Action research conference at Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University

Mr Kabulo Loji doing his presentation at the conference. Title of his presentation is:

Combined use of cognitive education WITH OTHER TEACHING AND LEARNING STRATEGIES AND APPROACHES TO IMPROVE PROBLEM SOLVING SKILLS IN THE FIELD OF ENGINEERING STUDIES

Action research conference at Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University

The Durban University Technology team who presented at NMMU, at the beach in Port Elizabeth. We had tea with Prof. Jack Whitehead to speak about his visit to DUT at the end of October 2010.

MY NMMU EXPERIENCE (Kabulo LOJI)

The experience I would like to share for NMMU is that it had achieved the main theme of the conference: “ACTION RESEARCH: EXPLORING ITS TRANSFORMATIVE POTENTIAL”. In other words, through the conference I experienced the transformation and this consequently re-enforced my belief that AR can really transform the world. I can claim without fear and with authority that I have learned much more than any other delegate at the conference. The opportunity to listen to people from various field and to myself, made me explore the deepness of my ignorance. At the same time, it helped me to understand that no matter the field in which we are, “teaching and learning” is a common problem to all of us. The passion to tackle this problem demonstrated the unity in action to fight a “common enemy” as mentioned to me by Delysia Timm few days ago: “…for different people to be able to work together they must identify and have a common enemy…”.
I was impressed by the DUT team in general and in particular enjoyed all the presentations I had the chance to listen to. I cannot describe the spasmodic emotional feelings I went through when listening to some of the members of the group (Bonnie, Chris, Joan, Linda,…), it was just out of my own control and this was very influential.
From the topics of the conference, the content of the presentations and the discussions, I can mention the following:
1. AR can be applied in any field with positive results (government institutions included, how?) for social impact;
2. As many of the delegates expressed it I am equally concerned about the education system in South Africa and I am previewing a collapse of the entire system if we do not take AR into the class room from the primary to tertiary. The question “How can I improve my practice…?” should be made a vibrant slogan in the teaching and learning community.
3. Call for an urgent increase of power: the “work” to be done in the education sector is very huge. Positive results with regard to seeing the ones who are still unaware of AR being influenced to apply it should not be expected any soon unless if we increase the power of persuasion. In fact, power is the rate at which we spend (or consume) energy or simply the rate at which we do work.
If we want to achieve the same amount of work in a shorter time we need to increase our power. We cannot physically multiply ourselves but through Social media maybe we can. Information on all the positive things should be accessible to everyone and on a click. Every influential person should agree (de facto) that his contribution (including videos and photos taken with or without their permission) be made available with acknowledgement to anyone by appropriate means.
I support the idea of expending the network and I encourage the sharing of experiences (challenges and achievements). Together we will. (498 words)

NMMU Action Research Seminar

What an experience... particularly the bus trip... 15hours to get there!

But on to more positive things. I delivered a paper that demonstrated how to convert a series of blogposts into an MSWord report. The whole concept uses the labels, (also known as tags) from the blog, to identify the useful posts, exporting these to Word and then using the Titles of the blogposts as headings, with which to generate a Table of contents for the report.

The presentation was received pretty well, but then, the whole group's presentation were...

My Lived Experience of being part of the SeStuTHESA group at the AR conference, NMMU, PE

The bus trip to Port Elizabeth was reasonably quiet. I enjoyed the camaraderie that was evident from the moment we met at DUT to embark on our journey. This atmosphere of tolerance, kindness, sharing, humility and humour continued throughout the three day experience. I did not present on the first day and chose the sessions I wanted to attend carefully so that I could see speakers from other centres and at the same time be present for my group so that I could give them my support. I also wanted to hear my colleagues’ presentations anyway. Fortunately I did get to see other presenters. There were three to five exceptional one’s and the rest were very disappointing having lost the plot of Action Research. It made me extremely proud that our group through the coaching we receive from our professor Joan Conolly, all made outstanding presentations. What I have learnt: • I must always be myself. • The audience are also human beings with feelings, hopes and dreams and talking to a large audience is ok because of that. • Telling my experience like it is also ok because disappointments, mistakes and dark periods in our lives are part of our Lived Experience (Whitehead) and being truthful about them is important. • Therefore covering up and pretending everything is good is not ok. • I listen to the way my colleagues’ work, present, think and process information and learn from them as well. In fact I have learnt an enormous amount from them. I value the advice and input they give me in my work. I felt so honoured and humbled by being noticed by Jack Whitehead and having my presentation put on YouTube. The affirmation from my colleagues meant even more and looking at Lee, Linda, Naretha, Chris and Joan’s faces during the presentation confirmed the bond that all of us have with each other. That bond and connectedness is very important in the scholarly journey I have chosen to embark upon. I am fed by the energy of the group and our professor. The energy of the group energises me and I am then in turn encouraged by that in the times that are low on this journey. The meeting with Jack was inspired, connected, with an enormous amount of cohesion. He is a true Servant Leader and inspires me to great heights. I feel so privileged to work with him. The skeleton and outline of my New Venture Creation Book came to me while on the bus trip back. I pictured how the book will look and how to go about writing it. (436words) The trip back on the bus was full of lightness, laughter, easy banter, argument and jest. It was a totally wonderful experience that I will always treasure.