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[xmca] Andy's visit to Wits School of Education Johannesburg February 2011

Hi guys,

Just to bring you up to speed about the spinoffs of XMCA.

Patrick Jaki and I invited Andy (Blunden) to come and visit the Wits School
of Education to teach us more about Activity Theory, and also in some
detail, Vygotsky.  Andy could only come for a fortnight because of his other
responsibilities, but we loved having him, and learned a great deal from
him. We need to thank the Head of our School, Ruksana Osman for funding the
visit.

Andy flew in from Melbourne on the 13th February and we had a celebratory
coffee at the airport.  He came to stay with me (Carol) for the duration of
the visit. He did more work for us (School, Faculty & Public) in the
fortnight than most people do in a month.  This was his programme of
seminars:

1. The Mind from Descartes to Hegel
2. Marx and Modernity: Mind, Culture and Activity
3. Vygotsky and the Concept of Consciousness
4. Is Science a Humanity?
5. Units and Motives in Activity Theory
6. Projects and the Problem of Context
7. Vygotsky's Theory of Child Development

All these presentations may be downloaded from Andy's home page, and he also
went off back to Oz with the video versions which I think he will upload in
some form for XMCA. Now his latest book "An Interdisciplinary Theory of
Activity"  makes a great deal more sense to a developmental psycholinguist
like me.

We would publicly like to thank Andy for all the work he put in on our
behalf. I hope to personally collaborate with Andy in some writing.

.... And this all started because (Patrick) Jaki and I found Andy so
amenable and helpful as a member of XMCA.  When I introduced Andy at the
first talk, I said that when Jaki and I were stuck on a point we would "Ask
Andy", and that although he *does* claim to sleep sometimes, we were
guaranteed an answer in a matter of minutes. And he didn't say "What kind of
dumb question is that? ... Haven't you read...?"

So, you thousands of lurkers, come on out....

Take a bow, XMCA.
Carol

-- 
WORK as:
Visiting Lecturer
Wits School of Education
HOME (please use these details)
6 Andover Road
Westdene
Johannesburg 2092
+27 (0)11 673 9265   +27 (0)82 562 1050
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