TAD Consortium September 1999 Information Update 2
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CONTENTS
NEWS
--- High tech workers being sought outside of U.S
--- Launch of Botswana's national television station
delayed
--- Internet Will Survive Y2K Onslaught Experts Say.
--- Singapore to Relax Censorship Laws as it Seeks to
Expand Internet Access
--- Distance Education Takes Off Next Year - Ghana
--- C-DOT makes Indian satcom system
ANNOUNCEMENTS/REQUESTS
--- ARTSLINK.CO.ZA
PROFILED ORGANIZATIONS
--- Wits FDE in Development, Management and Administration
ONLINE RESOURCES
--- Focus on Action Learning
--- Internet Use By Teachers
--- Streaming Media lists
--- Report on Virtual Education Around the World
--- Human Development Report 1999
ARTICLES
--- Two of Three Professors "Stressed" by
Computer Technologies
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NEWS
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High tech workers being sought outside of U.S. By Michiyo Yamada WASHINGTON,
Aug 25 (Reuters) - For thousands of American high-tech firms, their billion
dollar businesses depend on their ability to find foreign workers who can
navigate complex computer languages like "Java" or "C." According to the
Information Technology Association of America, about 346,000 information
technology-related jobs were vacant in 1998, and labor-deprived high-tech
firms have begun exploring beyond American shores, seeking offshore
operations or importing skilled foreigners to work in the United States.
"We've been forced to go outside the U.S. to hire people," said Richard
McGinn, Chairman and CEO of Lucent Technologies, the New Jersey-based
communications equipment giant. "Many of those jobs are outside ... We're
now employing nearly 3,500 engineers in U.K., in Germany, in China, Japan,
Taiwan, Korea ... not for the market access, but because we can't find
people here." In an attempt to attract the foreign-trained "cream of the
crop" to American high-tech industry, Congress enacted a law last year to
increase the number of temporary work visas to 115,000 a year from the
previously approved 65,000. This year, Sen. Phil Gramm (R-Texas) has been
pushing legislation calling for more foreign workers to keep the U.S.
economy rolling. But more relief is needed to meet an unrelenting labor
demand that has been created by the red-hot economy over more than eight
years. According to Department of Labor estimates, America needs more than a
million new information technology (IT) workers through 2005 -- far more
than foreign temporary workers can provide. The temporary work visa, called
H1-B, is a category for non-immigrant foreign workers to work in a
specialized field in the United States for up to six years. Experts estimate
almost half of those visa holders are working in the IT industry as
engineers, computer programmers or medical professionals with higher
academic degrees from their homes abroad. "I think it makes perfectly good
economic sense to try to increase the number of skilled foreign workers in
the U.S," Princeton University Professor Alan Krueger, a former chief
economist for the U.S. Department of Labor, said. "But the H1-B visa is a
very imperfect approach because it gives employers far more bargaining power
than they have in the ordinary employment situation." Krueger said giving
out permanent residency visas, known as green cards, rather than the
temporary H1-B visas with restrictions on where holders can work, "would be
a plus to the American economy" in the long term, but the idea to issue more
green cards would likely to face political opposition. For people like
Duncan Moore, associate technology director for the President's Office of
Science and Technology Policy, the better and long-term solution is to
figure out how to increase the number of high-tech workers in the United
States. Moore quoted the results of the Third International Mathematics and
Science Study that showed the poor academic performance of American students
by the time they finish high school. He said students in the United States,
including those most advanced, are ranked among the lowest internationally.
"... Until we get good qualifying people into teaching, these scores are not
going to go up," Moore said. Moore said one of the main reasons for
America's dependency on high-tech foreign workers stems from the nation's
inability to attract qualified science and math teachers into classrooms.
