Saide Current Awareness
05 November 2024

 

Distance Education

  • “I Learned as I Went”: an online distance education case study Source: The Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education" Interactions between deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) students and instructors in online distance education (ODE) increased exponentially during the COVID pandemic. To understand this phenomena, we conducted a comprehensive literature review about evolving ODE formats customized for deaf student’s needs. This literature shows increasing multimodal, multilingual, and interactive features. Next, we examined empirical data from a collective case study implemented to better understand ODE phenomena from the perspectives of DHH students and faculty in higher education. "
  • Examination of Early Childhood Teachers’ Techniques to Recognize and Assess the Child Before and During the Distance Education Source: Journal of Qualitative Research in Education Aim of this study was to identify the recognition and assessment techniques used by early childhood educators both before and after the pandemic using a fundamental qualitative research approach. 17 preschool teachers participated in the study using a semi-structured interview form. The study's conclusions are arranged according to several themes. The methods preschool teachers employ to recognize and assess the child during in-person instruction is the first of these themes. Teachers utilize a variety of techniques to recognize and assess children during in-person instruction, including observation, developmental observation forms, developmental reports, warm-up games, drawing, working with families, anecdotes, sociometry, and portfolio work. The sudden switch to online instruction-assessment techniques in remote learning has resulted in unanticipated challenges and unexpected situations for the preschool teachers as they attempt to implement the teaching process.
  • Distance Education: Meaningful in Promoting Learning and Understanding Source: Indian Journal of Management and Language (IJML) The main objective of this research paper is to acquire an efficient understanding of meaning and significance of distance education. This is the education that is acquired by individuals, when they are living at a distance. The utilization of various types of technologies is regarded as worthwhile in promoting distance education. Furthermore, communication takes place among educators and students through phones or through exchanging messages and emails. The distance education is the education that takes place from distance. The individuals are required to augment information in terms of different types of techniques that would be facilitating in acquiring distance education.

Education: South Africa

  • Minister Siviwe Gwarube looks to February Budget to avert basic education funding crisis Source: Daily Maverick Enoch Godongwana allocated basic education an extra R376m on Wednesday, but offered nothing to save teacher posts, leaving a R78bn budget shortfall and provincial departments in a bind.
  • 2024 JSE investment challenge highlights: South Africa’s brightest young minds excel in financial literacy Source: Daily Maverick The JSE Investment Challenge is over and South Africa’s future financial leaders have been crowned.
  • Stopping Bogus colleges from operating Source: ENCA Controversial pastor Shepherd Bushiri may have fled to Malawi, but his name is still held in high regard in South Africa.
    A poster of a university named after him has been doing the rounds, prompting officials to warn South Africans that the institution is not registered. With many falling prey to such institutions, what is the government doing to stop bogus colleges from operating? Deputy Higher Education Minister, Buti Manamela spoke to eNCA.
  • 2025 private school fees warning in South Africa Source: BusinessTech A recent research bulletin indicates that, on average, schools in South Africa have raised their fees by CPI plus 2.6% since 2012, and there are already signs that this will continue in 2025, which could be a tough pill to swallow for some parents.
  • Budget pressures threatening education quality Source: IOL Equal Education (EE) says the Treasury’s stated commitment to contain the public sector wage bill as much as possible will push the education system to the brink of collapse. This comes after Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana delivered his 2024 Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS).

Language, Literacies, Research Writing and Publishing

  • Unifying through language: time to ditch Afrikaans in schools Source: IOL Banning Afrikaans in South African schools is not just a radical proposition but a necessary step toward achieving the transformation our society desperately needs, says the writer in this opinion peice
  • New insights into status of indexed multilingual journals Source: University World News A recent study that finds that only about 17% of the library and information science (LIS) journals indexed by Scopus are multilingual offers insights into gaps in our understanding of non-English LIS journals indexed in global databases and mulls the possibility of an alternative multilingual index.
  • How Akada Children’s Book Festival is Enhancing Literacy Development Via Reading Source: This Day Live As Nigeria continues to improve its literacy rates, initiatives like the Akada Children’s Book Festival are proving that through books, children can dream bigger, think deeper, and write their own stories for the future. Funmi Ogundare reports

