Dadamac Learners...
Dadamac Learners is the analytical, thoughtful side of Dadamac. It is an online space for exploring and sharing ideas around "Learning and Learners - Systemic Change in 21st Century Approaches to Learning". It is probably best understood by some comparisons with traditional post-graduate research.
Comparison with University
If Dadamac was an outpost of a traditional university then "Dadamac Learners" would be a self-help group meeting face-to-face and the members would be post-graduate students. The questions written below would be questions that Dadamac Learners were discussing together (and where questions are linked to specific projects, those projects would have been covered in field trips). Dadamac Learners would probably draw its members from a variety of disciplines, such as ICT4Ed, Development Studies, ICT4D, and Community Informatics.
For anyone interested
Of course Dadamac is not linked to a traditional university. This means that Dadamac Learners is for anyone who is interested in issues around "Learning and Learners - Systemic Change in 21st Century Approaches to Learning". The questions and "field trips" below reflect Pamela McLean's personal interests, based on practical experiences within the Dadamac community over a period of ten years, and also on earier work within the formal educational system in the UK. The practical work has taken place in the UK and rural Nigeria, but the relevance and patterns behind the work are not limited to specific locations.
Questions
If Dadamac Learners did really meet face-to-face, and if you joined us for a while, these are the kind of questions you would be discussing, illustrated by practical experiences:
- What are the implications of ICT for health, education, vocational training and development?
- How do self-directed learners use the Internet?
- What differences do mobile phones make?
- What should a serving teacher know and teach about ICT in a typical under-resourced rural African school, with few books, no electricity and no computers? (See Teachers Talking)
- Can we use the Internet to enable volunteer health professionals to provide accredited in-service training to health professionals who are in locations in Africa and India where training opportunities are very limited? (See People'sUni.org)
- How can we help people raised in a rote learning culture to benefit from the self-directed learning opportunities of the Internet? (Dadamac Self Directed Learners)
- Can we use the Internet to enable effective collaborative course development, so that expertise on content comes from a distance, but course resources and presentation are localised? (See Cameras for Communication )
- How can we help genuine two-way exchange of knowledge between people in rural Africa and people outside? (See photo feedback loop and March First Thursday kitchen gardens and jatropha )
- What are the real stumbling blocks to effective cross-cultural Internet-enabled collaborative learning, and what are the most effective online tools?
- How can we best enable technology transfer? (See the ecodome )
- How can we respond effectively when people express a particular learning need? (Ask about the ginger story, apple trees, the tractor investment, open source support, learning about social media).
- What are the main similarities and differences between formal educational institutions using ICT, and non-formal ICT-enabled educational initiatives,?
- Can the Dadamac community build bridges and collaborate with traditional academic institutions? (See academic-practitioner collaboration )
Interested?
Some of these questions will feature in blog posts during 2010. You can be part of Dadamac Learners by posting comments or by sending an email directly to pamela.mclean@dadamac.net
