Saide Current Awareness
19 February 2024

 

Distance Education

  • More than 48,000 Ukrainian teachers enrolled in UNESCO’s "Digital teacher" training Source: Unesco Launched four months ago, UNESCO’s “Digital teacher” training in Ukraine has already attracted more than 48,000 teachers. Through this online course, Ukrainian teachers are developing pedagogical skills in the use of digital tools for the delivery of quality distance education.
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  • The Transformative Power of Distance Learning: Overcoming Challenges and Empowering Learners Source:Bnn In the dynamic landscape of modern education, distance learning has emerged as a transformative force, reshaping the way we perceive and engage with knowledge. With its promise of flexibility, accessibility, and a myriad of benefits, it's no wonder that distance learning is making waves in global education systems and workforces alike.
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  • RANDOMISED CONTROL TRIALS ON DISTANCE EDUCATION DURING COVID-19 IN BOTSWANA  Source: This project provides some of the first experimental evidence on strategies to minimise learning loss when schools close, evaluating a randomised control trial with primary school children in Botswana. Researchers evaluate two “low-tech” solutions that use SMS text messages and direct phone calls to support parents to educate their children. The project used a sample of 4,500 families with primary-school-aged children across nearly all regions of Botswana.

 

 Education: South Africa

  • Schooling under unusual conditions: research into how school infrastructure shapes teaching and learning in South Africa Source: IIEP Learrning Portal This research report takes a closer look at the relationship between the physical conditions of the school environment and teaching and learning.  The report draws on core primary (legislation, policy documents and demographic surveys) and secondary (books, articles, reports, and commentaries) sources to achieve two main purposes. Firstly, it consolidates the existing knowledge on how physical learning environments affect teaching and learning outcomes in the South African context. Secondly, it contributes broader and context-specific knowledge to existing evidence on the connection between school infrastructure and teaching and learning. The content of the report, therefore, will be a useful resource and advocacy tool for the basic education sector.
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  • Basic Education on marking Teen Suicide Prevention Week Source: SA Gov The Department of Basic Education has joined the world in marking Teen Suicide Prevention Week. It is a time devoted to recognizing and understanding the impact of suicide on young people and raising awareness about the critical issue of suicide.
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  • Government urged to prioritise AI in education Source: IT-Online Artificial intelligence (AI) has been comprehensively embraced in the private sector in South Africa in less than a year, but more must be done to ensure that the public sector – and especially students in public schools and universities – are also empowered and prepared for the future world of work, an education expert says.
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  • Private higher education institutions: Bridging the access gap in SA Source: Moneyweb With enrolments in private institutions doubling over the past decade, Dr Riaan Steenberg of the NetEd Group highlights their role in expanding access, emphasising scalability, innovative financing, and blended learning.
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  • The Bela Bill: A Test of Balance Between Education Reform and Parental Rights in South Africa Source: BNNBreaking The Bela Bill sparks intense debate in South Africa, with critics arguing it may infringe on parents' rights. This article explores the controversy around balancing education reform with respect for parental rights.
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  • UJ initiative to help school pupils excel in STEM Source: ITWeb The University of Johannesburg’s (UJ's) Faculty of Science, in partnership with the National Department of Basic Education (DBE), has launched an initiative to enhance science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education  for high school pupils and teachers.

 

Language, Literacies and Research Writing

  • Cornerstone Institute and OUPSA addressing literacy challenges in SA primary education Source: BizCommunity Cornerstone Institute, in collaboration with Oxford University Press Southern Africa (OUPSA), proudly announces the 2nd Critical Dialogue event which will take place on 7 March, 2024 at Workshop 17 situated at the V&A Waterfront. The event will tackle 'The Challenge of Literacy in South African Primary Education,' aiming to address the significant literacy challenges facing South Africa, particularly in primary education.

