October's First Thursday was packed full of useful information. Elaine (Ireland) circulated the full archive and her minutes of the meeting to all participants. , and (as it was a public meeting) I forward her email and the attachments here. ( NB this email subsequently edited out as attachments did not copy so I'll delete the letter, see comments for link).
We hold these open meetings every month for approximately one hour on the first Thursday of the month. We also hold similar private online UK-Nigeria meetings, for particular projects and people. If you would like Dadamac to arrange a private meeting on your behalf please email me pamela.mclean@dadamac.net for details.
Chat History - October's First Thursday - 2010-10-07
I did try to copy it below - but seems like some gremlins got in:
People - in order of arrival Pamela McLean (England), Kelechi Micheals (Nigeria), Richard Freeman (nickname Ricardo - England), Maria Agnese Giraudo (Italy), John Dada (Nigeria), Elaine Hickey (Ireland), Ladi Fitor (Nigeria) People - except for John and I - introduce themselves during the meeting.
(Kelechi, Ricardo and Pamela started with some social chat which is not included here. Most social chat, greetings, “thankyou”s and so on have been deleted from the archive below for ease of reading. Nikki Fishman - England - tried to attend but....)
Pamela - We have a techi glitch with Nikki. Skype thinks she has an old version of skype and cannot join in group chats !!! but we all know that is not true - she sets up our regular meetings and she has been to these the first thursdays on skype....
Ricardo: 12:59:53 I got an email saying that someone is going to run another GIMP course. It's nice to see things going ahead, even when i'm not arround.
Kelechi B.G. Micheals: 13:01:07 Yes, Ricardo. We are moving ahead. the present situation, is we are porting the Gimp Curriculum onto dokeo, and e-elearing platform... this will better help us manage learning content and monitor student progress on the courses.... see www.dokeo.com
Ricardo: 13:02:28 Ah, i see... open source eLearning. I'll look at the site later today..... Pam, have you discussed our project with FF? Is that on/off today's agenda?
Pamela: 13:03:31 John knows - but not Kelechi. it was on the agenda yesterday but Kelechi was travelling
Pamela: 13:04:53 K please tell R more about the changes to your role and what your vision is for KRC Pamela:
Kelechi B.G. Micheals: 13:05:55 Well, Ricardo, I'm currently the Operations Manager, I oversee most of the programs in Fantsuam
Kelechi B.G. Micheals: 13:06:38 The KRC has a new dedicated officer, Ladi, I was hoping she'd be around .
Pamela: 13:07:30 Yes Ladi will have an interesting role - but it will be a big culture shock change and we need to help her to make that change
Kelechi B.G. Micheals: 13:08:06 KRC will serve as the learning hub for FF and the community at large.
Pamela: 13:09:00 but it will be a challenge to give people the vision for the KRC (which I think Kelechi, John and I share)
Kelechi B.G. Micheals: 13:09:10 The KRC will provide learning support for FF programs and projects, ensuring necessary and relevant resources are available,
Ricardo: 13:09:25 Ah, i see, Ladi is running just the KRC part of Fantsuam. Do courses, such as cameras or GIMP, come under FF (Kelechi) or under KRC (Ladi)?
Kelechi B.G. Micheals: 13:10:15 Yes, PAM one of the tasks Ladi has is to understand this vision, and create a set of work objectives and plans for the krc........They come under Fantsuam Academy,
Pamela: 13:10:46 I wish that Mercy was still around - she would be such a good role model - do you ever see Mercy?
Kelechi B.G. Micheals: 13:11:02 yes,
(Maria arrived and was welcomed)
Ricardo: 13:11:14 Am i right to think of the KRC like a library of information and training course notes? Does the KRC control computer hardware loans, or does FF (you, Kelechi) do that?
Kelechi B.G. Micheals: 13:11:47 Fantsuam Academy is the department where KRC falls,.. KRC is a sub - unit of Fantsuam Academy at the moment,
Ricardo: 13:12:44 Pam or K, is there an organisational chart or document you could send me, to make clear what the KRC (Ladi) does or does not do, compared with the whole of FF (Kelechi)?
