Technology inclusion for students living with disabilities through collaborative online learning during and beyond a pandemic

Technology-based platforms in higher education institutions (HEIs), including online learning, require innovative approaches to ensure inclusive and transformative educational spaces for students living with disabilities. Achieving social equality, technology access and inclusion may contribute to ensuring a seamless instructional design for students living with disabilities in HEIs amid and beyond COVID-19. COVID-19 has obliged HEIs to adopt alternatives to learning and teaching, making the use of open distance learning (ODL) amid the pandemic more relevant. This theoretical paper considers the significance of ODL by demonstrating how to achieve technology inclusion for students living with disabilities through collaborative online international learning (COIL). Situated within the collaborative learning theory, this paper offers a disability perspective to learning in HEIs, through an analysis of stipulations in the Strategic Policy Framework on Disability for the Post-School Education and Training System (2018). The findings indicate that the application of COIL for students living with disabilities may transform their learning experiences and unlock new pathways for their development. The paper recommends that COIL may be used as a response to ensuring access and inclusive education provision for students living with disabilities in HEIs

Resetting education priorities during COVID-19: Towards equitable learning opportunities through inclusion and equity

Worldwide, COVID-19 has affected the most deprived communities the hardest and exposed many systemic inequalities, leaving nations vulnerable and destitute. The need for quality education, while heeding to international mandates, including enacting the sustainable development goals (SDG), has become more apparent in promoting equitable and inclusive education for all, which remains a challenge in South Africa with its inherited inequalities. The purpose of this study was to understand how the COVID-19 challenge refocused the commitment of five principals from rural schools in two education districts of the Northern Cape province of South Africa to address resurfaced historic inequalities, including digital access and fluency to attain an equitable learning environment. Semi-structured emailed interviews were conducted with the participants. A thematic analysis of their experiences of the pandemic through the lens of flexible learning theory, revealed that teachers and learners often experienced discrimination-related stress, especially with virtual learning approaches, as schools often cannot offer remote services to advance learning. Furthermore, the participants voiced their uncompromising commitment to inclusion while engaging teachers and learners in identifying possible problems and proposing solutions post-COVID-19. Though the current crisis seems to have perpetuated and deepened existing inequalities in disadvantaged rural South African schools, some school principals are hopeful that as the reality has now been laid bare, it may prompt more urgent action. The paper recommends that school principals and teachers will have to refocus teaching practices towards flexible, inclusively delivered teaching through working collaboratively across disciplines so that they build their personal resilience and advance their technological skills to meet the demands of remote and online learning during a pandemic and beyond

Promoting multilingualism: Foundation Phase teachers’ experiences in teaching isiXhosa to native speakers of Afrikaans

After 1994, South African policy changes brought about variations in language education resulting in many monolingual classrooms becoming multilingual. Much of the current literature focuses on either providing recommendations to diverse approaches of teaching a second language or describing the experiences of second language learners while limited studies unearthed teachers’ experiences in multilingual classrooms, especially where the language of learning and teaching (LoLT) was Afrikaans. In this article we examine responses of teachers in the Northern Cape to teaching isiXhosa to learners whose mother-tongue is Afrikaans. From an interpretivist lens and using a case study design, we present 6 Afrikaans Foundation Phase teachers’ (FPTs) experiences in teaching isiXhosa as a second First Additional Language (FAL) to non-isiXhosa speakers. Data from in-depth email interviews were coded and thematically analysed. The results from this study show that, while teachers regard multilingualism as fundamental, they equally regard the isiXhosa curriculum as a tool to develop learners’ language proficiency

Asking difficult questions about institutional repositories: Factors for success and new directions for development and research

This interactive point/counter point panel session on institutional repositories will present current research and practice related to the factors for success of IR's. Difficult questions about the feasibility of investing in the development of an institutional repository will generate long overdue conversations about the future directions for research and development of institutional repositories.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/78322/1/1450460120_ftp.pd

Smart & Savvy Students: Year 2

Smart & Savvy Students\u27 (SSS) main goal is to convert scientific psychological articles to understandable pieces of information for general audiences. We have a Twitter feed, Facebook page, and Instagram to spread the information to Clemson\u27s student body and other audiences that we post to 3 to 5 times a week. Each tweet contains a 140-character tip written in a dialogue format. The tweets include links to the Facebook page, which has more information. The Facebook page provides links to scientific sources that support our claims. These links provide students with the opportunity to learn more about the topics. In addition, we post to an Instagram account that links back to Facebook and Twitter, which allows us to spread our information to the largest audience possible. Using popular social media, SSS targets students by including information on topics such as study skills, exercise and diet, and healthy habits, which can be applied in day-to-day life for more positive lifestyles

Sustainable Pathways for SLP Provisioning Amid a National Health Crisis: A Newspaper Review

Limited studies provide an analytical lens of students’ experiences of access to digital technology in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) as portrayed by newspapers, particularly during times of a global pandemic, particularly COVID-19. This chapter addressed the question: What sustainable pathways for short learning programme (SLP) provisioning can be suggested to address access inequalities amid a national health crisis as reflected in South African newspapers? To avert the potentially devastating effect of the COVID-19 pandemic, whilst still retorting to students’ needs, HEIs must consider a kaleidoscope of approaches and implement strategies to effectively deliver online teaching and learning using digital technology. Having applied discourse analysis to articles that appeared in an array of South African newspapers, the findings revealed that access to digital technology and competence in digital literacy might afford HEIs an opportunity to address challenges experienced by SLP students. The findings reveal further that a consideration of such pathways may increase students’ access, confidence and performance in online learning activities