Auckland University of Technology Wins Overall Excellence Award for Innovation in ICT Education

Auckland University of Technology wins Overall Excellence Award at Microsoft Tertiary ICT Innovation Awards

Auckland University of Technology has taken the top prize, the Overall Excellence Award, at the Microsoft Tertiary ICT Innovation Awards. Presented at the Tertiary Education ICT Conference, the prize celebrates excellence in technology.

The Auckland University of Technology also received the Microsoft Excellence in Technology for Students Award trophy and $3,000 of Microsoft Innovative Technology Pack in recognition of its cutting-edge work.

Derek McCormack, Vice Chancellor of AUT said: “It is a real honour for our innovative Student Digital Workspace to win the Microsoft Excellence Award, and a great pleasure to be bringing the trophy back to AUT again. What is particularly gratifying this year is the recognition of our collaborative approach with our ICT Services, Student Services and Marketing teams, and the large part our students have played in this achievement.”

“Student Digital Workspace is a platform that supports and enhances the experience for each and every one of our students,” added Liz Gosling, CIO of AUT. “By doing this AUT now has a space that not only makes studying and learning enjoyable, fundamentally Student Digital Workspace is a place that our students want to come to and learn together.”

Katrien Pagnaer, Higher Education Lead at Microsoft New Zealand, said, “The conference theme for this year, Shaken, Not Stirred focuses on sharing key issues and opportunities for ICT in tertiary education, now and into the future. Along with 60’s spy chic, the theme investigates the impact digital innovation is having on higher education sector. We hope these awards will continue to encourage others in the sector to make the most of what technology has to offer.”

Held in Wellington as part of the 36th Annual Tertiary ICT Conference, the Microsoft Innovation Awards celebrate ICT excellence within the tertiary education sector. The two categories for the 2016 awards were:

1.    The Microsoft Award for Technology innovation: Otago Polytechnic for Enterprise Service Transformation.
2.    The Microsoft Award for Excellence in Technology for Learning, Research or Students: Auckland University of Technology for their Student Digital Workspace.

The Microsoft Innovation Awards is another example of Microsoft’s commitment to the education sector in New Zealand. Other initiatives include the Partners in Learning programme, local tertiary education alliances, and leading software solutions designed to facilitate learning through the use of ICT.

For more, click here...

ICT Education: The Loss of the Next Generation

The education system of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago must be reformed to cater for the next generation (Generation Y and the following).

The situation is so perilous that if we do not act quickly, intelligently and structurally, and begin this discussion and implement certain changes, Trinidad and Tobago as we know it today and during the years of plenty, may have economic problems, mass migration and experience heavy recessionary periods, following our once prosperous twin-island-state economy and ways of living.

We cannot continue to educate our human capital as we are doing and did over the past decades. The education system must equip graduates with more than certification via obsolete and ineffective learning methodologies.

Education today is not any more related—or proven—on what we achieve, in terms of formal education certifications only, but on what we can do; what we can produce; and how we can help our community, our country and the world. Too often as a nation we talk and give examples of successful educational systems. The time has reached where we must act.

There is growing interest and concern, globally, in the relation prevailing between education systems and whether and how the acquisition of 21st century skills could be part of the curriculum.

These skills are valued in the labour market. With growth stagnation and unemployment soaring worldwide, educators are mandated to focus more on producing graduates with skills that feed into labour demand and support the sustainable increase of employment.

Education policy- and decision-makers must be aware of the importance of transforming the curriculum, facilitation methodologies, classroom environments, assessment practices, cultural ideologies and ensure 21st-century thinking and competencies are seamlessly served throughout our education system. The time for politics in education cannot be an issue. The heritage, prosperity and economic sustainability of the country is at stake.

The 21st century is a unique era where change happens at alarming speeds and where these changes are felt globally. From access to the Internet to apps and driverless vehicles, almost everything has felt and responded to the new technological inventions, whether we want to believe it or not.

Teaching and learning have not been spared either, and has progressed from the era of the 1960s through the 1990s and have undergone even more transformations in the 21st century, in terms of pedagogy, curriculum, knowledge, acquisition of content for all disciplines, being a lifelong learner and what type of graduates this era requires.

Unfortunately, not all educational systems, institutions and countries have made the transition and reforms or are willing to do so. Trinidad and Tobago belongs to the group which has not been reforming its education system to meet the needs of the 21st century.

Education is key and the more advanced societies and economies are facing the challenges through reform based on research, analysis and practice. What is also clear is that the most successful educational systems today have been reforming their philosophy and implementing reforms based on the changing needs of their society and globalisation.

