Saide Current Awareness
16 January 2023

 

Distance Education

• Handbook of Open, Distance and Digital Education Provides a unique and comprehensive overview of ODDE in the age of digital transformation in education as well as offering an in-depth discussion on various issues related to ODDE from historical and cross-cultural perspectives.
  Provides free and unlimited access to all chapters as an open-access publication
  • Book review: Handbook of Open, Distance and Digital Education
  • Newer Theories for Digital Learning Spaces  An Open Access chapter by Stephen Downes  in the Handbook of Open, Distance and Digital Education. The abstract reads "After an outline of the traditional conception of the requirements for a “learning theory,” this chapter traces the sources for this dissatisfaction in traditional theories such as behaviourism and cognitivism, then traces some theoretical attempts to address them. It identifies a range of emerging theories, including connectivist pedagogy, personal learning environments, and open educational practices, characterizing these in terms of their response to the original dissatisfaction. It then returns to the characterization of a “learning theory,” suggesting that in the light of this new work a reconceptualization of theory may be required."
• Call for abstracts for the journal 'Distance Education'  Submit a Manuscript to the Journal Distance Education for a Special Issue on "the idea of open education"
• What are Communication Barriers in Distance Education? A blog post that looks at ten of the most common communication barriers in distance education. 
• Factors that determine a successful distance education program 
• Why Video Making is Becoming a Necessary Part of Distance Learning in 2023 A blog post describing five ways video-making is becoming and should be a necessary component of online and distance education. 

 

Education: South Africa 

• Education storm bodes ill for South African schoolchildren Mark Potterton writes: We need to rediscover the ethical and human dimensions of learning, yet schools are becoming less focused on balance, with the child in the centre, and are taking a more market-based approach.
• Online schooling: Education experts debate the pros and cons As the 2023 academic year gets underway and while some parents may still be scrambling for placement for their children, Independent Newspapers spoke to three online schools about their offerings.
• It's not back to school for 680 unplaced Western Cape pupils Almost 700 pupils are yet to secure places at schools and more late applications are expected, the Western Cape education department said on Sunday, while KwaZulu-Natal says a clear picture of the situation will emerge from Monday.

 

• Motshekga concedes overcrowding in schools is a problem Basic education minister Angie Motshekga has conceded that overcrowding in schools is a dire problem with negative effects. “It is a serious problem. Schools are carrying double the capacity and that is going to impact negatively on learning and teaching and infrastructure in all aspects,” she said.

 

• Pregnant learners in South Africa need creches and compassion to keep them in school Nirvana Pillay, Visiting Researcher at Wits School of Public Health, reports on her findings about pregnant schoolgirls' decisions about schooling when they found out they were pregnant.

 

Language and Literacy

• Translanguaging, Coloniality and Decolonial Cracks: Bilingual Science Learning in South Africa In this linguistic ethnography of bilingual science learning in a South African high school, the author connects microanalyses of classroom discourse to broader themes of de/coloniality in education. The book challenges the deficit narrative often used to characterise the capabilities of linguistically-minoritised youth, and explores the challenges and opportunities associated with leveraging students' full semiotic repertoires in learning specific concepts.
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• The benefits of multilingual pedagogies for multilingual children’s narrative abilities A research study which investigates whether exposure to multilingual pedagogies enhances emergent bilingual children’s narrative abilities. These abilities are among the most reliable indicators of children’s literacy skills.

 

Open Education and Open Educational Resources

• The Library’s Role with Open Educational Resources A blog post describing faculty perceptions of Open Educational Resources like course modules and video lectures, with librarians sharing their experiences as librarians supporting faculty in using and creating OERs.
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• What makes a good open educational resource on MoodleNet: Essential Content A guide on how to create and add open educational resources(OERs) and have these resources easily found on MoodleNet- Moodle's repository of OERs.
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• Synergies Between K–8 Open Educational Practices and Culturally Responsive and
  Sustaining Pedagogies This brief looks at the intersection of open educational resources (OER), open educational practices (OEP), and culturally responsive and sustaining practices (CRSP) in four K–8 OER programs that provide full online courses that are freely accessible and adaptable. While the OER movement has long been animated by principles of equitable access to education and social justice (Bali et al., 2020; Geser, 2007), the OER field has evolved somewhat adjacent to that of- work by scholars and activists who are squarely focused on culturally responsive teaching and anti-racist education.
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• BC Reads: Adult Literacy Fundamental English This course pack is designed to meet the learning outcomes for Adult Literacy Fundamental English Level 3 (roughly equivalent to grades 3 to 4.5 in the K-12 system). Every chapter within the three units includes a level-appropriate, high-interest reading of between 350 and 500 words. The readings are freely available in a separate reader with convenient links to the readings in each chapter of this course pack. 

