I often read BBC Caribbean, and a few days ago I saw that they had a Have Your Say about the
role the diaspora can play in helping countries back home. I made a brief comment, saying, "It would be exciting to see distance learning initiatives that match those in the diaspora who have become well educated with students back home." I make brief comments online in various places all the time and don't really think much about them after that. No big deal.
So the next day, my phone rungs, and Caller ID helpfully informs me that it's from an "
Unknown ID". Must be some bill collector, I think, and proceed to ignore it. But then I think, hmm, I don't actually owe anyone for a change, so it can't be a bill collector. Maybe an international call? I think I'll answer!
I picked up at the last second, and suddenly I'm speaking with Debbie Ransome (pictured) from BBC Caribbean. She wants to speak about my thoughts on the role of the Caribbean diaspora for a piece she's doing for their Caribbean Magazine radio program. Now, this was a fascinating thing to be as I'm not exactly part of the Caribbean diaspora, being American and all that, but it's not like I was going to say no, right?
So it aired yesterday. Here's an
mp3 of an edited recording of my segment. It's a good thing that she used the bit about education and not the follow up questions she asked me about financial and electoral matters, as I think on education I sound reasonably coherent.
Labels: international education, media
I finally had the chance to speak live (albeit only by phone) with
Dr. Johannes Cronje, the fine gentleman I've been referring to as a prospective doctoral supervisor at the University of Pretoria. After that great, positive conversation, I'm willing to commit: I'll be doing my PhD through the University of Pretoria.
My reasons include:
- I like my supervisor, and think we'll get on well. He's interested in my topic, open educational resources, and we seem to share a dismissive attitude toward bureaucracy. Critically, he also has a great deal of experience supervising doctoral students, including externally. (I have the feeling he's fun at parties, too.)
- It's not on the North American model, so I don't need to do any coursework, other than to gain specific knowlege. I may take a course in Statistics to bone up on quantitative research methods, but I can do that for free at Marymount and that's fine with Johannes.
- I can write a series of articles rather than a monograph. This interests me because I'm interested in several different aspects relating to OERs, so once I have a lit review done I'll want to go in a few directions, but doing so at article length rather than a monolithic monograph is better suited for my temperament. This is also good in that by the time I'm done I'll have at least five publishable scholarly articles.
- Pretoria's on the list of the top 500 universities in the world as ranked by Shanghai Jiao Tong University. It was in the 401-500 list, which it shares with such institutions as Boston College, Drexel University, and the College of William and Mary.
- It's a South African institution, which means it has the developing world perspective I want, but without the lack of resources that usually accompanies it. And since South Africa's a Commonwealth country, a degree from Pretoria ought to be locally well received when Adella and I eventually return to the West Indies.
- The cost is one tenth what an American school would be. That's not to say that's how one should choose one's alma mater, but saying that saving a truckload of money didn't interest me wouldn't pass anyone's straight face test.
- I won't have to go to South Africa to do this. However, I'll want to visit, should circumstances permit, say for defenses, even if they could be done by videoconferencing. And there's graduation. I haven't gone to one yet, but for the PhD, that seems worth it.
So that's where I am. I'll apply for provisional acceptance now, and start doing my literature review while finishing my courses at GW, then hopefully in January I'll be registered there. Go Tukkies!
Labels: grad school, international education
One of the problems with doing a research-based program mostly by email correspondence is that one is limited by the other person's rate of response. For example, I sent my prospective doctoral advisor an email regarding the possibility of meeting him when he comes to Atlanta next month, but have not heard back after almost a week.
I suppose emails get lost, and people are busy and respond when they can. And I realize I'm only a prospective student. But I'm reminded of a friend's experience trying to do a PhD through South Africa's University of the Witwatersrand, in which after almost a year of correspondence, suddenly there was nothing but silence from his advisor. I suppose this is a somewhat scary way of doing it.
At least in the meantime I've found even more to like about the University of Pretoria. It turns out that one of the two well known global rankings of universities, the one from the Institute of Higher Education at
Shanghai Jiao Tong University, lists it among those that are 401-500 on the list. It being considered among the top 500 universities in the world is not too shabby. There are only three others in South Africa that made the top 500: Witwatersrand, Cape Town, and KwaZulu-Natal.
Anyway, back to waiting. I remind myself that it's not like Johannes owes me a quick reply or that when I sent was particularly time sensitive. I suppose it's just that I'm just excited to move forward.
Labels: grad school, international education
Charles Evans and I presented our paper on the use of open content in curriculum with implications for the developing world at
Pan-Commonwealth Forum 4 in Ocho Rios, Jamaica from October 30 to November 2. It was really neat to meet so many people who knew what we were talking about, and who had similar interests. No one believed that a trip to Jamaica could possibly not be a vacation, but since the only time I was on the beach I was wearing a tie I think I can safely declare that it wasn't. Of course, the resort where the conference was held was all inclusive, meaning five days of open bar goodness, but what was I supposed to do? Not take advantage of it?
Labels: international education, oer, vacation
