Category Archives: Purely Academic

As the name says…purely academic

Paddington on Top

06 Sunday Sep 2015

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Calling all cards, Calling all cards, Calling all cards. My brothers will agree that we siblings probably still need counselling to deal with hearing ‘those words’ or that saying, but that’s a blog entry for another day. Tonight I’m blogging about the past two weeks that have been choc-a-block full!

This week is varsity holiday, so strictly speaking I don’t need to go to campus at all. Beauty of an academic job. However, I signed up for a tutorial course that I’m attending tomorrow…Frankly I’m not sure why I volunteer for these courses. Well ….that’s not completely true – I do know that I volunteer because I have a insatiable desire to learn, so I grab any opportunity that arises that can potentially offer me additional knowledge. But what I really don’t know is why in heavens name I sign up for EVERYTHING, even when I suspect it might be too much. Another thing I probably need counselling for!

Be that as it may, I thrive on a busy schedule. So like, since my last blog these are the highlights:

SAATCA Auditing conference in PTA was amazing. Did you know that a Quality Manual will no longer be mandatory with the new ISO9001:2015? Like really! OMW. After attending the conference and getting a feel for the new standards, I’m completely loving it already. There’s a clause (Clause 4) on Context of Organisation. That’s just so practical. Also, the fact that one now needs to think about risk in everything your organisation does is in my opinion definitely a great improvement.

Got back from PTA and the students wrote exams. I’m still marking but I think they did quite well in general. That is unusual for midterm exams. Traditionally the student hash it – big time. Hey, but I’m happy that so far it’s looking so fine.

I read the novel “Gone Girl” by Gillian Flynn – and what a mind job that book was! Finished it in 2 days. I can’t decide if I love it or hate it.

Then I finished my proposal corrections – WHoooop WHOOOP! gave them to Prof! Moving forward. I wanna get on with this doctorate thing. Want to start doing my doctoral research already and be a doctor already. However besides the corrections, I had a very interesting meeting with one of Prof’s friends. His colleague from a University in Austria. On my Prof’s recommendation we had a discussion about my proposal and it turns out this Austrian Prof’s student is doing something similar. Interesting indeed. Prof Hilmer and Prof Moll then met the day after my meeting and there are a couple of options that they discussed – ways for us to collaborate. I’m not going to say any more on the topic except #watch this space 🙂

Lastly my side line research continues. So I’m sure everyone who has chatted to me recently knows that I really, really want to be a Professor. So first I must become a doctor, and after that I must do research and I must publish. With this motivation (besides the fact that I am genuinely curious), I am doing research on Blackboard – where it all started last year. Initially I was only going to gather data from the lecturers, however my students encountered problems and I decided to ask the students to help gather data on Blackboard from a student perspective as well. The incentive for them is that they can use this data for their own semester projects. But of course the benefit for me is I will use the student data in conjunction with the lecturer data and write a more comprehensive report on the usefulness of Blackboard. I’m very excited about this project – I have a suspicion that this is just going to be a pilot study of a more in-depth research project. Just thinking about it gets me excited.

For the lecturers’ data I used Google Forms to conduct a survey. What an amazing tool! Google annoys me mostly, just because they monopolise everything. However, Google Forms is the niftiest coolest toy that I have discovered in months. It comes with my greatest recommendation. It is easy to use and totally worth the time you need to spend learning to use it. You’ll find it in the Google suite in Google Drive.

Finally, I want to tell you about a treasure I discovered in my office. A book. When I moved into my new office, I inherited four bookshelves of books. What a treat! So last week Tuesday I was rearranging some of the books to make space for my personal collection of text books. That was when I came across an rather unusual hard cover. It is covered in peach coloured material and didn’t have a name in the front or back. But it had a name on the spine – Paddington on Top. Yep, as in Paddington Bear. This children’s story book is older than what I am. I opened the thick yellowish pages and I just got goose bumps all over. There are illustrations in the book. Beautiful pictures. I simply love it! My heart melted. A classic. I have no idea how that ended up in the office I inherited from Russel and Prof Moll, but clearly neither of them cared too much about Paddington. I decided to take Paddington home though, and it will now have a permanent place on the minion’s book shelf. Yes indeed, a much better home for The bear called Paddington.

