Menschliche Systeme werden seit einiger Zeit modelliert und analysiert auf der Basis der Theorie komplexer Netzwerke. Dies erlaubt es quantitativ zu untersuchen, welche strukturellen und zeitlichen Merkmale eines Systems Ausbreitungsprozesse beeinflussen, z.B. von Informationen oder von Infektionskrankheiten. Im ersten Teil der Arbeit wird untersucht, wie eine modular-hierarchische Struktur von statischen Netzwerken eine schnelle Verbreitung von Signalen ermöglicht. Es werden neue Heuristiken entwickelt um die Random-Walk-Observablen “First Passage Time” und “Cover Time” auf lokal geclusterten Netzwerken zu ermitteln. Vergleiche mit der Approximation eines gemittelten Mediums zeigen, dass das Auftreten der beobachteten Minima der Observablen ein reiner Netzwerkeffekt ist. Es wird weiterhin dargelegt, dass nicht alle modular-hierarchischen Netzwerkmodelle dieses Phänomen aufweisen. Im zweiten Teil werden zeitlich veränderliche face-to-face Kontaktnetzwerke auf ihre Anfälligkeit für Infektionskrankheiten untersucht. Mehrere Studien belegen, dass Menschen vornehmlich Zeit in Isolation oder kleinen, stark verbundenen Gruppen verbringen, und dass ihre Kontaktaktivität einem zirkadianen Rhythmus folgt. Inwieweit diese beiden Merkmale die Ausbreitung von Krankheiten beeinflussen, ist noch unklar. Basierend auf einem neuen Modell wird erstmals gezeigt, dass zirkadian variierende Netzwerke Trajektorien folgen in einem Zustandsraum mit einer strukturellen und einer zeitlichen Dimension. Weiterhin wird dargelegt, dass mit zunehmender Annäherung der zeitlichen Dimension von System und Krankheit die systemische Infektionsanfälligkeit sinkt. Dies steht in direktem Widerspruch zu Ergebnissen anderer Studien, die eine zunehmende Anfälligkeit vorhersagen, eine Diskrepanz, die auf die Ungültigkeit einer weit verbreiteten Approximation zurückzuführen ist. Die hier vorgestellten Ergebnisse implizieren, dass auf dem Gebiet die Entwicklung neuer theoretischer Methoden notwendig ist. / Human systems have been modeled and analyzed on the basis of complex networks theory in recent time. This abstraction allows for thorough quantitative analyses to investigate which structural and temporal features of a system influence the evolution of spreading processes, such as the passage of information or of infectious diseases. The first part of this work investigates how the ubiquitous modular hierarchical structure of static real-world networks allows for fast delivery of messages. New heuristics are developed to evaluate random walk mean first passage times and cover times on locally clustered networks. A comparison to average medium approximations shows that the emergence of these minima are pure network phenomena. It is further found that not all modular hierarchical network models provide optimal message delivery structure. In the second part, temporally varying face-to-face contact networks are investigated for their susceptibility to infection. Several studies have shown that people tend to spend time in small, densely-connected groups or in isolation, and that their connection behavior follows a circadian rhythm. To what extent both of these features influence the spread of diseases is as yet unclear. Therefore, a new temporal network model is devised here. Based on this model, circadially varying networks can for the first time be interpreted as following trajectories through a newly defined systemic state space. It is further revealed that in many temporally varying networks the system becomes less susceptible to infection when the time-scale of the disease approaches the time-scale of the network variation. This is in direct conflict with findings of other studies that predict increasing susceptibility of temporal networks, a discrepancy which is attributed to the invalidity of a widely applied approximation. The results presented here imply that new theoretical advances are necessary to study the spread of diseases in temporally varying networks.

