Teachers’ preparedness for implementing the Educational Coding and Robotics curriculum in South Africa

It is a significant step that the Department of Basic Education has taken to integrate educational coding and robotics into the mainstream school curricula in a world where technology is a normal element of everyday life. A deeper examination of the schools\u27 and teachers\u27 readiness to adopt this new curriculum is significant to improve learning and boost active teaching techniques. The article aimed to examine the teachers’ preparedness, interests, knowledge, and self-confidence in implementing the newly introduced learning area – Educational coding and robotics in the mainstream school curriculum. This study was framed in the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology. Using a systematic review approach,  articles obtained from PubMed, Embase, Google Scholar, Scielo, Scopus, and ERIC were critically analyzed to identify descriptive themes and analytical themes. The review showed that the attitudes of South African teachers on ECR hinge on the availability of resources, pedagogical computer skills, teachers’ technological beliefs, and the management team\u27s influences on technology. DBE needs to work closely with the teachers’ training institutions and pedagogical experts to meet the needs of teachers and learners regarding educational coding and robotics curriculum. Engagement with teachers may increase their knowledge, skills, attitudes, and values for them to have a meaningful contribution to the educational coding and robotics curriculum.  

The Post-Colonial Subconscious: How Dionne Brand Demolishes the Skyscraper that is Colonial-Based Education in Her Readings from the Wreck

This paper delves into inherent issues with post-secondary academic spaces and colonial literature, emphasizing the importance of postcolonial education and contemporary pedagogy when teaching historical novels which contain themes of racism, sexism, and other forms of bigotry which are not acceptable today. Using Dionne Brand’s collections of writing as a foundation, this paper takes examples from both historical colonial novels and other contemporary Canadian writers to paint a picture of the destruction of a “colonial skyscraper” that serves as a metaphor for Western society. Brand’s own identity as a Black woman provides this work with personal experiences that serve to help prove the point she forms throughout her own work: that postcolonial education is not only based on which books are taught, but the way they are taught by those who are privileged enough to teach them. The way our students are taught is crucial in progressing as a society and inducing social change; if what we are taught is based in love and acceptance for others, that is what we will bring to the world when we are sent out into it

Bite Me!

Bite Me! is a piece inspired by Marie Antoinette and the uprising of the French Revolution. Locked in a frame of spaces and places, Marie Antoinette is depicted as decorative and consumable, with her head representing the symbolic cherry on top of the cupcake. It is cushioned by lush buttercream, as lavish and excessive as the court of Versailles, maintaining the Monarch’s figurative elevation with elegance. However, the sticky syrup of her blood drips down the icing, staining the white frosting with its sweet sacrifice. Reflecting the themes of gender, sexuality, and social change, the piece questions indulgence, consumption, and consequence. Destruction is introduced as a bite is taken out of the cupcake, with the blue wrapper of liberty exposing the hidden realities concealed beneath the surface of the court figure. Symbolizing the revolution of the people, the mixed-media piece emphasizes the emergence of the French tricolore of red, white, and blue, exemplifying a historical moment of liberation and loss. By reimagining Marie Antoinette’s alleged quote, “Let them eat cake,” the viewer is finally able to bite back. Will we also indulge in the same guilty decadence

Rural Community Well-being: Opportunities to Be Harvested

Building on our empirical studies in rural well-being this session will discuss complex nature of the challenges and the opportunities in rural contexts. The complexity of the problems necessitates multi-dimensional solutions. Strategies are sought that effectively offer agriculture-supporting, health-enhancing, damage-preventing, environmentally-sustaining and community-rejuvenating results. Rural communities face multiple external and internal stresses (Aked, Marks, Cordon, and Thompson, 2011; Cox, Frere, West, and Wiseman, 2010). The challenges our rural communities face are simultaneously technical, cultural, political, social, ethical, economic, and environmental. The efforts needed to work through the complexity and wicked issues are worthwhile as collaborators can harvest greater community resiliency, prosperity, sustainability, and vibrancy. This workshop will offer policy makers, practitioners, educators, and professionals along with industry leaders a helpful distillation of the literature on well-being and how our adaptations of the Canadian Index of Well-being can be a useful tool to ignite imagination for measuring and enhancing rural resiliency, prosperity, sustainability, and vibrancy. In this interactive workshop participants will be invited to share their experiences with what opportunities they see in these times of unprecedented climate change, pandemics of non- communicable (lifestyle) diseases, and declining economic vitality (Davis, Crothers, Grant, Young and Smith, 2012; Farmer, Prior and Taylor, 2012). Forging ways to work together across disciplines to enhance rural well-being will be encouraged. Examples will be shared of emerging strategies and successes like small scale production, cooperatives, and proactive farming communities contributing to the bio-economy and circularity among many other innovative opportunities ahead

The Case for Using Green Infrastructure (GI) in a Land Use Planning Framework for Resilient Rural Communities

The presentation will focus on recent PhD research on the topic of using GI as a foundational land use planning tool to address rural community challenges and build rural land resiliency. For definition purposes, GI is meant here to include a broad spectrum of nature/natural elements that together provide a solid foundation for sustainability planning to communities, whether human or natural. Facets of multi-functionality and holistic use of a variety of land uses comprising GI are considered. Landscape features, ranging in scale from individual properties to large landscape areas are considered: private yards, natural areas including water features and woodlands, open space/recreation areas, working lands including agricultural fields. The focus of research is within Ontario’s planning governance system, with consideration to the differing geographic and situational circumstances of rural places across southern Ontario

Education to Employment Transitions of Refugee Newcomer Youth in Rural Nova Scotia | De l’éducation à l’emploi : les transitions des jeunes nouveaux arrivants réfugiés en N.-É.

