Saide Current Awareness
20 February 2023

 

Distance Learning

• UNESCO Chair on Open Distance Learning 2023 Research Seminar Series. Source: LinkedIn "The University of South Africa/Universiteit van Suid-Afrika launched the 2023 Research Seminar Series in a hybrid event that saw those in the room question the efficiency of using technology to bridge the time and distance gap between themselves and the rest of the world." Watch the proceedings here 

 

Education: South Africa 

• Western Cape Education receives visit from World Bank Education Sector Analysis Source:SAGov  Officials from the World Bank are currently visiting the Western Cape Education Department to make preparations for the Education Sector Analysis (ESA), which aims to provide an in-depth understanding of the province's education status with the ultimate objective of providing recommendations on how to improve learning outcomes for the children of the Western Cape.

 

• ECD sector is the cornerstone to good education Source: Sunday World The nurturing of world-class citizens who possess the skills of the future does not start at matric, but at the foundational phase, says MEC Matome Chiloane. The Nkone Maruping Primary School was a hive of activity last week as hundreds of stakeholders converged in Braamfischerville, Soweto, for the Gauteng Department of Education’s (GDE) maiden Early Childhood Development (ECD) Open Day.

 

• A longer school day or shorter holidays? There are ways to improve pupil outcomes  Source: Daily Maverick There have been several studies on the pros and cons of extending learning hours per day versus making the school year longer by shortening holidays. The former seems to achieve better results.

 

• Cape Town learners stranded by ‘taxi mafia’ blocking scholar transport  Source: Daily Maverick Parents and their children from Khayelitsha and surrounding areas were left frustrated this week as minibus taxi operators blocked scholar transport from taking children to school.

 

• UJ unveils electric buses- a first for a South African university Source: Sunday World The University of Johannesburg (UJ) has on Wednesday become the first ever university in South Africa to unveil electric vehicle (EV) buses which has already begun ferrying students between various campuses. The higher institution said the buses are its latest innovation in its ongoing efforts at going green and reducing carbon emissions, in line with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

 

• President remains mum on his 2022 school infrastructure plan Source: Sunday World After announcing an innovative delivery mechanism for school infrastructure in his state of the nation address (Sona) last year, President Cyril Ramaphosa made no mention of the programme in his address this week and efforts to get an update on it came to nought

 

Language and Literacies

• The prosperity of indigenous language is a priority at the North-West University Source: IOL The South African Centre for Digital Language Resources (SADiLaR) is a national research infrastructure that is hosted at the NWU and is funded by the Department of Science and Innovation. Its strategic mandate is to create, manage and distribute digital resources as well as applicable software in all the official South African languages in order to stimulate and support research and development in the humanities and social sciences.

 

• Factivism: Exploring the vital link between news literacy and youth civic engagement  Source News Wise Research " A potential antidote to growing mistrust and polarisation is education programmes that help children and young people become more news literate. In simple terms, news literacy consists of the critical thinking skills and knowledge required for evaluating the reliability and credibility of news stories and other forms of information."

 

Open Education and Open Educational Resources

• 10 Best Free Sites for Online Learning 2023/2024 in General College & University Source: Knowinsiders If you want to find a free website for university or college students to learn, let's discover these top 10 Free Online Learning Sites for General College and University, ranked by Knowinsiders.com.

 

• Free research materials at a click - University of Konstanz Source: EurekAlert! The University of Konstanz’s new Open Science Spotlight showcases open access (OA) publications, open research data, software and open educational resources published by the university’s researchers and lecturers, thus making it easy for everyone to explore the university's research.

 

Post Schooling

• Wrap-around support key to level education playing field Source: University World News Prof Ramjugernath from Stellenbosch University describes the university's partnership  with the Dell Foundation on an initiative called the Young Leaders Program that serves as "scaffolding for successful performance throughout the student’s academic career."

 

• From Stellies to Wits, NSFAS’s caps on accommodation allowances fuel tension at universities across SA Source: Daily Maverick The academic year has started on a shaky note for tertiary institutions across South Africa after the National Student Financial Aid Scheme’s decision to cap accommodation allowances left many students without housing. The University of Cape Town has taken all their classes online amid an SRC shutdown on the campus, while other universities are in talks to try to find solutions.

 

• Students still battling debt despite protests and promises Source: University WorldNews Student debt has been a continuing problem for South Africa’s economy and higher education sector owing to the limited funding provided by the Department of Higher Education and Training. It is simply not enough to fund all students who are enrolled in tertiary education institutions, write Michelle Banda and Alinaswe Lusengo for Daily Maverick.

