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  Name: Dr Craig Blewett
Email Address: blewett@ukzn.ac.za
Work Phone: +27 (0)31 260 2161
Campus: Westville
Personal website: http://www.craigblewett.com

I am a Senior Lecturer at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, in the Discipline of Information Systems & Technology. I have been involved in Higher Education for the past 20 years and I have a keen interest in the convergence of Educational theory and Technological platforms. I am currently lecturing postgrad courses in Computer Mediated Communication (1st Semester) and Special Topics (2nd Semester). Both of these courses make extensive use of Web 2.0 technologies either as part of the course content and/or as part of the supporting teaching approach. The Special Topics course was the first course offered in South Africa that was entirely virtual and involved international lecturers and international virtual teams.

I am one of the founders and Lead Researcher of the NextEd programme, which seeks to facilitate the development of a worldwide virtual collaborative educational network. There is little doubt that Web 2.0 environments will be used more and more for education in the future, as such I spend increasing amounts of my time engaging students in these virtual environments through a variety of personas from the “real” Craig Blewett through to IM, Twitter etc IDs of craigblewett, to the virtual persona Cee Beattie. 

My primary research area is the application of technology, and more specifically Web2.0 technology, to learning and business. 

Research Publications, Awards & Media Publicity.

 

  Books
Erwin G.J., and Blewett C.N. (First print 1996, reprinted 1998) Business Computing: An African Perspective, Juta and Company Ltd., Cape Town, South Africa.

Erwin G.J., and Blewett C.N. (1998) Computing for a Small Business, Juta and Company Ltd., Cape Town, South Africa. 

            Awards

- IBM Faculty Award 2008 for "outstanding faculty" and "innovative, collaborative research"
- Best Paper Award, SACLA Conference, July 2009
- Best Paper Award, SACLA Conference, July 2003
- Most Innovative Presentation, SACLA Conference, July 2003
- Best Paper in Information Technology in Developing Countries Track, 32nd annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences

            Media Publicity
Innovation Award - UKZNdaba
UKZN First centre to use IBM-SA Second Life Platform
Virtual University wins innovation award
Virtual University wins R1.3 million grant

        Journals and Conference Papers. 

 

Authors/ Title

Publication/ Conference

 Year
 37

C. Blewett: Discovering water - A fish's view of e-learning tools.

5th Annual University Teaching and Learning Conference, UKZN, Westville, 26-28 September

2011
 36 C. Blewett, R. Quilling & T. Shea:The Search for the Educational iTopia 4th Annual Emerging Technologies for Online Learning International Symposium, a joint symposium of Sloan-C and MERLOT, San Jose, California, 11-13 July.  2011
 35
R. Quilling, C. S. Price & C. Blewett: UKZN third year IS software development teams: Looking back in order to look forwards
Southern African Computer Lecturers' Association Conference (SACLA 2011), Ballito, 6-8 July.  2011
 34 R. Quilling, C. Blewett & M. Hughes: Transforming ICT4D through Web 2.0 12 Annual Conference on World Wide Web Applications, 21-23 September, 2010 - Paper Pending Review  2010
 33 Z. Bulbulia, C. Blewett, R. Quilling & P. Kanyiwamuyu: The effectiveness of virtual teams on multi-country collaborative learning Teaching & Learning Conference, 20 - 22 September 2010 - Paper Pending Review  2010
 32  Z. Bulbulia, C. Blewett & R. Quilling: The Effectiveness of Platform Appropriate Web 2.0 Tools on User Security Education 9th Annual ISSA Conference, 2-4 August 2010 - Paper Pending Review  2010
 31 T. Shea, P. Sherer, R. Quilling & C. Blewett: Twitter as an Emerging Technology for Business School Students: Learning and Engagement in a Cross Cultural Environment Proceedings of 17th EDINEB Conference, June 9-11, 2010, Thames Valley University, London UK  2010 
 30 R. Quilling, C. Blewett, T. Shea, D. Lewis, P. Kanyiwamuyu & M. Maharaj: NextEd: an Ubun2.0 paradigm for technology enabled higher education 5th International Conference on ICT for Development, Education and Training, e-Learning Africa 2010, Zambia, May 26-28, 2010.
 2010
 29 Crose Quible (C. Blewett & R. Qulling) The Journey to Ubun2.0, TEDxUKZN 2010, May 2010  2010
 28 C. Blewett & R. Quilling: Teaching & Learning Portal - Learning & Sharing UTLO Symposium, Exploring the Frontiers of e-Learning @ UKZN, 7 May 2010
 2010
 27 B. Sarawan, R. Quilling & C. Blewett: "Real World Sold, Moving to Virtual World" - An investigation into the impact of the Global Economic Situation on Virtual World business University of KwaZulu-Natal Business Management Conference 2009, 5-7 November 2009  2009 
 26 R. Quilling & C. Blewett: Teaching 2.0: When the student is ready will the teacher disappear. Alternation, Vol 16, No.1, 2009.  2009
 25  T. Shea, P. Sherer, R. Quilling & C. Blewett: Bringing the world a little closer together: Designing Tasks for effective cross-class global virtual teams. Global Forum 2009 - Business As An Agent of World Benefit, 2-5 June 2009.  2009
 24

R. Quilling & C. Blewett: Teaching 2.0: When the student is ready will the teacher disappear?

South African Computer Lecturers Association, July 2008 (Best Paper Award).

 2008   
 23

C. Blewett & D. Achmad: Towards identifying predictors of student performance in learning computer programming at a South African university.

South African Computer Lecturers Association Conference, July 2005.

