Francis Egbuson

In this post, the interest will be on how do we create conditions that will facilitate online teaching in way that is authentic and formal. The input for this post will come from some of the readings for this week and my own experiences facilitating online.  According to Baran and Thompson (2013), four areas in which teachers experience a pedagogical transformation in an online environment were identified: (1) increasing structure and planning during course design (2) increasing organization in course management (3) increasing teacher presence for monitoring students' learning and (4) reconstructing student-teacher relationships. The role of the Teacher in teaching in general and in teaching online in particular stood out. The teacher, in the various roles (Facilitator, Manager, Coach, Designer, etc) has responsibility to ensure that learner engagement happens. And the ability of the teacher to create learner engagement will be determined by the teacher's philosophical orientat...

HOW  have you learned from your colleagues or mentor? How might you make use of Peer to Peer, PLN, or COP in the future?  One of the things I have learned from Adult Learning and Leadership program is the opportunity to learn from peers as much as one learns from the readings and professor. The collaborative nature of how new knowledge is created, shared and extended has been deep and enriching. It confirmed George Siemens assertion in one of the videos for this week, that learning happens in a socially connected way and that knowledge is produced in a networked way. This process of collaborative knowledge creation taps into, what Clay Shirky mentioned in his TED Talk, into human generosity and digital technology. The example of USHAHIDI - the online bulletin board created in 2008 as a response to the political violence on the streets of Kenya after the elections, reminded me of the use of WhatsAPP groups during the Nigeria presidential elections of 2023. Of note, it is the re...

We had the privilege to facilitate a learning session with members of the Uganda Private Educational Institution Association (NPEIA) held at St. Lawrence University last week. The session was attended by about 110 members from the various districts around Kampala, Wakiso and Luwero. This learning session was part of the multi year partnership between NPEIA and our firm CEMM. The objectives of the partnership are to enable NPEIA members achieve the learning and commercial objectives of the association, create process, content and faculty for on-going professional development for administrators, head teachers, teachers and other staff and provide access to Franklin Covey's whole school transformation process called The Leader In Me. CEMM is the exclusive licensee for Franklin Covey in Uganda, Rwanda, Togo and Burundi. As part of the interaction, we shared the following in response to NPEIA members interest: 1. Leaders who make a difference in peoples lives have a combination of Chara...

During the Covid-19 lockdown in Uganda, one of our clients - a financial institution with a footprint in 12 countries in Africa, offered our firm the opportunity to train in online delivery. The purpose was to have a team of trained Facilitators in Africa who could deliver their content on Self- Management. This was our first encounter with online delivery at scale. We had another opportunity with another financial institution to deliver to over 600 branch managers. This institution had a footprint in 35 countries in Africa. This delivery was done at a time when most of sub-saharan Africa was experiencing lockdown. Since these two experiences, we have gone on to include online teaching and learning as an integral part of our delivery experience. We have done so for corporates, public sector, educational institutions and preparing young entrepreneurs in East Africa. Based on these experiences, my sense is that online teaching and learning will shape the way we learn and apply learning i...

 My wife and I had breakfast with Mariano Takishimi, an Argentine born Japanese Chef who manages 3 operations in Los Cabos Mexico. After I got beyond the awe of dining with someone who actually knows about food, I asked Mariano what legacy he would like to leave behind. This is a question I am wrestling with based on a class project on Action Learning and Coaching. As part of the data collection portion of the class, I set out to interview a number of stakeholders to get a wide angle view of the topic of what it takes to live a life that is Legacy driven. My interview list includes two entrepreneurs, two leaders of businesses we provide services to and are intimately familiar with the work we do, and selected members of our staff. So Mariano would be me or the two entrepreneurs. Mariano, who is Japanese, was born in Argentina. Mariano’s father wanted him to study business so he could join the Hitachi corporation where his father worked as an executive. Mariano followed his passion ...