DISTANCE EDUCATION: A NEW PRIORITY

The Horizon Report ( New Media Consortium www.nmc.org 2007), identified the most recent trends in Open Distance E-Learning (ODeL) via various scientific data analysis and listed the following fact as their very first outcome: " The environment of higher education is changing rapidly. Costs are rising, budgets are shrinking, and the demand for new services is growing. Student enrollments are declining. There is an increasing need for distance education (own italics), with pressure coming not only from nontraditional students seeking flexible options, but from administrative directives to cut costs. The"shape" of the average student is changing too; more students are working and commuting than ever before, and the residential , full-time student student is not necesasarily the model for today's typical student. Higher education faces competition from the for-profit educational sector and an increasing demand by students for instant access and interactive experiences."

A digital divide exists between the young and upcoming generations who grew up with video games versus traditional textbook orientated academe. Young peoples' ideas about technology differs from traditional computer illiterate academe. Although lecturers try their level best to keep up with the latest technology, there is not always the funds to purchase the latest technology while the new Internet boomers are well informed about the many possibilities of downloading their lectures on MP3 players and state of the art cell phones. No big deal for them even to evesdrop and copy lectures. Subsequently universities are forced to adapt their budgets so that students can use integrated text and voice versions. Once it is available to fulltime students, it could also give access to part time and distance students.

New technologies to watch in 2007, says The Horizon Report (www.nmc.org 2007), are:

* User-created content and social networking (i.e blogs photostreams abd wikibooks);

* Mobile phones and virtual worlds ( GIS, photo's and video); and

* Massive multiplayer educational gaming (Opensource gaming engines to widen access for developers).

Most certainly the last word has not yet been written on these multiple blended trends in higher education offerings, especially not for Open Distance E-Learning (ODeL). It already became a permanent item on the academic agendas of senates and university councils.

The author of this essay urges his own institution, namely the Central University of Technology, Free State to prioritise ODeL within a new holistic academic plan in order to widen access, increase enrollments and enhance success rates with modern state of the art acadamic support systems.

BEARS OF ANCIENT FOLK LORE

Due to my interest in the image of the bear in our family crest, I decided to blog this extract from a book that I read during the December recess of the very reknown writer, psychologist and Social Sciences researcher, CP Estes, who quotes the following about the ancient bear in her notorious work " Women who run with the Wolves" :

The Spirit Bear (pp.357-358)

"What does the symbol of bear, as opposed to fox, or badger, or quet­zal, teach us about dealing with the angry self? To the ancients, bear symbolized resurrection. The creature goes to sleep for a long rime, its heartbeat decreases to almost nothing. The male often impregnates the female right before hibernation, but miraculously, the egg and sperm do not unite right away. They float separately in her uterine broth until much later. Near the end of hibernation, the egg and sperm unite and cell division begins, so that the cubs will be born in the spring when the mother is awakening, just in time to care for and teach her new offspring. Not only by reason of awakening from hi­bernation as though from death, but much more so because the she-bear awakens with new young, this creature is a profound metaphor for our lives, for return and increase coming from something that seemed deadened...

"The bear is associated with many huntress Goddesses: Artemis and Diana in Greece and Rome, and Muerte and Hecoteptl, mud women deities handed down through the Latina cultures. These Goddesses bestowed upon women the power of tracking, knowing, "digging out" the psychic aspects of all things. To the Japanese the bear is a symbol of loyalty, wisdom, and strength. In northern Japan where the Ainu tribe lives, the bear is one who can talk to God directly and bring messages back for humans. The crescent moon bear is consid­ered a sacred being, one who was given the white mark on his throat by the Buddhist Goddess Kwan-Yin, whose emblem is a crescent moon. Kwan-Yin is the Goddess of Deep Compassion and the bear is her emissary...

"In the psyche, the bear can be understood as the ability to regulate one's life, especially one's feeling life. Bearish power is the ability to move in cycles, be fully alert, or quiet down into a hibernative sleep that renews one's energy for the next cycle. The bear image teaches that it is possible to maintain a kind of pressure gauge for one's emo­tional life, and most especially that one can be fierce and generous at the same time. One can be reticent and valuable. One can protect one's territory, make one's boundaries clear, shake the sky if need be, yet be available, accessible, engendering all at the same time...

"The hair from the throat of the bear is a talisman, a way to remem­ber what one has learned. As we see, it is invaluable."

(New readers can scan the rest of our family history in my blog archives.)