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Research Methodology Workshop Success

16 Sunday Aug 2015

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Well I reckon it was a success. I must still capture the data from the feedback questionnaires but in general I got really good feedback from the participants. I enjoyed it, and the positive responses that I received inspires me to prepare some more student workshops. Happiness.

Congratulations to Rafick Armien, Natasha Singh, Keenan Dreyer, China Masande Goniwe, Ricardo Fortuin, Shaun Onverwacht, Cindy Abrahams, Hillary Moyo, James Dalton, Bridget Erwe, Noxolo Hoga, Lonwabo Madlakana, Bianca Roebeck, Maxine Thomas, Thulani Ntsimane, Victor Ncele, Phelo Sixubane, Thuletu Mbita, Raoul Schoor, Moos Koopman, Brynwill Malgas, Nomandla Zilimbola, Jonas Sobe, Monray Engelbrecht, Lyle Valentine and Nozuko Gontsana for whole hearted and phenomenal participation. It would not have been such a success without you! 

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My tremendous thanks goes to my fellow supervisors (and my D. Tech classmates!) who supported the workshop. Olaf van Renen, You Rock!, and the two most beautiful ladies Lucrecia Valentine and Des Jaftha.

Darn it! That Stung

13 Thursday Aug 2015

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And it didn’t just sting a bit. It stung like a Mo-Fo.

Eish, eina ja. Felt a little bit fragile and tender yesterday. Recoiled, but today I felt better. And I just started making corrections. Prof gave me feedback on my draft proposal. uuuhhrrr

For this blog to be an accurate reflection of the journey towards a doctoral degree, I think that I shouldn’t just tell the happy stories on the journey. I have to tell you that I was embarrassed and annoyed and wounded and then sad. But today I got up again, because gosh darn it, I wanna be a doctor.

Truth be told it probably wasn’t so bad. It looked a great deal better that what my M. Tech corrections looked like. I remember coming home on days when Andre Bester handed me the document that had came back from Prof Watkins. Those first few feedback sessions in the initial stages of writing the M, I remember looking at it and I felt like Prof Watkins thrashed me solid. The red marks with comment scrawled over my work. I remember feeling incompetent and worthless.

I pride myself being an independent woman so there are few occasions when I’ll admit that really, really wished I had a boyfriend to hold me and comfort me, but I have no absolutely problem telling that world, that on those days I DID wish I had someone to comfort me and tell me “chin up babe”.

Anyways luckily that’s way in the past. And because he blasted me, I graduated Cum Laude. Every time I got better, and I was determined to avoid those dastardly red marks. Today I adore Prof Watkins, My Prof, he pushed me to heights I didn’t think I’d realise. He moulded me, He gave me wings.

But now I work with my new Prof, Prof Moll. He isn’t brutal as Watkins. I am also looking forward to working with him. I’ve already said thank you to him for the feedback, although in my head I was thinking ‘huh?’. At least Prof Moll doesn’t use red pen. I know I have so much to learn from him. The time has come to be humble, put my head down and just do the necessary.

Exhaustarated and Exciterated

11 Tuesday Aug 2015

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Ridiculous words that I just made up now, but all for good reason.

Exhaustarated because I stayed up till 2:30 this morning finishing the preparation and PowerPoint presentation for a workshop that I am presenting on Research Design and Methodology on Saturday. I desperately wanted to just finish it, so I just kept chipping at it.

I literally couldn’t bear to shut the PC down at about 11pm last night when I thought I was almost done, so I continued and before I knew it, it was already 2:30. I am really happy with the finished product:) So so very happy. No, I am completely stoked, thrilled AMPED and so in my noppies dude.

