#NMMUWalk - Putting the ‘social’ back into ‘social media’

By guest blogger: Khanyisa Melwa

The advent of social media has completely changed the way we interact and engage with one another. Filters and hashtags have become somewhat of a lingua franca. As millennials, we are often referred to as hyper-taskers and our teenagers are now screenagers. We live in the information age, an age where one chooses to be ignorant as information is readily available with a click of a button.

With this in mind, it was quite refreshing to be a part of an event that puts the ‘social’ back into social media. I’m talking about the first #NMMUWalk that was hosted by Cityofpe together with the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU) on Tuesday evening.

The #NMMUWalk is essentially an Instawalk (Instagram Walk) which is about getting the community together to take pictures of our beautiful city/campuses and share them on Instagram. It’s an opportunity for people to get to meet the people behind the Instagram accounts and interact with them on a human level. “It’s about growing the community, that’s our emphasis” says Joshua Terry, one third of Cityofpe. The community in this case, was the NMMU community.

The walk began at Madibaz Café, with some quick treats, because you know – food. Whilst enjoying the delicacies, I couldn’t help but feel like an amateur (which I am) when I heard these guys and girls talk about their lenses and cool cameras. Canon 550D’s, ISO’s and Insta-lenses were the order of the day. Did you guys even know Insta-lenses existed? I didn’t. Apparently some company in Cape Town manufactures these, a pretty nifty gadget for you iPhone users.

Our Instawalkers at the kraal.

We then missioned down to the kraal to begin our expedition, in search for the coolest shots of our beautiful campus. Bar the odd selfie here and there, our Instawalkers achieved this with aplomb, as a plethora of beautiful pictures of the campus can be seen under the hashtag - #NMMUWalk on Instagram.

River Leask doing a 'RiverJump'

What was even more interesting was how 25 completely different students, with everyone studying different courses and from different backgrounds could come together for a new experience and enjoy it so much. We all came to take pictures of a beautiful campus and share these on Instagram but the bi-product of this was that friends and connections were made and for some, followers were gained.

Barriers were transcended at the #NMMUWalk; people you would normally speak to over an app using a smartphone were now standing right next to you taking the very pictures that would leave you awestruck on Instagram. Not only that, but societal barriers were also dismantled, this was evidenced by the diversity of the students present. This goes to show how social media – which is famous for rendering active-users as anti-social can now be used as a socializing agent, which can only bode well for social cohesion in our beautiful country.

It’s really cool to know that we go to a university that encourages creativity, diversity and a vibrant student life. Kudos to the lads from Cityofpe for hosting this event with NMMU, I hope this was the first of many.

Photo: Stuart William Black aka Crazyninja88 on Instagram

Farewell Jacques!

RIP Jacques Wessels - a special NMMU employee

At 6am this morning I received a WhatsApp informing me of the passing of a very special colleague, Jacques Wessels – a special person indeed! Deputy Director of Facilities Planning in the department of ICT Services, former Chairperson of NMMU’s NTEU branch and National President of the same union. But most of all – one helluva guy.

Jacques had fought a long and arduous battle with the dreaded cancer but until very recently, you would never have even known that. When someone passes away, there is always a flood of niceties and condolence messages of how great the person was. In this case – they are 100% deserved.

Guest blogger Bev Erickson

I got to know Jacques back in the day – not quite of the rinderpest era – but a long time ago. He had a work ethic of note, superior intelligence and was so very eloquent (best I make sure there are no spelling errors in this blog as he would not approve!)

To quote his special friend and colleague Grant Abbott, “Jacques was a giant of a man who never shied away from confronting every issue he faced head-on. He put others first before himself even to the very end”.

His ICT colleagues will testify to his dedication and commitment to his work and his NTEU colleagues, to his other work – helping and protecting staff members as National President of the union. There were many hours, days and weeks spent in meetings, negotiating with management about conditions of service, salaries etc. – Jacques always remained a gentleman and earned the absolute respect of the management team

Those damn printers! Sorry Jacques – but I just had to raise it.

