Saide

Saide Current Awareness
17 October 2023

Distance Education

Practical tips for a fast and successful transition to an online curriculum [version 1; peer review: awaiting peer review] Source: MedEd Publish The COVID-19 pandemic and the following lockdown forced educational institutions to transform their face-to-face curriculum into an online programme in a matter of weeks. In this article, we present 12 tips for a successful transition based on the challenges that we faced in the Bachelor of Medicine at Amsterdam Medical Centre. These tips are divided in four main themes: infrastructure, faculty development, student engagement, and teaching activities. The Community of Inquiry model is used as backbone in all tips, since teaching presence, social presence, and cognitive presence are essential factors in effective online education. These tips can be useful for everyone who wants to implement online education in their curriculum, whether borne out of necessity or by design.
Development of complex pedagogical competencies and reflexivity in clinical teachers via distance learning: a mixed methods study Source: Medical Education Online This mixed methods study aimed at gaining in-depth understanding about whether and how clinical teachers can develop complex pedagogical competencies through participation in a Massive Open Online Course on the supervision of clinical reasoning (MOOC SCR). Participants self-assed their clinical supervision skills before and after partaking in the MOOC SCR through the Maastricht Clinical Teachers Questionnaire.

Education: South Africa

Census reveals 5.2m children of school-going age aren’t receiving education Source: Daily Maverick Since 1996, the number of people in South Africa in the 5-24 age group not attending school increased from 5.09m to about 5.4m (26.6%), Census 2022 has revealed.
Aggrieved Unisa staff and students question judicial decisions and controversial honorary doctorates Source: Daily Maverick University of South Africa (Unisa) staff and students have queried judicial decisions and the timing of conferring of honorary doctorates to Chief Justice Zondo and his deputy Mandisa Maya, while Unisa takes the independent assessment report advocating for the appointment of an administrator on review.
Alarm should be raised about South Africa’s rising child suicide rates Source: Daily Maverick We are in a crisis, as rising adversity traps many South African children in depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder, among other conditions, with nowhere to turn for help.
Drugs, gangs and pangas — the Soweto high school beset by violence and lawlessness Source: Daily Maverick Gauteng MEC for Community Safety Faith Mazibuko says the Altmont Technical High School is one of the most problematic in Soweto. A member of the school’s governing body says many of the problem learners are aged between 22 and 24, and some are as old as 26.

Language, Literacies and Research Writing

Language may be fragile, but it is very stubborn to die — a future potjiekos taal awaits Mzansi Source: Daily Maverick Those who will be here 150 to 200 years from today will not sound anything like us or even communicate in languages we desire. Throughout history, new languages and cultures have emerged and the sky did not fall.
Zenex Foundation launches the biggest contribution to the education reading space in South Africa Source: 702 Prof. Brahm Fleisch, who serves as a Professor in the school of Education at University of the Witwatersrand spoke to the Drive with John Perlman show on Radio 702 about the newly launched #UlwaziLwethu African Languages reading materials.

Open Education and Open Educational Resources

A Short History of OER Source: Western Libraries Publications This chapter will cover key milestones in the history of OER, tracing the relationship between technology and human aspirations throughout.
Open educational resources to make lifelong learning accessible to all Source: Times HIgher Education How open educational resources can be created and managed to ensure courses and materials that support lifelong learning are accessible to all aspiring students at little or no cost

Post Schooling

'Please make it stop': SA professor's chilling voice notes as he and his family flee their Gaza home Source: IOL South African literature professor Haider Eid and his family, who have been living in Gaza, have fled to his brother in Al Nasr after their home was destroyed, but they are still not out of harm's way. Airstrikes are continuing there and he and his family are living in fear.
The need for a ‘reflexive humanising pedagogy’ in HE Source: University World News A humanising pedagogy is based on Paulo Freire’s pedagogy of the oppressed, love, justice, restitution and transformation. Such a pedagogy embeds the university’s curriculum, research and social engagement with the critical agency to change people’s living circumstances.
Israel bombs Gaza university, alleging use by military Source: University World News The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) confirmed on Wednesday 11 October that it had bombed the Islamic University of Gaza and released a video of a building being targeted by an air strike.
‘Diversify and decolonise Africa’s higher education systems’ Source: University World News The African higher education system is in urgent need of diversification and differentiation if it is to meet the human resource needs and generate the knowledge necessary to create employment for millions of youth – and spur on development.
University distances itself from TikTok ‘medical doctor’ Source: University World News The Department of Health in Gauteng, South Africa, has opened a criminal case against a man claiming to be a medical doctor and giving out medical advice via the popular app, TikTok, writes Se-Anne Rall for IOL.
‘Dr Matthew Lani’ trended on social media after the University of the Witwatersrand stated that Lani never obtained any medical qualifications from its institution. In a statement on Monday 9 October, the provincial Department of Health said a case of impersonating a medical doctor was registered at the Brixton police station.
Professor Hoosen Coovadia: A life in service to humanity Source: University World News The late South African Professor Hoosen Mahomed ‘Jerry’ Coovadia, who died in Durban on 4 October, played a pivotal role in the training of medical students at universities in Africa and inspired a generation of researchers with his world-class works. The world-renowned professor, who has been called an “icon of South African health”, was born in 1940 in Durban and died in the same city. He was a leading researcher in the field of HIV/AIDS, particularly in the areas of mother-to-child transmission and antiretroviral therapy.

