If press reports are anything to go by then Kyambogo University will wait for a little longer before they get a Vice-Chancellor (VC) and a Deputy Vice-Chancellor (DVC). The press alleges that there has been a low response to the adverts. I know there could be several reasons for the low response but I also think that the criteria for choosing leaders in government universities have some weaknesses. The one I am interested in commenting about at this moment is the minimum requirements for one to qualify to express interest in being a VC or DVC vis-a-vis the functions of those offices.
I believe that the functions of a VC in a university are those of a CEO and therefore the search committees should be honest and openly embark on a search for a CEO. The basic requirements should be improved upon to reflect this. Currently, the first and foremost requirement is for one to be a University Professor of a certain advanced age. To me, besides being an inappropriate criterion, it unnecessarily narrows down the sample space - we have few Professors in that narrow age bracket. Besides, among the few Professors we have in this category, there are probably very few interested in such positions. This makes the sample space even much smaller! Furthermore, although the small sample space greatly reduces the competition among the applicants, it also has the undesirable effect of reducing the probability of landing on the much needed candidate with CEO capabilities. With all due respect, not just any Professor (in that age bracket) with ambitions can necessarily competently do a VC (CEO) job in this highly competitive and rapidly evolving information age / era.
Besides, the nature of students (and some employers) and their corresponding needs and 'language' have long changed from the 'old' pre-digital accent hence calling for extreme flexibility and quick adaptability of strategies.
I strongly believe that the public universities ought to rethink and start looking for CEOs instead of looking for professors - I do not care whether the CEO is a professor or not. I believe that there is nobody who can guarantee that just by being a Professor of a certain age, one already qualifies to get onto the shortlist for a university CEO (VC). Far from it as we know that to attain professorial title one must excel in research and training in his / her discipline. Very few humble ones pick a few corporate leadership skills along the way.
A university leader need not necessarily be (technically) smarter than the people they lead but should be smart enough to get all those very smart people under his/her leadership to work together as a productive team which is responsive to the clients' needs (students, the parents, the employers, etc) and market trends (local, regional and global).
I personally would settle with a competent CEO who is not necessarily a Professor. The public university search committees ought to reconsider their criteria and focus on organisational leadership abilities rather than prestigious titles earned from showcasing portfolios of largely non-managerial achievements in specialised disciplines. I am aware this piece will make me very unpopular in university corridors and I will probably be called names but that is my opinion - I am entitled to it. I apologize though for hurting some feelings, if any.
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Appreciative Inquiry (AI)
Uganda hosted the Commonwealth Heads of State and Governments Meeting (CHOGM) in November 2007. By Ugandan standards I think it was well organised. It of course swallowed some significant amounts of money from the government coffers. Based on what I gather from the press and some two personal testimonies, while some individuals smiled all the way to the bank, others came out of it very hurt. Some business deals worked, others unfortunately did not for various reasons.
I did not gain financially (at least not directly). Maybe I was not prepared well enough to grab the opportunity. Well, all was not lost. I participated in the 'free' People's Space - an open forum to every Tom, Dick and Harriet. That should tell you that I did not have a special invite for any of the several parallel sessions that run in the air conditioned facilities in town. I grabbed the opportunity presented to me by British Council to participate in one of its sessions where I was introduced to the concept of Appreciative Inquiry.
While the name was new to me, some of the ideas and principles shared were not new so there was something to learn after all. Of what value is knowledge gained if it is not put to practice and shared? Well, if I fail to put it to practice (which I doubt), I will not fail to share it. This is the reason for this post.
Watch this space for the developing story.
I did not gain financially (at least not directly). Maybe I was not prepared well enough to grab the opportunity. Well, all was not lost. I participated in the 'free' People's Space - an open forum to every Tom, Dick and Harriet. That should tell you that I did not have a special invite for any of the several parallel sessions that run in the air conditioned facilities in town. I grabbed the opportunity presented to me by British Council to participate in one of its sessions where I was introduced to the concept of Appreciative Inquiry.
While the name was new to me, some of the ideas and principles shared were not new so there was something to learn after all. Of what value is knowledge gained if it is not put to practice and shared? Well, if I fail to put it to practice (which I doubt), I will not fail to share it. This is the reason for this post.
Watch this space for the developing story.
Thursday, January 10, 2008
Etiquette for Online Outreach
Each one of you reading this blog and many others do online networking. It is important that we do it right in order to obtain optimal results. Liz Ryan provides some etiquette (netiquette) for online networking.
