Fostering Open Educational practices in cross-cultural contexts

The open content movement is breaking down traditional barriers to learning and resource sharing by promoting free access to Open Educational Resources (OERs) such as digital educational content and technological tools for teaching and learning. OERs have the potential to enable learners to champion their own learning by providing free access to educational content and tools that enable them to create, use and share knowledge. However, the design and uptake of OERs is often hampered by limited understanding of issues relating to the context in which learners access and use OERs. This paper discusses some of the approaches taken to foster open educational practices in learner use of OERs offered by The Open University’s open content initiative, OpenLearn. Drawing on these experiences, we then consider future ideas about supporting open educational practices in cross-cultural contexts, and, in collaboration with Tshwane University of Technology, examine potential impact of OERs in Africa

Investigating design issues in e-learning

Philosophiae Doctor - PhDThe adoption of information technology as an aid to organisational efficiency and effectiveness has a long history in business and public administration, but its application to the processes of teaching and learning in education has been relatively limited. At the dawn of the new millennium this began to change, as educational institutions around the world began to experiment with new ideas for the use of information technology. This happened at the same time that commercial organisations began to realise that they themselves could - because of the availability of IT based systems - invest in educational services focused on their own needs. It was against this background that this research project set out to study how South African higher education has incorporated new learning technologies in the delivery of programmes. The study began by exploring the emerging patterns of the use of e-learning in South African higher education. This was to establish a broad understanding of how e-learning was incorporated into the core business of universities. As the study progressed interviews with both teaching and support staff provided course descriptions which were used to expose the kind of considerations that were made in designing, developing and delivering those courses. The main purpose of the study was to answer the question: what pedagogical considerations are necessary for successful course design when using e-learning? By placing the course descriptions on a continuum developed as a part of the conceptual framework in the study it was possible to analyse the course design features that emerged. The framework and its differentiated learning designs (LD1/2/3) can be used for both design and evaluation of courses and can facilitate the use of technology in enhancing teaching and learning.South Afric

Capturing Cultural Glossaries: Case-study I *

<p>Abstract: This article is a presentation of a brief cultural glossary of Northern Sotho cooking terms. The glossary is mainly composed of names for utensils and ingredients, and action words for the processes involved in the preparation of cultural dishes. It also contains names of dishes tied to some idiomatic expressions in a way eliciting cultural experiences that can lead to an under-standing of indigenous knowledge systems. The article seeks to explore ways of capturing cultural glossaries to feed into the national dictionary corpora by using a case-study approach to investigate the processes that led to the generation of this specific school-based project. A number of issues that surfaced in this project, can possibly serve as models for the collection of authentic glossaries that can support dictionary making in African languages.</p><p>Keywords: CULTURAL GLOSSARY, INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE SYSTEMS, CULTURAL TERMINOLOGY, CORPUS, AUTHENTIC GLOSSARY, CONTEXTUALISATION, MARGIN-ALIZED LANGUAGES, OUTCOMES-BASED EDUCATION, PERFORMANCE INDICATOR, ASSESSMENT CRITERIA, RANGE STATEMENT, TRADITIONAL DISHES, LANGUAGE VAL-ORISATION, SIMULTANEOUS FEEDBACK, COMMUNICATIVE APPROACH, STRUCTURAL APPROACH, METONYMY</p><p>Opsomming: Die totstandbrenging van kulturele woordversamelings: Ge-vallestudie I. Hierdie artikel is 'n aanbieding van 'n kort kulturele woordversameling van Noord-Sothokookterme. Die woordversameling bestaan hoofsaaklik uit die name van gereedskap en bestanddele, en handelingswoorde vir die prosesse betrokke by die voorbereiding van kulturele geregte. Dit bevat ook name van geregte wat verbind is met sekere idiomatiese uitdrukkings wat op 'n manier kulturele ervarings oproep wat kan lei tot die verstaan van inheemse kennisstelsels. Die artikel probeer om maniere te ondersoek waarop kulturele woordversamelings in die nasionale woordeboekkorpusse ingevoer kan word deur 'n gevallestudiebenadering te volg om die prosesse te ondersoek wat tot die ontwikkeling van hierdie spesifieke skoolgebaseerde projek gelei het. 'n Aantal resultate wat uit hierdie projek voortgekom het, kan moontlik as modelle dien vir die totstandbrenging van oorspronklike woordversamelings wat woordeboekskepping in die Afrikatale kan ondersteun.</p><p>Sleutelwoorde: KULTURELE WOORDVERSAMELING, INHEEMSE KENNISSTELSELS, KULTURELE TERMINOLOGIE, KORPUS, OORSPRONKLIKE WOORDVERSAMELING, KON-TEKSTUALISERING, GEMARGINALISEERDE TALE, UITKOMSGEBASEERDE ONDERWYS, PRESTASIEAANDUIDER, WAARDEBEPALINGSKRITERIA, RANGSTELLING, TRADISIONELE GEREGTE, TAALSTABILISERING, GELYKTYDIGE TERUGVOER, KOMMUNIKATIEWE BENA-DERING, STRUKTURELE BENADERING, METONIMIE</p&gt

A wake-up call : equity, inequality and Covid-19 emergency remote teaching and learning

CITATION: Czerniewicz, L. et al. 2020. A wake-up call : equity, inequality and Covid-19 emergency remote teaching and learning. Postdigital Science and Education, 2:946–967, doi:10.1007/s42438-020-00187-4.The original publication is available at https://www.springer.com/journal/42438Produced from experiences at the outset of the intense times when Covid-19 lockdown restrictions began in March 2020, this collaborative paper offers the collective reflections and analysis of a group of teaching and learning and Higher Education (HE) scholars from a diverse 15 of the 26 South African public universities. In the form of a theorised narrative insistent on foregrounding personal voices, it presents a snapshot of the pandemic addressing the following question: what does the ‘pivot online’ to Emergency Remote Teaching and Learning (ERTL), forced into urgent existence by the Covid-19 pandemic, mean for equity considerations in teaching and learning in HE? Drawing on the work of Therborn (2009: 20– 32; 2012: 579–589; 2013; 2020) the reflections consider the forms of inequality - vital, resource and existential - exposed in higher education. Drawing on the work of Tronto (1993; 2015; White and Tronto 2004) the paper shows the networks of care which were formed as a counter to the systemic failures of the sector at the onset of the pandemic.Publisher's versio

A Wake-Up Call: Equity, Inequality and Covid-19 Emergency Remote Teaching and Learning

CITATION: Czerniewicz, L. et al. 2020. A wake-up call : equity, inequality and Covid-19 emergency remote teaching and learning. Postdigital Science and Education, 2:946–967, doi:10.1007/s42438-020-00187-4.The original publication is available at https://www.springer.com/journal/42438Produced from experiences at the outset of the intense times when Covid-19 lockdown restrictions began in March 2020, this collaborative paper offers the collective reflections and analysis of a group of teaching and learning and Higher Education (HE) scholars from a diverse 15 of the 26 South African public universities. In the form of a theorised narrative insistent on foregrounding personal voices, it presents a snapshot of the pandemic addressing the following question: what does the ‘pivot online’ to Emergency Remote Teaching and Learning (ERTL), forced into urgent existence by the Covid-19 pandemic, mean for equity considerations in teaching and learning in HE? Drawing on the work of Therborn (2009: 20– 32; 2012: 579–589; 2013; 2020) the reflections consider the forms of inequality - vital, resource and existential - exposed in higher education. Drawing on the work of Tronto (1993; 2015; White and Tronto 2004) the paper shows the networks of care which were formed as a counter to the systemic failures of the sector at the onset of the pandemic.Publisher's versio