Exciterated because I compared “Putting a research project together” to a visit to “Build-a-Bear”. Like the Build-a-Bear shop, all the elements are available to select from. It is up to the owner of the research project/bear to select those element that best suit them/the project. I took my daughter to Build-a-Bear for her birthday a few years ago and she designed her own teddy bear from scratch. First choose its fur, then she stuffed it, then put a stuffed heart in it, then clothed it and was issued a birth certificate for Princess Sarah.

Many of us do the same for our research, don’t we? Like Micaiah’s ‘Princess Sarah’, my ‘Lean Six Sigma Approach to the Selenium Analysis Process’ was a personal exercise……Uhmmm gosh. Did I just type that? eyes rolling – Maybe I need a life, as I typed that I felt sorry for myself.

Anyway, Still, research tickles my fancy. I’ve include three activities in the workshop – two individual reflective activities and one group activity. All I need to do now is find a few articles on data collection methodologies for the students to examine in the group activity. And also of course make arrangements for a flip chart, some coloured markers and some tea and cookies for the tea break. Fun up ahead.

I hope it goes well. I’m having this workshop with B. Tech students but it’s equally relevant to M. Tech students. So if it goes well, this workshop will be a pilot for a M. Tech workshop. The spin-off effect for me is the more I present on research design and facilitate sessions on it, the more familiar I become with a broad range of research concepts. Learning is amazing! I love it, love it, love it!

If anyone wants a copy, inbox me!  sharing is caring…..

I’ve been missing you

19 Sunday Jul 2015

Posted by in Family and Friends, My Adventures, Purely Academic

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So like it’s been forever (2 weeks = forever in the drama queen dictionary), since we’ve chatted, and I have loads to tell you… I took a week’s leave last week and it was lovely. Have you tried the red bus in Cape Town? If not then it’s a must, and if you have, then well, let’s go again. What a fantastic adventure for the minions and I. There are 4 possible routes (all open top red busses) namely the Red Route which involves a tour around the city centre, the Blue Route which involves a mini trip around the Peninsula, the Purple Route is a little wine route in Constantia and the Yellow Route which takes you around Bo-Kaap. If you buy one ticket you can hop on and hop off these busses as you wish for the day. The Routes are interlinked so what the minions and did is started with the Red Route, hopped off at Stop 5 in Long Street, and hopped on a connecting bus on the Blue Route. We hopped off at Kirstenbosch Gardens, had lunch and went for a walk, then back on again, around Hout Bay and hopped off at Camps Bay for dinner. Finally hopped back onto a Red Bus which took us back to the V&A Waterfront where we originally caught the bus. It was a fantastic trip. Like the International City Tour busses, it was a guided tour, however as opposed to a real life tour guide, each person who buys a ticket gets a set of earphones which you plug into a port in the bus. Thus as the bus passes the different landmarks situated on the route, you get running commentary as you would with a real life tour guide. It was entertaining, informative, educational but most of all FUN!!! Give me a shout if you want to go sometime and I’ll definitely join you.

Minions on the Red Bus

Minions on the Red Bus

Tourists in our own city

Tourists in our own city

So the next thing we did was Disney on Ice. Again, another spectacular experience. It was a 2 hour show, but it felt like 30 minutes – it was that good. I was (we all were!) sad and disappointed when it ended. It was one of those shows that completely captivates you and swallows you in. Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy, Pluto and all the favourites, TinkerBell, Peter Pan, Snow White, Belle and all the  princesses, and later even Toy Story. The costumes were magnificent. The tickets were a bit pricy but it was clear that so much practice and much more effort had gone into putting that show together. I would highly recommend it to everyone. The minions and I were beaming from ear to ear when we left. It’s such a feel good feeling. If watching Disney on Ice had that effect, I can only imagine what it must feel like to actually visit Disneyland!

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Look at these amazing costumes! And just to think there is a skater inside the Rex and Ham costume too!

