Saide Current Awareness
05 June 2023

 

Distance Education

  • Critical Issues in Open and Distance Education Research Source:International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning (IRRODL)  Despite its mainstreaming into the broader educational ecology, open and distance education (ODE) still leaves much to be desired in terms of both practice and research. Inspired and informed by the author’s 35 years of experience as an ODE practitioner, researcher, reviewer, and editor, this article concentrates on 10 critical issues of ODE research that have long existed but may have a consequential impact on its healthy growth. 
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  • Addressing the challenging elements of distance education Source: Distance Education Journal "In this special issue, we set out to explore some of the challenges of online distance education. Specifically, we wanted to explore the areas of distance education that appear to be the most difficult and that are traditionally dismissed by many educators as impossible to undertake for online learners. As editors with varied experiences of online learning design, we have encountered negative attitudes toward online education. We recognize that it is often seen as a lesser form of higher education (Anderson, Citation2011) and a poor substitute for face-to-face learning (Almasees et al., Citation2021; Cellini, Citation2021). However, as Bates (Citation2023) noted, online elements are often not specifically designed for an online learning context, which results in just a poor version of a face-to-face experience."

 

Education: South Africa 

  • Pirls disgrace — Cadre deployment and Sadtu’s control over education must end Source: Daily Maverick  A 2016 ministerial task team found that, like in Mexico, the country’s largest teacher union, Sadtu, ‘is in de facto charge of the management, administration and priorities of education’ in ‘six and possibly more of the nine provinces’. 'The author draws comparisons between pupils' standards of reading, science and maths in Peru and South Africa.'
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  • South Africans in London Run Marathon to Support Education in South Africa A group of young South Africans living in the United Kingdom are set to run a marathon, not only to test their endurance but also to raise funds for education in their home country. Determined to make a positive difference in the face of negativity and concerns in the media about corruption, a struggling economy, and a failing education system, these inspirational young individuals are running for change and the future of South Africa.
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  • Molo Mhlaba School in South Africa Source: Acronis Molo Mhlaba means “Hello, world” in Xhosa language (it’s the first message that most people will generate when starting computer science classes). It is a girls’ school located in Khayelitsha, Cape Town, South Africa. The school aims to provide high-quality, safe, and affordable education for black girls, especially those living in underserved communities. It is an iSTEAM school that focuses on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics to prepare girls from poverty-stricken communities for the jobs of tomorrow. 
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  • R7,310 a meeting: No 'labour of love' for some as university council members cash in Source: Sunday Times Live Should university council members be paid to attend meetings? Absolutely, say some, with others awarding their honoraria to the betterment of their students
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  • 'It’s a drug': Crackdown on school vaping 'epidemic' in SA Source: Sunday Times Live Top private and former Model C schools are using sniffer dogs and inviting lung specialists to address pupils in a bid to curb the shockingly high incidence of vaping...

 

Language and Literacies

 

Open Education and Open Educational Resources

  • OEG Live: Audiobook Versions of OER Textbooks (and AI Implications) Source: Open Education Global Youtube . A recorded session of the conversation that occured on June 2 with the panel of guests discussing the potential advantages of making open educational resources available in audio form, the ways in which it has and is done and the implications/potentiality for the rapidly emerging AI tools to hopefully make it easier to produce audio (compared to recording and editing). 
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  • ZTC – Open Educational Resources for Health Education Source: British Columbia Campus
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  • Open Solutions: A lever to achieve access to information and knowledge Source: Unesco The UNESCO OER Dynamic Coalition organized a webinar on 4 May 2023 to highlight the effective use of open licenses in promoting inclusive knowledge societies. Open solutions refer to digital public goods that are available under open licenses, respecting the intellectual property rights of the copyright owner. These solutions enable users to reuse, repurpose, adapt and redistribute content.

 