Open Access, Open Education and Open Educational Resources

  • Liberating the Open and Distance Learning model from the chains of oppressive education theories Source: Fronteirs in Education This study argues that Open and Distance Learning (ODL) has continued to function as the platform for producing factory-like workers and white colour labourers whose prime function is to service the capitalist labour market. The study utilized the Correspondence theory by Bowles and Gintis, the Factory Education Model (FEM) and the Industrialized Teaching Model (ITEM) by Otto Peters as theoretical propositions for explaining and understanding how schooling contexts and the hidden curriculum have managed to prepare students who would blindly serve the interests of the employers (capitalists) and the powerful elites of modern society.

Post Schooling

  • Guidelines proposed to curb ‘misuse’ of honorary degrees Source: Research Professional News A draft guide that aims to curb the inappropriate awarding of honorary degrees in South Africa, as well as the misuse of honorific academic titles, has been published by the Council on Higher Education, the country’s university watchdog.
    The guide aims to “ensure rigour, consistency and transparency in awarding of honorary degrees and professorships” and to promote the “responsible use” of honorary titles, CHE chief executive Whitfield Green wrote on 24 October, inviting comments on the document.
  • DURBAN UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY AWARDED PRESTIGIOUS NQF RESEARCH CHAIR Source: DUT The Durban University of Technology (DUT) has achieved another milestone in its commitment to impactful research and advancing socio-economic development, with the recent awarding of the National Qualifications Framework (NQF) Research Chair by the South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA). The announcement was made by SAQA CEO, Ms Nadia Starr, highlighting DUT’s strategic alignment with national priorities through its ENVISION2030 strategy.
  • Internationalisation in HE is not a simple proxy for quality Source: University World News Shifts in traditional understandings of higher education internationalisation, combined with the increased scale and variety of internationalisation opportunities available to scholars, institutions and students, invite a careful reconsideration of how we understand quality within the increasingly complex process of internationalisation.
  • Big four’s policy shifts drive global student interest to SA Source: University World News Africa’s biggest international study destination, South Africa (SA), could gain from international students who now face additional barriers to studying in the big four destinations of the United Kingdom, Canada, the United States and Australia due to policy changes. SA’s larger metropolitan universities would benefit the most.
  • ‘Why I gave prize money to Palestinian cause’ – Saleem Badat Source: University World News Last week, the Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf) awarded a Science-for-Society Gold Medal to Professor Saleem Badat, a prominent figure in the country’s higher education sector. A critical sociologist and higher education policy specialist, Badat is currently a research professor in the department of history at the University of the Free State. He is the former vice-chancellor of Rhodes University in South Africa, and was the first head of the country’s Council on Higher Education, the policy advisory body to the minister of higher education.

Skills and Employment

  • Wits Plus advances lifelong learning Source: Wits The launch of the reimagined Wits Plus highlights Wits’ commitment to expand access to short courses in line with the growing needs for skills development.
  • Experience tops wish list as SA ICT skills shortage persists Source: ItWeb The 2024 IITPSA ICT Skills Survey reveals the top in-demand skills, as ICT practitioners look for opportunities overseas.
  • SA’s IT skills gap sees employers prioritise skills over degrees Source: ItWeb South Africa’s growing ICT skills gap is seeing employers prioritise professional experience and skills, over tertiary degrees, as important attributes of potential recruits. This is one of the key findings of the 2024 Institute of Information Technology Professionals South Africa (IITPSA) ICT Skills Survey, conducted by Africa Analysis and sponsored by Software One Experts SA.