Ce document se propose de mieux comprendre les fonctionnements pédagogiques et communicationnels de deux dispositifs d’apprentissage au sein d’un même département universitaire : le cas d’une Licence en Sciences de l’information et de la communication. Cette approche compréhensive à visée exploratoire part du postulat que le sens ne se construit qu’en situation et en interaction avec le dispositif d’apprentissage, adoptant ainsi une position épistémologique issue d’une « convention constructiviste ». La recherche souhaite comprendre comment les apprenants co-construisent leur réalité collective d’apprentissage à travers leurs expériences d’apprentissage signifiantes. L’émergence de modèles de lecture issus du double ancrage analytique (méthodes d’analyse de la systémique qualitative et de la sémiotique situationnelle) met également en exergue la dynamique et la logique des systèmes, les règles du jeu et le débat latent entre les acteurs en présence. En sus de cette lecture communicationnelle, cette recherche à visée heuristique offre une large réponse en terme méthodologique (notamment à travers la proposition de la technique dialectique graduelle). C’est en ce sens que ce document représente un premier socle de sorte à fonder une réflexion plus empirique, tant sur les méthodes d’analyse que sur la place des technologies de l’information et de la communication dans le paysage universitaire actuel. / This document suggests understanding better the educational functionings and communicationnels of two devices of learning within the same university department: the case of a License in Sciences of the information and the communication. This comprehensive approach with exploratory aim leaves the postulate that the sense builds itself only in situation and in interaction the device of learning, so adopting a épistémologique position outcome of a " constructivist agreement ". The research wishes to understand how are learners co-build their collective reality through their significant experiences of learning. The emergence of models of reading stemming from the double analytical anchoring (methods of the qualitative systematism and of semiotics situationnelle) also highlights the dynamics and the logic of the systems, the rules of the game and the latent debate between the actors in presence. In addition to this communicationnelle reading, this research with aim heuristics offers a wide answer in methodological term (in particular through the proposition of the gradual dialectical technique). It is in the sense that this document represents a first base so as to base a more empirical reflection, both on the methods of analysis and on the place of information technologies and communication in the current university landscape.

The topic of this work is the administration of medicine following a face-to-face and telephone madication-related orders at hospitals. The methods used in the theoretic part of this work included both discussions with representatives of health care providers and the analysis of documents. Based on the description and analysis of the set-up of verbal madication-related orders as featured in the accreditation standards of four healthcare accreditation organisations and internal rules of five hospitals, the author of this work seeks to identify any possible risk elements of verbal orders, and to propose ways how to modify such parts of standards and rules so as to make the verbal ordination less risky. Whether or not the verbal medication-related orders at hospitals is a lege artis procedur depends first of all on the situation in which the verbal order is issued, on the authorization or qualifications of health employees who are involved in the implementation of such verbal order, and on the strict observance of procedures concerning the communication (including its recording into the medical documentation). Although verbal madication-related order represents risk arising from the ordinance's communication, forensic, or specialist consequence, no greater attention has been paid to them so far. There...

A research report submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree Master of Science in Medicine in the Field of Emergency Medicine in the Division of Emergency Medicine, University of the Witwatersrand / Introduction: Control over the patient bears time-critical importance in emergency medicine. In the entrapment situation after a Motor Vehicle Collision (MVC), emergency care including airway management may need to be initiated before extrication and thus with restricted access. Objective: This manikin study aimed at answering the question of which advanced airway device can be inserted the fastest and most reliably by paramedics in the simulated entrapped patient. Methods: Paramedics were asked to insert four airway devices (endotracheal tube with the Macintosh