Kelechi B.G. Micheals: 13:12:45 The Academy provides ICT training to students, while KRC ensures, necesary resources are available for these trainings.....Sure, I can email you something much later R, if thats ok.
Ricardo: 13:13:25 Ah, thanks K. I understand now that the Academy runs the actual courses.
Maria Agnese Giraudo: 13:14:22 I enjoy to meet again Ricardo and to meet for the first time Kelechi
Ricardo: 13:15:03 K, have you got all the resources you need for courses at the moment, or are there any particular problems?
Kelechi B.G. Micheals: 13:15:43 so far, R, we have all the resources from the last Gimp training, for other courses we have most of what is relevant for now, The main task for LAdi and her team, is to prepare whatever content in the format that can be used on Dokeos... For instance, we need to convert some word documents into power point slides to upload into dokeos as lesson modules.
Ricardo: 13:17:32 K, do you use a camera during the gimp course, or just work on example jPEG pictures? I forget? I mean, is it important that a camera is available and working during the gimp course?
Kelechi B.G. Micheals: 13:17:37 Ricardo, I keep you posted on our resource needs as we move on, the Documentation on Gimp is quite comprehensive,,,,at the moment, we work on Jpeg photos,....we are yet to include a detailed photo course , to run along side gimp, this is part of the next phase.
Ricardo: 13:19:58 Ok, thanks K. I found GIMP was quite complex. It tries to be the same as the commercial Photoshop program, with hundreds of features. If the gimp course works okay, then please carry on. For younger students, they might prefer a photo-editing course using the simpler Google Picasa 3 program. It can do brightness, contrast, colour and sharpness, and auto-fix.
Kelechi B.G. Micheals: 13:20:19 yes, ..I had to tweak the course content to focus on basic photo editing. ....Gimp is great tool, its also oopen source.
Ricardo: 13:20:52 Yes, K, are there any plans for another cameras for communication course (getting a camera out of the box for the 1st time, etc)?
Kelechi B.G. Micheals: 13:21:07 Yes Ricardo,.
John Dada: 13:21:07 I have been impressed with Yakubu's use of GIIMP, hello folks! (John was welcomed)
Kelechi B.G. Micheals: 13:21:23 the Advanced course we are planning will feature digital photography.
Ricardo: 13:21:52 Hi John, nice to meet you here.
John Dada: 13:22:24 Yes Ricardo, it was good 'talking' to you at midnight!
(Elaine joined and was welcomed)
Ricardo: 13:22:43 Yes, yakubu must be more of an expert than me. I use another middle-difficulty program called Paint Shop Pro, not photoshop or gimp.
Kelechi B.G. Micheals: 13:23:04 Yes indeed, Yakubu is my key instructor for GImp, others are pickin up too. I found gimp couldn't easily print photos onto paper, without getting the page size wrong. I try as much as I can to provide support during the course delivery.
Ricardo: 13:24:45 Hi Elaine, i'm Richard Freeman (nickname Ricardo) from england, a friend of Pam's and John's etc who wrote some course notes for camera courses. I was a software engineer, and now have some spare time for online helping out kind of work. I also donated some cameras to Fantsuam for the courses, to kick things off. I'm not an expert photographer, just a keen amateur with some years of experience of fixing faults by photo-editing. Pam told me a little about you. Pam, your email mentioned topics for today.....
Are any particularly important not to miss out?
Pamela: 13:28:29 with First thursday we are usually fairly felxible
Elaine Hickey: 13:28:57 Hi all, I'm Elaine . based in Dublin , Ireland. I try to assist Pam and John with some of their projects. Mostly at the moment I attend the 1st Thursday meetings and have an awareness of what's going on in Fantsuam and in the UK. Hi Ricardo - that sounds good. I'm also interested in photography, very much an amateur but am interested to see how we can share skills
Kelechi B.G. Micheals: 13:29:28 We're currently working hard to build up Ladi's skills so she can better manage and administer the KRC.
