Saide Current Awareness
17 June 2024

 

Distance Education

  • Asian Journal of Distance Education Source: AJDE The online version of the recent publication in April is now available. The AsianJDE has a specific focus on the Asian context as well as the global context. The Journal publishes double-peer reviewed scholarly articles, opinion/position papers, and book reviews. Authors from around the world are invited to submit articles and other information that satisfy the journal’s aims. 
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  • Rethinking retention: Academic strategies to retain distance education students Source: American Association of Community Colleges A short article describing  a checklist of ways to ensure student success. 
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  • Which institution is the world leader in digital and distance education? Source: Tony Bates. Tony Bates discusses this issue and his recent presentation  on the topic "How has online and distance learning changed over the last 35 years and what can we expect for the next 35 years?" at  Tec de Monterrey, Mexico 
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  • Distance education challenges: insight from a nationwide teacher-centric study post- COVID-19 for informed advancements Source:Frontiers This national teacher-centric study uses a mixed-method methodology with a random sample of teachers from public and private schools in the State of Qatar to look extensively into the problems faced during the pandemic. In the sample, there were 45 instructors who participated in semi-structured online interviews and 1,553 teachers who answered an online questionnaire. The study points out a number of issues, such as teachers’ deficiency in pedagogical competencies, sophisticated technological proficiency in the classroom, curriculum density, inadequate teaching strategies, challenges with determining students’ needs and obtaining an honest and realistic assessment that accurately represents the students’ level of learning, and the lack of extracurricular activities. According to the findings, the challenges were influenced by a number of factors, including year of experience, gender, age, specialization, education level, and extracurricular activities. 
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  • The Future Of Online Education: A Look Ahead At 10 Trends And Innovations Source: University Herald  A  glimpse into the forthcoming trends in remote learning, as anticipated by professionals in the field of online education:
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   Education: South Africa

  • Technology | Virtual platform aims to ignite deep interest in STEM subjects: Richard Gundersen Source: Sabc News Youtube South Africa faces a critical challenge in STEM education. In 2023, only 262,016 learners wrote Mathematics in their matric exams, with a mere 6% of the entire matric class passing Mathematics with a score of 60% or higher. This stark reality underscores the urgent need for innovative solutions to enhance STEM literacy and bridge the gap between high school and higher education. STEMulator is a visionary virtual platform designed to ignite curiosity and foster a deep interest in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) among young learners. As a leading advocate for science and technology education, NSTF is presenting this free educational tool to empower the next generation. 
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  • Students on the frontline: South Africa and the US share a history of protest against white supremacy Source: The Conversation Every year on 16 June, South Africa commemorates the revolt of black school children against the inferior “bantu education” system on that day in 1976. The horror of police shooting and killing unarmed children caused a global uproar. Historian Rico Devara Chapman’s research interests include a focus on the African diaspora’s historical and contemporary struggles for justice, particularly student activism in the United States and South Africa. We asked him about similarities between student revolts under the systems of apartheid in South Africa and Jim Crow in the United States.
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  • The sky is the limit for small-town education hero committed to youth upliftment Source: Daily Maverick The ongoing success of Kuyasa Combined School in Port Alfred, Eastern Cape is due to a massive collaborative effort spearheaded by its innovative principal, writes Julienne du Toit.
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  • South African schools battle growing culture of bullying Source:Daily Maverick Bullying in schools can lead to long-term consequences relating to social adjustment and leave victims with low self-confidence and decreased motivation to study. While some schools are using innovative methods to address bullying, it’s hard to eradicate. 
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  • Now the election dust is settling, let’s get back to critical basics of equal education Source:Daily Maverick The progress in transforming our education system has been stifled for too long at the expense of our children. It is time to press incoming leaders to eradicate pit latrines and provide safe and dignified school infrastructure to children in South Africa., writes Jessie Ditshego, a children and women's rights activist, a Candidate Legal Practitioner at the Centre for Applied Legal Studies (Cals), Wits University, and a Bertha Justice Fellow.