laryngoscope, endotracheal tube with the Airtraq® optical laryngoscope, Laryngeal Mask Airway - SupremeTM, and Laryngeal Tube Suction - DisposableTM) in randomised order into a manikin seated in the driver seat of a light motor vehicle. Time to first successful ventilation and number of attempts required for successful insertion were measured. Following each insertion, participants were asked by means of a questionnaire to rate the degree of insertion difficulty (scale 1 – 10) and provide reasons for this rating. Finally, participants were asked which device they preferred and why. Results: Prospectively collected data from 26 paramedics were analysed. The LMA-SupremeTM had the shortest mean time to first successful ventilation (16.7 seconds (CI [0.95]; 14.9 - 18.6)), followed by the LTS-DTM (19.4 seconds (CI [0.95]; 18.0 - 20.8)), ETI using the Macintosh laryngoscope (37.7 seconds (CI [0.95]; 31.8 - 43.5)) and ETI using the Airtraq® (41.2 seconds (CI [0.95]; 36.7 - 45.6)). Both face-to-face ETI with the Macintosh laryngoscope and the insertion of the LMA-SupremeTM had 100% first-attempt success. Five participants required a second attempt to successfully intubate the manikin using the Airtraq® and one participant had to re-insert the LTS-DTM for correct placement. In terms of insertion difficulty, the LMA-SupremeTM received the lowest mean score (1.7/10 (CI [0.95]; 1.2 - 2.1)) followed by the LTS-DTM (2.5/10 (CI [0.95]; 1.8 – 3.2)), face-to-face ETI using the Macintosh laryngoscope (3.7/10 (CI [0.95]; 2.9 - 4.5)), and ETI with the Airtraq® (4.5/10 (CI [0.95]; 3.7 - 5.3)). Most participants chose the Macintosh laryngoscope for ETI as their preferred device (10/26; 38%) followed closely by the LMA-SupremeTM (9/26; 35%). These participants stated clinical experience and ease of insertion respectively as the primary reasons for their preference. Conclusion: Besides ETI, Supraglottic Airway Devices are beneficial alternative airway devices to be considered by paramedics in the entrapped patient after a MVC. The LMA-SupremeTM was the fastest and least difficult airway device to insert. Face-to-face endotracheal intubation with the Macintosh laryngoscope remains an important definitive airway that was shown to be performed competently by participating paramedics. The Airtraq® can be used for face-to-face ETI and enables improved laryngoscopy.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-28T18:23:44Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Marcia Sueli Pereira da Silva Schneider.pdf: 2335944 bytes, checksum: 60a8f683fcb5942ddf9c87354c4b6d91 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2008-05-30 / Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico / This research aims to discuss the teacher formation and verify how the knowledge is produced during the formation process developed in two settings: in a face-to-face environment and in a distance setting. In this way, this work chose as base for the research a continued professional development project, based on the relations between the researcher and an English teacher that worked at Basic Level I in a Municipal School in Conceição dos Ouros-MG. As foundation to the discussions this work is based on Socio-Historical-Cultural Activity Theory (TASHC) (Vygotsky, 1934/2001, 1999, 1998; Leont ev,1959, 1978; Engeström, 1987, 1999, 2006 and others), on the discussion about on line setting to understand the settings supplied by Computer Mediated Communication and its movements that take to the virtualization, founded, principally, in Levy s (1996/2003; 1999/2003) works. Regarding the critical reflective principles, the study is based on the studies developed by Freire (1979/2001), Brookfield & Preskill (1999), Liberali (2005, 2004), Brookfield (1987), Smyth (1989), and others, and in the language role mediating the social inter-relations that has the argumentation as an important allied to the development of the critical reflective thought. This research is inserted in a critical collaborative perspective (Comstock, 1982, Bredo & Feinberg, 1982, Magalhães, 1992, 1994, 1998, no prelo), since it is an investigative process that aims to observing, analyzing and transforming the educational practices of the participants. Parts of face-to-face and distance conversation, of reflective diary and reflections developed in an email setting were selected and analyzed. The intention of analyzing the cutting data was to understand how sense about teaching-learning was questioning and new meanings were shared during the teacher formation activity on the environments used. The results show that knowledge production happens when there are opportunities to the participants manifest themselves, expounding their opinions, to agree or disagree, to listen and to be listened, opportunity to argue and to convince the others, learning, this