She states that, "Online networking is all the rage, as Internet tools make it easy for us to reach out to almost anyone who has a presence online. Lofty executives, potential clients, and future employers are within easy reach to anyone with a browser and an email account. But it won't do to rush off and start blasting off email messages to strangers -- that's a recipe for being ignored or added to an email blacklist."
Ms Ryan then goes ahead to provide five tips to get you going towards dramatically improving results of your online networking approach in her article, "The savvy networker".
She states that, "Online networking is all the rage, as Internet tools make it easy for us to reach out to almost anyone who has a presence online. Lofty executives, potential clients, and future employers are within easy reach to anyone with a browser and an email account. But it won't do to rush off and start blasting off email messages to strangers -- that's a recipe for being ignored or added to an email blacklist."
Ms Ryan then goes ahead to provide five tips to get you going towards dramatically improving results of your online networking approach in her article, "The savvy networker".
Sunday, January 6, 2008
Learning in the digital age: why and how should teachers listen to the digital natives?
As a teacher (or rather a learning process facilitator), I found the article by Marc Prensky (published in 2005), Listen to the natives, very interesting and also challenging. I attempt to give a short review of it here - I hope it encourages the readers of this blog to look for the article and also an earlier one by the same author entitled, Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants.
Prensky describes the current students as 'digital natives' who are quite different from the educators, the majority of whom he describes as 'digital immigrants'. The latter, unlike the former, were not born into the digital world. He states that the current educators have slid into the 21st century (digital age) carrying with them the 'digital immigrant' accent and doing things the old way. The old way of doing things is a language that the 'digital natives' do not quite understand!
Prensky argues therefore that, to be relevant to the students ('digital natives'), the educators of today ought to listen to the students. He proposed some things that should be considered by the educators / teachers.
1-The teachers should shift gears and incorporate students knowledge and information acquired outside class in their digital lives. The teachers should also establish, by asking students, how relevant / applicable / related the information / knowledge gained in class is to the students' (digital) lives. The shift in gears should also include encouraging students to form study groups.
2-Engagement and motivation being true prerequisites for learning (as judged by Prensky), teachers ought to engage students in the (students') 21st century way. Since digital / computer games play an important role in engaging the students, designing digital games for learning would engage students in the learning process.
3-Collaborating with students through involving them in decision-making on issues that affect the learning process goes a long way in providing educators / teachers with solutions or clues to solutions to many of the thorniest education problems. The students therefore ought to be involved in discussion about curriculum, teaching methods, school organisation, discipline and assignments.
4-There is need for some flexibility on the part of teachers for example avoidance of herding (involuntarily assigning students to classes or groups). Instead of herding, adoption and adaption of one-to-one personalised instruction and providing the opportunity for students to self-select during grouping are some of the proposed alternatives.
5-Incorporation and integration of digital tools in the teaching methods / learning process e.g. Cell phones. Cell phones have very many capabilities (with several emerging ones) that can be harnessed to make them appropriate learning tools. Some countries are already using Cell phones as learning tools e.g. UK, China, Japan, Philippines, etc.
6-Since programmability is a characteristic of the digital technology, the approaches and curricula for programming courses ought to be made available to all (students) to learn and use instead of teachers taking matters into their hands i.e. creating and conducting the teaching of programming courses at prescribed times. Besides, the teachers ought to consider involving students in teaching their peers and also involving outside volunteer experts.
7-A shift from "legacy" curricula towards "future" curricula to provide more room to cover subject matter such as nanotechnology, bioethics, genetic medicine, and neuroscience ought to be considered. Involvement of experts in these fields in preparation of content tailored to students' needs and delivered through 21st century tools is essential.
8-There are two halves of students' education institution: the formal 'school' half and the informal 'after school' half. While the former is becoming an increasingly moribund and irrelevant institution, the latter is technology-rich hence expectedly busier and ought to be integrated with life in school. It is sad to note that some of the technologies used by the students 'after school' are not known to many teachers and administrators!
9-Prensky recommends a student survey of technology use. To stress the significance of this, he states, "If we don't stop and listen to the kids we serve, value their opinions, and make major changes on the basis of the valid suggestions they offer, we will be left in the 21st century with school buildings to administer - but with students who are physically or mentally somewhere else."
Prensky, a US-based teacher, shared these thoughts in 2005. I, a Uganda-based teacher, reviewed the article in 2008. I do not know when you are reading it and from where but what I know is that Prensky wrote it based on his US experience. What remains for me and you is to find out whether and how the above thoughts apply / may apply in our environment. Just like I will do, please share your thoughts with us.
