Join our February events, take the members survey and apply to be in the first cohort of Facilitating Online course 2022
February 2022
Dear Colleague,
We’re well into 2022 and we hope that you have had a good start to the year. This year we will continue offering events and longer processes that stimulate, challenge, inform and engage you about a range of topics that speak to the needs and challenges that our members are telling us about. If you’re in the Facebook group please come and tell us about how the conditions of your work have changed this year.
In the February newsletter we have:
e/merge Africa member survey
Facilitating Online course 2022
Upcoming e/merge Africa events/webinars in English and Arabic
Other Upcoming Events
Ways of getting involved in the e/merge Africa Network
Jobs
e/merge Africa member survey
Last year we asked for some feedback through our survey and a very few colleagues responded. (Thanks to those who did at such a busy time). We have reopened the Arabic and English language surveys. These surveys will stay open until midnight SA time on 18 February but you have a higher chance of winning an Amazon/ Takealot voucher with a value of $40 if you complete the survey and enter the draw by this Friday (18 February). For e/merge Africa to offer professional development processes that meet your context and needs we need to understand what these are. Please tell us.
Facilitating Online which is registered as a short course at the University of Cape Town (UCT) provides a solid foundation for facilitating online events and courses..
This year the Facilitating Online course will be running three times with the following cohorts:
21 February – 15 April – Apply by 11 Feb 2022 (Please note extended deadline)
6 June – 29 July – Apply by 13 May 2022
5 September – 28 October – Apply by 19 August 2022
Facilitating Online was developed by the Centre for Innovation in Learning and Teaching (CILT) at UCT and is funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York as part of its support for the e/merge Africa network.
This course is aimed at change-agent educational technologists, educators and trainers within the African Higher Educational sector and beyond. Course participation is entirely online and will require up to 8 hours of participation per week. We can offer up to two free places per state funded higher education institution in Africa subject to admission requirements. Participants from other sectors and continents who meet the admission requirements can join us for a fee of ZAR 8000 per participant.
Date and Time: Tuesday, 22 February: 13:00 - 15:00 SAST
Description of the session:
In designing meetings, learning activities and workshops our most generative and productive experiences are found in the zone between the extremes of total control (which silences participants) and a complete absence of structure (thus no focus for shared engagement). Liberating structures are meeting processes designed to provide just enough structure to unleash the brilliance and creativity of a group of people. Liberating Structures were originally designed for face to face interaction and have been extensively applied to online engagement during the pandemic.
The e/merge Africa team will introduce the concept of Liberating Structures and facilitate a highly experiential workshop which features five structures, namely: Waterfall, Impromptu Networking, Spiral Journal, 1-2-4-All and Conversation Cafe’. The Liberating Structures website features 33 of the over 50 structures that have been developed.
Led by:
The e/merge Africa Team
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.
Dr Alice Barlow-Zambodla ise/Merge Africa Network Regional Coordinator for Southern and East Africa
Jakob Pedersen is Project Manager for e/merge Africa, Centre for Innovation in Learning and Teaching (CILT), University of Cape Town
Irene Maweu is an Online Facilitator for e/merge Africa Facilitating Online Course
Date and Time: Thursday, 24 February: 14:00 - 15:00 SAST
Description of the session:
Online environments with spatial metaphors have been around for decades. During the pandemic there has been an explosion in the use and development of such environments as antidotes to Zoom/ Teams fatigue and for some of the familiar interactions in shared space that are part of a normal classroom, office, conference or social event. There are dozens of competing environments which allow participants the ability to move within a space, to mingle and to engage in conversation within hearing distance. In this tour we will start together in Zoom and then meet in Spatialchat, Wonder.me and Welo before returning to Zoom to share our experiences and insights.
Tony says:
“I get really curious about emerging and alternative technologies and I keep coming across some real gems for online and blended learning and teaching. I don’t claim to have expert knowledge of all of these tools so let's explore together”.
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.
Date and Time: Tuesday, 22 March: 13:00 - 15:00 SAST
Description of the session:
In designing meetings, learning activities and workshops our most generative and productive experiences are found in the zone between the extremes of total control (which silences participants) and a complete absence of structure (thus no focus for shared engagement). Liberating structures are meeting processes designed to provide just enough structure to unleash the brilliance and creativity of a group of people. Liberating Structures were originally designed for face to face interaction and have been extensively applied to online engagement during the pandemic.