2015-07-08 17.06.13 So then it was off to Knysna, and the Oyster Festival with the Femilyum. Great memories #familytime. The brothers and I again participated in the races there, Andre and I completed the Knysna Half and Jase did a trail run. Another exciting adventure for the minions:)

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Missing Roberto Jones

High Five-ing the Femilyum as I run past

High Five-ing the Femilyum as I run past

Found a cave at Knysna Heads. Check my Dad take a picture of my Mom taking a picture of us

Found a cave at Knysna Heads. Check my Dad take a picture of my Mom taking a picture of us

So then the big one….The night we got back from Knysna, I finished my Proposal and I submitted the draft to Prof!  Whooop WHOOOOOP. That’s an amazing feeling, I am well and truly on my way to being a Doctor now:)  I am waiting on his feedback. I am actually preparing myself for the worst. But I have done my bit. Whatever he says I will say thank you, make the changes and grow stronger with every iteration.

And my final piece of news is I am going to present at a conference at the CTICC in August. The conference is for Women in Quality and I submitted an abstract, which has been accepted. My talk will be on Quality Circles. I am really looking forward to it. I have finished preparing my PowerPoint Slideshow and I’m currently completing the conference paper. I love my job, and I am just so blessed and grateful that my passion is my career. And my career is my passion. Two more days of school holidays to go and off we’ll start the new term with fresh impetus. Looking forward to it. Life is good:)

Turning a grey winter day to your advantage

02 Thursday Jul 2015

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Come winter cold or rain but students soldier on.

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When the weather is bad people tend to want to stay indoors and relax. Hot chocolate and movies under the covers and listen to the rain beat down outside. But Harvard research has indicated that although some people stop working, most are more productive. This, because the weather outside is bad, too rainy or cold to be enjoyed.

So my fellow students, some of my personal tips:

1) Hot tea or coffee but be careful of too much sugar. Tea is better than coffee because it contains less caffeine and contains natural antioxidants.

2)  Layers of clothes, blankets, beanies, scarves, finger-less gloves (for typing:)). This is much better than a heater, which dries out the air leaves you vulnerable to getting infections.

3) When the weather clears up – even just a little bit, take a break and get outside for some vitamin D. Very important. Never underestimate the vital requirement of sunshine. When it’s available, grab it!

Otherwise, make use of these cold days…..they wont last forever (thankfully), and when spring starts to grace us with her presence, we don’t wanna be caught indoors with loads of catch up. Excuse the corny …May hay while the sun shines, or rather Write a Thesis when the sun does not shine

And so I’m buggered

28 Sunday Jun 2015

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Temporary setback….let me just state that upfront. Mostly to convince myself that it’s not so bad.

But it is pretty hectic.

I finally opened DUT’s reference guide (style guide), and their prescribed version of Harvard has page numbers with each in-text reference. So irony of irony, it resembles the Watkins style guide very closely – and everyone at DISE (the new folk) gawks about my Prof Watkins. In my mind’s eye I can actually see him smiling..knowingly. And I can even imagine him saying something like “Kan jy sien Liefie, jy moes maar net gemaak het soos wat ek vir jou geleer het“.

Anyhooooooo, it’s one of those situation where there is jack-sh*t I can do but go back and fix it. What this means is that for the 37 pages that I have written so far, I must go back to each reference, go find the original PDF (Thank Goodness and thanking my lucky stars that I’m in the habit of saving PDFs of everything I reference!), and find the page number of the section that I used. This wont be a quick simple task……but so it goes.

Without a style guide to start with I used the most commonly accepted version of Harvard, as prescribed by AOSIS journals. It was a calculated risk. And this time it didnt work out. But moving on. Aluta Continua

“Si guarda al fine”

02 Tuesday Jun 2015

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Thank you Bertrand van der Heyden. One thing I clearly remember from my Christian Brother College days. Machiavelli said “the end justifies the means” I think it was history class, but I think it had nothing to do with history. Bert was just really good with words and languages, part of his charm, and about a half dozen other stuff.

But for whatever reason I remember Si guarda al fine…and that was enough motivation for me to make a plan. It’s vrek cold. Winter has invaded Cape Town with unrelenting vengeance, and I had no choice but to turn my cupboard inside out, chucked all the clothes in it onto the floor – my room looks like a mess! All in search of my finger-less gloves.

