Renewed mandate, greater expectations

The first two years ended and on the 10th day of December 2010 the membership of the Uganda Veterinary Association renewed their trust in me and my colleagues to continue to guide and supervise the running of the activities of the association on their behalf.

I feel greatly humbled by this trust. I know that the members expect more out of us than we offered over the past two years and with God's guidance, wisdom and empowerment coupled with members' support the association should be able to advance significantly.

BIRTHDAY PRESENT

I am told it happened several years ago on the 4th day of December. I now know it as my birthday. A friend found it appropriate to bless me with a Chelsea FC shirt branded O'CECH (a creative attempt to merge my family name, Okech, with that of Petr Cech, one of my favourite players in the Chelsea FC team to create an unofficial 'new' version of my family name).

All I can say is thank you Corsa and God bless you.

eLearning Africa 2011

A statement on eLearning Africa website reads, "eLearning Africa 2011 will focus on youth but it will also highlight the importance of skills, skill development and employability."

It comes as no surprise considering the human population demographics in Africa - over 40 per cent of Africa’s population is younger than 24 years old (the so-called 'digital natives'). Although I am a 'digital immigrant', I do speak the language of the 'digital natives' and I will be in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania come 25th May 2011. More so because I am a learning process facilitator who is passionate in making a contribution in skills development of the young (using, as much as possible, the language they understand - digital). In such meetings such as eLearning Africa 2011, I will enhance my knowledge and capacity to speak the digital language besides sharing my experiences. Please be encouraged to be part of it. For further detailed information, abstract submission and registration please visit the eLearning Africa website (http://www.elearning-africa.com/).

eLearning Africa meetings are not new to me: I participated in 2007 (Nairobi, Kenya) and 2008 (Accra, Ghana) but sadly missed the 2009 and 2010 meetings. I will be in Dar es Salaam in May 2011.

I attribute the birth of this blog, to a great extent, to the eLearning Africa 2007 meeting.

The genius of a campaign team

By closure of the Presidential nominations today, the Uganda Electoral Commission had registered eight Presidential candidates (7 male, 1 female). Each one of them entered the scene in a unique way. Most interesting to me was the incumbent, President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, whose campaign team seems to have already demonstrated their understanding of the electorate demographics and putting it to good use.

The demographics of the electorate in Uganda shows that the numbers are tilted towards the youth no wonder General Y.K. Museveni, on the eve of his nomination, honoured their invitation to an evening of fun not only by his presence but also by doing the unprecedented. He sang a RAP song to the delight of the youth. Talk about ‘touching base’ with the audience (read electorate).

We await to see what the other campaign teams will offer (in form of strategy) in this 2011 Uganda Presidential elections but for now Kudos to M7 and his campaign team. The youth would say, big ups. Follow these links to the audio and video versions of the song.

Biosecurity on the farm: some basics for the farmer

Thanks to The New Vision Newspaper in Uganda for their innovation that greatly supports farmers with useful information for wealth creation through agriculture. They call the weekly pullout 'Harvest Money'. They published one of my humble contributions on farm biosecurity in their second issue on 16 August 2010. Find it here.

I look forward to writing more and much more often.

WORLD CUP 2010

Today is the final day of FIFA World Cup 2010, the very first one hosted by Africa. It is unfortunate that there is no African team in the final. Ghana came close - were only denied progression (to the semis and possibly final) by the wicked act of a one Luis Suarez. So much was the pressure on the Uruguay team that it was not surprising to find a striker clearing the goal line - great evidence of defeat Uruguay suffered in that game.

That ball went off John Mensah's head with a sure destination - the back of the net - only to be stopped by a deliberate wicked act of a 'professional' player. Fairness ruled as Uruguay did not go beyond semi finals; they did not get any medal either. 'What goes around comes around' they say. How else could one explain the fact that Ghana missed its last chance by a strike (by their best striker) hitting the cross-bar and Uruguay's last shot (by their best striker) that would probably have taken them to extra time and possibly penalties hit the cross-bar? I don't remember seeing the German defender celebrate thereafter but I saw Suarez celebrate Ghana's miss.

This reminds me of another deliberate act of 'theft' that Mr. Thierry Henry committed to bring France to South Africa. France did not last in the tournament. They actually crumbled before they got to the pitch if what we heard about the troubles in the camp was true. I guess at some point Thierry must have regretted why he 'brought' his countrymen to South Africa. Moreso because he himself did not see much of playing time while in South Africa - no reward. Maybe he did not deserve any anyway. I hope that while they were there they used the one day off to identify some property in South Africa to invest in otherwise their trip to South Africa will be characterised as being in vain.

Back to the final. Some creatures have taken on new short-lived assignments. I am told an octopus has got itself popular by confirming some people's wishes ahead of the games. By some good coincidences, it has been getting the predictions right. I am not convinced that it actually knows what it is doing. Somebody needs to tell me the relationship between the human beings around this octopus and the betting industry. I do not care what the octopus predicts, I am looking forward to a beautiful game and you guessed it right, Netherlands will win it.

My only advice to the Dutch players is that they should not be intimidated by some creature. Instead they should play the game with the aim of winning despite the octopus' prediction. What does it think it is anyway. Go Netherlands go.

Educational Technology

Technology has totally changed the methods of teaching and learning. The innovations and the corresponding opportunities they present are simply too many. Just today alone I experienced not less than two technologies I had not actively interacted with. First it was Elsevier's, I believe, most recent solution, pageburst, and then the not-so-recent Adobe Acrobat Connect Pro.

I attended a demo on the pageburst earlier in the day and then wound the day with attending a lecture at the same time with people located several miles away from me and each other, viewing the same presentation slides and listening to the same voice at the same time. The experience was great.

It is important to note that in between these two experiences, I also was exposed to a novel application of technology to 'tell' human beings what an animal is doing at a particular time without eye witness. This is besides the various curricula innovations and developments I got to learn of.

Technology is great. It also made it possible for me to witness in real time the loss Chelsea FC, the club I support, suffered in the UEFA Champions League.

Technology also makes it possible for me to document these events here and make it accessible to anybody in this world. Great. Isn't it?

More later. Watch this space as this post grows.