Saide Current Awareness
03 April 2023

 

Distance Education

• Advancing Your Online Education Strategy Source: InsideHIgherEd Successful planning approaches tend to ask and answer these 12 questions, write Ben Chrischilles.

 

• ENHANCING LONG-TERM MEMORY: 7 STRATEGIES FOR ONLINE LEARNING PROFESSIONALS Source: the Tech Advocate Enhancing long-term memory has long been a goal of learning professionals. This article presents seven strategies for online learners to help them achieve lasting memory recall:

 

Education: South Africa 

• The shocking state of education in South Africa  Source: BusinessTech South Africa has one of the worst-performing education systems in the world, plagued by incompetence and corruption, and the Centre for Development and Enterprise (CDE) is calling for the head of the minister of basic education, among other things. 

 

• ‘An unmitigated disaster’ – South Africa’s education system needs widespread reforms: reports Source: Daily Maverick South Africa needs system-wide education reform to change the quality of teaching and learning and will require changes which include the appointment of a new basic education minister. This was put forth in a new series of reports on SA’s education system, released by the Centre for Development and Enterprise.
  • Media Release | The Silent Crisis: Time to Fix South Africa’s Schools
  • Corruption, cadre deployment and excessive union influence is crippling the education system: reports

 

• New school certificate for South Africa coming in 2025 Source: BusinessTech The Department of Basic Education is pushing ahead with its plans to introduce a new school certificate for grade 9 learners – but the full rollout will now be a year later, in 2025.

 

• From jobs and biomes to water apartheid – young South Africans square up to their climate-stressed future Source: Daily Maverick The intertwined challenges of climate justice, hunger and unemployment are particularly critical for young people. On Sunday, they filled the rooms at Constitutional Hill, ready to hear what they could do to meet those challenges

 

Language and Literacies

• Senate backs vice-chancellor in wake of language report Source: University World News The senate of Stellenbosch University in South Africa on Friday 24 March adopted a motion of confidence in and support for Rector and Vice-Chancellor Professor Wim de Villiers and his management team “in their pursuit of inclusivity and multilingualism” at the institution, reports Times Live.

 

• S2E25: Pamela Snow on Early Language and Literacy Skills Source: Education Rickshaw In this podcast episode of Progressively Incorrect, I am joined by Dr. Pamela Snow. Dr. Snow is a professor of cognitive psychology at the School of Education at La Trobe University in Melbourne, and an absolute legend of the Science of Language and Reading.

 

Open Education and Open Educational Resources

• Where Are My Stakeholders?: Identifying and Building Institutional OER Support Source: OER and Beyond "Building, growing, and maintaining a robust OER program takes a high level of organization and support from many departments. Fully identifying and speaking with stakeholder groups can lead to a more successful OER program by incorporating diverse perspectives. This can increase OER awareness and create connections with groups outside of specific service areas directly impacted by textbooks. Thinking creatively and listening openly can bolster stakeholder buy-in for current and future OER initiatives.  This may sound like a great idea; but how does someone get started on it?" Rachel Becker shares a workflow she developed during a project for SPARC Open Education Leadership Program.  

 

• Announcing open textbook: Introduction to Earth Science Source: Open@VT The Open Education Initiative at Virginia Tech is pleased to announce a newly-adapted work by Dr. Laura Neser. Introduction to Earth Science is a 530+ page open textbook designed to provide a comprehensive introduction to Earth Science that can be freely accessed online, read offline, printed, or purchased as a print-on-demand book. It is intended for a typical 1000-level university introductory course in the Geosciences, although its contents could be applied to many other related courses. 

 

• Creating an Open Textbook: The Science of Sleep   Source: Open Education Network   At Kapi‘olani Community College in Honolulu, professor Sheryl Shook, Ph.D., instructs undergrad students enrolled in PHYL 160: The Science of Sleep. Through this course and others, she’s been effectively reaching Kapi‘olani students for 13 years, exploring physiology in a manner that conveys her inherent respect for the indigenous culture on the island of Hawai‘i.

 

• ChatGPT for Learning and Teaching Source: University of the Witwatersrand A comprehensive ‘living’ resource about generative and other ‘artificial intelligence’ that will be constantly updated with new resources. To contribute to this resource, please access the google doc version of this resource.  