 

Post Schooling

• Shooting at Fort Hare university highlights corruption at South African universities The apparent assassination attempt on the University of Fort Hare’s vice-chancellor, in which his bodyguard was killed, has put the spotlight on corruption that appears to have firmed its grip on the country’s tertiary education sector.  
  • Q&A with minister Blade Nzimande on corruption in higher education
  • South African universities have been ‘engulfed by corruption’
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• Of Titles and Honour Pride in the recognition of achievement is only human, but recipients of honorary doctorates and the institutions that bestow them must clarify what it means — or risk diminishing the worth of the titles earned by academic effort.
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• Transforming universities, one promotion at a time Transformation of universities has been high on the agenda of higher education in South Africa for a long time. Demands for change preceded democratic elections in 1994. They included widening access for students, orienting the curriculum to suit South Africa’s particular needs and histories and diversifying the staff complement. 
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• Teaching is students’ top choice at South African universities A large number of students seeking admission to South African universities this year appear to be bent on becoming teachers, figures show.
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• Rethinking international fees and global partnerships Adam Habib writes: 'At the Universities UK conference in September 2022, there was a panel discussion comprising experts from Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom who reflected on the financing and spiralling costs of higher education and the importance of rethinking the mix between student fees and public subsidy. There were also valuable suggestions on reforming the payment regime for graduates who had taken loans to finance their higher education....'
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• Innovation needed from state and varsities to support internationalisation in higher education Importantly, if we do not facilitate international students studying in South Africa we cannot guarantee South African students the same experience.
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• Socially engaged universities are the model of the future  International USR Summit “Education and Action for a Sustainable Future” last month provided a valuable opportunity to share the latest university social responsibility insights, promote the best USR practices, and most importantly, chart our shared vision for the future.

 

Skills and Employment 

• University proud after graduate creates job-hunting app that requires no data The Mangosuthu University of Technology (MUT) has said that it is humbled and proud of its graduate who created a job-hunting app that requires no data.

 

Teaching and Learning- Local and Global

• Diversity and EdTech – two book suggestions #WomenEdTechDigiMeet A blog post which reviews two books  ‘The Missing Voices in EdTech: Bringing Diversity Into EdTech’ & ‘Programmed Inequality – How Britain Discarded Women Technologists and Lost Its Edge in Computing' 
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• An institutional environment that increases academic integrity A blog post describing how various UK institutions are dealing with the issues of academic integrity. 
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• My five wishes for online learning in 2023: and why they ain’t going to happen Tony Bates shares his wishlist for online learning and  the reasons why it may not happen underscoring the real wish for 'radical change in how we work together across Canada to provide better services for students.'
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• Great Minds on Learning with Donald Clark What is the relationship between sleep and #learning? On the new episode of Great Minds on Learning, Donald Clark explores The Extended Mind, starting with the work of #sleep researchers Robert Stickgold and Matthew Walker.

 

Technology Enhanced Learning

• Something wicked this way comes: ChatGPT, Artificial Intelligence’s quantum leap Steven Boykey Sidley ,a professor of practice at JBS, University of Johannesburg provides a brief history of the development of AI and describes how CHATGPT is evolving.
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• Is AI the New Homework Machine? Understanding AI and Its Impact on Higher Education A comprehensive introduction to artificial intelligence and its likely impact on teaching in higher education, and also on how large language models such as ChatGPT work. 
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• Data literacy skills: what they are and how do we teach them to our students? A blog post unpacking what data literacy is and providing resources on how to teach this skill
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• HistoryView An online tool to bring historical sites and museums to the classroom. VR headsets are not required to experience this program. It is available on Chromebooks and tablets.