Post Schooling

  • Rationale for the inaugural Student Affairs and Student Success (SASS) capacity development programme Source: USAF "Student success is not coincidental and access without support is not a true opportunity for students in our universities.  This was the message from Dr Birgit Schreiber, Programme Leader at Higher Education Leadership and Management (HELM), within Universities South Africa (USAf) and the programme lead of a new capacity development programme for universities’ Student Affairs, Student Development and Student Support professionals."
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  • ‘Articulation remains a work in progress in higher education’ Source: University World News The realisation of a fully articulated higher education system in South Africa remains elusive, due to many complexities and lack of policy implementation.
    This is according to a chapter titled, ‘Articulation into and within the higher education system’, by Mahlapahlapana Themane, Layane Mabasa and Dikeledi Mahlo, which was published in the Council on Higher Education’s (CHE) Review of Higher Education in South Africa Twenty-five Years into Democracy.
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  • Two universities in Africa ranked first in individual SDGs Source: University World News Two universities in Africa are included in the overall top 100 of the Times Higher Education (THE) Impact Rankings 2023, which are geared to assessing institutions’ contribution to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and two placed first globally for their contributions to individual SDGs.In the overall ranking, in which a total of 1,705 countries were assessed, two South African universities ranked highest in Africa: the University of Johannesburg (UJ) was placed in 46th position and the University of Pretoria (UP) in 69th place.
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  • Reaching 75% PhD target by 2030 is unlikely, researchers say Source: University World News At the current rate of growth, the South African higher education sector is highly unlikely to achieve its target of 75% of scholars across all 26 public universities having a PhD by 2030, say scientometric researchers. Although some fields, such as astronomy and astrophysics, chemistry and physics, botany, biotechnology, zoology or animal biology, biochemistry and genetics in life sciences, have already surpassed the 75% target, other disciplines are lagging behind.
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  • DIY degree? Why universities should make online educational materials free for all Source: The Conversation This article is part of our series on big ideas for the Universities Accord. The federal government is calling for ideas to “reshape and reimagine higher education, and set it up for the next decade and beyond”. A review team is due to finish a draft report in June and a final report in December 2023.
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  • Private HE crucial for Africa’s development, conference hears Source: University World News Private higher education institutions have a vital role to play in the development of Africa but, in order to be sustainable, they need to be successful, innovative and impactful.
    This was a core message conveyed at the third annual academic summit of Honoris United Universities held in Cape Town, South Africa from 23-25 May. 

 

Skills and Employment 

  • CSIR bags R80m funding from Gates Foundation Source: IT Web The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) has received $4.46 million (around R80 million) from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, to drive skills and health innovation. 
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  • BRICS ‘skills Olympics’ opens for applications Source: IT Web Applications for the 2023 edition of the BRICS Future Skills Challenge are now open.This is according to the SA BRICS Business Council, which is calling on local tech talent to participate in the upcoming challenge.Initiated in 2018, the challenge is a multi-day skills Olympics or hackathon contest that brings together hundreds of BRICS youth aged between 16 and 35, with the aim to solve real-world problems in their area of expertise.
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  • The continuing demand for Java developers in 2023 Source: IT Web In the rapidly evolving world of software development, Java has consistently proven its resilience and adaptability. Its well-known ‘write once, run anywhere’ approach has seen it dominate the programming language landscape for more than two decades. Even today, Java has demonstrated its usefulness in a range of applications from data science and embedded systems to graphical user interfaces (GUIs) and artificial intelligence (AI) operations. This is according to Frik van der Westhuizen, CEO of EQPlus Technologies.
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  • Skills required by banking and financial sector Source: IT Web While exhibiting at EmpowaYouth Week at Orange Farm in May, CTU Training Solutions also participated in a roundtable on scarce skills and opportunities for youth in the banking and finance sector.

 

Teaching and Learning- Local and Global

  • The Teacher Internship Collaboration South Africa (TICZA) Source: JET Education Services The Teacher Internship Collaboration South Africa (TICZA) has emerged as an innovative vehicle that brings together government, academia, the private sector and implementers in order to drive innovation and continuous improvement in the delivery of teacher internship programmes.
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  • Population Health: A New Essential in Nursing Source: Nurse Educator Dr Susan  Harrington from Grand Valley State University surveyed and interviewed public/community health faculty across the United States to identify population health topics to include in the undergraduate curriculum, teaching strategies, and competencies in population health needed by new nurses. This video and article share these important findings. The content areas identified in the survey and through the interviews will assist faculty in integrating and scaffolding population health throughout a nursing curriculum.
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  • The AI Revolution in Education: Will AI Replace or Assist Teachers in Higher Education? What is the future role of educators in the face of advancing AI technologies? A new paper by researchers from The University of Hong Kong argues that human teachers possess unique qualities, which make them irreplaceable. The study emphasizes the importance of social-emotional competencies developed through human interactions, which AI technologies cannot currently replicate. The study also introduces a roadmap for students, teachers, and universities. This roadmap serves as a valuable guide for refining teaching skills, fostering personal connections, and designing curriculums that effectively balance the strengths of human educators with AI technologies.
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  • Free secondary education in African countries is on the rise - but is it the best policy? What the evidence says Source: The Conversation " Ghana, Madagascar, Malawi, Sierra Leone, Togo, and Zambia have all announced free secondary education policies in the last five years. Rwanda, Kenya and South Africa were early trendsetters in this regard. Despite its popularity with policymakers, parents and other stakeholders, the abolition of secondary school fees in resource-constrained contexts is still a subject of debate.

 

Technology Enhanced Learning

 

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