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Open and distance learning in Namibia: Country report submitted to the Advocacy Workshop on Distance Education and Open Learning, held in Mauritius from 10-11 April 2008.
No full textAdvocacy Workshop on Distance Education and Open Learning (2008 Apr. 10-11 : Mauritius)Paper discusses how to implement ODL activities at both pre-tertiary and tertiary level in the Namibian public sector,four publicly-funded institutions provide ODL programmes: the Centre for External Studies at the University of Namibia (UNAM-CES), the Centre for Open and Lifelong Learning at the NUST (PoN-COLL), the Namibian College of Open Learning (NAMCOL) and the National Institute for Educational Development (NIED)
Manipulation of subject peoples' history, legends and myths: The case of Prestor John.
No full textThis article claims that John Buchan’s Prester John, a small novel of 1910 can be
read, arguably, as a settler novel setting out to undercut the indigenous Africans’
wars of resistance and self-determination by manipulation of myths, legends and
history. The claim is also that this novel by the private secretary to the British High
Commissioner to South Africa belittles the Africans’ claim to connections with their
legendary ancestral heroes. There is a contrived, systematic denigration of “the
black other” at the frontier so that he appears as if he has no meaningful claim to
a history of organisation to fall back on. As savages, Africans are rendered blind,
leaderless and motiveless. All that is done to benefit the Empire. Some extensive
supporting examples will be drawn from Haggard’s King Solomon’s Mines.
However, in the process of denigrating the Africans, John Buchan is caught up in
some contradictions. All this demonstrates that the colonial process itself was/is
complex even to its perpetrators, as shall be shown here
Exploring a conceptual Small Tourism Enterprise Performance Model.
No full textThe tourism industry in South Africa is a growth industry. Small tourism enterprises are mainly run by owner-managers who are the key decision-makers. Owner-managers therefore need to possess key qualities in order to establish and maintain their performing enterprises. Self-leadership; ethical orientation and entrepreneurial proclivity characteristics have been identified to be important for owner-managers of performing tourism enterprises. It is in this context that this paper considers the Van Zyl and Mathur-Helm (2007) conceptual model. This model also contains market orientation and relationship marketing orientation as strategic orientations which are used to link the enterprise to the external environment where customer satisfaction plays an important role. This paper applies a systems perspective to contextualise the contributions of the owner-manager as entrepreneur; the customers from within the transactional environment and some internal organisational variables to enterprise performance. Customer satisfaction assessment models like SERVQUAL and ECSI are considered while the number of tourists; number of employees; the profitability and the turnover of the venture are found to be reliable indicators of tourism enterprise performance
The importance of soft skills: Education beyond academic knowledge.
No full textThis paper makes a survey of the importance of soft skills in students’ lives both at college and after college. It discusses how soft skills complement hard skills, which are the technical requirements of a job the student is trained to do. The paper exhorts educators to take special responsibility regarding soft skills, because during students’ university time, educators have major influence on the development of their students’ soft skills. Embedding the training of soft skills into hard skills courses is a very effective and efficient method of achieving both an attractive way of teaching a particular content and an enhancement of soft skills. Soft skills fulfil an important role in shaping an individual’s personality. It is of high importance for every student to acquire adequate skills beyond academic or technical knowledge
The impact of the Chinese economic expansion in Namibia: A case study of retail and construction sectors in Windhoek.
No full textPaper presented at the NUST, 16 October 2008
Mysterious circles in the Namib Desert.
No full textThere is currently still no scientifically sound explanation as to the origin of the so-called ''fairy circles'' in the Namib. An in situ experiment was conducted in the NamibRand nature Reserve to test hypothesis that the circles are the result of a semi-volatile gas that inhibits plant growth. Stipagrostis ciliata grass plants were planted in containers filled with soil from the circle or from outside the circle. Some containers were sealed at the bottom, to prevent any gases from entering from below, while others were left open. Containers were placed both inside the circle as well as outside the circle. The origin of the siol, i.e. whether it came from inside or outside the circle, did not affect the performance of the plants when they were growing in the same position and container type. All plants growing outside the circle, irrespective of the origin of the soil or the container type, performed better than those growing inside the circle. It is concluded that there is a factor inhibiting plant growth in the circle and that this factor could possibly be a semi-volatile gas, because growth was more negativelly affected in the open containers than in the sealed containers
Experiences of working with the COL electronic template.
No full textPan-Commonwealth Conference on Open Learning, PCF5 (5th : 2008 July 13-17 : London)At PCF-4 2006 in Jamaica, the Commonwealth of Learning (COL) launched an electronic template designed for the development of distance education instructional material. In this paper I discuss the experiences of working with the COL electronic template. These discussions mainly revolve around how the writers, who are often novices with the use of computers and writing of distance education instructional material, cope with the two tasks, and in the process develop professionally. This paper will outline the changes made within the template to suit the Centre for Open and Lifelong Learning (COLL) House Style Manual and how it has helped to improve the quality of instructional material. I will also discuss the advantages and disadvantages of using the template within the Centre for Open and Lifelong Learning with the hope that such information can be transferred as lessons learned to other open and distance learning institutions thinking about using such a tool
Leading tourism ventures: What are the characteristics that enable some tourism entrepreneurs to succeed, while others fail?
No full textThe characteristics that enable some small tourism entrepreneurs to succeed, while others fail
Case study of adaptive rangeland management by an innovative Kalahari farmer.
No full textScientists can learn a great deal from innovative farmers who apply adaptive management principles based on experience
gained over decades. This paper records 31 observations that a farmer, Jan Labuschagne, made on his farm to the south of Gobabis. The observations relate to aspects such as animal behaviour and performance, animal trampling, and
applications of grazing and fire. They are tabulated together with their possible explanations and their management
applications. The conceptual model the farmer has built to aid his understanding and decision making is also shown as a diagram and explained. Of critical importance is the strategic timing of management interventions on different
parts of the farm in relation to rainfall events, texture and organic content of the soil and maturity of the vegetation. Data are presented to support some of the observation