A few years back an “imaging landscape” was proposed for NMMU and Jacques was the head honcho of this project. “We need to save the university money by installing shared printers in departments instead of individual ones”. I have cursed you every day since Jacques – every time that printer doesn’t spit out my work – even after five trips to the printing room. But he knew it was the right thing to do. Maybe I’ll look at that printer with a little more respect from now on.

I remember when he was struggling with his health and he built a bar in his home - all by himself. I watched the progress on Facebook and told him that I’d be joining him for a tequila at that bar when it was finished. He finished the bar. I never got to drink the tequila with him. Tonight I drink that tequila – to you my friend – the great man you were – to your wife Heloise, your daughter Inge, your family, your friends, your colleagues and everyone whose life you touched.

The footprints you have left in our hearts will never be washed away.

Rest in peace Jacques – you deserve to be free now.

Is this you? A tech-savvy, future-focused, mature Millennial …

Colour blurs with today's Millennials

I’m confused. I’m a Baby Boomer, born after the Second World, who inherited many of the traits of that generation. We’re self-starters; mostly independent and responsible for ourselves. We get on and do.

Now meet the Millennials – today’s student generation, aged 18 to 34. Who are you?

At Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU), you are our number one stakeholder, or to put it very simply, the reason why we exist. Without students, we would not be here.

And so it’s pretty darn important that the old-timers among us (the Baby Boomers, the Silent Generation before us and Generation X after us) understand just what makes you tick.

If I have done my research correctly, you’re pretty chilled when it comes to gender (blurring), modern families, race and with living alongside gran and gramps.

You believe in causes; endeavour to be ethical; are mature; seek solutions and sustainable values.

But you also, if what the experts are saying is true, like to set yourself apart with your lifestyle, the way you dress and even where and when you go on holiday. You like to volunteer and share, be it online or materially. This comes naturally to you.

You aren’t in a hurry to marry or have children and you have developed some excellent life skills just because of the period in which you have lived (a recession).

The Millennials or Generation Y  are set on seeking solutions

What amazes me most about you, however, is your ability to handle technology, lots of it, all at once. You can use five screens; think in 4D and not just multi-task, but hyper-task. Apparently, the latter has seen your brains evolve to process more information at even greater speeds.

Now that’s fairly frightening for someone who methodically likes to do one thing at a time, but we’re willing to try to understand you. Furthermore, I’d like to vouch that the Baby Boomer Generation and Generation X (aged 34 to 54) are all at pains to meet your needs (you are, after all, either in or about to enter the workplace and earn the stuff that makes the world go around - money).

So we’ll be trying to reach and inspire you as marketers by:

· Talking to you in images

· Keeping our communication tight and bright

· Talking to you as adults

· Tapping into your entrepreneurial spirit (come on, we want to help you find solutions to all the stuff we messed up – like our environment)

· Feeding your curiosity and

· Asking for your guidance

Yes, I am asking for your guidance. How do we connect with your generation?

We need your help in marketing to Millennials

Will Instagram and Twitter do it? Or should we showcasing the good deeds of NMMU – the outreach programmes that see borderline maths pupils pass with a distinction for Matric maths or our involvement in seeking renewable energy solutions. Or what? What can we do to ensure that NMMU becomes a university of first choice?

Tell us. Show us. Please be part of sharing the NMMU success story.

And end my confusion.

It’s Kit Kat time at NMMU

We're taking a break!

We’ve tucked into a Kit Kat, hauled out the slops and slapped on the sun tan lotion. Yes, the life@nmmu blog is taking a breather. We’re taking a break, and eating the proverbial Kit Kat.

It won’t be for too long, but long enough for us to unwind, relax and recharge the batteries that keep us going throughout 2014.

And we’ll be reflecting too, recalling the good times and bad and generally taking stock of all that has happened in the past 365 days.

