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Working Across Africa The leading Pan-Africa eLearning Network

Rambe, P. (2012). Constructive disruptions for effective collaborative learning: Navigating the affordances of social media for meaningful engagement. Electronic Journal of E-Learning, 10(1), 132-146. The essentialist view that new technological innovations (especially Social Media) disrupt higher education delivery ride on educators' risk averse attitudes toward full-scale adoption of unproven technologies. However, this unsubstantiated logic forecloses possibilities for embracing the constructive dimensions of disruptions, and grasping the tremendous academic potential of emerging technologies. Community of inquiry and virtual ethnography adopted as theoretical and methodological lenses for exploring the productive pedagogical impacts of appropriating Social Media in an Information Systems course at a South African University. Lecturer-student and peer-based postings on Facebook examined to understand the influence of Facebook adoption on student meaningful learning and pedagogical delivery. The findings suggest that Facebook constituted a collective "Third space" for student enactment of counter scripts, augmented traditional academic networking, fostered "safe" havens for student democratic expression, and afforded learning communities for student co-construction of knowledge. Shortfalls identified include challenges of developing quality academic discussions and fostering student engagement at epistemological and conceptual levels to ensure deep learning. The study recommends a multi-pronged strategy that foregrounds contingent relaxation of academic authority, on-task student behavior, strategic alignment of powerful collaborative technologies with pedagogical designs, and learning needs and styles of students.

Open educational resources (OERs) have the potential to reduce costs, improve quality, and increase access to educational opportunities. OER development and deployment is one path that could contribute to achieving education for all. The article, "Developing and Deploying OERs in Sub-Saharan Africa: Building on the Present" by Clayton Wright builds on existing information and communication technology (ICT) implementation plans in Africa and on the experiences of organizations and initiatives such as: * the African Virtual University (AVU), * OER Africa, the South African Institute of Distance Education (SAIDE), * Teacher Education in Sub Saharan Africa (TESSA) Project The author of the article present, a one view of the benefits, challenges, and steps to realize the potential of OERs in sub-Saharan Africa if they could be taken. * The article further focuses on the factors necessary for creating and sustaining a vision for OER development and deployment; * developing and distributing resources with an open license; * improving technology infrastructure and reducing the cost of Internet access; * establishing communities of educational collaborators; sustaining involvement in the OER initiative; * producing resources in interoperable and open formats; * establishing and maintaining the quality of OERs; providing local context to address national and regional needs and conditions; * informing the public about OERs; and taking the initiative to build on the knowledge, skills, and experiences of others. Wright, C. (Apr 2012). Developing and Deploying OERs in Sub-Saharan Africa: Building on the Present. International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning, (v13) n2. pp. 181-220. Retrieved from: http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ983279.pdf