 

Publishing

• Internet Archive Loses First Battle in Publishers’ Copyright Infringement Lawsuit Source: RollingStone "Nonprofit library" promises to appeal lower court ruling restricting their ability to digitally lend unauthorized e-books: "This ruling is a blow for libraries, readers, and authors"

 

Post Schooling

• Fast-forward for project to support ‘agents of HE reform’ Source: University World News “Higher education in South Africa is not in a good space right now, but the sector has to take responsibility for itself. We can’t wait on the government. We need to move from complaining to reforming,” Dr Sershen Naidoo, a coordinator of the Higher Education Reform Experts – South Africa project, said during a gathering in Cape Town.

 

• Leaders must transform universities into healthy workspaces  Source: University World News Universities should make staff well-being a strategic priority in order to counter the epidemic of burnout that is on the rise in higher education, Dr Tessie Herbst of Tshwane University of Technology (TUT) told university leaders.

 

• ‘The vultures are out’ — Prof Jonathan Jansen highlights corruption and looting at SA universities Source: Daily Maverick South Africans have become used to the corruption that has brought a growing number of state-owned enterprises to their knees. But do we pay enough attention to corruption at our universities?

 

• Global research integrity statement calls for fairness and equity Source: University World News Bias in research and its benefits, power imbalances and other inequities has long plagued scientific collaboration. Now ethics experts from around the world have published the Cape Town Statement on Fostering Research Integrity through Fairness and Equity, with 20 recommendations to guide all stakeholders in achieving more just research practice.

 

Skills and Employment 

• Regional framework for microcredentials to be developed Source: University World News Countries in Southern Africa are to develop a broad framework for microcredentials. It is expected to inform and guide individual countries and institutions to develop country-specific frameworks for the recognition of learning through microcredentials. This emerged from a communiqué from Dr Whitfield Green, the chief executive officer of the South African Council on Higher Education (CHE).

 

• We must build safe digital spaces for women and girls, and women must write the code Source: Daily Maverick In spite of their best intentions to be inclusive, men cannot view the world through a woman’s lens. Building safer digital spaces is tightly bound to having women write the code on the platforms in which victimisation is taking place, writes Phemelo Segoe, an education specialist and Marketing Manager at Optimi Workplace. This article is adapted from a speech she delivered recently at the United Nations as part of the 67th session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women.

 

• New AI Institute is key to South Africa’s navigation of the Fourth Industrial Revolution Source: Daily Maverick The Artificial Intelligence Institute of South Africa is envisioned as the engine that will drive the country’s AI capabilities and applications across sectors and deal with arising ethical issues.

 

Teaching and Learning- Local and Global

• In Their Own Words- what Scholars and Teachers want You to Know About  Why and How to Apply the Science of Learning in your Academic Setting. Source: Society for the Teaching of Psychology A collection of articles from some of the world's leading experts on the science of learning, organized into five sections containing chapters focused on the history, principles, applications, and practice of the 'science of learning.

 

Technology Enhanced Learning

• Learning Designers will have to adapt or die. 10 ways to UPSKILL to AI…. Source:Donald Clark Plan B  Donald Clarks latest blog on how to remain relevant in the learning landscape.  

 

• What I Mean When I Say Critical AI Literacy Source: Reflecting Allowed Maha Bali opines on her notion of AI literacy through inpacing all three terms i.e critical, AI and literacy. 

 

• How to use AI to do practical stuff: A new guide Source: One Useful Thing Ethan Mollick provides a modified version of his earlier guide this year through this overview of the current LLMs and the practical things that these tools can assist with .  

 

• How I Use AI Source: LinkedIn Stephen Downes latest blogpost describing his use of AI applications   

 

• Everything you need to know about prompting Source: Louis Bouchard An interview with Sander Schulhoff, creator of learnprompting.org, the largest prompting resource online.

 

• Artificial Intelligence (AI): ChatGPT and the Future of Education webinar Source: Youtube Professor Mairéad Pratschke, PhD delivers an exceptional lecture on the complex and multi-faceted subject of AI in education hosted by City of Wolverhampton College.

 

• Artificial Intelligence for Research Source: Learning LandsCAPE Recordings and presentations of the workshop held on 29-20 March, facilitated by Prof Johannes Cronje 

 

• AI and Higher Education Is it Time to Rethink Teaching & Assessment? Source: Graide The UK based Assessment and Feedback Platform hosted a round table of experts to talk about AI and its impact on higher education. A report is available for download.

 

• ChatGPT for Learning and Teaching Source: University of the Witwatersrand A comprehensive ‘living’ resource about generative and other ‘artificial intelligence’ that will be constantly updated with new resources. To contribute to this resource, please access the google doc version of this resource.