Teaching and Learning: Local and Global

  • Exploring the Various Types of Assessments in Education: A Comprehensive Guide for Educators Source: Twinkl This educational blog will explore the various types of assessments in education used in South Africa, their purposes, and their strengths and weaknesses.
  • 100 Student Voices on AI and Education Source: WorldBank The rapid advancement of artificial intelligence (AI) is disrupting the landscape of higher education (HE), presenting both opportunities and challenges. This paper discusses the results of focus group discussions conducted in 10 countries (Cameroon, Colombia, Ethiopia, Georgia, Indonesia, Mali, Mexico, Nigeria, Peru, and Rwanda), examining students’ perspectives, experiences, and concerns regarding AI’s impact on education.
  • Performative Personae? Finding Vulnerability via the Virtual, Authenticity after the Augmented Source: Faculty Focus "On a rainy April afternoon, students in the back row of my class whispered to each other as I, increasingly irritated with their disengagement, stood at the chalkboard lecturing on Death of a Salesman. I am usually one to let such distractions go, but I finally stopped mid-sentence, asking, “Do you have a question?” Sitting up in her chair and turning her laptop screen toward me, the student hesitated and answered, “Sorry, but we just read that Prince died.” The classroom filled quickly with questions of “What?” and “Are you serious?” Taking a few moments to check my notes, I hurriedly finished what I was saying about spectacle and sequence and dismissed class a few minutes early—a move I rarely made." Read more from Katie E. O’Leary, an instructor of English at South Dakota State University.
  • Teaching Leadership Styles through Superheroes: A Creative Business Assignment Source: Faculty Focus As educators, we’re always looking for ways to engage students with practical, real-world applications of business concepts. Generation Z, commonly defined as people born between 1996 and 2010, are known as digital natives because they have grown up using the Internet and other technologies (“What is Gen Z”, 2024). Generation Z has been coined “the Superhero Generation” (Luttrell & McGrath, 2021, p. xvii) because of their fascination with superheroes and the ways their generational cohort mimics the superheroes they have grown up watching. For instance, just like superheroes such as Clark Kent as Superman and Diana Prince as Wonder Woman have two distinct identities, Generation Z often has a distinct online identity and a real-world identity. For example, it is common to build an avatar when playing video games.
  • Redefining Assessment: Empowering Students through a Blended Approach Source: Faculty Focus As educators, we often fall into a trap that we know what’s best for our students. As a result, we often give them assessments (e.g. homework, activities) to hone their knowledge or skills and gauge their progress, and then we often give additional assessments to ensure they have met the learning objectives. Do students benefit from all these assessments?

Technology-Enhanced Learning

  • AI May Ruin the University as We Know It Source: Chronicle of Higher Education Asocial-media post for a Google product known as NotebookLM outlines the following instructions to college students for “how to do school.” First, close your laptops, use your phone to record lectures, and write down only the important bits. Next, upload the recording and scans of any handwritten notes to Google. Finally, process the material through an executive summary generated by NotebookLM. An added perk, or shortcut, as the case may be: At the end of the week, generate a summary of the summaries in the form of a synthetic podcast narrated by a pair of conversational agents. No more extracting concepts from long-form arguments, no more psychic struggle with complex ideas: just autosummary on demand, made possible by a vast undifferentiated pool of content that every successive use of the service helps to grow.
  • Inclusive AI Governance in Africa: Bridging North and South for Responsible AI Development Source: Africa Telecom Review As Artificial Intelligence (AI) continues to transform industries, economies, and societies, the need for effective governance has become more critical. In Africa, where the potential of AI to drive economic development is significant, it is essential that AI technologies are adopted in a manner that is ethical, inclusive, and sustainable. African countries face unique challenges and opportunities as they navigate AI adoption, making it imperative to develop governance frameworks that address these complexities while fostering growth.
  • AI 4 SCI: Using AI-Powered Tools to Support Inquiry Science Source: Chronicles from the World of Instructional Design Substack Lauren Yosts latest post which is a summary that highlights the functions associated with AI-enhanced tools that support STEM work via the 5 stages of Inquiry Science. "What if you don’t teach a STEM course? These tools can be applied to any discipline!, she writes

A bibliography of open resources, selected for all working in digital education in South Africa, is curated by Universities South Africa’s Digital Education CoP.
All the resources are freely available via https://bit.ly/Digital_Education_Open_Bibliography.
CHECK REGULARLY FOR UPDATES.