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



Hi Carol--

Thanks for the note about Andy's visit.

I would be curious to know what sorts of questions and issues the SA
audience posed?
What issues were at the top of THEIR agendas? We are sufficiently insular
that it would be nice to hear how issues we discuss here play out around
you.
mike

On Wed, Mar 9, 2011 at 9:15 AM, Carol Macdonald <carolmacdon@gmail.com>wrote:

> 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
> __________________________________________
> _____
> xmca mailing list
> xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
> http://dss.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/xmca
>
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