way, to interact with respectful by others. In this social production process, the role of the other becomes fundamental to trigger off news ZPDs, to reorganize and transform the senses and to develop. The results show as well that the virtual setting allows that the teacher formation activity was updated, become real in a virtual setting, and that the asynchronous communication turned out to be more formal than the synchronous communication that was characterized by an interaction similar as a face-to-face interaction / Esta pesquisa tem como objetivo principal discutir a formação de professor e verificar como o conhecimento é produzido durante o processo de formação realizado em dois ambientes: o presencial e a distância. Nessa perspectiva, este trabalho escolheu como base para estudo de pesquisa um projeto de formação contínua pautado nas relações entre pesquisadora e uma professora de inglês que atuava no Ciclo Básico I em uma Escola Municipal da cidade de Conceição dos Ouros-MG. Para fundamentar as discussões, o trabalho procurou subsídios nos pressupostos teóricos da Teoria da Atividade Sócio-Histórico-Cultural (TASHC) (Vygotsky, 1934/2001, 1999, 1998; Leont ev, 1959, 1978; Engeström, 1987, 1999, 2006, entre outros), nas discussões sobre ambientação para entender os ambientes fornecidos pela Comunicação Mediada por Computador e nos movimentos que conduzem à virtualização, alicerçadas, principalmente, nos trabalho de Lévy (1996/2003; 1999/2003). Sobre os princípios crítico-reflexivo, o estudo está embasado nos estudos desenvolvidos por Freire (1979/2001), Brookfield & Preskill (1999), Liberali (2005, 2004), Brookfield (1987), Smyth (1989), dentre outros, e no papel da linguagem na mediação das inter-relações sociais, que tem na argumentação uma importante aliada para o desenvolvimento do pensamento críticoreflexivo. Esta pesquisa se insere em uma perspectiva crítica de colaboração (Comstock, 1982, Bredo & Feinberg, 1982, Magalhães, 1992, 1994, 1998, no prelo), pois trata-se de um processo investigativo que objetiva a observação, intervenção, análise e transformações nas práticas pedagógicas das participantes. Para proceder às análises e discussões, foram selecionados recortes de conversas realizadas nas sessões reflexivas presenciais e a distância, do diário reflexivo e das reflexões sobre o diário realizadas em ambiente e-mail. A análise percorreu os recortes escolhidos como o propósito de entender os questionamentos de sentidos e o compartilhamento de novos significados sobre ensino-aprendizagem que emergem na atividade de formação nos dois contextos. A discussão dos resultados demonstra que a produção do conhecimento ocorre quando os participantes têm possibilidades de se manifestar, de expor sua opinião, de concordar, discordar, ouvir e ser ouvido, possibilidade para argumentar e convencer o outro, aprendendo, dessa maneira, a interagir com respeito pelo outro. Nesse processo de produção social, o papel do outro se torna fundamental para o desencadeamento de novas ZDPs, de reorganização e transformação dos sentidos e desenvolvimento. A discussão dos resultados revela, ainda, que o ambiente virtual permitiu a atualização da atividade de formação, tornando-a real em um ambiente virtual, e que a interação desenvolvida no ambiente virtual, por meio de uma interação assíncrona, assume uma característica de maior formalidade em relação à interação síncrona, que se caracteriza como uma interação próxima a interação presencial, ou seja, face-a-face

The creation of a community of practice of tutors--a shared practice among a group of people who share the same domain--enables second-language learners to facilitate their acquisition of English by embracing new learning strategies while they learn the target language. The community of tutors’ perspective allows for the incorporation of the individual’s particular second-language-acquisition needs and goals. This presentation presents a proposed study that took place at the Yasuda Center at California State University, San Bernardino in the summer of 2015. Students in the English Language Program housed in the College of Extended Learning were asked to participate in tutoring sessions offered by tutors who participated in a community of tutors. Tutors embraced new teaching strategies that they acquired through participating within a community of practice, sharing their background knowledge and teaching experience, and demonstrating new teaching techniques to each other by using collaborative and hybrid strategies during activities embedded in a rich learning context. The provision of community of practice for tutors in the English Language Program enabled learners to develop meaning-making and communication skills as well as language and literacy skills to address the informational and problem-solving needs of their tasks and assignments.