The e/merge Africa team will introduce the concept of Liberating Structures and facilitate a highly experiential workshop which features four structures, namely: Waterfall, Impromptu Networking, Spiral Journal and Conversation Cafe’. The Liberating Structures website features 33 of the over 50 structures that have been developed.
Led by:
The e/merge Africa Team
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.
Dr Alice Barlow-Zambodla ise/Merge Africa Network Regional Coordinator for Southern and East Africa
Jakob Pedersen is Project Manager for e/merge Africa, Centre for Innovation in Learning and Teaching (CILT), University of Cape Town
Irene Maweu is an Online Facilitator for e/merge Africa Facilitating Online Course
Date and Time: Wednesday, 23 March: 14:00 - 15:00 SAST
Description of the session:
By now we are almost certain to each be familiar (perhaps even overfamiliar) with Zoom and or MS Teams. There are so many good environments for online synchronous interaction in virtual meetings space and in this event we will sample three of the newer environments. We will start together in Zoom and then meet in Butter, JITSI and Google Meet before returning to Zoom to share our experiences and insights.
Led by:
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.
Tony says:
“I get really curious about emerging and alternative technologies and I keep coming across some real gems for online and blended learning and teaching. I don’t claim to have expert knowledge of all of these tools so let's explore together”.
Led by e/merge Africa team member Dr. Mohamed Ahmed of Mansoura University, Egypt, we have already had many online events in Arabic in 2020 and will continue this year. These events will be held on Friday afternoons 4–5 pm (Cairo time). For more details of Arabic events and how to sign up please go toe/merge Africa Arabic.
Friday 11 February, 2022: Fostering Entrepreneurship in the Higher Education (تعزيز ريادة الأعمال بالتعليم العالي )
Date and Time: Friday, 11 February 2022: 4:00pm SAST/Cairo Time
Description of the session:
مؤخرا ظهرت الكثير من التوجهات الجديدة في مجال التعلم الإلكتروني والتعليم عن بعد والتي يُتوقَع أن تستعمل بكثرة خصوصاً بعد انتشار فيروس الكورونا ولجوء عدة دول ومؤسسات عالمية للتعليم الالكتروني للمحافظة على سير العملية التعليمية في المدارس والجامعات وتجنب التواصل المباشر بين المعلمين والطلاب لضمان عدم انتشار المرض. وبطريقة غير مباشرة أدى ذلك إلى ارتفاع الطلب على التعليم الالكتروني وعلى أدواته مع الحاجة لبناء وتجهيز البنية التحتية اللازمة له. سنستعرض في هذه الورشة ماهى الخدمات التعليمية التي تقدمها وسائل التواصل الاجتماعى و كيفية الاعتماد على شبكات التواصل الاجتماعى كوسيلة تعليمية و الاستفادة من انتشارها و اعتماد الجميع عليها في كافة المجالات و كيفية تأثيرها على زيادة فاعلية أستخدم التكنولوجية في العملية التعليمية.
الأهداف
1. العالم 2040
2. ريادة الأعمال في التراث العربي
3. معادلات ريادية.. وهل بقدر الرِيسك يأتي الرِزق؟
4. تحديد السمات والخصائص والقدرات لرواد الأعمال
5. توليد مئات أفكار المشروعات الإبداعية
6. مفاضلة الأفكار واختيار المشروع الأنسب
7. استثمار التقنية بريادة الأعمال
8. صناعة الفرص بأوقات الأزمات
9. آليات دعم أصحاب الأفكار الريادية بالجامعات
10. البيئة الداعمة الإيكوسيستم لريادة الأعمال في مصر والعالم
Recently, many new trends have appeared in the field of e-learning and distance education, which are expected to be used extensively, especially after the spread of the Coronavirus and the resort of several countries and international institutions to e-learning to maintain the educational process in schools and universities and to avoid direct communication between teachers and students to ensure that the disease does not spread. Indirectly, this led to high demand for e-learning and its tools, along with the need to build and equip the necessary infrastructure for it. In this workshop, we will review what educational services are provided by social media, how to rely on social networks as an educational method, benefit from its spread and dependence on it in all fields, and how it affects the effectiveness of using technology in the educational process.
