Saide Current Awareness
02 May 2023
 

 

Distance Education

 

Education: South Africa 

  • School Dropouts in South Africa: Hendrick Makaneta Source: Youtube SABC NEWS According to the UNICEF, about 250 000 school-going children drop out of school every year. This figure tripled to 750 000 during the Covid-19 pandemic. During a National Assembly committee briefing this month, the Department of Basic Education data revealed that at least 400 000 children who started Grade 1 in 2011 did not make it to Grade 12 in 2022.

 

  • Court rules private school can't withhold pupil's report due to unpaid fees Source: TimesLive The high court has ordered a private school to furnish a pupil with a report card it withheld because of outstanding fees. Polokwane high court acting judge Malose Monene ruled on April 19 Mitchell House must hand over the report of a 13-year-old pupil to her father within seven days of his ruling. 

 

  • ANC KZN to retain MEC Mbali Frazer despite school nutrition scandal: Mtolo Source: TimesLive The job of KwaZulu-Natal's education MEC is safe unless there is proof she interfered in the awarding of the tender that led to the collapse of the province's school feeding scheme.  On Wednesday, ANC provincial secretary Bheki Mtolo told a media briefing the party met MEC Mbali Frazer to get to the bottom of the scandal that led to non-delivery of food to about 5,400 schools.

 

  • Cash injection for poorest schools in Eastern Cape Source: TimesLive The poorest schools in the Eastern Cape, which have been handicapped by underfunding over the past three years, are breathing a sigh of relief thanks to the intervention of the Legal Resources Centre (LRC) in Makhanda.For the first time since March 2020, more than 1.5-million pupils attending these schools will receive full funding from the provincial education department.

 

Language and Literacies

 

Open Education and Open Educational Resources

  • Leveraging Open Educational Resources to Advance Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion: A Guide for Campus Change Agents Source: AAC&U This publication is " designed to support the integration of OER and DEI efforts within higher education institutions. Based on research funded by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation that examined the strategies and experiences of the sixty-six colleges, universities, and state systems that participated in AAC&U’s inaugural, yearlong Institute on Open Educational Resources (2021–22), this publication provides evidence-based guidance and best practices that result in initiative sustainability and broad adoption of OER by strategically connecting this work to DEI goals, strategies, policies, initiatives, and offices that also exist within a given educational context."

 

  • Making Ripples: A Guidebook to Challenge Status Quo in OER Creation Source: Rebus Community A short resource designed to expand your understanding of inequities in the educational systems through breaking down the work into smaller pieces with opportunities for you to reflect, identify strategies for action, and locate resources and community members to connect with. The purpose of this guide is to explore strategies for you as OER creators to incorporate equitable practices into your workflows.

 

Post Schooling

  • Work-integrated Learning part of climate change degree Source: University World News   In the last in a series of workshops hosted by the Southern African Regional Universities Association, or SARUA, about work on the Southern African masters degree in climate change and sustainable development (CCSD) a comprehensive assessment strategy for the programme, which incorporates Work-integrated Learning modalities to foster integration of theory and practice, was discussed.

 

  • Partnerships help universities to respond to disruptors Source: University World News Universities around the world are facing widespread challenges and changes amid the uncertainty of geopolitical tensions. Global shifts in population demographics and accelerated digitalisation are among the key disruptors rapidly changing the higher education landscape.

 

  • ACU launches toolkit for equitable research partnership Source: University World News The Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU) has launched what it believes to be the first equitable partnerships toolkit to encourage fairer North-South and South-South research relationships and turn fine words about equity in research collaboration into action.

 

 

  • Disrupting Postsecondary Pathways Using Micro-credentials Source: Digital Promise Key Ideas in this post include: Digital badging has created the opportunity to disrupt traditional pathways of learning through the innovative use of micro-credentials; Micro-credentials have emerged as postsecondary credentials that support economic security, well-being, and agency; Micro-credentials have provided an unparalleled number of historically and systematically excluded learners a gained entry to postsecondary training and workforce opportunities.

 

Skills and Employment 

  • Are Micro-Credentials Valuable for Students? Perspective on Verifiable Digital Credentials Source: SN Computer Science Although there is research available on value of micro-credentials, there is a huge research gap in understanding the value of digital credentials and the metadata that can be included, especially from learner perspective. To address this gap, we conducted a qualitative analysis study with interviews of learners and administrators in higher education institutions. This study contributes to (1) what value do learners perceive of digital credentials, (2) what value digital credentials have compared to other forms of recognition, such as paper certificates, and (3) what factors enable greater adoption of digital credentials by learners. In terms of practice, our findings help higher education institutions in evaluating the use of digital credentials not only for micro-credentials but also extend them to other learning offerings.

