Personal Blogs

I leant about blogs way back in the year 2009 when I attended an International Summer School on “Human Development and Human Rights” Sponsored by University for Humanistic and the Kosmopolis Institute (The Netherlands) in cooperation with HIVOS, the Centre for the Study of Culture and Society (India), the Centre for Religion and Cross-Cultural Studies (Indonesia) and the Cross-Cultural Foundation of Uganda. We were encouraged to open blogs and post our feelings, opinions. By then, I thought blogs were related to marketing and advocacy, thus limited to business and civil society organizations. Besides, I also felt is so exposing of my personal opinions to the world. By then we saw people who had blogs as bragging. A person deserves privacy, not so? For these reasons, I omitted the need for blog, but felt Facebook tolerable so I reluctantly opened an account and was inactive until 2011, when met a stubborn class. These students could be sometimes rowdy and would challenge my classroom management skills. I was a new member of staff, so I did not know their names. Then I remembered my Facebook account. When I reactivated it, nearly all the students in the said class invited me as a friend. I accepted all invitations, and here I would tag their names to their faces. I would also read their posts, get to know them as individuals and call them by name in class. In a couple of weeks, the class was back to normal. Facebook did not only help me as lecturer but also helped the students for I did not only become a lecturer but a friend and mentor as well. Facebook is now a tool of learning where I have continually supported my students even when they are out of the university. Today, I open and write my first blog ever. The motivation has been the baptism I received in the Open University of UK as a student of MA online and Distance education. In Uganda we are still conventional in education to the extent that until February 2018 when I enrolled as a student, I too had a negative attitude towards open and online education. like others, I thought it is substandard and actually at that time, if I was to employ a person, I would reject the one with an online qualification. Right now, this is the person I would take as priority. The approach is thorough, no hiding space nor negotiating with computer, it is contextual, mental-window opening, student centred, empowering and equipped with learning material but also rigorous. Therefore, by the time one qualifies, he/she has proved and exhibited all round qualities expected from integrated education in terms of cognitive, physical and emotional aspects. One acquires what we call in Uganda “hard and soft skills” required of a good professional. In applying to study MA online course, I was more focused on opportunities abroad especially in Europe and America, lightly Asia. Half way my first module of Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) H800, I have changed my view. I need and am needed in Uganda as a change agent towards education and technological revolution. H800 has taught me that TEL will enable us to transcend from conventional education to an updated education that promotes innovations, that allows us to interact with the environment rather than walls in fences. This traditional education concentrates on reproduction of knowledge for marks rather than generation of knowledge for environmental management and innovations. This way our problems of joblessness despite too much work to do in the communities will stop. Besides TEL is open, unlimited to people of any category in terms of age, profession and geographical space. It fulfills the dream of education for all. Right now, as educators, we need to challenge the traditional system and adopt TEL, though this will not be easy. The former has been a business and the latter will be serious investment in a service. This is a government challenge to take up, but government is us the Ugandans. The reality is that with international demands of digital shift to e-learning, e-tax collection, e-registration, e-commerce, e-banking, citizen science, citizen journalism, we must revisit the educational approach to enable citizens benefit and manage the demands of the time. Ever since I started my H800, I have learnt TEL schemas that I learn and read from clouds which I already share with colleagues here and we are already benefiting already. As a lecturer, my mandate is in teaching, research, publication and community service. Before H800, I knew internet helps a lot but still had the traditional belief of not advertising personal matter/achievement to the world! This was self-defeating about my mandate as a lecturer. Right now, I am even writing a blog about my feelings, on my facebook, I put a link for a Community Based Health Organization I established and am directing. It is called St. Joseph Health Centre Nakabango. On the link I call volunteers and interns in areas of social work and human medicine. Guess what, I had an old set of two who graduated, right now I have two interns from among my students at Makerere and once had an American peace corp. With TEL, we live and learn from a global village through its provisions and challenges. Interesting, this experience offered these young people with opportunities to also reach the world and develop their careers. They now encourage me to update the website, for is helpful. It sold them to the current opportunities. For all this I can say, TEL does not only end in class, it goes into authentic learning with practical impacts. Wow! Am thrilled with my first blog that it has turned into an essay. Since it not for marking, we continue with the dialogue. Of course, it was an assignment my Tutor Bob gave, but in the due course, I like it and will continue with the blog. For the assignment, having read a given article by Kerawalla et al, I realized that my motive to keep me on the blog would be for resource network building to link up with people of different interests, skills and potentials so that we can work together to accomplish or tasks and develop our communities together. Now it has gone beyond assignment, reflecting on what I wrote, this is real. Thanks Bob for opening my eyes.