Mediating Learning In Higher Education In Africa

This book enters the discourse of the scholarship of teaching and learning in higher education in Africa. The book provides critical insights comprising topical themes from transformation, citizenship and gender, researching to ethical perspectives of teaching and learning.

Over the past few years, the virtual landscape of South African higher education institutions has changed as a result of ubiquitous and ever-present technological initiatives that can potentially provide students with a flexible learning space. Within these learning spaces, Web 2.0 tools have transformed educators' pedagogical approaches to teaching and learning and its impact on students. To this end, emerging technologies tools such as wiki's and blogs provide a powerful opportunity to increase collaboration, and enhance student engagement. These educational technology tools has the potential to provide students who are located in resource poor institutions, the much needed digital literary skills required for the 21st century workplace. Hence, the pedagogical value of wiki's and blogs is worth further scrutiny. For the purpose of this study, a wiki task was designed to include the nine elements of authentic learning in order to improve collaboration and engagement. Alongside this, students used a blog as a reflective tool in order to document their experiences using emerging technologies in the classroom. Reflective practices in education have in many ways shown to have value and therefore blog posts were used to allow students to reflect on their learning experiences as well as a discussion forum within a blended learning environment. Therefore the aim of this exploratory study was to investigate how emerging technologies mediate authentic learning in sport science education. Participants for this study were conveniently selected from a group of students (N = 88) in their second year of study towards a sport science degree which is located within a health sciences discipline. This paper drew on the students' reflective experiences after an authentic wiki-based task where a total of 67 reflective blog post summaries were analysed using a qualitative methodological approach. A thematic content analysis was conducted on the written blog reflections using the nine elements of authentic learning as an analytical framework. This paper proposes that educators be mindful of authentic learning principles when designing learning activities aimed at increasing collaboration and engagement. This paper concludes that educational technology tools transformed students' learning experiences and mediated learning, engagement and collaboration in a meaningful way. [For full proceedings, see ED557168.].

Online Learning, Instruction, and Research in Post-Pandemic Higher Education in Africa, edited by Martin Munyao, argues that beyond survival, universities need to adapt to technology-mediated communication learning in order to thrive. Disruptive technologies have recently proved to be means of thriving for institutions of higher learning. This book reflects on how leveraging on education technology has transformed teaching, learning, and research Higher Education Institutions (HEI) impacting Africa through digital transformation. In particular, HEIs are collaborating more now than ever before. Finally, this book addresses the challenges of teaching STEM programs online in Africa.

This book will help stakeholders in higher education appreciate service-learning as an innovative and active approach with the potential to enrich students’ learning experiences, while adding value to the service mission of higher education. The approach not only links academic learning to everyday life, but also exposes students to a variety of opportunities for the development of life and career skills. The book will serve to bring university teaching out of the clouds and restore in students’ minds the connection between what they are learning and the people their education is meant to help. The approach advocated here will serve to have a long-term and salutary effect on the whole nature of university learning. When students are given the opportunity to participate actively in the learning process, which includes civic engagement, they will be able to learn not only theoretically, but also experientially through practice, as experience is generally one of the best ways to learn.

Recent evolutions, such as pervasive networking and other enabling technologies, have been increasingly changing human life, knowledge acquisition, and the way works are performed and students learn. In this societal change, educational institutions must maintain their leading role. They have therefore embraced digitally enhanced learning to provide increased flexibility and access for their students. The Handbook of Research on Redesigning Teaching, Learning, and Assessment in the Digital Era provides insights into the transformation of education in the digital era and responds to the needs of learners of any context and background through relevant studies that include sound pedagogical and content knowledge. Covering key topics such as hybrid learning, media, remote learning, and social media, this major reference work is ideal for administrators, policymakers, academicians, researchers, scholars, practitioners, librarians, instructors, and students.

Technology has become a driving force of innovation in every industry and professionals need to strengthen their proficiency in emerging technologies to remain competitive. Today’s working world is very demanding of young professionals, as recent graduates are expected to come into their chosen field both knowledgeable and ready to hit the ground running, with minimal on-the-job training. Computer-Mediated Learning for Workforce Development delivers crucial knowledge on how to prepare twenty-first century students for today’s fast-paced workforce. This book explores the use of multimedia programs in classrooms to train students on necessary technology skills through techniques such as game-based training curriculums and massive open online courses (MOOCs). This publication also touches on computer-mediated youth civic action and interaction by examining the use of social media during the Arab Spring, Occupy Wall Street, and Black Lives Matter movements. Filled with critical information on educational technology, mobile learning, and employment preparation, this book is a vital resource for academicians, education practitioners, school administrators, and advanced-level students.

This volume of the International Perspectives on Education and Society series investigates the challenges and prospects for higher education in Africa, especially issues of development, expansion, internationalization, equity, and divergence.

The book is a must read for policy makers, academics, university administrators and post graduate research students in the broad field of education and in higher education studies in particular. The book brings together a wealth of information regarding the imperatives of transformation in Africa’s higher education systems. Not only do some of the chapters provide critical discussion about the conceptualisation of transformation, the majority of the chapters reflect on empirical evidence for transformation in diverse fields of mathematics, science, gender, the training of doctoral students and the governance and management of universities. This central theme of sustainable change and reform runs across the chapters of the book. For students, the book provides exemplars of practical research in higher education. For scholars in higher education and policy makers, specific issues for reform are identified and discussed.

This book makes a significant contribution to the literature on the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL). It provides both theoretical and practical insights that should be of interest to many SoTL scholars and practitioners worldwide. The theme of teaching and learning, and SoTL, as fundamentally communicative acts, connects the entire volume and will be picked up by SoTL scholars elsewhere as a useful and critical frame for future scholarship. The cases from South Africa and Sweden offer new perspectives on teaching, learning, and SoTL.ÿ

"This book captures the current trends in technology integration from PreK-12 to higher education, focusing on the various constituent groups, namely students, teachers, and communities, in education and the effects of educational technology on learning and empowerment"--Provided by publisher.