The focus of this study is use of discourse markers (DM). Data consists of taped interactions of informants. From this data, four particular DM are analyzed with regard to distribution in turn taking. The concepts of cohesion and coherence in text or discourse, together with informants´ communicative and discourse strategies, in a group of bilingual speakers (BS) and a control group of monolingual speakers (MS), are also analyzed. The findings confirm that BS, compared to the MS, make more frequent use of y with a pragmatic meaning when introducing various types of questions that constitute requests for elucidation directed to an interlocutor and thereby continue the interaction. In general, however, the MS use the DM y more frequently than the BS, demonstrating a more elaborate sense of stylistics in the coordination of their turn as narrations and descriptions. With regard to pero, the BS prefer to use this DM with a pragmatic meaning, in the continuation of an intervention or at the end of a turn, in order to question that which has been stated. The MS use pero primarily with a semantic meaning, to express counter-arguments inside a turn. It is exclusively the BS who use the DM así que with pragmatic meaning of consequence, in interactional exchanges, when they wish to introduce questions and assertions, where así que begins their reaction to the utterance of the interlocutor. Such questions may be regarded as a discourse strategy that permits possibilities for avoiding taking responsibility for how an utterance is interpreted. In addition, both the BS and the MS use así que at the end of turns, providing the discourse with meta-pragmatic meaning whereby it allows possibilities for interpreting this as finalizing. Through their use of es que, the BS gradually explain and justify statements made in utterances during their turns while the MS, through use in their discourse of this DM, allows them to introduce explications, justifications or excuses in the event of possible disagreement. In addition, the MS use justification introduced through this DM as a strategy to take a turn or to attempt to take over the turn, where es que conveys discourse-pragmatic meaning and introduces a tone of verbal courtesy. / Den digitala versionen: ny rev. utg. 2005.

The problem being investigated in this thesis is to understand and explain why some Setswana speaking students in the ACE-programme for Life Orientation who have voluntarily registered for a decentralised off-campus education programme at the NWU, continue to demand personal, face-to-face communication with their lecturers during the course of their studies. „Off-campus education‟ (also known as „distance education‟ and / or „decentralised education‟) is usually implemented in an attempt to afford more students the opportunity to improve their qualifications and skills – especially in the case of those students who, for a variety of reasons, may not be in a position to enrol for fulltime contact training. Off-campus education could help to serve the divergent education-related needs of poor, less privileged, geographically isolated, difficult-to-reach and deep rural communities. It could also assist with the teaching and learning of new knowledge and skills as far as its integrated use of contemporary technological developments is concerned. Besides UNISA, the North-West University is at present the biggest supplier of off-campus education programmes to practising teachers in the country. Despite the exponential increase in educational and technological developments in the late 20th and early 21st century, information and communication technology – within a broader South African context – is still not within reach of all the NWU‟s off-campus education students. Recent attempts to integrate contact education principles in off-campus education, led to the development of the (well-known) hybrid, namely „flexi-education‟. Over the past seven years or so, this state of affairs has slowly developed to the point where the number of registered, off-campus African education students at the NWU who insist (despite paper-based, electronic and mobile learning support) on demanding personal, face-to-face contact with their lecturers, has increased rapidly. It would furthermore seem that the use of, for example, internet and communication technology is increasing the existing gap between the African education student and his / her lecturer. This growing gap has already resulted in some registered African education students feeling increasingly isolated. The problem with the use of ICT in off-campus education is understood by some as leading to a situation where the ICT being implemented may, one day soon, replace the lecturer during scheduled contact facilitation sessions. Should that happen, it could mean that interactive communication and the social presence of the lecturer during scheduled contact facilitation sessions may be compromised and even permanently forfeited. The available body of scholarship does not adequately address the perceptions of students with regard to the importance of (a) the temporal-spatial, simultaneous presence of their lecturers and (b) social interactions during scheduled contact facilitation sessions. From the available literature, it is also not clear: why some students may want to entertain and maintain such perceptions, what the attitude of students with regard