Join our April events, take the short members survey and apply for the second cohort of Facilitating Online course 2022
April 2022
Dear Colleague,
We’re more than a quarter of the way through 2022 already. Across many of our countries it seems that the pandemic is waning. We hope that this continues and that our societies and educational systems will be able to recover from the damage faced and also to carry forward the valuable lessons that we have learnt. These years have changed us so we won’t be jumping back to 2019.
We continue to organise and offer events and also some learning about new tools sessions that stimulate, challenge, inform and engage. We’re always looking for new energy and perspectives so please let us know if you would like to be a presenter.
If you’re in the Facebook group please come and tell us about what you have been reading lately and how it affects the way that you think about your work with educational technology. Perhaps even about potential implications for practice … (It could be an academic article, a news report about the use of technology or even a Twitter thread.)
In the February newsletter we have:
Short 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 and Opportunities
Short e/merge Africa member survey
Colleagues, the e/merge Africa team are currently planning our way forward for the rest of the year. Please let us know what you need and want in our new short e/merge Africa evaluation survey. Much gratitude to the 65 colleagues who responded to the longer survey (and don't need to answer the short survey) but 65 from over 4000 participants is very thin feedback. Still a chance to win a voucher .. open until 12 April . only 15 minutes of your time.
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:
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, 12 April: 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.
Session Guide:
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”.
Date and Time: Tuesday, 19 April: 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.
Session guide:
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 the e/merge Africa Facilitating Online Course
Date and Time: Tuesday, 21 April: 15:00 - 17:00 SAST
Description of the session:
This workshop is designed to provoke colleagues to dream, scheme and plan together for the post pandemic future. We will use a range of facilitation processes to unleash the best thinking and creativity in the room about issues such as
the metaphors for our journeys through the pandemic,
our learning that transfers to the post-pandemic future,
structural changes needed in our institutions,
how to ensure that our institutions carry forward lessons from the pandemic, and
how to construct better blended lives.
Much of the workshop will take place in parallel breakouts on specific questions where participants can choose which room to join.
Session Facilitator:
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.
Led by e/merge Africa team member Dr. Mohamed Ahmed of Mansoura University, Egypt, we have already had many online events in Arabic since the beginning in 2020 and will continue throughout this year. These events will be held on Friday afternoons 4–6 pm (Cairo time - occasional expectations may occur). For more details of Arabic events and how to sign up please go toe/merge Africa Arabic.
We have a number of events in the pipeline - for latest updated information please visit e/merge Africa Arabic (In Arabic)
Other Upcoming Events
Monday 4 -Friday 8 April 2022: Facilitate the Future
On Zoom - session in English and is FREE
A free week long event series exploring the power of relational facilitation and transformational teaching online. To register and more information https://www.facilitatethefuture.com/
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 AND OPPORTUNITIES
Edustaff is looking for African Language Learning Designers
We are still looking for African Language Learning Designers - Sepedi, Setswana & Sesotho. FULLY ONLINE/REMOTE Position for a TOP online High School. Apply on the links below-
