that has come, that cannot be lightly wished off, that will test a Universities future success in terms of reaching out wider and newer markets. The sooner the Higher Learning institutions adopt and implement eLearning the better their chances for the future.

So what do the Higher Education institutions need to do? Lets engage in a creative discussion that would answer this question or more.

Tags: Teaching and Learning | Teaching | scholarship | learning materials | learning | colloquim | Africa | eLearning | Fundi | Higher education | Kenya | South Africa