"If you are graduating with your first degree in science, say in chemistry,
you've got all kinds of industry opportunities," he said. "But (teaching)
salaries are terrible. So why would young people do this?" Although some
school districts now lure prospective teachers with bonuses or reimbursement
for their costly graduate school tuition, new teachers, regardless of their
teaching subject, earn only about $25,012 annually, according to the latest
tabulation by the National Association of Colleges and Employers. New
software developers earn twice as much and new hardware developers receive
60 percent more than what beginning teachers typically earn. Teachers in the
United States do not enjoy the same recognition as in Germany or in Japan,
where their professional status is highly respected and where, once
selected, they are almost guaranteed their tenure and paid handsomely. So
experts say raising teachers' salaries and improving the profession's image
are the keys to recruiting and retaining teachers who can produce an
internationally competitive workforce by teaching children everything from
calculus to physics. "When we talk specifically about science and math
teachers, the pay will have a greater impact because in comparable fields
there is a much greater difference," said Segun Eubanks, a recruitment and
retention specialist for the National Education Association, the largest
labor union for American teachers. "It becomes a major factor in
discouraging talented folks in math and science to pursue careers in
teaching." According to a recent national survey by Recruiting New Teachers
Inc., a Massachusetts-based non-profit group, 56 percent of people surveyed
indicated they would consider becoming a teacher if guaranteed a $60,000
annual salary. Also, nearly 80 percent said teachers' salaries should be
raised over the next 10 years as a way to get more qualified teachers into
the schools. "To me, this is an economic development issue," Moore said.
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The Botswana Gazette - August 25, 1999 The launch of Botswana's national
television station has been delayed until next year - however, Botswana's
first independent commercial radio station Yarona 106,6fm went live on the
air on Sunday - three weeks early.
http://www.info.bw/~gazette/head_stry6.htm
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INTERNET WILL SURVIVE Y2K ONSLAUGHT EXPERTS SAY.
Johannesburg, 17 August 1999 - (SAPA) Some Web sites might be unavailable
and some consumers might be unable to send e-mail because of the year 2000
problem, but the global network itself will largely be unaffected, some of
the Internet's top experts predict.
The architecture of the Internet - a collection of interconnected but
independent computer networks - means its data traffic will be able to
bypass any few local Y2K failures, such as those caused by power outages.
"We're not likely to see major global outages at all," said Vint Cerf, an
executive at MCI WorldCom who co-invented the common "TCP/IP" language of
the Internet.
But the decentralized nature of the Internet also makes it nearly impossible
to predict exactly how the January date rollover will affect it. The Web and
its kin technologies rely on computers and software owned by people and
companies worldwide mostly without any supervision.
***Back to Contents***SINGAPORE TO RELAX CENSORSHIP LAWS AS IT SEEKS TO EXPAND INTERNET ACCESS
Issue: International/Censorship Singapore says the Internet is forcing it to
relax some of its strict censorship laws. In the past, it was easy for
Singapore to keep out books, movies and magazines by simply banning their
distribution. The government still prohibits home satellite dishes, has
forbidden key opposition politicians from delivering outdoor speeches and
can take the licenses of publishers deemed too controversial. But with 20%
of Singaporeans connected to the Web, forbidden items are just a mouse click
away. The government blocks more than 100 pornographic sites, yet
acknowledges that citizens can easily look at thousands of other porn sites.
But Singapore's citizens are still fearful. A bureaucrat told an local
Internet service provider to scan 80,000 e-mail accounts of university
researchers for pornographic material and in April, Singapore's
internal-security agency secretly scanned 200,000 private computers. Many
users saw these happenings as a demonstration of the government's technical
capability to pry. "Singapore Internet users are always fighting the
censorship in your own mind, the perceived fear ... that someone will come
knocking on your door," says Harish Pillay, who heads Singapore's Internet
Society. The government also hasn't softened its rules for local Internet
content providers, which can be sued under Singapore's laws -- but when it
comes to the business community, the government has been willing to back
down. Under a law enacted last year to help attract foreign investment,
Internet service providers are no longer liable if their customers use their
services to visit forbidden sites. The government plans to look at lifting
of a 1997 ban on political campaigning on Singapore Web sites and
strengthening privacy protections for Internet users. [SOURCE: Wall Street
Journal (A18), AUTHOR: Michelle Levander]
http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB936129677738516588.htm(c)Benton Foundation, 1999. Redistribution of this email publication -- both
internally and externally -- is encouraged if it includes this message.
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Distance Education Takes Off Next Year - Ghana (Taken from the Media Beat
No. 19, edited by Warren Feek)
Daily Graphic - August 19, 1999 - By Adwoa Van-Ess Distance Education
Programme at the University of Ghana, Legon, will take off early next year.
