Saide Current Awareness
05 December 2022

 

Distance Education

• PRESENCE IN DISTANCE EDUCATION 'An important part of distance education is establishing presence. How do we "be" in a class that exists in a virtual space? In this blog post, the author redefines presence in distance education.'
• The Brighter Side of Ed. Distance Education Theory with Dr. Michael Grahame Moore Podcast description from Buzzsprout: In this episode, educational theory is discussed with Dr. Michael Grahame Moore.  As the father of distance education theory (theory of transactional distance) and pioneer of teaching online practices, Moore gives background on what is educational theory, why we need it, and how to best apply it. Moore also gives insight to the development of our modern day online classrooms, reflects on the bittersweet global COVID experience, distance education's potential, and his hopes for the future.
• Fode to use new learning and technology system in 2023  ​The Flexible Open Distance Education (Fode) in Papua New Guinea will be using a new learning and technology management system next year, says an official. Saide has previously been involved in facilitating online course development workshops in  training FODE educators

 

Education: South Africa 

• Provinces aren’t hiring enough teachers, despite a growing need and sufficient supply – Stellenbosch university report - 'More than 28,000 public-sector teachers graduated in 2021, yet provinces only hired 14,522 graduates – even though South Africa is riding an unprecedented retirement wave of public-school teachers as it faces a growing school-age population. These are the recent findings from the first series of reports from the Teacher Demographic Dividend project released on 1 December, which was conducted by researchers at Stellenbosch University’s research on socioeconomic policy unit over the past three years.' View the report here
• Play it smart – good early childhood education sets kids up for a thriving life Dr Mark Potterton, principal of the Sacred Heart College primary school and director of the Three2Six Refugee Children’s Education Project writes about how 'early learning programmes that have the proper equipment and staff develop children’s cognitive and physical abilities, helping them succeed in primary and high school – and, ultimately, in life..'
• Beyond special: Children with disabilities struggle to go to school  A Mail and Guardian article published with the support of Media Monitoring Africa and the United Nations Children’s Fund as part of the journalism lsu Elihle Awards initiative. The story drives home the point that  'education for children with disabilities will not be solved by building more special schools, but addressing the legacy of apartheid would"  

 

Language and Literacy

• 2nd Vice-Chancellors’ Consultative Colloquium on the revised Language Policy Framework begins Public universities’ executive leadership and other stakeholders convened at the  University of Pretoria’s (UP’s) Senate Hall in Hatfield on 1st December 2023  for a start to a two-day dialogue on the revised Language Policy Framework for Public Higher Education Institutions.  The hybrid Colloquium is being hosted by Universities South Africa’s (USAf’s) Community of Practice for the Teaching and Learning of African Languages (CoPAL) in partnership with UP’s Vice-Chancellor and Principal.

 

Open Education and Open Educational Resources

• A whole new world of learning via MIT OpenCourseWare videos OCW launched its YouTube channel in 2008, and this August passed 4 million subscribers. While introductory computer science, math, and physics are the most-visited courses on the OCW website, the most popular YouTube videos reflect a more diverse range of interests, including a lecture about piloting a fighter jet aircraft, an introduction to the human brain, and an introduction to financial terms and concepts.(ref: OER Update )

 

Post Schooling

• #FeesMustFall book captures key moment in student politics - 'A colourful, retrospective, celebratory, sometimes jarring, but pertinent coffee table book, which captures the violent intensity of the 2015 #FeesMustFall student movement that shook South Africa, was released by the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) in November.'
• If we want to fix our economy, we must increase university graduation rates - Professor Tshilidzi Marwala, the outgoing Vice-Chancellor and Principal of the University of Johannesburg posits that though "We need a systemic and systematic overhaul of our education system...., we cannot do so with the knowledge that we are setting our students up for failure."
• Tuition revenue jumps as higher education recovers from Covid-19 - The COVID-19 pandemic in 2020‒2021 disrupted the operations of higher education institutions, with notable effects on revenue streams. After declining in 2020, the amount of money collected from tuition fees jumped by 21,6% in 2021.
• African universities are ‘diploma mills’ - ''The idea of universities in Africa as places for the pursuit of knowledge has been denigrated by influential voices promoting the view that they should rather operate as instruments to fix the continent’s maladies, says Patrício Langa, an associate professor of higher education at the University of the Western Cape.
  Without clarity on the differentiation in the system to promote different purposes and types of higher education institutions, massification will continue to turn universities into diploma mills, rather than fostering the pursuit of new knowledge.''
• DUT DATA DAY SHOWCASES HOW DUT STAFF USE DATA AT THE INSTITUTION TO ACHIEVE ENVISION2030 - The Siyaphumelela project based at the Centre for Excellence in Learning and Teaching (CELT) hosted its annual DUT Data Day which provides an opportunity for the DUT community to learn about various types of data at the university. Now in its fourth year, DUT Data Day showcases and celebrates how DUT staff use data to inform decision-making and action that moves the university closer to achieving the strategic objectives in ENVISION2030. 

 

Skills and Employment 

• Does the drop in SA’s unemployment rate really mean much? Sisonke Mlamla writes that many South Africans have been left puzzled by the latest figures from Stats SA’s quarterly labour survey ( which depicts a fall to 32.9% in the third quarter from 33.9% in the second quarter) despite many young people still struggling.

 

Teaching and Learning- Local and Global

• James Lang’s Distracted: Why Students Can’t Focus and What You Can Do About It A blog post that provides a summary of a recent webinar, presented by celebrated professor and author Dr. James Lang, in which he provides practical tips on renewing focus and attention. 
• 6 priorities to get Kenya’s curriculum back on track – or risk excluding many children from education Kenya’s education curriculum was reformed in 2017 to improve its quality – but now many Kenyans are calling for change again. Public disillusionment with the competency-based curriculum has forced a government review.
• Educational Trends for 2023​
• The Desire Path of Empty Classrooms A blog post on 'thoughts on the state of #HigherEd at the end of the fall ’22 term'' which utilises the 'desire paths', a concept from the design field to argue for adapting by listening to students voices on the required mode of learning.
• Alternative assessment for inclusive teaching - Recording of the keynote address by Maha Bali discussing questions such as  'How do we approach assessment in alternative ways that help us achieve goals less tangible than traditional "learning outcomes"? How can we think of assessments as a way of creating more inclusive learning environments, promoting care, and nurturing community?'

 

Technology Enhanced Learning

• Online Assessment During the Pandemic A blog post capturing a discussion about two studies that examined student experiences of online assessment during the pandemic, asking what the move to online assessments can teach us about assessment going forward.   
• Become A Better Workshop FACILITATOR In 8 Minutes Video In this video AJ&Smart CEO, Jonathan Courtney shares with you one simple, yet extremely effective facilitation trick that will make your workshops more memorable and will help you become a better facilitator. This facilitation trick is based on one of the 6 laws of master-level facilitation 
• 5 Simple Tips For Smoother HYBRID Workshops Video YouTube Video Description from AJ&Smart: Sometimes you have to facilitate a workshop where some participants are in-person and some are remote. These types of hybrid workshops are almost unavoidable nowadays. And they come with their own set of challenges to be aware of. In this video, AJ&Smart CEO, Jonathan Courtney shares 5 simple tips for better and smoother hybrid workshops.