Such as:

• All our green advances in technology, like the wind turbines and solar phone charging units

• Our staff and students who achieved internationally, like Vice-Chancellor’s Scholars Amy-Rose Westcott, who was the world’s top achiever in the Cambridge International Advanced Subsidiary Levels maths exam. She beat 69 000 others around the globe
• 
  
• Former SRC President Yusuf Cassim becoming the youngest member of Parliament in the history of South Africa at just 24 years old

• The incredible number of building projects undertaken, including completion of Africa’s first “green” public building, the R116m Business School 

• Growing interest in NMMU’s future medical school, which is being established in a “bottom-up approach” 

• News of a future maritime faculty for NMMU

There will also be a chance to focus on our future … and for NMMU; much of it will include our 10-year anniversary celebrations in 2015.

So till then, life@nmmu wishes you a blessed festive season and looks forward to connecting with you again in the New Year.

Thank you for your continued support.

Planes, flying dinosaurs and feathered “cameramen”

HIGH FLYERS ... NMMU marketing and corporate relations staff flew to Sun City today for the Marketing, Advancement and Communication in Education (MACE) Conference.

By Guest Blogger (Nicky Willemse)

A whole bunch of staff from Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University’s marketing and corporate relations team boarded the 6.10am flight to Joburg this morning, en route to Sun City for this year’s Marketing, Advancement and Communication in Education (MACE) Conference.

One of them was particularly nervous about the flight, which got me thinking about flying in general. I’m super-relaxed about flying (I even enjoy a bit of turbulence) but it does still baffle me that these massive machines are able to defy gravity and travel through the sky.

Though I write dozens of articles about science, my brain is more wired to English than engineering, and the technology that enables man to fly is nothing short of a modern miracle (well, to me, at least).

While I was contemplating modern flight, I couldn’t help calling to mind an article I wrote recently on ancient flight – or, rather, one of the earliest fliers – which one of NMMU’s scientists recently helped to put back in the sky.

Archaeopteryx, a 150-million-year-old prehistoric bird, was long thought to be the first flying bird. A fossil of the bird was discovered in Germany way back in 1861. It had feathers similar to a bird, but teeth, claws and a long bony tail like a reptile, so was widely accepted as evidence of the evolutionary transition from reptiles to birds.

But then in 2010, two British scientists produced a paper which said the early bird couldn’t fly after all. They said its main feather shaft would have been too weak for powered flight.

But NMMU’s Prof Theagarten “Solly” Lingham-Soliar, a biomechanist-palaeontologist, has put paid to this theory. He believes the foam core (essentially air-filled cells) that forms the central shaft of all flight feathers in birds was crucial to the increased strength of the feather shafts in Archaeopteryx, which were slightly thinner than those of modern birds.

“The principle of the foam is to take bending stresses but without the weight of a solid … Mechanical tests by many of the top physicists, including most recently, German scientists Ingrid Weiss and Helmet Kirchner [from the Liebniz Institute of New Materials in Saarbrucken, Germany] show that the foam core absorbs 96% of the load (buckling) imposed on the feather during flight.

“It probably wouldn’t have been the best of fliers but rather shows the beginnings of flight,” said the Prof.

So Archaeopteryx has recaptured the sky once again.

Archaeopteryx, the early bird that theorists in 2010 said couldn't fly. 

This got me thinking about modern birds and how scientists are conducting research related to their flight.

NMMU’s Dr Pierre Pistorius, a senior lecturer in Zoology, is running a long-term monitoring programme on the Cape gannets on Bird Island. As part of this project, tiny video cameras have been attached onto the backs of the birds to see how they observe and interact with their environment.

He hopes the video footage will enable a better understanding of these birds, and also provide some insight into why this particular population of Cape gannets (which is the largest population of this species in the world) is growing, while other populations are declining.

So scientists are able to tag along for the flight, thanks to this cutting edge technology.

Planes, the first bird, modern technology wired up to modern birds … all pretty amazing really.

Where will flight be a century from now? And how will scientists be conducting research relating to flight? Just the thought of all this, and the possibilities that no doubt are just waiting to be discovered, baffles this non-engineering mind even more!