Currently, a master plan is being worked out on the implementation of the
programme to create a national and community-based system.
http://www.graphic.com.gh/dgraphic/news/dis19.html
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C-DOT makes Indian satcom system
Manoj Gairola
NEW DELHI 24 AUGUST
Centre for Development of Telematics (C-DOT), a premier telecom research
organisation, has developed India's first satellite communications system.
The technology developed by C-DOT, called Insat-MSS, uses transponders in
the Insat series of satellites and is ideally suited for providing telephone
connections in those areas where it is not cost effective to lay the
conventional cable-based network.
C-DOT executive director KN Gupta told The Economic Times that the
technology was developed in association with Comsat, a US-based satellite
communications company. The system is currently working in two districts in
Karnataka - Chorla and Shantidam. "We are satisfied with the performance of
the system. The Insat-MSS has become very popular because it is the only
telecom system in the region," said Mr Gupta. The Insat-MSS system is also
being installed in Karwar district in Karnataka. The Department of
Telecommunications (DoT) is also said to be satisfied with the performance
of the system. According to sources, DoT is planning to induct 1,000
satellite phones in its network. These phones will be installed in the rural
areas as village public telephones (VPTs).
According to an estimate, DoT will have to pay more than Rs 15 crore per
annum in foreign exchange if the contract is awarded to a foreign company.
This figure will further go up if charges paid for incoming traffic are also
taken into account. On the other hand, if the Insat-MSS terminals, with a
2.4 metre antenna are used as VPTs, then this amount can be saved and there
is no outflow of foreign exchange.Currently, the cost of Insat-MSS terminals
is higher than that of other comparable systems like Inmarsat. However, this
is because of the low volumes. "Once we decide to induct 1,000 Insat-MSS
terminals for VPT applications, the cost will come down and will match any
comparable system in the world," said Mr Gupta. C-DOT had initiated this
project primarily to develop a mobile satellite system using Insat 2C
transponder. The system was developed and installed on schedule in
Bangalore, in November '97, said Mr Gupta. Subsequently, field tests were
conducted by C-DOT, TEC, and other DoT agencies.
However, at the time of on-site testing by the DoT, it was observed that the
Insat 2C transponders were not working properly, and that there were a lot
of level variations in the transponder. C-DOT had to thus rework on the
system and it was later developed for the fixed telephony operations.
http://www.economictimes.com/250899/25tech02.htm
***Back to Contents***ANNOUNCEMENTS/REQUESTS
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If you are an artist, performer, entertainer, technician, director, writer,
photographer or in any way involved in the arts and culture industry, you
are entitled to a free listing on the national Artzone database at
- Simply send your, or your agent's, contactdetails to the webmaster at artslink@icon.co.za and if you wish to receive
the arts news of your choice on your personal e-mail, fill in the form on
and join the growing database of Acemailers(Arts, Culture and Entertainment e-mail).More information can be found at
http://www.artslink.co.za/coform.htm
***Back to Contents***PROFILED ORGANIZATIONS
(This component of the TAD Consortium Newsletter kindly sponsored by Times Media Limited - www.tml.co.za)
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Wits FDE in Development, Management and Administration
The Further Diploma in Education (FDE): Development, Management and
Administration was launched in 1994 by the Faculty of Education and the
Graduate School of Public and Development Management (P&DM) at the
University of the Witwatersrand (Wits), in co-operation with the Management
of Schools Training Programme (MSTP), a non-government organisation
dedicated to school management and leadership training.
The programme is aimed at school managers (principals, deputy principals,
heads of departments and senior teachers) who have a minimum academic
qualification of matriculation plus three years' college or university
training. In addition to the minimum qualification requirement, the
selection of programme participants is based on the commitment of the
applicants to school-based educational and management development.
The purpose of the programme is to equip educational leaders and managers
with the conceptual understanding and practical skills required to meet the
challenges of a changing environment in post-apartheid South Africa.