Find Prensky's article here.
Prensky describes the current students as 'digital natives' who are quite different from the educators, the majority of whom he describes as 'digital immigrants'. The latter, unlike the former, were not born into the digital world. He states that the current educators have slid into the 21st century (digital age) carrying with them the 'digital immigrant' accent and doing things the old way. The old way of doing things is a language that the 'digital natives' do not quite understand!
Prensky argues therefore that, to be relevant to the students ('digital natives'), the educators of today ought to listen to the students. He proposed some things that should be considered by the educators / teachers.
1-The teachers should shift gears and incorporate students knowledge and information acquired outside class in their digital lives. The teachers should also establish, by asking students, how relevant / applicable / related the information / knowledge gained in class is to the students' (digital) lives. The shift in gears should also include encouraging students to form study groups.
2-Engagement and motivation being true prerequisites for learning (as judged by Prensky), teachers ought to engage students in the (students') 21st century way. Since digital / computer games play an important role in engaging the students, designing digital games for learning would engage students in the learning process.
3-Collaborating with students through involving them in decision-making on issues that affect the learning process goes a long way in providing educators / teachers with solutions or clues to solutions to many of the thorniest education problems. The students therefore ought to be involved in discussion about curriculum, teaching methods, school organisation, discipline and assignments.
4-There is need for some flexibility on the part of teachers for example avoidance of herding (involuntarily assigning students to classes or groups). Instead of herding, adoption and adaption of one-to-one personalised instruction and providing the opportunity for students to self-select during grouping are some of the proposed alternatives.
5-Incorporation and integration of digital tools in the teaching methods / learning process e.g. Cell phones. Cell phones have very many capabilities (with several emerging ones) that can be harnessed to make them appropriate learning tools. Some countries are already using Cell phones as learning tools e.g. UK, China, Japan, Philippines, etc.
6-Since programmability is a characteristic of the digital technology, the approaches and curricula for programming courses ought to be made available to all (students) to learn and use instead of teachers taking matters into their hands i.e. creating and conducting the teaching of programming courses at prescribed times. Besides, the teachers ought to consider involving students in teaching their peers and also involving outside volunteer experts.
7-A shift from "legacy" curricula towards "future" curricula to provide more room to cover subject matter such as nanotechnology, bioethics, genetic medicine, and neuroscience ought to be considered. Involvement of experts in these fields in preparation of content tailored to students' needs and delivered through 21st century tools is essential.
8-There are two halves of students' education institution: the formal 'school' half and the informal 'after school' half. While the former is becoming an increasingly moribund and irrelevant institution, the latter is technology-rich hence expectedly busier and ought to be integrated with life in school. It is sad to note that some of the technologies used by the students 'after school' are not known to many teachers and administrators!
9-Prensky recommends a student survey of technology use. To stress the significance of this, he states, "If we don't stop and listen to the kids we serve, value their opinions, and make major changes on the basis of the valid suggestions they offer, we will be left in the 21st century with school buildings to administer - but with students who are physically or mentally somewhere else."
Prensky, a US-based teacher, shared these thoughts in 2005. I, a Uganda-based teacher, reviewed the article in 2008. I do not know when you are reading it and from where but what I know is that Prensky wrote it based on his US experience. What remains for me and you is to find out whether and how the above thoughts apply / may apply in our environment. Just like I will do, please share your thoughts with us.
Find Prensky's article here.
Tuesday, January 1, 2008
Welcome 2008
It is here, I believe with its unique challenges. I trust that God will help you and I through it successfully and with greater achievements than those of 2007.
I am personally happy with the lessons I learned and the achievements made in 2007. I am prepared to experience bigger achievements in 2008 in the areas of Family, Finances, Firm (career development), Friends, Fun, Faith and Fitness - the so-called 7Fs. I purpose to pursue the short and long term 'SMART' goals in my plans for each of these areas in my life.
Get inspired to do the same so that at the end of 2008 you may look back and see how much mileage you have covered with reference to your vision.
Happy New Year 2008.
I am personally happy with the lessons I learned and the achievements made in 2007. I am prepared to experience bigger achievements in 2008 in the areas of Family, Finances, Firm (career development), Friends, Fun, Faith and Fitness - the so-called 7Fs. I purpose to pursue the short and long term 'SMART' goals in my plans for each of these areas in my life.
Get inspired to do the same so that at the end of 2008 you may look back and see how much mileage you have covered with reference to your vision.
Happy New Year 2008.
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