 

Open Education and Open Educational Resources

  • Open Educational Resources to Promote Social Justice Source:Ala Store Using Open Educational Resources to Promote Social Justice explores the opportunities and challenges of moving the discussion about open educational resources (OER) beyond affordability to address structural inequities found throughout academia and scholarly publishing. OER have the potential to celebrate research done by marginalized populations in the context of their own communities, to amplify the voices of those who have the knowledge but have been excluded from formal prestige networks, and to engage students as co-creators of learning content that is relevant and respectful of their cultural contexts. Edited by academic librarians with experience advocating across campus, Using Open Educational Resources to Promote Social Justice takes a multidisciplinary approach and is filled with examples of the ways OER and open pedagogy can be used to support social justice in education. In five sections, it covers a wide range of topics from theoretical critiques to multidisciplinary examples of OER development in practice to examinations of institutional support for OER development.
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  • Textbook Affordability a Top Faculty Concern Source: TimesHigherEducation  Nearly two-thirds of faculty members view textbook affordability as a top priority for their universities, according to the annual Faculty Watch Report. The survey, released Thursday by the National Association of College Stores, found that 63 percent of faculty cited textbook affordability as a top priority, up from 57 percent in 2021.
     

   Post Schooling

  • Higher education faces a more fragile and contested future Source: University World News "What is higher education? In a world of ever-emerging difference, the core has scarcely changed in 3,000 years, across almost every variation of time, place and culture: the cultural formation of persons.
    The methods of person formation have also been largely constant. The self-forming student is immersed in knowledge, guided by teachers. Everywhere the same technologies have been used: knowledge expressed in texts, on paper and now on screen, classroom organisation, educational assessment, student selection by examination, and certification."
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  • University rankings are unscientific and bad for education: experts point out the flaws Source: The Conversation We all need to understand that ranking is not objective and true. University rankings are massively overvalued, and reinforce global, regional and national inequalities writes University of Witwtaersrand's Sharon Fonn.
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  • We urgently need positive disruptive leadership to turn SA’s public universities around Source: Daily Maverick The typical academic leader is sandwiched between unloving critics and uncritical lovers. To negotiate these complex scenarios, leaders should possess a unique mix of disruptive attributes that enable those they lead to excel.
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  • HE confirmed as pillar in AU’s 2024-33 development plan Source: University World News The African Union Commission (AUC) has presented a bold higher education plan that will push universities in Africa to produce 100,000 PhD graduates in the next 10 years, of whom 20% will be in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, or STEM, to boost the continent’s development agenda.
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  • Realizing Fee-Free Higher Education in South Africa; Dreams and Nightmares Source: Journal of Quality in Education This paper argues that free higher education is not realizable since the South African government has limited resources and the economy is on its knees.The paper further argues that for the South African government to fund free higher education it needs a well-resourced economy, which is the contrary in South Africa.
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  • Doctoral training in Africa still Western clone – Study Source: University World News  Are doctorates awarded by African universities caricatures of Western higher education in terms of conceptual, ethical and philosophical approaches that cannot decolonise African knowledge systems?Three scholars from the University of South Africa (UNISA) say the answer to this question is yes.
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  • U of T partners with leading African universities and Mastercard Foundation to advance health care in Africa Source: Defy Gravity Campaign The University of Toronto, the Mastercard Foundation and a network of leading African universities are embarking on a 10-year initiative to enhance primary health care workforce education, entrepreneurship and innovation across Africa.
    The partnership, known as the Africa Higher Education Health Collaborative (AHEHC), was launched in 2022 and aims to bolster the continent’s health sectors as part of efforts to improve care for millions while supporting youth employment and economic growth. Participating institutions from Africa include Addis Ababa University, the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences, African Leadership University, Amref International University, Ashesi University, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Moi University and the University of Cape Town.
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  • Minister celebrates gains in university access since Apartheid Source: Research Professional News University and college students will reach nearly a million this year, says Blade Nzimande.  South Africa’s higher education minister told a parliamentary debate this week of the progress successive post-Apartheid governments have made in bringing university access to the country’s poor and previously disadvantaged groups.
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  • Literature vs. Ledgers: What Is College For? Source: Psychology Today A blog post by Gina Barreca, a Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor of English Literature at the University of Connecticut who espouses the value of studying literature.
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  • Scholars join forces to enhance climate change communication Source: University World News A consortium of universities in Southern Africa, in partnership with other global institutions, has embarked on an initiative to enhance climate change communication, which has been identified by scholars as a major barrier hindering the implementation of meaningful climate action, particularly in relation to adaptation and mitigation.