Maria Agnese Giraudo: 13:29:42 I'm a friend of pam and Ricardo, i work as librarian in Italy and I 'm nvolved in a farming project in Tanzania
Kelechi B.G. Micheals: 13:29:49 She is a young graduate with a lot of enthusiasm for learning, we are also looking at connecting with Librarians who can provide support in library management.
Maria Agnese Giraudo: 13:30:43 actually I need to refresh my skills since I have been working long time managing subscriptions and acquisitions
Ricardo: 13:31:19 That's great elaine. Being a bit of a rocket-scientist, i find i spend too little time out in the Norfolk countryisde taking photos, and too much time at the computer doing techy focus-fixing, horizon-levelling, contrast fixing, etc. I try to avoid the showy false-colour sky effects. I'm aiming to correct mistakes made when i took the shot, not make photos arty.
Ricardo: 13:31:55 I'm also keen to help Nigerians with photo education and a little business-type photography.
Pamela: 13:32:19 I am keen to help people to become self directed learners
Maria Agnese Giraudo: 13:32:38 I'm very interetsed in Vocational education and training .. online and in presence courses with training
Ricardo: 13:33:28 Maria, Pam and I were discussing on the phone, helping our friend Folabi to build up his 10-book school library in Nigeria. Maybe we can all discuss book-purchasing some time, by email or chat.
Pamela: 13:33:47 Yes - we need to help the Ago-Are people
John Dada: 13:34:01 Maria, your skills will be an asset for the Knowledledge Resource Centre which are developing into a learning hub: online and F2F
Ricardo: 13:34:02 Folabi teaches at an isolated rural school, with a small number of books.
Maria Agnese Giraudo: 13:34:07 are printed books, isn'it?
John Dada: 13:34:17 Some of R's photography training took place in the KRC
Pamela: 13:34:49 and we did the self directed learners course there too...it was wonderful to have a 'home space" there instead of under the mango tree at the fish farm
Ricardo: 13:35:24 Folabi now has internet access in his village, at school/home on his smartphone and wife/s computer. That means he can communicate more easily to get information and help from Fantsuam and UK friends.
John Dada: 13:35:28 Managing subscriptions and acquisitions will be an important skill for our KRC managers to learn as well as book-purchasing
Maria Agnese Giraudo: 13:36:43 Of course I'm available. What I would like to do is to find open access books, textbooks and journals
Elaine Hickey: 13:36:57 Yes. are the videos a new direction ? It would be interesting to create short videos and e-learning sessions which can be widely used and circulated
Ricardo: 13:37:18 Maria and elaine, i can email you copies of the 2 course notes that i wrote (with lots of pictures), so you can see what type of course the students are doing at the KRC. The notes are 95% photos of equipment/steps, and only 10% captions/explanation. I use the 'teaching a friend' style of course notes.
Kelechi B.G. Micheals: 13:37:27 yes indeed Elaine, Videos come in handy for learning.
Maria Agnese Giraudo: 13:37:32 have you used MIT courses?
(Ladi arrived and was welcomed)
Ricardo: 13:37:58 No, but i've seen some MIT courses on their website..
John Dada: 13:39:17 We haven't used MIT courses, how do they overlap with R's curricullum?
Elaine Hickey: 13:39:55 Do you have a wishlist of some sort in relation to what knowledge resources you would like to build up and also preferred formats ?
Ricardo: 13:40:32 I think MIT (Massachuset's Institute of Technology) make their university-level course material available to the whole world for free, because they are US government funded.
Elaine Hickey: 13:40:40 It would seem that many people attending the meeting today have a lot of experience and a wealth of knowledge. We need to find a way of collecting it in one space
Pamela: 13:40:48 I realise that people cannot see the conversation before they join it - so I will try to post the full archive up later for interested people to read.
Ricardo: 13:41:05 The material was quite complex and needs a lot of eduction and knowledge of english, i think. (The chat continued until around 14.15 -the full edited archive is at https://docs.google.com/document/edit?id=1BPngjRJbaZ6GdRQ2fu29Od0C-X5P4RnuuM2... )