The time for the discussion to begin is now. The time for reform is now. The time to think about our future as a nation is now. Education has a very important part to play in this venture. The five-year plan proposed by the present Government is expected to ensure:

1. The establishment of an overarching information and communications technology (ICT)-driven (“digital”) agenda in the Education Policy;
2. Training and professional development of teachers and other educators;
3. Provision of adequate and appropriate ICT infrastructure in schools;
4. Curriculum reform to include ICT-infused lesson plans for students; and
5. Establishment of an ICT Steering Committee.

These plans are excellent. The best edu­cation systems in the world possess them; the difference is that they systematically implement their reforms. We as a nation here in Trinidad and Tobago always seem to be well informed in terms of what is to be done.

The problem continues to be the will at implementation. But now is the time to alter this. As policy and decision makers, an opportunity has arrived to put nation first and prepare our next generation for a world that we know nothing about.

The least we can do is create a platform from which graduates will have the competencies to develop themselves and become life-long learners. A comprehensive plan is required and if 21st century competencies are not a part of the policy, then it is futile. Does anyone want to start the dialogue? Is anyone interested in education reform?

Visit Source ...Steve Warner

Foundation Harps on Digital Information Literacy

THE Gani Adams Foundations (GAF) has joined the world to celebrate the World Literacy Day.

Fifty-one years ago, United Nations Educational, Scientific, Cultural Organisation (UNESCO)  proclaimed September 8 as International Literacy Day to mobilise the international community to promote literacy as an instrument for empowerment.

The Osun Hall of the Lagos Airport Hotel, Ikeja venue of the event, was filled with intellectuals, cultural enthusiasts, media practitioners, teachers and pupils who lent their voices to the importance of Information Communication Technology (ICT) in the 20th century.

GAF’s Chairman/Managing Director, Otunba Gani Adams, who was excited with this year’s theme: ‘Literacy in the digital world’, underscored the need for Africans to shift from ‘analogue operation’.
In her lecture titled: ‘Literacy in a digital world’, Dr Kemi Ojemoghaat of the Department of Adult Education, University of Lagos (UNILAG), described digital literacy as a sine qua non to living, adding that technology dictates communication and interaction within mankind.

She called on the government to make digital literacy affordable, and create a link between the teaching of ICT in schools and industries.

She said: “A survey conducted by Research ICT Africa in 2011, disclosed that 70 per cent of non- internet users in Nigeria say affordability is the main reason for not using the internet. The majority of internet users in Nigeria access it exclusively using mobile devices. Smart phones and tablets have become very popular in Nigeria.

“Nevertheless, a mobile broadband cost is high for most people in a country like Nigeria where low per capita incomes subsists.’’

She continued: “The ICT curriculum does not provide the skills that industry value. Despite support from the government, many ICT teachers still do not have the qualifications or knowledge to teach the computing curriculum. Given the pace of technological advances, it will always be a challenge for schools to keep up with the latest innovations.”

A retired professor of African Philosophy at UNILAG, Sophie Oluwole, lamented the loss of Yoruba oral tradition, which according to her, forms the bedrock of knowledge acquisition.
Ifa, Oluwole explained, is a warehouse of knowledge, which cuts across all disciplines including ICT, if acquired.

“If Ifa has over 256 odu and yet our fore fathers without the knowledge of reading and writing, were able to not only memorise, but also passed same to the next generation. Unfortunately, the influence of modern religions have made those practice look fetish or Satanic to an average Yoruba. But I can tell you that Ifa is the bedrock of intellectual knowledge which can be learned to derive new inspirations in engineering, science,and ICT, just name it.”

Oluwole said it was not too late for Nigeria to ape Asian countries, such as Japan, China, and Malaysia, which have attained technological advancement through adoption of their mother tongue as official languages.

Adams said he was praised the UN for the choice of the theme.

“I love this year’s theme,” he said.

“Truth is, the world is going digital and the United Nations through the theme, is challenging us to drastically reduce our analogue way of doing things.

“Some developed societies no longer conduct their activities manually. Even some corporate bodies and institutions are going digital. Some conduct paperless meetings. This reduces work load or hauling of papers and files from one office to another.

“For instance, the mobile phones we use have several applications beyond mere making and receiving calls; unfortunately, most of us only use it to make calls, and failing to utilise other apps for knowledge possession.”

Adams said GAF had identified with the UN through propagating, organising interactive sessions and giving educational materials to schools.

Source...