Dick Ng'ambi is a suave speaker with such a clear intelligent, interdisciplinary look that it immediately caught the attention of everybody.
In south African context in Cape Town.
in Africa there are two worlds in one: first world and third world. Difference in access to technology. In cape town, the majority of people will commute into cape town. So what happens in a large class with students that do not have a necessary one-to-one interaction with the teacher (411 learners in the class).
so it is not possible to have them all participate in the classroom.
use of podcasts is increasingly becoming common in education.
In large classes and where some learners ar taught in a language other than their mother tongue (mostly the 4 language).
students may have difficulty understanding the lectures.
When they come to compass they will have high connectivity, off campus very varied.
But when on campus their is only limited time to reflect on their own learning, BUT they are moved from the better connected areas.
use of ubiquitous technology is low on campus, but high off campus.
Mobile network was excellent, both on and off campus.
When learners came to class, they transitioned from clusters of power (peer clusters) to a space where they felt powerless (suppressed voices) as co-producers of knowledge.
learners with dominant voices in class also transitioned from clusters of equals (peer clusters) to clusters of power (dominant voices).
So how could they make use of all these facts?
Podcasting and Learner Mobility
Students in a postgraduate programme use low-cost offline devices to record audio for uploading when they have access to broadband internet when on campus.
peers' podcasts are downloaded and listened to when offline and use anonymous SMS to post questions and receive answers through the Q&A tool.
mediating reflective learning
learning is a reflective process and without reflection, learning cannot take place.
lecturers were recorded their lectures, and uploaded the audio files on the course site (also for prerequisites).
Most of the time the students (for security reasons) will listen to podcasts on the move.
for data check out the paper, because here again the time was limited and his presentation was cut short (will ask Dick if he has his presentation on Slideshare, because it was GREAT!).
sms' were adding to the learner knowledge database, and it created a community feeling between the learner's.
podcasts were on average ten minutes.