 

Language, Literacies and Research Writing

  • Guided Drawing with Preschool Dual Language Learners in Head Start: Building Science Vocabulary and Content Knowledge Source: Education sciences  Drawing offers a way for young children to demonstrate what they understand about the world. This study reports on the findings from an eight-week intervention program called guided drawing designed to build vocabulary and content knowledge for dual language learners in Head Start settings. Four researcher-designed assessment measures were used to assess thirteen preschoolers’ vocabulary and concept knowledge at the receptive, expressive, and definitional levels in a pre/post-intervention design. Analysis of researcher-designed measures reveals positive changes in all vocabulary and concept knowledge areas targeted by the intervention. Thematic analysis of researcher–child interactions and drawing products indicates the guided drawing intervention provided opportunities and context for every participating child to explore new content and concepts related to science learning; reveal what they know; grow knowledge and vocabulary; reveal misunderstandings; and overhear and adopt new language.
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  • Sandpaper Letters: A Hands-On Path to Early Literacy Mastery 2024 LinkedIn "Sandpaper Letters" are a tactile instructional device usually used in Montessori schooling to train children how to write and read. They encompass letters of the alphabet cut out of sandpaper and mounted on cards. Children trace the hard texture of each letter with their palms whilst concurrently pronouncing the letter's sound, thereby attractive more than one senses -contact, sight, and hearing- to enhance mastering. This multisensory method allows youngsters develop nice motor capabilities and a sturdy foundation in literacy through associating the physical motion of writing with the auditory and visual elements of letters.

 

Open Access, Open Education and Open Educational Resources

 

   Post Schooling

  • ‘University Elders’ sound the alarm about HE leadership Source: University World News The recent appointment of new vice-chancellors (VCs) at the universities of Cape Town and Pretoria respectively – following the premature departure of their predecessors amid controversy last year – has offered some hope for South Africa’s beleaguered higher education sector. However, those in the know argue that, beneath this veneer of progress, lies a deep-seated crisis of leadership and governance that threatens the very foundations of the nation’s universities.
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  • Navigating university neutrality is not so simple any more Source: University World News The often acrimonious debate and activism surrounding the conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine have largely played out in national contexts around the world, in particular in the Global North, with inevitable implications for higher education’s internationalisation agenda and strategies
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  • University to close residence in wake of report on abuse Source: University World News Stellenbosch University in South Africa said on Wednesday 12 June its rectorate had accepted the principal recommendation of a panel that the Wilgenhof residence be closed, reports Business Live. The panel was appointed by the rectorate earlier in 2024 after the discovery of disturbing contents in two rooms at the Wilgenhof residence.
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  • Doctoral forums on research integrity change the course of PhDs Source: University World News Doctoral forums conducted during international conferences on research integrity around the world have been changing the course of research work undertaken by PhD students, and positively influencing the quality of work done as well as its focus. The forums have also provided early career researchers and doctoral students with important feedback, enabling them successfully to complete their research projects on the not-so-common subject of research integrity.

 

Skills and Employment

  • A moment of reflection: June 16 and South Africa’s efforts to curb unemployment Source: Daily Maverick The latest report Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLFS) states that South Africa’s official unemployment rate stood at 32,9% in the first quarter of 2024. This reflects an increase of 0,8% compared to the fourth quarter of 2023 and, effectively, translates to 8,2 million people in South Africa being unemployed. Additionally, Stats SA recently reported that South Africa faces dire challenges with youth unemployment with statistics indicating a 45,5% unemployment rate among young people (aged between 15 and 34 years), compared to the national average of 32.9%, in the first quarter of 2024.
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  • Insufficient 4IR skills to impede Africa’s AI revolution Source: ITNewsAfrica While artificial intelligence  (AI) and generative AI (GenAI) will herald new career opportunities in Africa’s future, the skills shortage and employment disruptions during the transition could prove difficult to navigate. This is according to the “AI and the future of work in Africa” white paper produced by Microsoft and a collective of industry experts from across the continent.