Finger-less gloves are a winter essential for a student. Heck for everyone! I need to feel the keys on my keyboard (non-negotiable) and I need to work (another non-negotiable). My hands do not need to get cold while I’m working, so after my unsuccessful attempt mission to find any one of the pairs of three pairs of finger-less gloves I had in winter last year, I eventually settled for a new shower glove and a old solo navy blue woolen glove that I found stranded in the laundry basket with all the single socks. I snipped off the finger tips and Bob’s your Uncle! I have a trendy new pair of finger-less gloves! Pink and Blue, Loving it! The end justifies the means.

finger-less gloves

The day is saved. My work can continue…

The only thing that’s certain is that nothing is certain

23 Saturday May 2015

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1:30 AM on Saturday morning I’m up working. Marking stats projects actually, feeling so so about it. I really would like to be finishing up my proposal, but need to complete this admin task first so I can upload a progress mark for my students. But admin is Oh So Boring, so I’m blogging instead.

So an update on the proposal is yet another change has come about. Prof told me that I need to substantiate why I want to study the Impact of Quality Culture on Quality Management Practice in the four pre-selected areas that I had in mind, namely Productivity, Compliance, Risk Management and IT (he also told me to refer to IT as systems). So he suggests, “just find a way to tie it together, google the terms in one line and see what comes up” and so I did.

And a repetitive concept that came up was GRC, or Governance, Risk and Compliance. Now that’s something! It’s something because those are buzz words that I’ve heard bandied around at company that I consult for. And I have an inkling that industry is jumping onto that band wagon. I could be wrong…but I’m gonna go with my gut instinct on this one. I’m modifying my focus areas to Governance, Risk, Compliance and Systems… The only thing that’s certain is that nothing is certain.

Then just on a consulting note, I love my job – I really do. I completely love going to work in the Quality Department. And the scope of the work I do is stimulating and fascinating. It’s a thrilling experience to see how the Quality Management System comes to life before my eyes. There’s just lots of work we still need to do, but the real bonus is I am part of an amazing team. My only issue is I sometimes really feel I waste time when I battle to find something because of my limited experience. That is the downside of working on a system that still needs a great deal of development. I find myself being asked to do tasks, and work on systems where nothing existed before. Many times it’s a critical requirement, eg. Supplier Approval, and it is not anyone’s job yet. Another two looming in the pipeline is Risk Management and Self Inspections. Daunting and challenging, I feel incredibly stupid and excited at the same time. In the land of the blind I guess the guy with one eye is king. I guess that’s what systems engineering is all about.

#superproudmom

20 Wednesday May 2015

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Joshua AwardSo like remember two weeks back when I told you about Josh and I that were working on his Science Project and we didn’t see eye to eye?, Well…My Boy got an Award for that project tonight. Super, Awesome Rocking Cool!!!!!

I can’t explain how happy I am for him. And for me, this is a huge victory. The look on his face. Proud moment for mom. Kachow

Then on the topic of my own research, I am rather pleased, uh uh I am stoked that my Prof gave me the go ahead to tweak my sample. Well, proposed sample, that is. Proposal almost due (tick tock tick tock tick tock) and with this latest permission that I was granted, I believe I have robust framework. I must just put all the pieces together now, and properly.

Prof agreed to let me do an in-depth study, as opposed to the wider superficial study we originally thought of. Instead scanning over 12 organisations in a more general way, I am now aiming to drill down deep and look at how the quality culture of 3 organisations will impact the quality management practices of those organisations.

Because of this reduced number of samples, he is now allowing me to select one industry….drum roll…da da da da dum, and the lucky recipient is the Pharma Industry! Yeah baby Yeah. I am genuinely feeling so excited. Part of me wants to rush out and start doing the ethnography already!

But I must be patient, finish my proposal properly, do my groundwork. I wanna nail this. I wanna do this well, I wanna make a mark. yeah sounds about right