 

  • SA firms set ambitious targets to plug ICT skills, gender gap Source: IT Web In light of International Girls in ICT Day, South African firms are ramping up their digital skills training initiatives for girls, in efforts to bridge the gender digital divide, which costs women billions in lost economic opportunities.

 

 

  • Network’s industry partnerships secure jobs for graduates Source: University World News University graduates from a pan-African private higher education network have defied the odds in Africa, a continent suffering high graduate unemployment rates, by crafting partnerships involving universities as well as the private and public sectors to increase job placements which, in some instances, are securing a 90% employment rate.

 

Teaching and Learning- Local and Global

 

  • Instructors after AI Source: Bryan Alexander How will the current wave of artificial intelligence change college teaching? A blog post describing a list compiled by the author on conversations held 'with many people over the past month, from students to Patreon supporters, Facebook pals, friends in person and strangers online."

 

  • Readying Students for the AI Revolution Source: Inside Higher Ed To prepare students for coming changes in the workforce, we are recommitting to three pedagogical practices, Molly Vollman Makris, Nate Mickelson and Ryan Coughlan write.

 

  • Spiral Journal Source: One HE A resource by Maha Bali and Mia Zamora on how to promote focus and reflection in students while allowing individuals to compose responses thoughtfully and calmly in writing.

 

  • Artificial Intelligence in Teaching & Learning A publication  by the  Center for Faculty Excellence of Cleveland State University. "The FLC included 30 faculty members and 4 facilitators from across disciplines to investigate how AI can be integrated into our classes to enhance student learning and engagement, while also addressing the challenges and ethical concerns that arise. We met regularly throughout the Spring 2023 semester to share ideas and collaborate. This is a summary of our discussion and findings that was presented to the CSU community on April 25, 2023."

 

  • Detection of AI-generated Essays in Writing Assessments Source: Psychological Test and Assessment Modeling This paper shows how AI-generated essays are similar or different from human-written essays based on a set of typical prompts for a sample from a large-scale assessment. We also introduce two classifiers that can detect AI-generated essays with a high accuracy of over 95%. The goal of this study is for researchers to think and develop methodologies to address these issues and to ensure the quality of writing assessments.

 

Technology Enhanced Learning

 

  • Mural - Visual Collaboration Mural is a virtual collaborative whiteboard that can be used as either a presentation tool or an interactive workspace. All registered users have space for multiple "rooms" in which to create murals. Think of a room like a classroom and a mural like a virtual tabletop or wall.

 

  • Introducing the Technology Education Iceberg Source: Civics of Technology One aim of the Civics of Technology project is to create and share educational resources that can be used to stimulate critical inquiries into technologies. This post describes the iceberg framework, a general-purpose pedagogical tool found to be generative in its three dimensional approach and escribed as a “guiding framework that educators can use to plan, or reflect on, how they teach about technology and make sure that their curriculum is more well-rounded in its approach.”

 

  • Artificial intelligence in higher education: the state of the field Source: International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education This systematic review provides unique findings with an up-to-date examination of artificial intelligence (AI) in higher education (HE) from 2016 to 2022. Using PRISMA principles and protocol, 138 articles were identified for a full examination. Using a priori, and grounded coding, the data from the 138 articles were extracted, analyzed, and coded. The findings of this study show that in 2021 and 2022, publications rose nearly two to three times the number of previous years. With this rapid rise in the number of AIEd HE publications, new trends have emerged. The findings show that research was conducted in six of the seven continents of the world. The trend has shifted from the US to China leading in the number of publications. Another new trend is in the researcher affiliation as prior studies showed a lack of researchers from departments of education. This has now changed to be the most dominant department.

 

  • Auxin AI in Higher Education ChatGPT and its implications for teaching, learning and assessment Source: Youtube Stellenbosch University Centre for Learning Technologies (CLT) Webinar  The discussion  includes: • A brief exploration of the history of AI and its current state of development • An examination of AI technologies that are currently in use, and how they have transformed the way we live, work, and interact with one another • A specific focus on ChatGPT, including a demonstration of its current capabilities and how it can be leveraged in the SU TLA context.

 

 

 

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