 

Skills and Employment 

 

Teaching and Learning- Local and Global

  • Universal design in online education: A systematic review Source: Distance Education As online learners are increasingly diverse, making online learning more inclusive becomes an urgent need. Universal design has been perceived as a viable framework to reach the widest possible range of learners. However, applying universal design to online education has been a challenge to instructors due to different barriers. It is also unclear what evidence-based strategies can be infused into online education. In this systematic review, we selected and analyzed relevant studies and synthesized their designs and findings to explore the trends, strategies, impacts, challenges, and instructors’ and students’ attitudes toward applying universal design in online environments. We discuss implications for research and practice.
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  • UNESCO Global Network of Learning Cities : 13 new African members added Source: AfricaNews In total, 64 cities from 35 countries have joined this network, reported the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, UNESCO. And there are 13 new African cities. The Global Network brings together cities that stand out for promoting lifelong learning among their inhabitants.
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  • EDUCATION IN AFRICA: VIOLENT ATTACKS AGAINST SCHOOLS ROSE 20% IN 2023 Source: SaveTheChildren Save the Children analysis released during the 37th Ordinary Session of the Assembly of the Heads of State and Government of the African Union (AU) in Addis Ababa show dramatic rise in violence affecting schools, teachers and learners
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  • Pedagogy on the Rocks Podcast Source:L&T Chat Show Dr Nicola Grayson, an Academic Developer with a research interest in third-space or ‘hybrid’ practitioners, explains how she uses rocks on her PGCAP course to help illustrate the difference between deep and surface learning. We look at telling stories, being iterative and end with a reference to The Infinite Monkey Cage.

 

Technology-Enhanced Learning

  • The AI Magpie Effect Source:Substack. Dr. Phillipa Hardman's latest on "the existential risk of text-to-content tools for learning designers, educators & learners "
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  • Platform Governance and Education Policy: Power and Politics in Emerging Edtech Ecologies Source: Education Evaluation and Policy Analysis This article develops a framework for understanding and analyzing the intermediary work of platform technologies, and their owners, as an emerging form of platform governance in educational systems. Our investigation is guided by two questions: (a) How do platform technologies shape policy by brokering relations among commercial, technical, and educational actors? And (b) how might these relations contribute to, or compromise, educational equity as they are folded into existing governance regimes? We address these questions by bringing together two critical orientations—critical policy analysis and critical platform studies—to map the power and politics of platformization in and across education systems. 
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  • How AI Has Begun Changing University Roles, Responsibilities Source: TimesHigherEducation While job titles and descriptions have not changed, more faculty are being given AI-focused tasks, according to a new Educause survey.
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  • Generative AI and re-weaving a pedagogical horizon of social possibility Source: International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education  This article situates the potential for intellectual work to be renewed through an enriched engagement with the relationship between indigenous protocols and artificial intelligence (AI). It situates this through a dialectical storytelling of the contradictions that emerge from the relationships between humans and capitalist technologies, played out within higher education. It argues that these have ramifications for our conceptions of AI, and its ways of knowing, doing and being within wider ecosystems. In thinking about how technology reinforces social production inside capitalist institutions like universities, the article seeks to refocus our storytelling around mass intellectuality and generative possibilities for transcending alienating social relations. In so doing, the focus shifts to the potential for weaving new protocols, from existing material and historical experiences of technology, which unfold structurally, culturally and practically within communities. At the heart of this lies the question, what does it mean to live? In a world described against polycrisis, is it possible to tell new social science fictions, as departures towards a new mode of higher learning and intellectual work that seeks to negate, abolish and transcend the world as-is?
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  • Prompting Progress: Advancing Your AI Skills Source: Times Higher Education Generative artificial intelligence has the potential to greatly enhance your creativity, efficiency, productivity and relevance in nearly every role in higher education.
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  • Practical AI Strategies: Online Launch [Recording] Source: Leon Furze
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  • Teaching Voice and Tone Through ChatGPT Source: Exploring AI Pedagogy An outline of an activity for technical communications and literature study 
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  • Highlights from The New Hybrid with Prof Mairead Pratschke at ALX2024.Source: Mairead Pratschke Youtube ALX2024 Our Learning Futures, co-hosted by the Institute for Adult Learning (IAL) and the Singapore University for Social Sciences (SUSS), and supported by SkillsFuture SG. 
    Prof Mairead Pratschke introduced digital design frameworks that can be updated and used to design and delivery active, generative and social learning with GenAI.