The programme offers a Further Diploma in Education, accredited after two
years of coursework and skills training. It is a part-time course, and
includes both contact-based and distance learning. The programme consists of
five course equivalents (two full courses and six half-courses) and twelve
skills workshops. The courses are run by the Wits Education Department and
P&DM, while the skills workshops are delivered by MSTP.
The programme has adopted an approach that is problem/issue-based, and
attempts to merge theory and practical experience. Its style of delivery is
based on experiential and interactive learning processes with an emphasis on
case studies and group work. The delivery mode of the programme is
essentially distance learning, but this is supported by a mixture of formal
lectures, workshops and practical skills training. The distance learning
materials are provided to learners for private study, while the courses and
workshops are presented at contact sessions either at the University or at
other locations identified by the programme organisers.
The programme targets students from Gauteng and adjacent provinces. Although
47 students registered in the first year, the average number of students
registered for the course over the past five years has been approximately 100.
The programme has adopted both formative and summative forms of assessment.
The Education Department at Wits requires students to undertake an
examination in one course, while neither the P&DM nor the MSTP have an
examination component. The programme has adopted two dominant modes of
formative assessment to evaluate the competence of their students, namely:
--- practical work projects; and
--- assignments (both brief and extensive).
The results of these assessments are used to determine whether students
have "passed or failed" the course. In addition to the above modes of
assessment, MSTP utilises the following assessment methods, through which
learners become more active participants in the programme:
--- group work undertaken by a "cluster" of schools;
--- rating of candidates' attendance and participation in seminars and
workshops; and
--- visits to schools to assess the management competence of students.
The learner support system provided by the programme has changed over the
years. In the initial stages of the programme, MSTP had organised for School
Change Facilitators to support the students, primarily at site level.
However, owing to the high costs involved, this aspect of student support
had to be phased out. Currently, the primary forms of learner support are
those provided at contact sessions by peers, tutors and lecturers. In
addition, the facilitation of cluster meetings and the so-called "buddy
system" have provided very important forms of student support.
The FDE course has not been offered to first-year students this year, owing
to a range of problems which among others relate to finance, administration
and management. All three people interviewed diagnosed the key problem to be
the absence of a champion to drive the Programme.
***Back to Contents***ONLINE RESOURCES
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Taken from The TrainingZone LearningWire - Issue 63
Focus on Action Learning (compiled by Tim Pickles)
---
As a method of developing staff and promoting self-directed learning, action
learning seems to be remarkably under-utilised. I've worked with several
large organisations who certainly have the capacity to develop this
approach, but who remain remarkably reliant upon traditional models of
instructor-led training. All too often I hear excuses about how people would
not commit themselves to this sort of programme; they can't be trusted to
take responsibility for their own learning; we can't spare such regular time.
I suggest this is all bunkum. There's plenty of evidence that action
learning approaches are cost and time effective, provide a positive learning
environment, are welcomed by those who take part, and contribute
significantly to good team-working and networking outcomes.
If you're new to action learning, there's a really practical book, 'Action
Learning for Managers' by Mike Pedler (publishers: Lemos and Crane) on the
subject which is more than enough to get you going.
This week, we've come across some excellent web-based resources promoting
action learning approaches. The Global Anthological Journal of Action
Learning is excellent. Don't be put off by the tongue-twisting name. The
site provides a wealth of information about action learning which should be
sufficient to convince any sceptic. One part of the site is devoted to more
than a dozen case studies of action learning in practice, mostly within
larger companies. Some of these make for excellent reading. Several articles
from the Journal are also available online. For those with an interest in
exploring the field further, Alan Mumford has contributed a Review of Action
Learning Literature.
http://www.free-press.com/journals/gajal/There are plans to set up an Action Learning Institute which will be
web-based and deal with issues such as accreditation and professional
development. The Institute may launch in the first half of next year.
Meanwhile, we shall republish the regular newsletters associated with the
Journal on TrainingZone in order that readers can scan what's happening
every month. The August issue is at
http://www.trainingzone.co.uk/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=5821&d=1
Action Learning International is another great site offering plenty of
information, links, resources and discussion for people new to, or actively
engaged in action learning. I was particularly impressed with the section on
Action Learning Resources where the first substantive page provides users
with a comprehensive guide to action learning - what the method is, what the
benefits are, and how to get the whole process going. This section is
definitely worth checking out. The main site is at
http://www.mcb.co.uk/imc/al-inter/----------------------------------------
How much access do teachers actually have to the Internet? To what extent do
teachers value having the Internet in their own classrooms? In what ways do
teachers and students use the Internet most?