 

Teaching and Learning: Local and Global

  • Stumbling Blocks on the Way to Effective Education in the Global South  Source: Axiom Academic Open Access The methodological approaches developed in these chapters all make use of survey and interview material pertaining to schools and education districts. The richness of the methodological approaches makes it possible, from the broad variety of perspectives, to lend credence to the assertions made in the text; they are justified through careful implementation of research methodologies which shed new light on the problems of – among others – South Africa's modern education system. The linguistic diversity of communities, as well as access by communities to deep wells of indigenous knowledge concerning science, technology and engineering, are also described in this book which explores the transformational potential of not only considering important matters regarding epistemic access but also learner success through more relevant and better understood examples.
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  • Is DEI Going Away? Here’s What Experts Say Source: Knowledge at Wharton Wharton, Harvard, and INSEAD brought academics and industry leaders together to discuss the complex challenges facing Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and what’s getting in the way of change.
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  • UNICEF: Four of Five Children in Africa Can’t Read, Understand Simple Text Source: NewsCentral The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has emphasised the need for substantial investment in basic education for African children to support the continent’s long-term development goals.  Etleza Kadili, UNICEF’s Regional Director for Eastern and Southern Africa, highlighted this in a statement from Nairobi, Kenya’s capital, ahead of the Day of the African Child on Sunday. UNICEF pointed out that funding for education in Africa is seriously lacking, with fewer than one in five countries allocating 20% of their public budgets to improving essential skills for their children.
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  • Poetry in academia: a symposium of voices Source: LSE LSE HE Blog Fellow Sam Illingworth talks to four practitioners from across higher education about how they use poetry in their learning and teaching. Guests Jennie Blake, Kirsten Jack, Martin Kratz and Mala Radhakrishnan share their favourite poems as well as advice for how others might start to use poetry in their own practice
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  • Assignment Prompts: A Tutor’s Perspective Source: Faculty Focus A blog post by Brett Murphy Hunt , lecturer at Northeastern University, a professional tutor at Framingham State University, and the owner of her own tutoring and consulting company in Boston
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  • Nadeosa 2024 Conference The 2024 Nadeosa conference will be running from 2 – 4 October 2024 and will be hosted at the MANCOSA Johannesburg in Auckland Park, Johannesburg. The conference will also be hybrid and will run under the theme: Access and Success in Higher Education: Unleashing the potential of technology and OER in creating inclusive and equitable learning environments. Abstracts can be submitted by 26 July 2024 on:  info@nadeosa.org.za. 

 

Technology-Enhanced Learning

  • AIED—Coming of Age? Source: International Journal of Artificial Intelligence in Education An open access publication, this special issue is based on the  AIED 2022 conference in Durham, UK, which included a panel discussion on the challenges centred on the futures of AIED and the AIED research community. The panellists were then invited to publish their thoughts as an opinion piece in this journal.ited to publish their thoughts as an opinion piece in this journal. 
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  • EDUCAUSE Review: “A Framework for AI Literacy” Source: Educause Academic and technologies teams at Barnard College developed an AI literacy framework to provide a conceptual foundation for AI education and programming efforts in higher education institutional contexts.
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  • Designing Fancy AI Literacy Frameworks Source: LinkedIn Feeling overwhelmed by the AI hype? Fear not! You don't need a PhD in computer science to harness the power of AI. This guide will walk you through four simple steps to become an AI whisperer, even if your tech skills are limited to crafting Canva infographics.
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  • Five quick prompting tips to get more from your AI assistant Source:Microsoft Ever wonder why AI assistants sometimes miss the mark? Your AI assistant is only as good as your prompt. Great prompts are shortcuts to better results. Let’s explore how to write prompts that can turn your AI assistant into an efficient and powerful tool for education.
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  • Panel 3 – The role of AI in education | Generative AI and the Knowledge Economy Symposium Source: LSE Youtube A recording of the third panel of the second day of  Generative AI and The Knowledge Economy annual two-day symposium co-hosted by the Data Science Institutes at Imperial College London and The London School of Economics and Political Science.The three key areas for discussion in this panel were:
    - Learning with AI: Can AI chatbots be effective partners in learning? Do they act like a crutch or are these tools effective catalysts for critical thinking and deep understanding?
    - Beyond the Hype: AI Literacy and Responsible Development: How can we ensure equitable access to AI tools and prepare students for an AI-powered future?  This includes exploring potential biases in AI systems and how educational institutions can harness AI responsibly.
    - The Future of Skills: Redefining Learning Objectives  The rise of AI compels us to re-evaluate the skillsets students need. While AI excels at tasks requiring recall, what about fostering creativity, critical thinking, and effective communication? This panel will explore how AI can empower educators to cultivate these essential human capabilities in the next generation.