Come and explore the use of Mentimeter, Slido and Wooclap which make it easy to stimulate the interaction and energy that can lift presentations to processes for engaging a community. All of these tools are easy to integrate with the use of Powerpoint and Google Slides. Presentations and some have quite generous free accounts.
Our Guide’s Bio:
Tony Carr is an Educational Technologist in the Centre for Innovation in Learning and Teaching at University of Cape Town and convenor of e/merge Africa.
Descriptions: As the largest Open Educational Resource in the world, the various projects associated with the Wikimedia Foundation, provides an interesting opportunity for institutions of higher learning in terms of learning, teaching and research support. This paper explores areas for integration and use of certain Wikimedia projects, such as Wikipedia and Wikidata, based on activities at universities that have successfully implemented Wikimedia projects. In addition, this presentation proposes that, through the use of Wikimedia projects, Universities should contribute to the Africanisation of content available in the world.
During this 1 hour session, specific focus will be given to Wikimedia projects and the optimization of the availability of this global information structure towards increasingly making known and accessible content emanating from Africa about African environments, and in indigenous African languages.
Presenter: Wynand van der Walt is currently Head Librarian: Technical Services at Rhodes University Library, South Africa. He holds a Masters in IT from the University of Pretoria. His areas of interest are: leadership for innovation; digitisation and digital curation, Open Educational Resources, and the semantic web and how it affects library-related technologies. Wynand also serves on the Wikimedia South Africa Board and the Library and Information Association of South Africa Executive Committee.
Date and Time: Thursday, 25th of November 2021, 15:00pm SAST
Session Description:
Many professions with a strong technology focus are still dominated by men. Educational technology as a new and emerging profession is breaking out of this mold with diverse paths into the profession including opportunities for educators who are moving into blended and online learning. Our panel includes four dynamic women leading and influencing the use of educational technology within their universities and organisations.
The panelists will introduce themselves and respond to the following prompts:
1) How did you move into a career with a strong focus on the use of educational technology?
2) Please tell us about an experience early in your career that encouraged you to think big and persist.
3) Did you face any obstacles in your career as a woman and how did you deal with these?
4) What kinds of support or encouragement do you think could most help the next generations of women pursuing educational technology-focused careers in African higher education? (This could be from women, men or changes in institutions and policies)
Dr. Nompilo Tshuma: Researcher and Lecturer in Educational Technology at the Centre for Higher and Adult Education at Stellenbosch University, South Africa. She has been working with educational technology since 2005 as both a lecturer and an academic developer. In her current role she is the institutional coordinator for a regional PG Diploma in Higher Education. She also teaches modules in the Centre’s two MPhil programmes and supervises Masters and PhD students. As a critical educational technology researcher, she uses social and critical theories to explore the context and politics of higher education, and their impact on educational technology practices.
Prof. Karen Ferreira-Meyers: is the Coordinator Modern Languages/Linguistics of the Institute of Distance Education at the University of Eswatini. She obtained various qualifications: MA Romance Philology (French-Spanish), Honours Portuguese, Post-Graduate Diploma Translation (French-English-French), MA Linguistics, LLM Degree (Legal aspects of new technologies), PhD in French (feminine Francophone autofiction). She has published a monograph on Francophone autofiction, several articles (autofictional feminine writing, crime fiction, 20th and 21st Francophone, Anglophone and Lusophone African authors, distance and e-learning), participates regularly in international conferences and is a keen translator and interpreter.
Dr. Nicola Palitt: Coordinates the efforts of the Educational Technology Unit in the Centre for Higher Education Research,Teaching and Learning (CHERTL) at Rhodes University and offers professional development opportunities for academics to use technologies effectively in their roles as educators and researchers. Dr. Pallitt provides learning design support and consultation in relation to teaching with technology (technology integration) and blended and online teaching and learning. She also supports lecturers to design appropriate technology-mediated learning experiences for their students. Nicola supervises postgraduate students and co-teach on formal courses in Higher Education. She enjoys meeting EdTech practitioners and researchers from across the globe.
Ms. Nodumo Dhlamini is the Director of ICT Services and Knowledge Management at the Association of African Universities (AAU) Secretariat. Nodumo holds a Bachelor of Science (Mathematics & Computer Science) and a Master of Business Administration.