to social interaction and the social presence of their lecturers might be, or what role ICT could be playing in the life-world of off-campus students in South Africa. In an attempt to solve this intellectual conundrum and with a view to effecting naturalistic generalisation (and not statistical generalisation) I have decided, in light of the above, to implement and follow a multi-analytical research design (mixed methods, multi-analysis design) (Onwuegbuzie et al., 2009: passim; 117). Instead of me seeking to generalise my own research findings, I have decided to leave it to my readers to generalise the findings from their own experiences in the past (Onwuegbuzie et al., 2009: 120). This approach represents a kind of „fuzzy generalisation‟ (Ekiz, 2006:73) in the sense that something that has happened in one place could just as well be demonstrated to have happened somewhere else as well (ibid.). I have, therefore, undertaken both a quantitative as well as qualitative study in order to understand why Setswana speaking education students in the ACE-programme in Life Orientation would continue to demand personal, face-to-face contact with their lecturers, despite all the teaching and learning support that they are offered along the way. I have completed my research on the basis of (and in view of) my research aims. The same applies to the data that I have managed to capture and interpret. On the basis of these data, certain strategic guidelines for effective education in off-campus education programmes for practising teachers have then been drafted. My most important research findings include: Off-campus education is purposively delivered to the client, e.g. to the Setswana speaking student in his / her natural surroundings. Off-campus education should strive to care for the student and his / her contextualised needs. An authentic encounter between the off-campus lecturer and student should be allowed to take place. These encountering opportunities could assist in liberating the Setswana speaking student from all moral and ethical obligation of having to meet his / her lecturer and talking to him / her personally. No more moral burdening or social indebtedness should be placed on students to attend the scheduled contact facilitation sessions. The Setswana speaking student should be accompanied to feel and experience that s/he is unconditionally accepted and respected in his / her particular situation and locale. The Setswana speaking student should be able to feel and experience on a particularly deep interpersonal level the security that s/he has the right to belong to a particular off-campus education community (that is not only viewed as a communal society, but also managed as one). The University as service provider ought to create intimate, interactive spaces during scheduled contact facilitation sessions for all off-campus lecturers in order to afford their Setswana speaking students the opportunity to realise their ontic, social yearning for belonghesion. The Setswana speaking student experiences off-campus education as a process of social unity, as well as a social, communal learning community, together with his / her lecturers and fellow students. For this reason, scheduled contact facilitation sessions should be focusing (given the transactional nature of off-campus education) on communal, „perfect-fit education for us‟. Within a communal „perfect-fit‟ education community, the Setswana speaking student should be accompanied to adopt his / her reason for existence in the following manner: “We are, therefore I am.” Given the transactional nature of scheduled contact facilitation sessions (that should be focusing on transactional proximity, openness and sincerity within this communal „perfect-fit education for us‟) the Setswana speaking student does not wish the use of computer and internet technology to replace their ontic and socially cohesive, essential yearning for communal humanity and fellowship. It would seem that Setswana speaking students may not, necessarily, be less than ready for the implementation of ICT in their off-campus education programmes because they cannot afford it, but mainly because they do not yet regard computer and internet technology as part of their cultural furniture. Any attempt at implementing ICT in off-campus education should be considered and managed by universities with great circumspect, so that these students‟ social, ontic, and cohesively essential yearning and ever intensifying, deepening, socially-mutual attaching, fixative and reciprocally trusting attraction could be properly accounted for, and so that it may be managed satisfactorily on a curricular level. Off-campus education should, therefore, be based on the realisation of ontic „We-ness‟ where the members of this community continue to depend on each other and where the supply and delivery of off-campus education is constantly reformed and fine-tuned so that it may reflect an authentic collective learning community. Off-campus education should be focusing on a collectivist, communally searching, epistemological approach where human beings are constantly relating to their fellow human beings, playing different social roles and taking full responsibility for whatever may be needed to realise these students‟ off-campus studies successfully. / Thesis (Ph.D. (Education))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2011.

