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Saide Current Awareness
10 July 2023

Distance education

Teaching characteristics in distance education—associations with teaching quality and students’ learning experiences Source: Teaching and Teacher Education A journal article which focusses on teaching characteristics in distance education during school closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic.Findings show that teachers' communication with colleagues, their ability to maintain a good relationship with their students, and the time they spent on lessons were most consistently associated with teaching quality ratings as well as students’ learning experiences.

Education: South Africa

Teachers starve while education department dithers
The government’s school feeding scheme is meant for poor pupils, but six starving teachers are also benefiting from it because they have not been paid for a year. Source: TimesLive
‘Uncertainty, anxiety and frustration’ — NSFAS students cry foul over new banking system Source: Daily Maverick Frustration is brewing in the university sector following the implementation of a new banking system for NSFAS-funded students in the middle of the academic year. The new banking system will charge students more in bank fees than commercial banks do.
‘Scared for our kids’: Pit toilets endanger South African pupils Source: AL Jazeera South Africa, Africa’s most industrialised country, is the world’s most unequal country, with pit toilets still common.
Gauteng Provincial Legislature hosts final leg of Gauteng Schools’ Voter Education Debate Competition, 7 Jul Source: South African Government On Friday, 7 July 2023 the Gauteng Provincial Legislature (GPL) will host the final leg of the Gauteng Schools’ Voter Education Debate Competition where champions will be crowned. The Voter Education School’s Debate Competition is part of the GPL’s voter education campaign, aimed at promoting active citizenry and enhancing constitutional democracy. Delivered with the IEC and Gauteng departments of Cogta, Education and Home Affairs as partners, the campaign largely targets the youth aged between 18 – 35, who are said to make up the largest percentage of the SA population.
Empowering education: Bringing technological knowledge to impoverished classrooms Source: ITWeb In a 4IR world, the North-West University (NWU) is ensuring learners at disadvantaged schools are not left behind and have the tools and knowledge to meet the challenges of the ever-changing world of work. To this end, the Faculty of Education at the NWU’s Mahikeng Campus has initiated a community project, “A service-learning project for schools’ pedagogical integration of ICTs”.
Vodacom’s e-school sees increased uptake Source: ITWeb Vodacom Group says it is democratising access to online learning in SA through the Vodacom e-school, which has notched up 1.4 million users since launch. Vodacom launched the e-school portal in partnership with the Department of Basic Education (DBE) in 2014, with the goal to design a platform to provide access to curriculum-aligned content on a smart device at no cost.

Language and Literacies

Africa’s linguistic diversity goes largely unnoticed in research on multilingualism Source: The Conversation An article about a recent study conducted by Stellenbosch University academics which 'provides new empirical evidence of the geographic bias in multilingualism research published in high-impact scientific journals. We show that the regions most commonly studied are not particularly multilingual. The reverse is also true: the most multilingual regions are massively understudied in research on multilingualism.'

Open Education and Open Educational Resources

Transforming School Education with Quality assured OERs and practices Source: Open Teach A recording of the Open Teach webinar that took place on 05.07.2023. Get to know the Open Teach project and what it offers to teachers, schools, teacher training institutes and educational organizations.
Free and flexible textbooks and resources. Source:OpenStax

Post Schooling

Enhancing TVET through digital transformation in developing countries Source; Unesco This document provides overall perspective and five country case studies on digital transformation in TVET. Most countries studied face similar enabling factors: the digital infrastructure available; legal and policy frameworks; focused institutional change to improve the acquisition of digital skills; and the promotion of equality and inclusivity.
Policy on Articulation into and within Higher Education. Source: CHE
HE leaders divided over rankings at high-level meeting Source: University World News Senior academics were divided about the value of ranking universities in Africa during the ongoing Conference of Rectors, Vice-chancellors and Presidents of African Universities, or COREVIP 2023, organised by the Association of African Universities (AAU) in Windhoek, Namibia.
South African universities must do more to tackle staff race and gender imbalances Source: Timeslive Given the significant intellectual, economic and social contribution to society that universities make, it is crucial to select leaders who can ensure the sector’s sustainability
Fostering more symbiotic, sustainable learning ecosystems Source: University World News The value of knowledge has grown exponentially over the past several decades. In fact, in the modern era, the value of knowledge has become so important to human and social development that education is now universally recognised as a human right. These three concepts – education, learning and knowledge – have become inextricably linked.
Many SA universities ‘beset with corruption scandals’ Source: University World News South Africa’s universities “have become huge sites for personal accumulation through budget allocations and procurement”, with many of the country’s premier higher education institutions plagued by leadership turmoil, writes Shaun Jacobs for My Broadband.
Top bursaries open for the 2024 academic year – including UCT, Wits, Tuks, and Stellenbosch Source: BusinessTech SA Bursaries has compiled a list of 10 notable bursaries available for the 2024 academic year for undergrad and postgraduate studies in fields such as teaching, business, accounting, engineering, and agriculture at some of South Africa’s top universities.

