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Background: Digital storytelling (DST) has been embraced in classrooms around the world as a way to unpack issues of identity and positionality which are critical for any pedagogy concerned with social justice. However, adopting this process-orientated practice into higher education raises ethical concerns especially in relation to the normative approach to traditional research. Objectives: The objective of this article was to explore the ethical concerns surrounding DST when used as a pedagogy and to determine if an 'ethics of care' approach could help to mitigate the ethical dilemmas experienced by teachers and researchers alike. Method: A single case study, narratives, illustrations and reflections from a final-year arts education project were used to explore some of the ethical issues we encountered when employing DST as a pedagogy and in educational research. Results: The results of this reflection show that special attention needs to be paid to the following issues: the collection and interpretation of data, how anonymity and confidentiality are ensured in DST, who owns the stories, how sampling is conducted and how consent is sought and, finally, how the tenant of 'do no harm' is adhered to in DST. Conclusion: We argue that traditional deontological approaches to ethics are not able to fully respond to the complex, nuanced and ongoing concerns posed by DST projects. We adopt Joan Tronto's Ethic of Care to argue that ethical practice cannot be contained in codes of conduct alone and cannot simply be signed off on by institutional review boards, but is rather a matter of a daily personal, professional and political caring practice.

This paper reports the findings of a dialogical narrative analysis conducted by two white academics in distinct higher education contexts -- one based in the United States and the other in South Africa. Through the retelling of actual classroom scenarios, the authors assess their own teaching methods, responses, and classroom practices in order to examine how whiteness has shaped their classroom and teaching practices. As a result of this critical examination, the authors present strategies that centre around reorienting 'habits of mind' (vulnerability, flipping curriculum, collective buy-in, challenging safety, and inter-racial collaborations) to break the cycle of pervasive whiteness that exists in classroom environments and curricular endeavours. In an effort to work against reifying the colonial wound and move towards decolonising teaching practices, the findings of this analysis and the discussion that follows is our attempt of 'stepping back' in order to travel forward in our professional lives.

The South African Higher Education sector has undergone major transformation since the end of Apartheid more than 25 years ago. Critical digital literacies and critical (digital) citizenship, aligns with the most important aspects of the transformation agenda, 'the production of socially conscious graduates that will become the thinkers and leaders of tomorrow' (Soudien et al 2008). The ability to link the past and the present, the personal and the political is an important element of critical digital literacies. This paper reflects on projects introduced in a first year Extended Curriculum Programme course for Architectural Technology and Interior Design students at a University of Technology, in which students created a digital story after visiting historical sites in the Western Cape. Framed by Critical Race Theory concepts of master narratives and counter-storytelling, using multimodal analysis of the digital stories, this paper will highlight examples of students' attempts to disrupt common narratives through their creative yet personal engagement with the past and the present.

Research on communities of practice suggests that such groups can be used to support academic staff development, especially during times of crisis. We explore how a group of South African women academics and 'eLearning champions' engaged in a mobile community of practice under COVID-19 conditions. Our analysis of WhatsApp chat histories and focus group conversations reflects how the group evolved from a mobile CoP into a multi-modal third place, with implications for community-building, teaching transformation, and organisational change.

While digital storytelling has entered higher education as a vehicle to reflect on issues of identity and difference, there is a paucity of research framed by a critical perspective unpacking underlying power structures in the classroom. This study reports on an ongoing project in a South African pre-service Teacher Education course in which final-year students reflected in the form of digital stories on the notion of difference and how it affected their journey to becoming a teacher. Drawing on theories of resistance, counterstorytelling and multimodality, five of these digital stories, students' reflective essays and discussions in a focus group were analysed to investigate types of resistance in students' narratives, their perceptions of the functions of counterstorytelling, and what multimodal analysis of these stories could tell us about the relationship of students' identities, their choice of modes and their learning. Results of the study showed students' intent to develop so-called "counterstories", defined as stories that challenge social and racial injustice, which are usually not heard in education. Students also perceived telling of counterstories as useful to building communities among marginalised students, acting as model stories, providing an alternative window into the world of students of colour and a space for healing. While only one story could be defined as portraying "transformational resistance", carrying the highest potential for social change, others were important documents of disadvantaged students' fight for survival, and might well challenge some of the existing power structures in their classroom. Multimodal analysis of the stories revealed contradictory elements, highlighting the difficulty for students to resist dominant discourses, but also showing the increasing (conscious or unconscious) emotional audience manipulation evidenced in production of digital stories by the more privileged students. We suggest that engaging students in multimodal analysis of their own stories could facilitate a nuanced conversation on consciously and unconsciously held beliefs and assumptions, as well as an awareness of themselves that may lead to questioning the dominant discourse they have been socialised in.

Employers in South Africa are calling for students graduating from higher education institutions (HEIs) to exhibit the capacity for reflection. However, many tertiary institutions fall short in allowing opportunities for reflection. As a result, HEIs are grappling to find ways of fostering reflection amongst their students. This paper argues that digital storytelling if implemented properly is one of the ways which can be used to help HEIs in this accomplishment. It documents results of production of digital stories by 29 final-year pre-service student teachers at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT), South Africa, as part of their assessment in their professional development course. The study was informed by structuration theory and levels of reflection and cognitive processing to help the researchers understand the potential of digital storytelling in enhancing reflection. Qualitative methods of collecting data were utilized. Focus group interviews were conducted with the students and their facilitators to elicit whether production of digital stories led to reflection. Findings showed that the production of digital stories promoted the three levels of reflection and thus deep learning and higher-order thinking skills.

