Saide Current Awareness
12 December 2022

 

Distance Education

• 19 Facts about Distance Education that will Knock Your Socks Off  A blog post exploring some amazing distance learning facts that most people don’t know about.
• “I Don’t Think the System Will Ever Be the Same”: Distance Education Leaders’ Predictions and Recommendations for the Use of Online Learning in Community Colleges Post-COVID An Edworking paper by the Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University which draws on interviews with 35 distance education leaders from the California Community Colleges system to provide insights into how the use of online education may change in the system going forward. Leaders predicted that post-pandemic, colleges would increase their online course offerings, and that many instructional innovations to online courses from the pandemic—such as the use of synchronous courses—would persist. They hoped that a more prominent position for online education within the system would be matched by more resources to provide support for online learning.
• E-Learning Statistics – What They Tell us About Online Learning Today and in the Future A blog post by ACS Distance Education capturing global statistics on elearning adoption.

 

Education: South Africa 

• Big changes for schools in South Africa – these are the laws being accepted and rejected The portfolio committee on basic education has summarised the feedback processed so far in relation to proposed changes to South Africa’s school laws.
• First science centre opens in Bloem Taking central South Africa into the future, the first Science Education Centre (Sci-Ed) in the region was opened on the Bloemfontein campus of the University of the Free State (UFS). 
• The children of asylum seekers in South Africa have a right to education An opinion piece contending that South Africa has not created an enabling environment, which results in the children of asylum seekers and refugees struggling to be admitted to schools, as is their right. 
• Pioneer is bringing science education alive on the continent Dr. Raïssa Malu inspired students at the African School of Fundamental Physics and Applications, held in Eastern Cape this year.
• For the first time ever, South Africa hosts the 2022 World Science Forum! As reported on Capetalk: On Tuesday 6 December 2022, 118 scientists and science policy makers joined President Cyril Ramaphosa as he opened up the forum at The Cape Town International Convention Centre, ironically, at the heart of the load shedding pandemic that the country is currently facing. Listen to the podcast of Lester Kiewit interviewing Dr. Blade Nzimande, Minister of Higher Education, Science and Innovation. 

 

Language and Literacy

• CoPAL has pressing issues to deal with in 2023 With the 2nd Vice-Chancellors’ Colloquium on language practices now achieved, real work begins for Universities South Africa’s Community of Practice for the Teaching and Learning of African Languages (CoPAL) in 2023, according to Professor Nobuhle Hlongwa, the new Chairperson of CoPAL, who is also Dean and Head of the School of Arts at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN). Professor takes over the reins from January 2023. See also
  • Why universities need to start sharing language resources
  • The incalculable progress made by CoPAL as the language issue is now firmly centre stage

 

Open Education and Open Educational Resources

• Brief Report on Open Praxis and Introduction to Volume 14 issue 1 This Open Praxis issue includes six research papers and one innovative practice paper.The last issue, vol. 13(4), compiled six selected papers derived from contributions presented at the 2021 ICDE Virtual Global Conference Week, including two articles that received the Best Paper Awards in the two conference tracks: innovation and open education.
• Overdrive A digital platform providing access to free ebooks and audiobook and "offers the largest digital content catalog in the world to more than 81,000 libraries and schools in 106 countries and the highest-rated apps that are built to create reading happiness."
• Open Library Open Library is an open, editable library catalog, building towards a web page for every book ever published. 

 

Post Schooling

• Successful students do more than graduate: they are equipped to be responsible citizens As reported by USAF on LInkedin: ''Professors Jonathan Jansen, Elizabeth Balbachevsky and Hans (J.W.M.) de Wit, shared insights on what defines successful students that universities produce. According to them, success is far more than about academic success, but their contribution to the well-being of society. The conversation took place at a recent HELM Summit 2022 aimed at discussing leadership development strategies for sustainability and change in global higher education."
• Lifelong Learning in Higher Education Webinar A recording of this webinar featuring the following panelists: Professor Abhilasha Singh, Vice President for Academic Affairs, American University in the Emirates Dubai, UAE Professor Yusra Mouzughi, President, Royal University for Women, Bahrain;  Mr. Dean Hoke, Co-founder and managing partner of Edu Alliance Group, US and UAE;  Ms. Helen Chua Balderama, Director, Global Engagement and Partnerships, York University  with relevant articles, books and panelists thoughts available here
• Cutting-edge climate change curriculum enters phase two The Southern African Regional Universities Association (SARUA) Climate Change Steering Group recently endorsed the finalised version of a climate change and sustainable development curriculum and digital ecosystem, which SARUA revised and which will be updated, under phase two, in 2023.
• We must embrace new technology that challenges assumptions about higher education Sioux Mckenna and Margaret Blackie write on how 'the successful university student is the one who ‘cracks the code’ and can produce evidence of engagement with the material. But now a computer can do all of this in a matter of seconds. This should stop us in our tracks."

 

Skills and Employment 

• Skills shortages are plaguing South Africa's economy - policy and social conditions must support their development Stephanie Allais writes:Many South Africans argue that the country has a skills crisis. An equal number question why it can’t sort this out by “adopting the German or Swiss approach”.
• A free video-based learning app to get new skills With sky-rocketing youth unemployment rates plaguing South Africa and the continent at large, some companies are working toward solutions. TRACE Academia, a new video-based learning app, is aimed at empowering the youth population, providing them with tangible skills and connecting them with opportunities for employment.
• Data Science for Beginners Microsoft is offering a Data Science course for Beginners for FREE.