IEES

 EcoEng Newsletter No. 9, June 2004
 

News from myNetWorks.org - summer 2004

 

By Andreas Schoenborn and Marcia A. Pereira
myNetWorks Community Managers

URL myNetWorks: http://www.mynetworks.org
 

What happened in the last 8 months
  The project "myNetWorks" has now reached a consolidation phase. We got a good start with our two first full-fledged courses in November / December 2003. Since then, our online activities have continued in a reduced pace:
  • Public live chats were conducted monthly on topics interesting for Ecological Engineers (the next one will take place on Friday, June 25 from 11:00-12:00 UTC/GMT on the "Development of an International Ecological Engineering Institute IEEI")
  • A course on "Impact Monitoring and Assessment" was carried out in April/May 2004
  • The number of members has reached 440 in June 2004"
  • A second course on "Sustainable Aquacultures" was planned for June 2004 but had to be postponed, due to too few registrations

In the background, a lot of work was completed. A business plan was developed in March and April. myNetWorks was presented at the ICT4D fair at Geneva in December 2003 and at the SDC "dare-to-share-fair" in Bern, March 2004. At these occasions, heavy networking activities took place that lead to a number of interesting contacts. The software of myNetWorks was improved, e.g. by including a groupware tool. And last but not least, the manual for course managers was completed.
 

Planning for 2004
 

Three more courses are planned for the fall of 2004:

  • the successful course "Ecological Sanitation" will be repeated in October or November 2004. The date hasn't been fixed yet
  • the postponed course "Sustainable Aquacultures" will take place in September 2004 - the exact date still needs to be fixed
  • a course on "e-moderation" (moderation of online courses and communities of practice) will be carried out at the end of 2004. This course will be accessible to SDC collaborators only, but it may be repeated later for interested myNetWorks community members.

myNetWorks will also be presented at two conferences this fall:

In September of 2004, Andreas Schoenborn will present myNetWorks at the 33rd International Symposium "Local Identity, Global Awareness - Engineering Education Today" at the University of Applied Sciences of Western Switzerland at Fribourg, Switzerland (http://www.eif.ch/symposium04/).

Also in September 2004, Marcia A. Pereira will present myNetWorks at the 6th International Conference on New Educational Environments ICNEE in Neuchâtel, Switzerland (http://www.icnee.ch/).
 

myNetWorks as tool for Ecological Engineering education
 

We want to promote the use of myNetWorks for university courses in the area of Ecological Engineering and Sustainable Environmental Technology. Why shouldn't every student who does a degree in Ecological Engineering be a member by the end of his/her studies?

University courses and seminars could benefit from the input of external experts provided via mynetworks. Graduates would be able to draw from a network of practitioners from the very beginning of their careers and benefit from the continued education courses offered there later. A first trial to set up a blended learning course (using myNetWorks as addition to a face to face course) will be run in the fall of this year by Johannes Heeb at the University of Basel, Switzerland.

There is also a working group on "Ecological Engineering Curricula Development" in myNetWorks. Its goal is the development of a joint curriculum for the schools involved in it. If you are interested in taking part, please contact:

Dr. Johannes Heeb:

URL myNetWorks: http://www.mynetworks.org
 

© 2004, International Ecological Engineering Society, Wolhusen, Switzerland