Tony Lelliott

Since the end of the COVID-19 pandemic, many conferences are now “in-person” or at least hybrid. DETA’s hybrid conference (of which Saide is a co-organiser) took place in Kampala, Uganda in July. Pre-conference workshops covered topics of online assessment, blending continuous professional development (CPD) trajectories for educators, self-study for teacher educators and getting your manuscripts published. The first three workshops included several transformative ideas for teacher training, such as online assessment tools for African contexts, a helpful guide to combinations of in-person and remote CPD and ways of researching your own teaching to improve its efficacy.

The first keynote by Prof Asha Kanwar from CoL (Commonwealth of Learning) directly addressed the conference theme, and showed clearly that future teacher training cannot be business as usual. CoL’s strategies include scaling up quality teacher education using new technologies such as a short course delivery platform offering just-in-time learning with credentials shared on LinkedIn. Other initiatives include Family Learning and Climate Change Education in the form of a MOOC and a teacher’s diploma.

Prof Eunice Nyamupangedengu’s (University of the Witwatersrand) keynote address on transformative innovations included the need for a “new normal” curriculum based on technologies such as the use of synchronous and asynchronous teaching and learning as well as recorded lectures. While these are not innovative in themselves, the COVID-19 lockdowns have enabled them to become far more prevalent than prior to 2020, and hence are being demanded by students across the continent. Eunice did not shy away from the challenges of the new normal, such as poor connectivity and insufficient devices. However, she stressed the need for transformative practices that combine the best of the old normal with current technological advances to enable quality teacher education going forward. As she states, “Only by critical reflection can we transform our classrooms and ultimately teacher education as a whole”.

A third keynote that examined transformative innovations in learner support was presented by Dr Betty Ezati (Makerere University). She noted that learner support in Open Distance institutions needs to respond to academic, social and emotional aspects of the students’ lives. While technology can assist, many students (and staff) are slow to embrace it, and Betty proposed that technology that mimics face-to-face support, such as video conferencing and instant messaging might provide a solution.

Amongst the parallel sessions, a number of transformative ideas emerged. For example,

• Laban Ayiro (Daystar University in Kenya) described the adoption of Problem-Based Learning (PBL) as a transformative pedagogy at the institution. Surveys in the university indicated that both staff and students found the pedagogy enabling, with improved perceptions in 2023, compared with 2021. In both years, however, over half of the respondents felt that lecturers needed more training in PBL to make it more practical.
• Linda van Ryneveld (University of Pretoria) reported on a distance education framework with a number of key features: it is fully online, with multiple intakes per year, where part-time students take and pay for just one 8-week module at a time. The framework was designed taking into account teachers in the profession who have academic ambitions and who need flexibility of offerings.
• Loran Pieck (VVOB) reported on whether the use of conversational bots enhances the outcomes of teachers’ CPD in Rwanda. The CPD was run using in-person facilitation and an online Moodle course, but participants experienced motivation, self-regulation and equity challenges. To alleviate the challenges, the course implementers introduced conversational learning through a WhatsApp bot, such as reminders, motivational messages, quizzes, follow-up messages in case of non-activity and short snippets of content. Although participants were positive about the WhatsApp bot intervention, there was no significant difference in assessment scores across treatment and control groups. Further research is needed to determine if the WhatsApp bot impacts on CPD learning outcomes.

 

The quality of a conference is dependent both on the workshops and keynote speakers selected and the contributions of the delegates in answering the call for papers. In the case of DETA 2023, the main speakers provided concrete examples of innovation, such as self-study to improve teacher education pedagogies, and transformation, such as addressing the VUCA (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, Ambiguity) world that is becoming more prevalent. Other speakers covered a wide variety of teacher education-related topics in online and blended learning, as well as multilingualism, assessment and pedagogy.

Having attended three conferences over the past year, I would recommend that the organisers try to continue the conversations that were started in-person by sending monthly communications to the delegates. We all have intentions to follow up on ideas generated at a successful gathering, but our working lives normally result in the memories fading away over subsequent months. Receiving a personalised reminder to make contact with a delegate we met or read through an engaging presentation would assist us to make the most of the conferences we attend.

 

DETA conference organisers at the opening session: (L-R) Prof Umar Kakumba, Makerere University Deputy Vice Chancellor - Academic Affairs; Dr. Tony Lelliott, Saide; Prof Paul Waako, Vice Chancellor Busitema University; Prof Chika Sehoole, Dean of Education, University of Pretoria; Dr Mary Ooko, Manager, Unit for Distance Education, University of Pretoria.