March | 2017 | Bronwyn Swartz

It’s just time to blog again. Truth be told I don’t have the time to write a well formulated, planned and edited blog. There are many important little things that happened so I’m just going to bullet point.

I’ve been speaking about “something” related to the PhD which was a really good thing however not confirmed. And actually I’ve been waiting on official confirmation since the end of last year. What happened is I was awarded a research grant. The sponsor made enough money available for someone to take over my teaching load while I continue my research. But as things would happen, the university is STILL trying to finalise the contracts for this matter. #FacePalm. It’s ridiculous. I won’t comment on that any further. In the meantime, I actually just decided to pretend everything is finalised and I’ve been continuing with my research. I have not been presenting any classes at university, because I need to finish writing at the end of this year – as per the agreement I made with my sponsor.
I co-presented a talk at the Open Education Resources (OER) global conference! This was totally unexpected. I’ve been involved with an OER project and all the project members were invited to attend. After I signed up to attend, one of my colleagues on the project asked if myself and another would co-present with her, on work we did during Fees Must Fall student protests. What stands out for me is, when I do whatever I do, I just do it because I think I must do it. I just think I’m just doing my job. I was merely responding to the situation. I used technology to teach because that was the best solution I saw. It was really so humbling when I got such positive external feedback (not my friends or my own students) who validated what I did.
I’ve gotten involved with another private project. I’m currently presenting a blended Introduction to Quality short course to a private laboratory… just because. I’m taking it as a learning curve – I have no idea how it is going to be accepted by industry but it’s something new and different for me. I think.. I hope it will make a difference to some of the participants. The main message that I want to convey with this course is a compliance culture is NOT a quality culture, when it comes to quality management.
I have finished my draft of Chapter Two of the PhD. It must still be reviewed by my supervisor, but it’s a milestone for me, because it felt like that chapter took forever to write – since November last year! It was literature review and I just read and read and read…. and read some more! Reading takes more time that writing, but without reading, you can’t write. When I got my data back from my attempted pilot study, I did not know what to do with it last year. By going back and doing a proper theory study, I am so much more confident. I am also feeling so good about my work. I went to visit my supervisor at DUT in February as well and it was a good visit. I have direction, even though it seems as if I still have the hugest mountain ahead of me.
This is enough writing on my blog now, because I need to get on with the tasks on my to-do list:) For someone that’s supposedly on sabbatical, I’m finding that I’m awfully busy.
Finally some pics. Each year I take my minions away for a weekend to spend some QT with them. This year we had our minion weekend at Club Mykonos in Langebaan. They really are my two best little friends, even though I am genuinely still tempted to sell them on eBay from time to time #FamilyLove