 

• Five years ago, 80% of Stellenbosch medical students said they were mistreated — report suggests little has changed Source: GroundUp Researchers hope to repeat and expand a study that also found high rates of racial and gender discrimination

 

• Law faculty points fingers at UCT Executive, accusing it of keeping campus in the dark about SRC shut down plans Source: Daily Maverick The Law Faculty has issued a statement to University of Cape Town’s Executive, accusing members of knowing about the planned shutdown this week, and failing to inform the wider university community. It claimed that the executive was complicit 'in the violence, aggression and intimidation that comes with student shutdowns'.

 

• Student leaders asked to roll out entrepreneurship programme Source: University World News Student leaders are being recruited to roll out an online entrepreneurship training programme to their fellows. The programme, which uses the Telegram instant messaging app to deliver coursework, has already been piloted among a limited number of students at universities of technology in South Africa.

 

• Collegiality – A global university governance model at risk Source: University World News  "In late January 2023, 24 scholars from around the globe met at STIAS – the Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study – to present the latest results of their research projects on collegiality....Included in the three-day proceedings was a seminar with South African colleagues – Wim de Villiers, Jonathan Jansen, Daya Reddy, Palesa Mothapo and Chrissie Boughey* – who, in one way or another, shared their concerns about the state of collegiality in South African universities."

 

Skills and Employment 

• South African tech company sounds the alarm on skills shortage  Source: BizTech South Africa is facing a critical shortage of skilled artisans. According to Jendamark Automation, which builds and exports electric automotive component parts, artisans are in high demand globally, with good career prospects for those who finish their vocational training programmes.

 

• Conversation design (CxD)— a skillset for the future Source: Medium RMIT’s College of Vocational Education (CoVE) in Australia and The Conversation Design Institute (CDI) in the Netherlands, have partnered to deliver jointly accredited conversational AI skills programmes to Australian learners.

 

• New IBM Survey Reveals the Greatest Perceived Barrier to Professional or Technical Skill Development Is That Programs Are Too Expensive Source: CSRWIRE As global respondents look to change jobs in the next 12 months, awareness of career and training options is low. To tackle these misconceptions and bring STEM education closer to underrepresented communities, IBM is adding 45 IBM SkillsBuild collaborations around the world

 

Teaching and Learning- Local and Global

• ChatGPT is an amazing and exciting tool for teachers willing to surf the wave Source: Daily Maverick An opinion piece by Mike Russell, retired head of Bridge House School who provides some examples of how educators could use ChatGPT and makes an argument for boosting literacy through the AI use.

 

• Teaching & Learning with ChatGPT: Opportunity or Quagmire? Part I

 

• GMoLS4E20 Religious Educators with Donald Clark Source:The Learning Hack Podcast This episode covers a sizeable sweep of history, from the perhaps misnamed Dark Ages and the Islamic Golden Age, on through the Renaissance, Reformation and Enlightenment. As the Christian and Islamic faiths spread, learning became a powerful tool of religion – and Religious Educators, in their turn, changed the shape of learning.

 

Technology Enhanced Learning

• ‘Skim, Dive, Surface’: An Interview With Jenae Cohn Source: OneHE  In the latest of OneHE's series of Recommended Reads with West Virginia University Press, James M. Lang talks to Jenae Cohn about her research into the learning impacts of digital reading.

 

• Practical Strategies for ChatGPT in education ChatGPT isn’t the first AI language model, but it’s definitely the one that has taken AI mainstream. Beyond the media hype about cheating, there are some very practical uses for these new technologies for teachers. This post covers six areas where teachers could use ChatGPT with examples of the kinds of prompt you can use to get the best results:
• Teaching Writing in the Age of AI: Asking Questions This is the third post in a series exploring how teaching writing will change in the face of Artificial Intelligence large language models. The first two posts explored the kinds of writing that can and can’t be done with AI, and academic integrity.
• AI and Assessment: ChatGPT and the Future of Education Prof and Chair in Digital Education, Mairéad Pratschke from the  University of Manchester shares her updated screencast presentation, replete with helpful resources on how to engage with  AI in creating Education 4.0.

 

• Develop information literacy with Search Coach Source: Microsoft Search Coach supports educators as they teach students to search for, evaluate, analyze, and choose informational sources online. It can enhance instruction by providing students with strategies for identifying credible sources while safely navigating the web, all within Microsoft Teams for Education. Search Coach also provides educators with insights into their students’ search habits to better inform instruction on information literacy.