The problem being investigated in this thesis is to understand and explain why some Setswana speaking students in the ACE-programme for Life Orientation who have voluntarily registered for a decentralised off-campus education programme at the NWU, continue to demand personal, face-to-face communication with their lecturers during the course of their studies. „Off-campus education‟ (also known as „distance education‟ and / or „decentralised education‟) is usually implemented in an attempt to afford more students the opportunity to improve their qualifications and skills – especially in the case of those students who, for a variety of reasons, may not be in a position to enrol for fulltime contact training. Off-campus education could help to serve the divergent education-related needs of poor, less privileged, geographically isolated, difficult-to-reach and deep rural communities. It could also assist with the teaching and learning of new knowledge and skills as far as its integrated use of contemporary technological developments is concerned. Besides UNISA, the North-West University is at present the biggest supplier of off-campus education programmes to practising teachers in the country. Despite the exponential increase in educational and technological developments in the late 20th and early 21st century, information and communication technology – within a broader South African context – is still not within reach of all the NWU‟s off-campus education students. Recent attempts to integrate contact education principles in off-campus education, led to the development of the (well-known) hybrid, namely „flexi-education‟. Over the past seven years or so, this state of affairs has slowly developed to the point where the number of registered, off-campus African education students at the NWU who insist (despite paper-based, electronic and mobile learning support) on demanding personal, face-to-face contact with their lecturers, has increased rapidly. It would furthermore seem that the use of, for example, internet and communication technology is increasing the existing gap between the African education student and his / her lecturer. This growing gap has already resulted in some registered African education students feeling increasingly isolated. The problem with the use of ICT in off-campus education is understood by some as leading to a situation where the ICT being implemented may, one day soon, replace the lecturer during scheduled contact facilitation sessions. Should that happen, it could mean that interactive communication and the social presence of the lecturer during scheduled contact facilitation sessions may be compromised and even permanently forfeited. The available body of scholarship does not adequately address the perceptions of students with regard to the importance of (a) the temporal-spatial, simultaneous presence of their lecturers and (b) social interactions during scheduled contact facilitation sessions. From the available literature, it is also not clear: why some students may want to entertain and maintain such perceptions, what the attitude of students with regard to social interaction and the social presence of their lecturers might be, or what role ICT could be playing in the life-world of off-campus students in South Africa. In an attempt to solve this intellectual conundrum and with a view to effecting naturalistic generalisation (and not statistical generalisation) I have decided, in light of the above, to implement and follow a multi-analytical research design (mixed methods, multi-analysis design) (Onwuegbuzie et al., 2009: passim; 117). Instead of me seeking to generalise my own research findings, I have decided to leave it to my readers to generalise the findings from their own experiences in the past (Onwuegbuzie et al., 2009: 120). This approach represents a kind of „fuzzy generalisation‟ (Ekiz, 2006:73) in the sense that something that has happened in one place could just as well be demonstrated to have happened somewhere else as well (ibid.). I have, therefore, undertaken both a quantitative as well as qualitative study in order to understand why Setswana speaking education students in the ACE-programme in Life Orientation would continue to demand personal, face-to-face contact with their lecturers, despite all the teaching and learning support that they are offered along the way. I have completed my research on the basis of (and in view of) my research aims. The same applies to the data that I have managed to capture and interpret. On the basis of these data, certain strategic guidelines for effective education in off-campus education programmes for practising teachers have then been drafted. My most important research findings include: Off-campus education is purposively delivered to the client, e.g. to the Setswana speaking student in his / her natural surroundings. Off-campus education should strive to care for the student and his / her contextualised needs. An authentic encounter between the off-campus lecturer and student should be allowed to take place. These encountering opportunities could assist in liberating the Setswana speaking student from all moral and ethical obligation of having to meet his / her lecturer and talking to him / her personally. No more moral burdening or social indebtedness should