Saide Current Awareness
14 August 2023

 

Distance education 

• Special issue CFP: Decolonizing Digital Learning: Equity Through Intentional Course Design Source: George Veletsianos blog post on a call for proposals for a special issue of Distance Education on the topic of Decolonizing Digital Learning: Equity Through Intentional Course Design.This special issue aims to identify and examine specific decolonizing instructional strategies and intentional course design approaches used to create a more equitable open, flexible, and distance learning environment to minimize the inequities caused by the digital divide. 
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• Experts list gains of open, distance learning  Source: The Guardian (NG) Prominent scholars and higher education professionals from across the world recently gathered at the University of Lagos (UNILAG) to discuss the transformative potential of open and distance learning, especially in the technology-driven era of the   fourth industrial revolution.

 

 Education: South Africa 

• Unisa vice-chancellor’s fate in the balance after Nzimande plans to put institution under administration Source: Daily Maverick Higher Education Minister Blade Nzimande wants to place the University of South Africa under administration and is awaiting the university council’s response.
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• Higher Education Minister Blade Nzimande supports new direct payment by NSFAS Source: IOL Despite the payment challenges, the Minister of Higher Education, Science, and Innovation, Blade Nzimande has re-emphasised his support for the implementation of the student-centred model by the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS).
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• Cultivating Minds, Conserving Futures: Climate Education in South African Classrooms Source: LinkedIn  VVOB – education for development designed and delivered a project aiming to make climate change education part of school and classroom practice in South Africa, with an emphasis on involvement of the local community. The project, titled Keep It Cool, was rolled out to 100 schools across the provinces of KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo and Eastern Cape.
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• TOPIC Source:Topic.co.za Topic, a groundbreaking online platform, offers a new way of learning for students in grades 10, 11, and 12 learners.
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• The Dea(r)th of history and the price we pay in the present Source: Daily Maverick Understanding the past, through the portal of history, is a life skill that is vital to the practice of democracy. Avoiding history undermines accountability and facilitates impunity. It denies us the opportunity to properly understand, and alter, the crises we face in the present.
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• SADC’s charter aimed at women and STEM is eventually active Source: University World News The charter that establishes the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Women in Science, Engineering, and Technology Organisation has come into force to pave the way for more girls and women to study and pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) in the region.

 

Open Education and Open Educational Resources

• The Mason OER Metafinder (MOM) Source: George Mason University Real-time federated search for OER content
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• Draft OER Recommendation Guidelines v4 Source: OER Africa Following the adoption of the UNESCO Recommendation on Open Educational Resources (OER), UNESCO initiated a programme to support governments and educational institutions in implementation of the Recommendation. Part of this support includes the development of a series of five briefing notes or guidelines – one for each Action Area in the Recommendation. These briefing notes were developed through a lengthy consultative process and in cooperation with OER experts worldwide. OER Africa has provided technical and editorial assistance to UNESCO on this work as part of its cooperation with UNESCO.

 

Language and Literacies  

• Umlungu: the colourful history of a word used to describe white people in South Africa Source: The Conversation A linguist describes her study of the word “umlungu”  from a sociolinguistic perspective. 

 

Post Schooling

• How to chart a course through crisis Source: Times Higher Education Faced with an increasingly volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous – or VUCA – world, how can universities adapt and prepare themselves and their students to successfully navigate through turbulent times?
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• From lecturer to professor: Initiative develops academia’s brightest Source:University World News Universities are “the architects of their own demise” when it comes to developing their academic talent because most do not make it an institutional priority, says Jonathan Jansen, distinguished professor of education at Stellenbosch University (SU) and president of the Academy of Science of South Africa.
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• Women student leaders plead for mentorship opportunities Source:University World News Women university student union leaders in Africa are pleading for mentorship opportunities from successful women leaders inside and outside academia, lamenting that they were playing second fiddle to their male colleagues, despite more of them getting elected to lead the unions.
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• Sub-Saharan Africa leads enrolments in professional courses Source:University World News The Sub-Saharan African region has the highest year-on-year average growth rate in the world in the number of people enrolling for professional certificate courses, a new study by a global trainer has found.
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• No one who qualifies for tertiary education should be denied access Source: Mail and Guardian The cost of tertiary education is on the rise, and while the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) provides interest-free loans to economically disadvantaged students, these loans still need to be repaid. To address this issue, both the private and public sectors are working on strategies to support South African students. These challenges were discussed recently in a webinar hosted by the Mail & Guardian, African Bank and Fundi.
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• NSFAS urges unpaid students to get accredited to avoid ‘ghost payments’ Source: Mail and Guardian National Student Financial Aid Scheme implements new system to streamline financial support and root out fraudulent payments while thousands are awaiting for allowances