Skills and Employment

Skills development changes on the horizon Source: Creamer Media A significant shift, as of June 30, has occurred in the adult-based education and training sector, owing to the start of the transitional phase of the Quality Council for Trades and Occupations’ (QCTO’s) new skills development accreditation process.
Grid capacity, skills shortages hampering renewables roll-out Source: Creamer Media Grid capacity constraints and skills shortages have been highlighted by several renewable industry leaders as the primary issues that are holding South Africa back from overcoming the current energy crisis.
Education deal to plug crypto skills gap Source: IT Web Binance Academy, the education arm of crypto-currency exchange Binance, has partnered with online learning platform Coursera, to offer learning courses to people looking to enter the crypto and blockchain industries.
According to a statement, the collaboration will provide a suite of learning programmes globally, which will be launching over the next few months.

Teaching and Learning- Local and Global

Innovating Pedagogy 2023 Report: Exploring new forms of teaching, learning and assessment, to guide educators and policy makers Source: Open University The latest Innovating Pedagogy report, is co-authored by academics at the Institute of Educational Technology together with researchers from the Centre for Innovation in Learning and Teaching at the University of Cape Town.
PERSONALIZED LEARNING SHOULD BE SUSTAINABLE. HERE’ S HOW TO DO IT. Source: In Reclaiming Personalized Learning: A Pedagogy for Restoring Equity and Humanity in Our Classrooms, I define personalization differently than most would. Instead of referring to personalized learning and individualized learning synonymously, I remind teachers that personalization is not the same as individualization. Teacher-driven individualization requires creating as many activities in the classroom as there are learners, while personalization requires partnering with learners to make learning meaningful and relevant to each individual child" writes
Classroom Routines That Support Students’ Voice and Choice Source: Edutopia A sense of predictability can help facilitate deep thinking, and teachers can also use routines to promote student agency.
Back to Elementary School With Storytelling Source: Edutopia Engaging in storytelling gives students an opportunity to connect with each other and understand classroom expectations.
A Simple Tool to Help With Lesson Planning and Post-Lesson Reflection Source: Edutopia The practice picker checklist provides a framework that teachers can use to help make sure their lesson plans are effective.

Technology Enhanced Learning

Generative Textbooks Source: Improving Learning Blog David Wiley shares his thoughts about the potential development of an 'interactive, open-ended, and personalized" OER textbook complementing the existing static textbook through the use of AI. See the example he posits and read another post on similar thoughts by Richard Stals
30 Higher Ed IT Influencers to Follow in 2023 Source: EdTech Magazine Check out these higher education IT leaders, authors, podcasters, creators and social media personalities who are helping drive online conversation.
How we can teach children so they survive AI – and cope with whatever comes next The Guardian Monbiot writes: "It’s not enough to build learning around a single societal shift. Students should be trained to handle a rapidly changing world"
Supporting Student Engagement With Technology Source: Edutopia Students engage deeply in class when tech tools encourage them to construct ideas, collaborate with peers, and create unique work.
New principles on use of AI in education Source: Russell Group A new set of principles has been created to help universities ensure students and staff are ‘AI literate’ so they can capitalise on the opportunities technological breakthroughs provide for teaching and learning. The statement, published (4 July) and backed by the 24 Vice Chancellors of the Russell Group, will shape institution and course-level work to support the ethical and responsible use of generative AI, new technology and software like ChatGPT.

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