[kictanet] [ke-internetusers] ICDL and foreign certifications forbasiccomputer usage

Wed Dec 2 17:45:07 EAT 2009

Lets get it right the University teaches the basics the rest is for the student to find out "I give you the power to read and do al that 

appertains to this degree" not "with this degree thou shall be able to develop an erp system".

Many of us did out computer applications 101 on amstrad computers and apples, yet because we got good grounding you are able to quickly learn and utilise any new application be it wordstar, wordperfect, word or open office.

A driving school does not teach night driving or how to get out of mad, they give you the basics and you pick the rest, so lets stop throwing stones when we leave in glass houses.

Regards

Robert Yawe

KAY System Technologies Ltd

Phoenix House, 6th Floor

P O Box 55806 Nairobi, 00200

Kenya

Tel: +254722511225, +254202010696

--- On Wed, 2/12/09, DAI <svarrer at digitalageinstitute.com> wrote:

From: DAI <svarrer at digitalageinstitute.com>
Subject: Re: [ke-internetusers] ICDL and foreign certifications forbasiccomputer usage
To: "Alex Gakuru" <gakuru at gmail.com>, bitange at jambo.co.ke
Cc: "robert yawe" <robertyawe at yahoo.co.uk>, ke-internetusers-bounces at bdix.net, "Evans Ikua" <ikua.evans at gmail.com>, "ke-users" <ke-internetusers at bdix.net>
Date: Wednesday, 2 December, 2009, 10:54

Dear all, 

There is a danger in involving a standardisation organisation such as 
KEBS who deals with product standards and other fixed standards in anything 
which deals with rapidly developing standards. 

Kenya is currently suffering from the misconception that ICT education can 
be standardised in terms of the content. Therefore, some braindead universities 
are still living in the mid-1990's, while offering ICT-educations not even worth 
the paper they are distributed on. They are - however - able to defend their 
backwardness, in that it is standard !!!! 

Thus, many universities teach Waterfall Model as development model for 
Software, even though that model died hard more than a decade ago after 
numerous billion dollar scandals.

Standards in terms of software development which actually reinvents itself 
almost every 5th year, shall deal with the standards on a meta level, and KEBS 
is not in gear at all, to handle such a challenge.

Let me be concrete: You can standardise software development by saying that 
there shall be planning processes. You can for instance carefully talk about the 
V-model for project development - but making it standard would kill the 
universities once again. They would now think "V-Model" every time they talk 
project development, instead of just thinking about what should be used !!

You can standardise by specifying that a certain way of looking at software 
production can be beneficiary. But don't make it standard. You are at high risk 
of locking into our educational system a smart, modern, well thought out model, 
which unfortunately turns into a dinosaur after only few years because of that 
better systems have evolved.

Therefore - Software Development IS a scientific area because of that it 
develops so very very fast. Therefore one cannot lock the standards down in 
heavy documents and books, but should rather standardise the framework in which 
the standards can be recorded.

In our little institute, we revise our educational material annually, and 
rest assured that we are some times changing up to 40% of the content - the 
market is changing that rapidly, and if we don't follow suit, we will not 
maintain our position, ahead of the crowd.

Therefore - please stay clear of standardisation organisations when we 
discuss software, unless you are ready to re-standardise some every 3-4th 
year.

Kind regards
Digital Age Institute Ltd.
David Svarrer

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: 
  Alex Gakuru 

  To: bitange at jambo.co.ke 
  Cc: robert yawe ; ke-internetusers-bounces at bdix.net 
  ; Evans 
  Ikua ; ke-users ; DAI 
  Sent: Wednesday, December 02, 2009 1:21 
  PM
  Subject: Re: [ke-internetusers] ICDL and 
  foreign certifications forbasiccomputer usage

Asante Dr. Ndemo for scheduled meeting with KASNEB.

I am 
  actually typing this message from Kenya Bureau of Standards where
I have 
  been attending a Technical Committee ("TC") meeting all
morning. 
  Incidentally, KEBS would be very interested in partnering
with KASNEB on an 
  ICT Standards examinable course( eg e-Learning,
Security, software, 
  telecommunication, etc).

Daktari, kindly share this with KASNEB 
  CEO?

regards,

Alex

On Wed, Dec 2, 2009 at 12:59 PM,  
  <bitange at jambo.co.ke> 
  wrote:
> Robert,
> I am meeting with KASNEB next week to consider 
  a local equivalent syllabus. Before we started CPA locally, we had to contend 
  with ACCA for some time. Bottom line we need standards now as we move into 
  more IT enabled services. Our prospective customers need the standards to 
  gauge from where we are starting.
>
> I understand all you are 
  saying although it is a challenge for us to start being more patriotic in all 
  our endeavors.
>
> Regards
>
> Ndemo.
> Sent 
  from my BlackBerry®
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: 
  robert yawe <robertyawe at yahoo.co.uk>
> 
  Date: Wed, 2 Dec 2009 09:10:11
> To: Evans Ikua<ikua.evans at gmail.com>; 
  ke-users<ke-internetusers at bdix.net>; 
  DAI<svarrer at digitalageinstitute.com>
> 
  Subject: Re: [ke-internetusers] ICDL and foreign certifications for
> 
  basiccomputer usage
>
> 
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> ke-internetusers at bdix.net
> 
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>
>
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