Skills and Employment 

• Youth highlight life skills as most useful for their job search – UNICEF South Africa U-Report poll Source: Unicef Ahead of International Youth Day, new U-Report poll findings show that children and young people associate communication, problem solving and teamwork skills as essential to improve their opportunities to find work.

 

Teaching and Learning- Local and Global

• How can students learn to be innovative? Source: Times Higher Education Teaching students innovative thinking through the use of business case studies and ‘learning by doing’, explained by William Cheung and Edward Yiu
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• Unleashing the Power of Active Learning: Revolutionizing Online Education for Unprecedented Engagement and Achievement Source Faculty Focus A blog post featuring some helpful recommendations to better engage students in online or hybrid learning environments:

 

Technology Enhanced Learning

• Introducing the ‘virtual rally’ – a strategy for collaborative learning Source: Time Higher Education How to design and implement a virtual rally, which can help increase students’ attention, performance and ability to learn through collaboration
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• Yet Another Think-Piece on ChatGPT Source: Steven Salaita. An academics honest musings and alternative take on  the use or not, of AI tools opining that  "New technology can be terrifying, but it needn’t scare us into immobility' .
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• Technology in schools comes with risks and rewards, says UN Source: Daily Maverick A hefty report by the United Nations’ educational body, Unesco, pleads for a ‘human-centred vision’ when using digital tech in education and highlights that its benefits are spread unevenly.
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• Modelling Behaviour for Using AI Tools Source: LinkedIn  A post of suggestions on how to show students more about these tools. 
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• Automating creativity Source: OneUsefulthing Ethan Mollicks latest post sharing evidnec on how AI can help make us more innovative.
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• Bringing AI Literacy to High Schools Source:Stanford University Human Centered AI Stanford education researchers collaborated with teachers to develop classroom-ready AI resources for high school instructors across subject areas.
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• GPT detectors are biased against non-native English writers Source: Cornell University Abstract: "In this study, we evaluate the performance of several widely-used GPT detectors using writing samples from native and non-native English writers. Our findings reveal that these detectors consistently misclassify non-native English writing samples as AI-generated, whereas native writing samples are accurately identified. Furthermore, we demonstrate that simple prompting strategies can not only mitigate this bias but also effectively bypass GPT detectors, suggesting that GPT detectors may unintentionally penalize writers with constrained linguistic expressions. Our results call for a broader conversation about the ethical implications of deploying ChatGPT content detectors and caution against their use in evaluative or educational settings, particularly when they may inadvertently penalize or exclude non-native English speakers from the global discourse."
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• What if Generative AI turned out to be a Dud? Source: The Road to AI We Can Trust Gary marcus latest posts on the 'possible economic and geopolitical implications' of GAI models

 

 

• Teaching and Generative AI: Pedagogical Possibilities and Productive Tensions: Call for Chapters August 25 2023
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• Call for Contributions! NORRAG Special Issue 10: Education for Societal Transformation: Alternatives for a Just Future 15 September 2023. 
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• Unpacking the "Black Box" of AI-assisted Feedback: Students’ feedback perceptions, emotions, actions, and literacies Abstract Deadline 31  August 2023 
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• Climate Action Pedagogy (CAP) Design Challenge: Live Co-Working Session 16 August 2023
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• Fully Online Distance Education Symposium 19-20 October 2023
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• Four special issues Call for Papers on Generative AI in Education 
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• Open call for Distance Education themed issue proposals (2024)