The Faculty of Education at Stellenbosch University (SU) recently hosted the first meeting of the National Blended Learning Forum.
Representatives from various universities, among them the University of Pretoria, the University of Cape Town, the University of the Free State, NMMU, UWC, Northwest University and even the Edith Cowan University in Perth, Australia, attended the event.
The forum is an outcome of the Faculty of Education's strategic planning to establish blended learning, said Prof Arend Carl, Vice-dean (Teaching).
"We identified a need to start forming national research networks and that led to further research at other faculties of education in the country."
Some of the topics discussed at the meeting were: "How can I teach with learning technologies? Student reflections on the value of a pilot Digital Literacy Short Course in pre-service teacher training"; "Technology acceptance at the Faculty of Education, University of Pretoria"; and "Blended Learning for the 21st century teacher: sharing practices and pitfalls from an Australian perspective".
Dr Sonja Strydom, Senior Adviser in the Centre for Learning Technologies at SU, explained that representatives of the Faculty of Education visited a number of tertiary institutions in the country last year to get an indication of the extent to which blended learning is integrated into the curriculum of education students.
"We identified a need to create a forum where the different education faculties can start communicating with each other and possibly work together with regards to the integration of learning technologies and the approaches in the curriculum.
"The forum has therefore set itself a goal to serve as a platform where representatives of various institutions in South Africa that are involved in teacher training can share good practice and identify where they can work together and do research about the integration of learning technologies at these institutions."
Representatives of the Western Cape Education Department (WCED) were also invited to attend the seminar to promote alignment and contact between faculties, especially in the Western Cape.
Strydom says that despite many challenges they are excited about the opportunity created for the different institutions to communicate with each other for the first time about the potential value of learning technologies in teacher training.
"The variety of presentations throughout the day once again confirmed just how rich and diverse the approaches of the different institutions are. The network that has been established is therefore extremely valuable. People made contact, extended invitations and identified opportunities to cooperate," she said.
Die forum plans to get together like this every year and also wants to create an electronic platform where representatives can communicate with each other on a more regular basis.