be placed on students to attend the scheduled contact facilitation sessions. The Setswana speaking student should be accompanied to feel and experience that s/he is unconditionally accepted and respected in his / her particular situation and locale. The Setswana speaking student should be able to feel and experience on a particularly deep interpersonal level the security that s/he has the right to belong to a particular off-campus education community (that is not only viewed as a communal society, but also managed as one). The University as service provider ought to create intimate, interactive spaces during scheduled contact facilitation sessions for all off-campus lecturers in order to afford their Setswana speaking students the opportunity to realise their ontic, social yearning for belonghesion. The Setswana speaking student experiences off-campus education as a process of social unity, as well as a social, communal learning community, together with his / her lecturers and fellow students. For this reason, scheduled contact facilitation sessions should be focusing (given the transactional nature of off-campus education) on communal, „perfect-fit education for us‟. Within a communal „perfect-fit‟ education community, the Setswana speaking student should be accompanied to adopt his / her reason for existence in the following manner: “We are, therefore I am.” Given the transactional nature of scheduled contact facilitation sessions (that should be focusing on transactional proximity, openness and sincerity within this communal „perfect-fit education for us‟) the Setswana speaking student does not wish the use of computer and internet technology to replace their ontic and socially cohesive, essential yearning for communal humanity and fellowship. It would seem that Setswana speaking students may not, necessarily, be less than ready for the implementation of ICT in their off-campus education programmes because they cannot afford it, but mainly because they do not yet regard computer and internet technology as part of their cultural furniture. Any attempt at implementing ICT in off-campus education should be considered and managed by universities with great circumspect, so that these students‟ social, ontic, and cohesively essential yearning and ever intensifying, deepening, socially-mutual attaching, fixative and reciprocally trusting attraction could be properly accounted for, and so that it may be managed satisfactorily on a curricular level. Off-campus education should, therefore, be based on the realisation of ontic „We-ness‟ where the members of this community continue to depend on each other and where the supply and delivery of off-campus education is constantly reformed and fine-tuned so that it may reflect an authentic collective learning community. Off-campus education should be focusing on a collectivist, communally searching, epistemological approach where human beings are constantly relating to their fellow human beings, playing different social roles and taking full responsibility for whatever may be needed to realise these students‟ off-campus studies successfully. / Thesis (Ph.D. (Education))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2011.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-08-03T12:31:13Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Katia Perez.pdf: 1252060 bytes, checksum: 206ad077341f3b413fa28fc6381ba825 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010-04-20 / Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico / The organizational grapevine has been studied since the World War II in the United States. In Brazil, this communication process has gained prominence in late 1970 with the labor movements looking for democratic forms of communication during the military regime. The formal face-to-face communication began to be practiced in organizations in the mid-1990s with the arrival of new models of international business management. Based on the study of both grapevine and formal face-to-face communication, by bibliographic research and in-depth interviews with academics and professionals from different fields of knowledge, it was possible to describe their histories, attributes and roles in organizations nowadays, and how these two forms of face-to-face communication (formal and informal) interact with each other, according to personal or organizational interests.(AU) / A rádio-peão é estudada nos Estados Unidos desde o período pós II Guerra Mundial. No Brasil, este processo comunicacional ganhou relevância no final da década de 1970 com os movimentos operários que buscavam formas democráticas de diálogo, durante o regime militar. Já a comunicação formal face a face começou a ser praticada nas organizações brasileiras em meados dos anos 1990, com a chegada de novos modelos internacionais de gestão empresarial. Ao estudar estes dois formatos de comunicação, através de pesquisas bibliográfica e documental e entrevistas semi-abertas com acadêmicos e profissionais de mercado de diferentes áreas de conhecimento e atuação, foi possível um aprofundamento acerca de suas histórias, atributos e papéis desempenhados hoje, nas organizações, além de como essas formas de comunicação face a face (formal e informal) interagem entre si, de acordo com interesses pessoais ou organizacionais.(AU)