The answers to these and other questions about the use and value of the
Internet in education can be found in a new report, "Internet Use by
Teachers: Conditions of Professional Use and Teacher-Directed Student Use."
In this 1998 national survey from the Center for Research on Information
Technology and Organizations at The University of California-Irvine, author
Henry Jay Becker finds that among the 39 percent of teachers who have
Internet access in their own classrooms, searching the Web for information
is the third most common use of computers by students, after word processing
and use of CD-ROMS. Using the Internet for e-mail trailed somewhat behind:
Only 16 percent of teachers communicated by e-mail with teachers from other
schools as often as five times during the school year.
For the complete report on these and other findings, see
http://www.crito.uci.edu/TLC/findings/Internet-Use/startpage.htm
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If you have interest in streaming media, you might also want to join the
following lists:
http://www.streamseek.com/About 300 members, mostly hobbyists, who help each other out on subjects
ranging from MP3 creation to shoutcasting to flash to RealServer to Windows
Media. Very friendly, informal list. This is also a good place to promote
your own content, find collaborators, etc. Not as politically oriented as
freespeech.org, but very helpful and fun all the same. Run by Alex Massie,
Joe Nickell (of ROX) and Joey Manley (former Director of freespeech.org).
10-20 messages a day.
The Webcasting List
http://www.intervox.comAbout 10,000 members, including big names like Rob Glaser of RealNetworks,
Mark Cuban of broadcast.com, etc. Very formal, tightly-controlled list.
Mostly press releases (but interesting ones--I found out about the
Yahoo/broadcast.com deal a day in advance because of an accident). Good
place to monitor big corporate interests and their plans for the 'net (all
the people from disney, etc are here). 20-50 messages a day.
FROM
"Joey Manley" jmanley@mediabay.com
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REPORT ON VIRTUAL EDUCATION AROUND THE WORLD
"The Development of Virtual Education: A Global Perspective," by Dr. Glen
Farrell, is a study of current trends in the virtual delivery of education.
It was conducted with funding provided by the Commonwealth of Education and
the Department for International Development, London, UK. The report
provides a detailed look at the differences in the development of virtual
education around the world and concludes with a number of suggestions for
policy makers and education leaders regarding the construction of models for
virtual learning.
The complete report (170 pp.) is available on the Web at
http://www.col.org/virtualed/index.htm
The chapters are in PDF format and require the free Adobe Acrobat Reader for
viewing (available at
http://www.adobe.com/supportservice/custsupport/download.html).The Commonwealth of Learning (COL) is an international organization created
by Commonwealth Heads of Government to encourage the development and sharing
of open learning/distance education resources and technologies. For more
information about COL see
http://www.col.org/----------------------------------------
HUMAN DEVELOPMENT REPORT 1999
http://www.undp.org/hdro/E3.html
***Back to Contents***ARTICLES
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[From NewsScan e-newsletter]
TWO OF THREE PROFESSORS "STRESSED" BY COMPUTER TECHNOLOGIES
Results from a mailed survey of 34,000 faculty members at 378 institutions
of higher learning indicate that 67% of the survey respondents feel regular
stress keeping up with information technology. Only 35% use the Internet to
conduct research and 38% use information technology to create classroom
presentations. One professor says, "I just don't have the time. I don't have
time to use everything they come up with." Faculty stress contrasts sharply
with student nonchalance. Noting that 80% of freshmen at UCLA arrived last
year with their own computers, a spokesman from that university says, "We
are seeing a generation that has practically grown up with computers as a
part of everyday life." (AP/San Jose Mercury News 29 Aug 99)
http://www.sjmercury.com/svtech/news/breaking/merc/docs/042906.htm
***Back to Contents***Telematics for African Development Consortium
P.O. Box 31822
Braamfontein
2017
Johannesburg
South Africa
Tel: +27 +11 403-2813
Fax: +27 +11 403-2814
neilshel@icon.co.za
www.saide.org.za
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