Presenters: e/merge Africa team and friends!

Time and Date: Tuesday 28 August 1pm SAST

Format: 1 hour Webinar

Time converter at worldtimebuddy.com

Members of the e/merge Africa network attended and presented at ICEL. This conference was hosted by the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT) from 5-6 July in Cape Town. In this report back our friends will share insights about their conference experiences, highlights and opportunities for further conversations.

This event has ended – please refer to the YouTube recording

Please note: registration is now Open!  To join us in July register today on the e/merge2018 conference site. We invite you to join our online festival taking place 9–20 July 2018. Our registration fees have been set to mazimise participation.

• Presenters and workshop leaders: no charge
• Participants in South Africa: R200.00
• Participants in all other African countries: no charge
• Participants in other continents: R600.00

Festival Theme: Growing e-learning capacity together

After several decades of experience across projects rolling out educational technology it is well understood that the availability of technology is just one of several preconditions for success. Effective integration of technology to enhance learning and teaching requires the development and use of technical, organisational and pedagogical capabilities. This online festival is about the development of deep capacity for e-learning by African higher education in an increasingly networked world.

e/merge 2018 will convene a welcoming space and a diverse, dynamic community across multiple networks to discuss, debate, review, showcase and celebrate e-learning in higher education in Africa. Our focus is on e-learning in African higher education and on joining up the African and global conversations about e-learning research and practice. Presenters and workshop leaders from all continents who are working with or researching e-learning in Africa are encouraged to submit proposals. The presenters and conference interactions will be supported by a team of trained and experienced online facilitators from across Africa.

e/merge 2018 grows out of the series of e/merge online conferences in 2004, 2006, 2008 and 2012, the Transform 2015 online conference and the e/merge Africa network for educational technology practitioners and researchers in African higher education which has presented regular online professional development events since 2014.

Publication Opportunities from e/merge 2018

All the e/merge 2018 presentations and papers will appear in the public online proceedings of the conference. Authors of the best presentations and papers in e/merge 2018 will be invited to submit improved versions of their papers for publication in the International Journal of Education and Development using Information and Communication Technology (IJEDICT). There are also likely to be other post-conference publication opportunities for e/merge 2018 authors.

Timeline
6/7/2018: Conference site goes live
9/7 – 20/7/2018: e/merge 2018

We thank all who took part in this wonderful event either as participant or presenter! If you registered and attended the Festival resources are still available on our Sakai festival site. We are currently working on making proceedings available to our wider network 

Please note we are extending this event by one week until Friday 25 May join the chat now!

Presenter: Sandhya Gunness, University of Mauritius 

Times and Dates: Monday 14 May 2018 – Friday 25 May 2018

Format: This online event takes the form of a facilitated event on the Design Xchange Facebook group that will be shared on the e/merge Africa Facebook group closer to the time. Two videos will be provided as a stimulus. Participants are invited to discuss the presented videos and to share their own lesson designs.

How can we align learning outcomes, assessments and meaningful and contextual activities? This online event focuses on devising hands-on learning activities using the LATAR model. As education is moving from teacher-centred to more learner-centred approaches, learning should be more situated in the learner’s environment and consider a sharper alignment of assessments to learning outcomes, especially when 21st century skills are involved.

The BSc and MSc Educational Technologies Programmes were launched at the University of Mauritius to help educators integrate technology more meaningfully in their classrooms. The learning design modules have considered LATAR as a rapid technique to engage primary and secondary school teachers to design learning activities through a themed approach, thus making for a more holistic and inclusive learning approach.

Sandhya Gunness shares an introduction to LATAR, a discussion of how it has been useful in her context and an example of how it can be applied in practice. We invite you to share your designs using media of your choice (Word document, Google document, short video, photo, etc). Let’s commit to designing purposeful student learning experiences aligned to learning outcomes together:)

Through participating in this event you will be exposed to how others are designing lessons that incorporate technology for their contexts. Be bold and participate by sharing your design to get constructive feedback from peers from across the African continent.

Although officially over we still welcome you to review resources and post your comments in the Facebook event page created for this event

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Sandhya Gunness is a lecturer in the Open and Online Learning at Centre for Innovative and Lifelong Learning at the University of Mauritius. She teaches Primary and Secondary level teachers about OER and technologies so that they can improve their teaching practices. This is formalised through an online module delivered within the BSc Educational technologies programme at the University of Mauritius. She is currently doing research on the extent of teaching transformations and whether this can be sustained in Mauritian Schools through Open Educational practices. She is also interested in Collaborative Networks and how these are linked and enhanced through Open Educational practices.