Session Presenter: Dr. Eng. Nabil Shalaby is the founder and chairman at Arab Entrepreneur House (ARENHO) consulting firm, co-founder of Delta Technopreneurs Association (DTA) in Egypt. He was selected as the advisor of entrepreneurship and SMEs capacity building for 57 countries, members of the Organization of Islamic Countries (OIC). He was the advisor of the small industries committee at the Federation of Egyptian Industries (FEI), the director of the first SMEs development centre in Saudi Arabia, and helped establish 16 similar SMEs centres in the Gulf region. He is the author of 32 books, and more than forty research papers pertaining to Entrepreneurship, SMEs, Engineering, ICT, for the last +30 years' experience journey. He designed the first Egypt's Entrepreneurship Ecosystem interactive map and platform, which accommodates about 500 entrepreneurship support channels and much more.
Date and Time: Friday, 18 February 2022: 4:00pm SAST/Cairo Time
Description of the session:
تهدف الورشة الى اكساب المتدربين مهارات متقدمة في التصميم لبيئة التعلم المدمج حيث سيتم التركيز على الجانب التربوي والتقني من اجل دمجهما، سيتم الاعتماد على نموذج 5Es
The aim of this workshop is development of the advance skills of designing for blended learning for the next normal
Session Presenter: Zuheir N Khlaif is a researcher and faculty member in the Faculty of Educational Sciences and Teachers Preparing, at An Najah National University, Palestine. He holds MSc., In Instructional Design and PhD degree in Instructional Design and Technology. Khlaif conducts empirical studies on technology integration in higher and public education, online learning, computational thinking, and technostress, to which he applies various critical theories. He is also interested in emerging research paradigms, including social network analysis, learning analytics, and data mining. He shares his views on his Facebook feed @khlaifz
We have a number of events in the pipeline - for latest updated information please visit e/merge Africa Arabic (In Arabic)
Other Upcoming Events
24-25 February 2022: Reimagining the Futures of Higher Education towards 2050 - University of South Africa (UNISA) Virtual Conference
The University of the Future Network (UFN), in partnership with UNESCO, is pleased to invite you to a virtual conference on the futures of higher education, hosted by the University of South Africa (UNISA). This conference will bring together eminent scholars, policy makers and relevant stakeholders in higher education to engage in the construction of global visions and pathways for Higher Education towards 2050.
"REIMAGINING THE FUTURES OF HIGHER EDUCATION TOWARDS 2050" will provide a platform to stimulate debate and discussion on the futures of Higher Education in 2050, in preparation for the UNESCO 3rd World Higher Education Conference (WHEC2022) taking place from 18-20 May 2022 in Barcelona, Spain. Inspired by the WHEC Theme on the Futures of Higher Education, which engages participants in visionary conceptions intended to reimagine future learning communities, this two half-day virtual UFN-UNESCO conference (24-25 February 2022) will provide a platform for sharing envisioned scenarios of higher education of the future with relevant higher education stakeholders, to address past and current injustices inherent in higher education ecosystems. Participants will begin to engage with future research methodologies by imagining future paths that reflect the notion of higher education as a common good.
This virtual conference is FREE to attend. Please register online by filling out this Registration Form in order to receive the conference link.
BE A CONVERSATION STARTER!
e/merge Africa is a platform for learning and connecting. It provides an opportunity to join a growing Africa-wide network of eLearning professionals. We offer a number of ways for you to get involved and engage with colleagues across the continent
Propose an event
Whether you are a seasoned lecturer or PhD-student engaged in research you would like to share with our network, please propose a webinar, a seminar or even an online workshop. Perhaps you’ve attended an e-learning related conference recently and are willing to participate in a report back. You may contact us on info@emergeafrica.net and we will work with you to organise the session for our community.
Be part of a peer-assist
Have you got stuck with a daunting challenge in your work where there are no technical fixes? We can arrange a Peer-Assist session where you access insight, experience, new perspectives and potential solutions from e/merge Africa colleagues.Contact us on info@emergeafrica.net and we will pull this together and facilitate the process.
Nominate a presenter
Is there a mentor, supervisor, colleague whose research could be shared with our network? Please get in touch to nominate a presenter!
Share with us via social media
Perhaps you’ve found or created a useful resource or published a paper of interest to other educational technology professionals? Please share via ourFacebook group or viaTwitter. Please subscribe to our e/merge Africa YouTube Channel
JOBS
Are you looking for an education job in higher learning institutions? Look no further, here is the link for more information African EduJobs
For more details on our events and any information provided here, please contact us on