Skills and Employment

To reduce SA' unemployment, make work more. Source:Brookings Institute At over 30%, unemployment is South Africa’s biggest contemporary challenge. Of course, there are diverse reasons behind the incapacity of the South African economy to provide sufficient jobs for its working population but allow me to focus on one: limited financial incentives for a poor South African to look for employment. The key question in South Africa is not why people are unemployed but rather why they should work.
Cisco, comms ministry expand digitisation pact Source: ItWeb Building on their 2019 commitment to the digitisation of South Africa, Cisco and the communications ministry yesterday embarked on the next phase- of their collaboration. The entities signed a memorandum of understanding to continue the Cisco Country Digital Acceleration (CDA) programme in SA, says a Cisco statement. The Cisco CDA is a global programme aimed at accelerating national digitisation agendas to support job creation, innovation, and help drive economic growth and sustainable and equitable communities.
New jobs added to South Africa’s critical skills list Source:BusTech The Department of Home Affairs has gazetted a revised critical skills list for South Africa, which now includes veterinary jobs. The department has added veterinarians and veterinary nurses to the list, which now comprises 142 skilled positions overall.

Teaching and Learning- Local and Global

Accessing the what, how and why of universal design for learning using popular culture Source: TimesHigherEducation Stone Meredith explains how she hits the fundamental building blocks of UDL by leveraging popular culture sources using various media, particularly YouTube
Reconceptualise the ‘classroom’ for enhanced student engagement Source: TimesHigherEducation Student-centred learning strategies that will boost engagement holistically across in-person and digital learning spaces
Using the power of debate to enhance critical thinking Source: TimesHigherEducation Asking students to analyse, defend and counterargue a contentious issue has proved an engaging way to teach reasoning and communication skills in organisational behaviour courses
Seven steps to being a great teacher Source: TimesHigherEducation The distinction between being a good teacher and a remarkable one transcends mere transmission of knowledge, writes Gabriela Espínola Carballo
Motor and sensory behaviour – the case for continuing to write by hand Source: The Conversation How does typing affect the way we process what we write, and what are the consequences of giving up handwriting at school age?

Technology Enhanced Learning

Report: SA and artificial intelligence Source: ItWeb The potential impact of AI and generative AI across healthcare, education, financial inclusion and agriculture.The report explores four key areas where generative AI could play a transformative role: Healthcare, education, financial inclusion and agriculture. The aim is to examine some of the possibilities in each of these areas through various use cases, and also to discuss the risks associated with AI and the ideal environment for realising AI’s potential benefits.
Artificial intelligence is disrupting higher education Source: ItWeb Traditional contact universities need to adapt faster and find creative ways of exploring and exploiting AI, or lose their dominant position.says Prof Naidoo, from the School of Business Sciences, Department of Information Systems, University of the Witwatersrand.
How to Use AI to Create Fun Review Games Source: Richard Byrnes Youtube Channel Quizalize now includes ChatGPT for teachers to use to quickly create fun review games and quizzes. Watch this video to see my favorite game in action.
Google Comments for Student Discussions Source: The FLT MAg During the pandemic, like many teachers, I had to scramble to learn how to use new technologies and consider how to adapt familiar applications to deliver classes remotely. One of the tools that came to the forefront during this period was the G-Suite of applications, including Google Classroom, Drive, Docs, and Slides. The features of these applications made real-time collaboration intuitive and user-friendly, allowing teachers to create screen-based activities that increased student interactivity.
Practical Strategies for Image Generation in Education Source: Leon Furze Blog Focuses on 6 areas to show how image generation might fit into the workflow of educators without being a burden on time:

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