This message is an announcement of an extension of the deadline for submissions to the Transform 2015 Research Colloquium which will take place from 6 – 10 April 2015 with the theme of  “Transforming Pedagogical Practices  in African Higher Education with blended and online learning”.

We will consider papers of up to 5000 words which are submitted online by 12 February 2015 by 1) emerging researchers based in Africa and from the African diaspora (as sole or first author) with research experience of at most five years post PhD on 31st December 2014; and 2) established researchers based in Africa and from the African diaspora.

Approximately two thirds of the papers in the colloquium will be from emerging researchers. In selecting presentations we will consider the relevance to the colloquium call, the quality of the proposal, the originality of the research and relevance to African contexts.

On Friday 5th December we had the great pleasure of hosting a live session from Online Educa in Berlin featuring  Marilynne Coopasami, Lecturer, Durban University of Technology, South Africa; Aida Opoku-Mensah, Special Adviser: Post – 2015 Development Agenda, United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), Ethiopia; and Charles Y. Senkondo, Executive Director, Tanzania Global Learning Agency (TaGLA). Marilynne, Charles and Aida reported to colleagues across Africa and the world about their Online Educa highlights, insights and what to bring home for the African e-learning contexts. This was an exciting and enlightening discussion which brought an African perspective on the conference. In case you missed out on this event the recording of this webinar is available here.

Webinar participants are invited to continue the conversation in the Facebook event page after the webinar.

Online Educa Berlin is one of the world’s leading conferences on technology supported learning and training for the corporate, education and public service sectors. This year e/merge Africa and the eLearning Africa Report are convening a short webinar to share some of the innovative solutions, new thinking and bring home ideas with colleagues across Africa.

ELearn Africa webinar – sharing highlights of @OEBconference pic.twitter.com/8RFzd1svmS

— Mari Pete (@Mari_Pete) December 5, 2014

Marilynne Coopasami

Aida Opoku-Mensah

Charles Senkondo

With Ariane Janse van Rensburg & Jolanda Morkel

YOU ARE INVITED

The main intent of this upcoming live online event is to continue discussions and the sharing of resources and experiences across Africa, in Architectural Education, but not limited to it. Anyone interested in Learning and Teaching, specifically in project-, problem- and enquiry based contexts, is invited to participate.

Ariane Janse van Rensburg will share the AEF UIAreport back document and Jolanda Morkel will highlight the main issues adressed in the newly released International Student Charter, after which discussion, either by audio or text chat, is invited.

THE ARCHITECTURAL EDUCATION FORUM

The Architectural Education Forum was the outcome of a Symposium on Architectural Education hosted by the Wits School of Architecture and Planning, South Africa, in early 2014 and is a grouping to critically discuss how to improve architectural educational practice here and now and to exchange relevant information. Its main focus is issues that are relevant to architectural education in Africa, especially sub-Saharan Africa, which includes global and regional concerns. Its membership consists mainly of teaching staff from schools of architecture from over Africa, but there has also been support and interest from other associations concerned with architectural education based on other continents.

The immediate aim was to enable architecture lecturers who attended the symposium to continue a constructive discussion on current research and practice generated by the challenges of teaching in a transformative way in changing circumstances in South Africa.
The need for such a forum had already been expressed at a previous conference on “Changing Paradigms” in 2013 and the fact that many interested parties would be together in Durban for the UIA Congress seemed an excellent opportunity to continue the conversation.

The Forum started informally as a group of people who wanted to be notified about the next discussion, but it has been growing steadily ever since. The AEF hosted a congress session at the UIA Congress entitled “Architectural Education Otherwhere – seen from the South”, which resulted in poster outputs and engaging discussion (see UIA report back document). At the UIA it was agreed that the AEF would approach e/merge Africa to facilitate an online meeting to strengthen ties and llinks across Africa and beyond.

AEF activities are presently being convened by Ariane Janse van Rensburg of the University of the Witwatersrand and Jolanda Morkel of the Cape Peninsula University of Technology. For further information the contact
e-mail is [email protected]

To sign up for this event, please use the form below

Regards
Jolanda

	Ariane Janse van Rensburg is a Senior lecturer in design and teaching and learning convenor in the School of Architecture and Planning, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.BAS (UCT), B.Arch (UCT), M Arch by Research (Wits). Current PhD research on enabling transformation in architectural education. Ariane turned to full-time teaching after extensive years in urban and rural architectural practice. She is involved in various university teaching and learning and transformation bodies and serves on SACAP and CAA accreditation panels. Currently she is completing a PhD in architectural education. She started the Architectural Education Forum after a successful symposium hosted at Wits this year. She also co-presented the ‘Architectural Education Otherwhere – seen from the South’ workshop with Jolanda Morkel at the UIA 2014 Durban congress
	Jolanda Morkel is a qualified architect and senior lecturer in the Department of Architectural Technology in the Faculty of Informatics and Design at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology. The focus of her research and current doctoral studies in Design is the virtual learning environment for mastering conceptual design. She is investigating how emerging technologies may support the collaborative studio learning experience online.