Dear Colleague, We hope this first newsletter in 2018 finds you well and wish you a prosperous year ahead. e/merge Africa has a busy year ahead with our Festival of e-learning in July likely to be one of the high points of 2018. From today we invite proposals - please see further down for more information and how to join us! This newsletter also features a brief review of 2017 activities, upcoming events and news of conferences, calls for papers and opportunities that may be of interest. ● ● ● ●
e/merge 2018: Festival of e-Learning Upcoming online events 2017 in review Conferences and calls
Festival of e-Learning - Call for Proposals now open
We invite you to join our online festival taking place from 9–20 July 2018. Our submission for proposals OPENS TODAY and will remain open until 22 March 2018.
Festival Theme: Growing e-learning capacity together After several decades of experience across projects rolling out educational technology it is well understood that the availability of technology is just one of several preconditions for success. Effective integration of technology to enhance learning and teaching requires the development and use of technical, organisational and pedagogical capabilities. This conference is about the development of deep capacity for e-learning by African higher education in an increasingly networked world. e/merge 2018 will convene a welcoming space and a diverse, dynamic community across multiple networks to discuss, debate, review, showcase and celebrate e-learning in higher
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education in Africa. Our focus is on e-learning in African higher education and on joining up the African and global conversations about e-learning research and practice. Presenters and workshop leaders from all continents who are working with or researching e-learning in Africa are encouraged to submit proposals. The presenters and conference interactions will be supported by a team of trained and experienced online facilitators from across Africa. e/merge 2018 grows out of the series of e/merge online conferences in 2004, 2006, 2008 and 2012 and the e/merge Africa network for educational technology practitioners and researchers in African higher education which has presented regular online professional development events since 2014.
Publication Opportunities from e/merge 2018 All the e/merge 2018 presentations and papers will appear in the public online proceedings of the conference. Authors of the best presentations and papers in e/merge 2018 will be invited to submit improved versions of their papers for publication in the International Journal of Education and Development using Information and Communication Technology (IJEDICT). There are also likely to be other post-conference publication opportunities for e/merge 2018 authors.
Timeline 22/2/2018: Call for proposals opens 22/3/2018: Deadline for proposals 2/4/2018: Participant and presenter registration opens 4/5/2018: Feedback to authors and presenters 22/6/2018: Deadline for submission of papers and files for upload 22/6/2018: Unconference collaboration space opens 6/7/2018: Festival site goes live 9/7 - 20/7/2018: e/merge 2018 For more information and to submit proposals please visit our festival website.
Upcoming online events 6 March 2018: Making makerspaces work: design thinking pedagogy Calkin Suero Montero, University of Eastern Finland 17 May 2018 Design in the Open Jennifer Maddrell / Tonia Dousay, Designers for Learning (US). Learn more about their new course.
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Facilitating Online course
Want to become an effective online facilitator? We invite applications to our fully online 8week online facilitation course. Facilitating Online provides a solid foundation for facilitating online events and courses. It is registered as a short course at the University of Cape Town (UCT). 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. It is convened by Tony Carr and Nicola Pallitt and co-facilitated by facilitators from across Africa. This course is aimed at change agent educational technologists and educators within the African Higher Educational sector.
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The course will be offered twice in 2018: 12 March – 4 May: Apply by 26 February 7 October - 30 November: Apply by 10 September Course information and online application available here. Please apply soon, as spaces are limited. Two FREE places are available per African higher education institution. To see if a fee may apply to your application please refer to our fee information here.
2017 in review In 2017 participants in our online seminars, workshops and courses hailed from 37 countries globally including 23 African countries. Our 2017 professional development events included 35 online seminars and workshops, 3 instances of the Facilitating Online course and a workshop during the eLearning Africa conference in Mauritius in September. The two best attended online offerings by the number of verified active participants were the Learning Design in African Higher Education event with 89 active participants and the Researching Culture, Learning and Technology series with 87 active participants.
Our total signed up participants rose to 855 as compared with 605 in 2015 and 506 in 2016. Our active participants also rose significantly reaching 646 as compared to 297 in 2015 and 321 in 2016. In 2017 114 e/merge Africa participants were active in three or more events and 49 were active in five or more events. The five top countries for active participants were South Africa (294); Nigeria (87); Kenya (29); Uganda (22); and Ghana (19).
The e/merge Africa team made several presentations at the OE Global conference in March 2017 in Cape Town and made a significant contribution to the eLearning Africa conference in Mauritius in September including leading a workshop and several panels and presentations. In November 2017 Programme Convenor Tony Carr and Regional Coordinator (Southern and East-Africa) Dr Alice Barlow-Zambodla attended the AECT convention in Jacksonville and presented as part of a panel on ‘Learning, design and technology and research and practice in Afrika'. e/merge Africa has been affiliated to the Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT) on 21 October 2016. e/merge Africa members now have an opportunity to join AECT at a significant discount and to pay a reduced fee for the AECT conference.
For an indexed overview of events from 2013 through to and including 2017 please view our Knowledge Repository (If you are asked to log in please select your preferred social login for access free of charge).
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Recommended conferences, opportunities & resources
The 13th eLearning Africa is taking place in Kigali (Rwanda) from 26 - 28 September 2018. Don’t miss out! This year’s theme is ‘Uniting Africa’. DELP 2018 Conference (DELP2018-C) is taking place at Makerere University in Uganda on 9 July 2018. Details & call for papers here. The 13th International Conference on e- Learning (ICEL) is taking place in Cape Town from 5 - 6th July 2018. While the call for papers has closed, early bird registration has started. Research on Open Educational Resources for Development (ROER4D) have just released an open access book OER Adoption and Impact in the Global South. Download if for FREE or buy it here. Designers for Learning have a new self-paced professional development online course Design in the Open. It is a paid for course (20 $US). Details here. Open House with Janet Salmons, access resources on SAGE Research Methods and learn to use them on Mentorspace. Details here.
Call for papers (CfP) The following reputable journals have calls which may be of interest to members seeking publishing opportunities: ● Special issue of Learning, Media and Technology entitled ‘Global technologies, Local Practices: redefining digital education with marginalised voices’ Deadline for submission of abstract: 15th March 2018. Details here. ● The Australasian Journal of Educational Technology (AJET) has two upcoming calls: ‘Designing, using and evaluating learning spaces’ and ‘Re-Examining Cognitive Tools’ Details here.
Open Access journals for interest: The International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education (ETHE) The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning (IRRODL) The International Journal of Education and Development using Information and Communication Technology (IJEDICT)
Become a member of the AECT
In 2016 e/merge Africa became affiliated with the Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT). Special discounts to join this organisation is available for e/merge Africa members. Details here.
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Opportunities NRF funded Masters/PhD bursaries Applications are invited for 2 Masters and 1 PhD bursary on the 'Unbundling Higher Education’ project. Preference will be given to South African nationals. Bursary holders are only permitted to undertake 12 hours of paid work per week during term time. Closing date: 5 March 2018. Details here. VACANCIES: CILT Online Learning Designer (3 posts) The Centre for Innovation in Learning and Teaching at UCT invites applications from suitably qualified candidates for appointment to this 2-year contract position. Successful candidates will join the CILT team in supporting academics to develop online courses and learning materials. Apply by 5 March 2018. Details here. We look forward to your energetic participation - let’s unleash the power of networks together! The e/merge Africa team https://emergeafrica.net/
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. 2018 e/merge Africa. You are receiving this mail as you have previously subscribed to the e/merge Africa mailing list Our mailing address is: e/merge Africa University of Cape Town Centre for Innovation in Learning and Teaching Cape Town, Western Cape 7701 South Africa
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