Saide Current Awareness
23 January 2023

 

Distance Education

 

Education: South Africa 

 

 

  • Our education system is broken and nobody seems to be doing anything to fix it The notion of us being a meritocracy where everyone has a fair chance to succeed is almost nonexistent in South Africa. Equal education is a myth, a fantasy and wishful thinking of the Mandela era, writes Professor Dr Omphemetse S Sibanda, Professor of Law and the Executive Dean of the Faculty of Management and Law at the University of Limpopo. 

 

  • SA’s education priorities … if it could start from scratch Acquiring basic knowledge cannot be the sole purpose of a school. Problem-solving, lateral thinking, analysing info, integrating knowledge and applying knowledge are crucial skills to be mastered as early as possible, writes the Fiduciary Institute's CEO. 

 

  • Pledge to preserve SA’s indigenous knowledge SPORT, Arts and Culture Minister Nathi Mthethwa on Tuesday, 20th January hosted the indigenous knowledge system panel of experts strategic workshop session which saw his department and experts deliberate on key objectives of the national inventory, aimed at providing a roadmap and measures to safeguard South Africa’s indigenous knowledge from extinction.

 

Language and Literacy

  • Is your child not interested in reading chapter books? Here’s what you can do Many children start school excited about learning to read. And parents too! After many years of reading and re-reading (seemingly ad nauseam) favourite picture books aloud, it’s thrilling to see your child develop their own reading skills. But what if they seem to be “stuck” on books that still use lots of illustrations, such as graphic novels, comics or picture books?

 

Open Education and Open Educational Resources

 

  • Graphic Design and Print Production Fundamentals This textbook — written by a group of select experts with a focus on different aspects of the design process, from creation to production — addresses the many steps of creating and then producing physical, printed, or other imaged products that people interact with on a daily basis. It covers the concept that, while most modern graphic design is created on computers using design software, the ideas and concepts don’t stay on the computer. The ideas need to be completed in the computer software, then progress to an imaging (traditionally referred to as printing) process. Keywords are highlighted throughout and summarized in a Glossary at the end of the book, and each chapter includes exercises and suggested readings.

 

  • Book: How Arguments Work - A Guide to Writing and Analyzing Texts in College (Mills) This text students through the techniques they will need to respond to readings and make sophisticated arguments in any college class.  This is a practical guide to argumentation with strategies and templates for the kinds of assignments students will commonly encounter. It covers rhetorical concepts in everyday language and explores how arguments can build trust and move readers.

 

 

  • Open access publishing deal for low-, middle-income countries Academics based in 70 low- and middle-income countries, including those in Africa, Asia and the Middle East, will be able to have their primary research published Gold Open Access by Nature – at no cost – thus enabling their scientific work to be permanently and freely available online for anyone to read.

 

Post Schooling

  • APPOINTMENT OF A NEW COUNCIL FOR THE CHE The Minister of Higher Education, Science and Innovation, Dr BE Nzimande has appointed a new Chairperson and new Council members, following the end of the term of office of the previous Council on 14 December 2022. 

 

  • Overqualification: A symptom of qualification-job mismatch According to UNESCO’s International Institute for Educational Planning, countries in Sub-Saharan Africa are severely affected by qualifications and skills mismatches, making it hard for employers to find suitable job applicants, or develop the ability to forecast potential skills imbalances.

 

 

  • Structural HE reforms required to balance knowledge, and skills If universities are to offer knowledge that is of actual use on a genuinely democratic basis, they must overhaul their processes of admission and assessment so that the learning capacity of all prospective students is recognised and fostered, according to Chris Bradford, co-founder of the African Leadership Academy and the African Leadership University (ALU), and of the Mastercard Foundation Scholars Program.

 

Skills and Employment 

  • Does a matric exemption help SA with skills shortages? Amid the current euphoria of finishing matric with distinction for many, the stigma of those who scraped through with a 30% pass in one or two subjects remains a blight on an education system that continues to fail South Africans. Amid the pomp, it begs whether there is any merit in celebrating an education system that makes it acceptable for you to pass even if you get 30% in two subjects.

 

 

 

  • BASF sponsors 40 Lessons skills programme kits for 40 schools Multinational chemicals company BASF has sponsored coding and robotics concepts project Tangible Africa to provide its 40 Lessons coding kits to 40 schools in South Africa at no cost, and Tangible Africa has invited other schools to join the programme.

 

Teaching and Learning- Local and Global

  • How can we design for learning in an AI world? This article argues that both educators and learners should be involved not only in learning but also in co-designing for learning in an AI world. Further, they together should explore the knowledge, goals and actions that could help people shape future AI scenarios, and learn to deal with high degrees of uncertainty. A key contribution of the paper is a re-conceptualization of design for learning in an AI world, which explores a problem space of educational design, and illustrates how educators and learners can work together to re-imagine education futures in an AI world.

 

  • Grade R Mathematics and Language Improvement Programme Published in 2021 this video by  the Gauteng Department of Education (GDE) introduces the Grade R Mathematics and Language Improvement Programme in Gauteng Public Ordinary Schools and registered community-based sites (CBS) . The programme supports the implementation of the Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS).

 

 

Technology Enhanced Learning

 

  • Update Your Course Syllabus for ChatGPT  A blog post by Ryan Watkins, Professor of Educational Technology Leadership describes some easy-to-implement suggestions on how to optimize one's course syllabus in light of AI tools.  

 

  • ChatGPT Advice Academics Can Use Now To harness the potential and avert the risks of OpenAI’s new chatbot, academics should think a few years out, invite students into the conversation and—most of all—experiment, not panic.