Education to Employment Transitions of Refugee Newcomer Youth in Rural Nova Scotia De l’éducation à l’emploi : les transitions des jeunes nouveaux arrivants réfugiés en N.-É

Teledermatology: Connecting Specialists to Rural BC

Advancements in as well as patient and care provider amelioration with telehealth has made healthcare more accessible for those living in rural and remote areas. Often burdened by cost, geography, physical ability, weather, and availability of physicians, people living outside larger centers can have difficulty accessing the care they need. The Canadian Health Act states that"the primary objective of Canadian health care policy is to protect, promote and restore the physical and mental well-being of residents of Canada and to facilitate reasonable access to health services without financial or other barriers", but many of these barriers still exists for many Canadians. Currently, telemedicine initiatives are taking place in British Columbia and have been well-received by both patients and healthcare providers. Inspired by such initiatives and the sparse and selective distribution of dermatologists in the province, implementing a novel technology-based platform is needed to provide "reasonable access" to dermatologists in underserviced areas. Currently, the use of telehealth for dermatology is not prevalent in common practice. Through speaking to primary care physicians working in northern and rural locations about their attitudes toward telehealth, we are hoping to understand the obstacles hindering the use of this technology in hopes to create a user-focused platform. In time, a "teledermatology" program could be of economic value and will ensure patient safety by providing more expedient access to care as well as reducing the harms associated with travel. As this technology progresses, telehealth will become commonplace in providing equitable healthcare for Canadians

Agricultural Systems Planning: Farmland Conservation policies in Oregon and Ontario

High quality agricultural land is a valuable non-renewable natural resource. Ontario is blessed with some of the best farmland in Canada, but as much of it is located in areas of intense urban growth pressure, it is declining and under continuous threat. Historically, planning for agriculture in Ontario has primarily consisted of identifying and protecting the soils and lands best suited to farming. There is, however, an emerging consensus that this land-based approach alone is not effective in supporting a thriving agricultural sector, particularly in the face of strong urban growth pressures. The Ontario government is now moving towards planning for "agricultural systems" - a more holistic concept which includes the land base, farm operations, and associated business, services, and infrastructure. This policy shift is most evident in its ongoing coordinated review of the four-land use plans relevant to the Greater Golden Horseshoe (GGH)” a region of both unparalleled agricultural lands and tremendous population and growth pressure. While no other jurisdiction has done exactly what Ontario is proposing, others have a longer history of more protective agricultural land policies. Oregon is one such jurisdiction, having adopted very protective policies in the 1970s. This project explores Oregon’s policy and its outcomes for farmland for lessons learned which may be relevant in the GGH as Ontario shifts to an “agricultural systems” approach. Oregon’s Willamette Valley is used as a case study region, its high-quality soils and strong growth pressure making a compelling parallel with the GGH

Improving Information Services to Remote, Rural and Indigenous Populations in Canada

Twenty-first century libraries are about more than just books “they are about equal opportunity. Free for public consumption, libraries deliver high quality multimedia information resources, professional programming to all ages and stages of life, and shared spaces that promote social wellbeing. Research tells us that quality libraries improve psychosocial development, literacy, citizenship, vocational skilling, recreation, empowerment and local economic growth. Experience tells us libraries are a good financial investment: they return a greater value to the community than they take in funding. Unfortunately, public library service is not as equal as we’d like to think. Public libraries depend heavily on local tax support for their operating budgets, which means small rural, remote, and First Nations communities can’t afford to build the same kind of libraries that make the news in urban centres. They have less programming, fewer resources and computers, and are often open only a few hours each week. In times of economic downturn, when citizens most need to use the local library, or when kids most need the opportunity to explore through reading, remote, rural and First Nations libraries are least likely to be able to help because they are themselves under-resourced. We’re counting on federal, provincial and municipal leaders to prioritize equitable access to information for Canadians regardless of where in this great country our citizens happen to live. This presentation discusses ways to build rural resilience by investing in local libraries and information services

Understanding Canadian Rural Research Centres

The vitality and sustainability of rural communities in Canada requires supports, policies, practices and people, dedicated and creative people. Rural research centres seek to aid in supporting rural vitality by offering needed information through researching on the benefits of investments, innovation, and durability of rural life, as well as sustaining important partnerships with diverse networks of stakeholders in rural regions. This panel will share recent survey results from the RPLC network that is inviting collaboration among Canadian rural research centres, the Rural Research Centres Network (R2CN). Among other findings, the R2CN is inviting more engaged research through community partner collaborations and working creatively to better leverage the resources and insights of rural research centres (RRC). The report writing and data collection and policy advocacy work that emerges from RRC has had great impact in Canada and elsewhere. Might we be in a time for reinvigoration and repositioning of these centres for a more central role in the discourse on the vibrancy of rural life? Come share your ideas on the importance of facts driving policy along with the power of story telling and community building for rural life in Canada