Cape gannets on Bird Island

Interview with a visionary Xhosa Chief

VISIONARY LEADER … Chief Ngwenyathi Dumalisile of Shixini Great Place (second, from right), leader of the Amajingqi Traditional Council in the Willowvale area, former Transkei, visited NMMU recently to discuss projects in his area supported by the university. He is joined by (from left) Vice-Chancellor Prof Derrick Swartz, Centre for Community Technology’s Prof Darelle van Greunen and former Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Engagement and Research Prof Thoko Mayekiso.

By Guest Blogger (Nicky Willemse)

I'M a city girl. Besides my place of birth (the small town of Bindura in Zimbabwe), I’ve always lived and worked in cities – sometimes massive ones, including London, Istanbul and Cairo.

But one of the things I’ve noticed about cities is that the people who live there often think they’re a cut above those who live in “dorpies” or villages in more rural areas. They think they’re more sophisticated, cleverer, that they know better. They sometimes forget the rich values, the sense of Ubuntu, the togetherness that is usually more prevalent in places where communities are more tight-knit. They forget that one of the world’s greatest leaders came from the small village of Qunu.

At the end of October, I had the privilege of interviewing Chief Ngwenyathi Dumalisile of Shixini Great Place, a leader within the Xhosa Royal Kingdom and of the Amajingqi Traditional Council Chief, which oversees 22 villages in the Willowvale area in the former Transkei.

You can hardly get more rural than this. The nearest bank is 90 minutes away and you can only access this area by 4x4.

I had heard the Chief was a visionary, but I was in absolute awe of what he has managed to achieve.

He is determined to make his people part of the global village – and is doing this through a visionary plan for “rural-based industrialisation”.

It is not industrialisation in the urban sense (there won’t be any factories going up) – but rather getting the 22 villages wired up to the latest technology, boosting education in the one high and seven primary schools and harnessing the area’s potential for tourism.

It’s a long-term plan, and he’s partnering with a number of stakeholders to do so, including government, parastatals and NGOs. A key partner is Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU), with whom he has signed a Memorandum of Understanding for research and engagement opportunities.

The result of this partnership has been the establishment of the area’s first ICT Resource Centre. It has 14 tablet PCs, all online, and computer literacy training has been introduced at the eight schools in the area. The Chief’s parents are learning how to do their banking online and the Chief himself conducts meetings on Skype on his tablet.

Thirty teachers in the area have also received skills upgrades in maths and science from NMMU’s Govan Mbeki Mathematics Development Unit, which has developed a high-tech teaching and learning model, available on laptops for teachers and tablets for learners.

There’s even been a careers exhibition (hosted by NMMU), which was attended by 900 pupils in the area – and the Chief’s son is a student at NMMU.

It’s no secret that he values education. In fact, he says: “Education is the engine of true liberation.”

There are other projects too, including the investigation of natural resources in the area and the potential for tourism development (and, most recently, the development of a mobile tourism app), the establishment of a website to highlight the history of the area and also a beading project, to be marketed on line.

He has managed to achieve great things in a place most of us have never heard of. He’s achieving what many would have considered impossible. He is sowing into his people, building them up.

I have met few urban leaders as sophisticated, clever or visionary as Chief Dumalisile – and can only wish that more people like him would emerge in both rural and urban areas throughout our country.

Imagine the change – in values, in education, in everything.

TRADITIONAL DRESS … Some of the elders who accompanied him on his visit.

Soapbox … let them vent

Once upon a time (and still today in Hyde Park, London) people would stand in the middle of the village square and have their say amid those willing to listen.

It’s this concept of “having your say” that Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University has adapted to the needs of the 21st century, but with one small change.

NMMU’s SOAPBOX is anonymous.

Whereas yesteryear when you literally stood on a box to be seen by anyone who might be interested and possibly face their abuse too, NMMU’s version allows you to have your say without anyone ever knowing who you are!

Yes, it’s a safe, anonymous online platform for sharing by our staff and students.