 2005
 22

U. G. Singh & C. N. Blewett: Physician heal yourself: The Paradox of IT Educators and Educational Technology Tools.

CITTE 2004, 1-3 September 2004.

 2004
 21

U. G. Singh & C. N. Blewett: Potholes on the Educational Superhighway: An identification of the factors hindering the usage of Educational Technology tools by University IT departments in South Africa.

South African Computer Lecturers Association Conference, July 2004.  2004
 20

C. N. Blewett & U. G. Singh: THE COBBLER'S CHILDREN HAVE NO SHOES: An investigation into the usage of Educational Technology Tools within University IT departments in South Africa.

South African Computer Lecturers Association Conference, July 2003 (Best Paper Award).

 2003
 19

R. D. Quilling & C. N. Blewett: The Research Pyramid - Taking Honours' students up to see the view.

South African Computer Lecturers Association Conference, July 2003 (Most Innovative Presentation Award) .

 2003
 18

C. N. Blewett & U. G. Singh: An Investigation into the usage of web-based education tools by University IT departments in South Africa.

5th Annual Conference on World Wide Web Applications, September 2003  2003
 17

R. Quilling, P. Warren & C. Blewett: Interdisciplinary Teams in Information Systems & Technology Education: Action Research applied to Active Learning.

ALARPM 6th & PAR 10th World Congress, September 2003

 2003
 16

Frichol-Ford & Blewett, (2001): Accounting Packages - A Trial Balance, in Proceedings of SAAA Regional Conference.

University of Natal, Durban, South Africa, 8th June 2001

 2001
 15

G. J. Erwin & C. N. Blewett (1999): Information Systems Textbook Design for South Africa.

The 32nd annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS-32) Nominated for Best Paper in the Information Technology in Developing Countries Mini-track of the Organizational Systems and Technology Track.

 1999
 14

G. J. Erwin & C.N. Blewett (1999): The Influence of Societal Context on Textbook Design in South Africa.

Journal of Global Information Technology Management, Vol 2, No 3, pp 41-56

 1999
 13

C. N. Blewett & G. J. Erwin (1996): Dynamic Deadlock Avoidance.

A Prototype, in South African Computer Journal, No.18, December 1996, pp. 24-31.

 1996
 12

C. N. Blewett & G. J. Erwin (1996): EAGLE: A Script-based Embedded Expert System for Deadlock Avoidance.

Proceedings of the Third World Congress of Expert Systems, Seoul, South Korea, 5-9 February, 1996

 1996
 11

C. Blewett, J. Cansfield & L. Gibson(1996): The Role of IT in Business Process Reengineering.

Proceedings of SAICSIT 96: Research and Development Symposium, University of Natal, Durban, South Africa, 26-27 September, 1996

 1996
 10

G. J. Erwin & C. N. Blewett (1996): The Design and Usage of a new Southern African Information Systems Textbook.

Proceedings of SAICSIT 96: Research and Development Symposium, University of Natal, Durban, South Africa, 26-27 September, 1996, pp. 195-210.

 1996
 9

G. J. Erwin & C. N. Blewett (1996): Use of a Southern African first-year Information Systems (IS) Textbook at University of Durban-Westville (UDW).

Proceedings of the 26th. Southern African Computer Lecturers' Association (SACLA) Conference, Bakubung, North West province, South Africa, 23-25 June, 1996

 1996
 8

G. J. Erwin & C. N. Blewett (1995): The Design of a new Business Computing / Information Systems Textbook.

Third Annual Natal Conference for Computer Science, Software Engineering and Information Systems, Theme: Computer Science, Software Engineering and Information Systems Education, Pietermaritzburg, South Africa, 20 October, 1995. No proceedings published.

 1995
 7

G. J. Erwin & C. N. Blewett (1995): Designing a new South African Textbook for Business Computing and Information Systems.

25th. Southern African Computer Lecturers' Association (SACLA) Conference, Katberg, Eastern Province, South Africa, July, 1995. No proceedings published.

 1995
 6

C. N. Blewett & G. J. Erwin (1995): The Application of Scripts to Deadlock Avoidance.

Proceedings of SAICSIT 95: Research and Development Symposium, University of South Africa, Pretoria, South Africa, 25-26 May, 1995, pp. 33-47.

 1995
 5

G. J. Erwin & C. N. Blewett (1994): Preparing BIS students for South African industry: A new textbook, in Second Annual Natal Conference for Computer Science, Software Engineering and Information Systems.

Theme: Computer Science, Software Engineering and Information Systems Education, Pietermaritzburg, South Africa, 14 October, 1994. No proceedings published.

 1994
 4

C. N. Blewett & G. J. Erwin (1994): A script-based deadlock avoidance approach.

Second Annual Natal Conference for Computer Science, Software, Engineering and Information Systems, Theme: Current research in Computer Science, Software Engineering and Information Systems in Natal, Pietermaritzburg, South Africa, 14 October, 1994. No proceedings published

 1994
 3

G. J. Erwin, P. A. Bowen & C. N. Blewett (1993): On the Contribution of Case-Based reasoning (CBR) to Building Cost Modelling.

International Symposium on Economic Evaluation and the Built Environment Proceedings, Vol.1, Knowledge Based Systems in Planning and Construction, Lisbon, Portugal, September 6-10, 1993, pp. 25-31

 1993
 2

C. N. Blewett & G. J. Erwin (1992): Automated Analogical Reasoning and User-developed DSS.

Proceedings of Expert 92 , Pretoria, South Africa, May 14-15, 1992

 1992
 1   

C. Blewett (1989): Automated Analogical Reasoning.

University of Natal - Honours Dissertation

 1989

 


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