You can say what you need to say without fear of prejudice.

Today, far too few people are prepared to publicly blurt out what angers or ails them, and so all their angst, irritations and hurts get swopped in the hushed gossip in office corridors, rarely reaching those who might be able to amend the negatives.

And so enter SOAPBOX, an electronic system that forwards the moans, groans, ideas and praises of staff and students to those who need to hear to them without the individual’s name ever being known. Not even the administrator of our SOAPBOX knows who the sender is.

SOAPBOX is an internal tool that gives people the opportunity to offload, and while we occasional receive a note of praise or suggestion for improving something on our six campuses or for our 27 000 students, the bulk of the contributions are complaints.

Here’s an insight to some of the latest offerings on SOAPBOX (because it’s on view for all to see – just like the individual in the village square of yesteryear).

anon | 07/10/2014 07:31:33
re "What's wrong with the Mr and Ms NMMU 2014/15 communique photo??"

Seriously?! Very "representative" group of students!!
REPLY:
I'm afraid the finalists can only be chosen from among those who enter.

EditDeleteRejectReport abuse


NO TOILET PAPER IN THE LIBRARY.
There was no toilet paper in the gents toilet in the basement in the library. Does the university expect students to use their hands?? This is really bad. Please fix it. We as students expect nothing but superior service our counter parts are receiving

REPLY:
Not sure what you mean. It looks fine to us?

EditDeleteRejectReport abuse


anon | 06/10/2014 11:34:49
Just want to say thanks for replying on the marine drive being closed for entrance in the evenings. Will the gate be available for access in afternoon after the upgrades?

EditDeleteRejectReport abuse


anon | 03/10/2014 09:14:55
Our "new democracy" is perpetuating a "culture" of misplaced self-importance!


We don’t mind that most of the feedback is complaints - about toilets, potholes, lack of packing, slack lecturers, lack of transformation, rude treatment etc – because we have the know-how and ability to channel them to the relevant parties to try to make good.

After all, if someone does not alert you to an issue, how are you supposed to fix it?

Isn't it better to take those moans, groans and rumblings to those responsible and aim for constructive improvement than to see them constantly circulate at the water foundation, tea table or office corridors without possibility of resolution?

And besides, it is also important to give people a place to offload … it makes us feel better just to share something with someone who is listening.

So yes, let’s vent … (but let’s also fix those complaints).

Staying connected ... onboard

The trip takes 50 minutes. That’s 50 minutes for sleeping, 50 minutes for chatting, 50 minutes for reading, 50 minutes for worrying, 50 minutes for watching Port Elizabeth pass by …

From tomorrow – Friday 22 August – however, passengers will be able to add 50 minutes of free Wi-Fi into the mix.

That’s as it’s going to be for Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU) students who use the Blunden bus service from our Missionvale Campus to our Second, North and South campuses in Summerstrand and back again. That’s 50 minutes plus 50 minutes each day – time that can now be spent productively (or unproductively) online.

NMMU students Jamie Wilke (left) and Simone Brewis use the free Wi-Fi on Blunden Buses with owner Shaun Blunden

In a first for Port Elizabeth, Blunden Buses is going to give its passenger free access to Wi-Fi, starting with a pilot project on the 60-seater bus they use to transport our students across the city.

“We want to add value to our passengers. Who uses Wi-Fi the most? Students. That’s why we’re starting with them,” says company owner Shaun Blunden.

NMMU already offers free Wi-Fi on all its campuses.

Once the month-long pilot project is completed, all 76 buses in the Blunden fleet will offer free Wi-Fi.

This will include the 18 buses (from 22 to 60-seater vehicles) that service NMMU students across the city from 6.30am to 10pm daily.

“I can’t wait to see the students’ faces tomorrow morning,” says Shaun, whose company’s involvement with the university started with two buses in 2006.

Next year, the family business plans to launch a mobile app that will enable students to establish the whereabouts of each of its campus-to-campus hopper buses.

  

A first for PE - free Wi-Fi on Blunden's buses