Although becoming a more racially-integrated society, the legacy of Apartheid still affects learners' social engagements in and outside their classrooms. Adopting Nussbaum's (2010) capabilities framework for a socially just democracy, this paper examines 27 pre-service teacher education students' perceptions of a digital storytelling project and its potential for recognising and honouring capabilities necessary for engaging empathetically with the "other". Using narrative inquiry, and specifically Bamberg's (2006) "small stories" approach, the research team analysed 30 stories students constructed in four focus group conversations at the end of the project. In these stories, most of Nussbaum's (2010) capabilities were evident. We found that, in the collective sharing of their stories, students positioned themselves as agentive selves, displaying the belief that they can make a difference, not only individually within their own classrooms, but also as a collective of teachers.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse an innovative teaching and learning practice in which pre-service student teachers at the CPUT used digital stories to reflect on their experiences of diversity in their classroom. Managing diverse classrooms is one of the main challenges for all teachers. Digital storytelling can help manage such classrooms. It facilitates the convergence of four student-centered learning strategies: student engagement, reflection for deep learning, project-based learning, and the effective integration of technology into teaching. A qualitative research approach was employed whereby twenty-nine written stories and a recording of a focus-group interview with purposively selected participants from the group was the data collection technique. The results indicate that the digital storytelling approach exposed the students to new media literacies which prepared them for the rich and diverse contexts which they will encounter in their teaching.

This paper describes the experiences gathered in a Masters of Adult Education course at University of Botswana (UB), where 26 students of the University of Botswana and the University of Georgia (UGA) engaged in discussions within the University of Botswana Learning Management System WebCT. Individual participation patterns in the discussions varied widely in this course. Based on variables found in the literature, student participation patterns were analysed--both in terms of quantity (messages read and written) and quality (status of conversational moves and level of critical thinking). Results show that culture or membership of a specific group did not seem to influence participation patterns. Gender was the major influencing variable for participation patterns in terms of both quantity and quality. Other influencing variables were course design, assessment of discussions and the presence of a learning community.

Collaboration among institutions of higher education involves the sharing of financial, administrative and infrastructural resources with others through a formal memorandum of understanding. There are occasions where due to bureaucratic or political barriers, a formal collaborative arrangement may not be possible, however, academic partnerships may foster informal collaboration or cooperation among institutions. This paper examines one such informal collaboration existing between the University of Botswana and The University of the West Indies Distance Education Centre. The authors share the informal collaborative model used to develop a quality assurance tool for eLearning and compare approaches in eLearning course development and quality assurance procedures at both institutions.

After nearly 25 years of democracy, lives of young South Africans are still profoundly shaped by the legacies of apartheid. This paper considers how these differences are produced, maintained and disrupted through an exploration of changing narratives developed by a small group of South African pre-service teachers, with a particular focus on the narratives developed around discourses of fatherhood generally and absent fathers in particular. We draw on interviews conducted with three students in which we discussed their digital stories and literature reviews. In this paper, we draw attention to the limitations of digital storytelling and the risks such autobiographical storytelling presents of perpetuating dominant narratives that maintain and reproduce historical inequalities. At the same time, in highlighting ways in which this risk might be confronted, the paper also aims to show the possibilities in which these dominant narratives may be challenged.

One of the biggest debates in South Africa is the use and usefulness of apartheid categories when analysing society and societal behaviour. This paper examines the process of learning and unlearning that took place when a political reporting lecturer and an academic staff developer sought to explain racially biased voting in South Africa and its historical origins to students. The autoethnographic method of reflecting on teaching practice is used to explore the tensions and dilemmas that arose when introducing a specific pedagogic intervention-- the Privilege Walk--to help students understand privilege as systemic, intersectional and historically rooted. We also discuss our own further development of the walk to allow students to create a new grid based on alternative values and that would affirm difference. Framed by Fraser's participatory parity, critical pedagogy and Massumi's affect theory, we trace our journey in engaging and disrupting identity politics by developing a decolonising pedagogical approach that emphasises post-apartheid identity as fluid and becoming and capitalises on affective and embodied learning in South African classrooms.

While the pedagogical benefits and challenges of podcasting as a teaching and learning practice are well researched, sometimes with contradictory results, literature on the potential of podcasting as a socially inclusive technology is scanty. Using a quantitative survey design, framed by concepts such as emerging technologies, low-threshold applications and nontraditional students, this study investigated students' perceptions at a large institution in South Africa on the access and use of podcasts. Findings indicate that podcasting was well received by all students. Particularly nontraditional students, with specific reference to gender, age and home language, were the ones who engaged most extensively with podcasts. Regular recordings of difficult, content-heavy lectures were perceived as the most effective use of podcasting, showing that course design matters in terms of podcasting usage. Findings also challenged the view of podcasting as facilitating passive learning. In our context, which is defined by severe resource constraints and fear of technology among both lecturers and students, the simplicity and accessibility of podcasts promises a successful mainstream adoption of a low-threshold technology for African higher education.

This article reports the findings of a collaborative digital storytelling project titled "Being Human Today," a multimodal curricular initiative that was implemented simultaneously in both a South African and an American university classroom in 2015. By facilitating dialogue and the sharing of digital stories by means of a closed Facebook group, instructors were able to investigate students' critical awareness and social consciousness regarding notions of "self" and "other" across continents. Case study methodology was applied as a research framework to collect, code, and triangulate data gathered from student-driven texts, Facebook entries, and student-produced digital stories. Framed by Giroux's border pedagogy and set within social justice education, findings provide evidence of our students' desire to be connected to each other, both locally and abroad, which we found to be the heart of what it means to be human today. Further, data revealed how sharing stories as cultural and personal artifacts worked to demystify notions of otherness in both local and global contexts. In particular, the comparison of personal stories shared in this space allowed for critique and a raised awareness of how students are impacted by global hegemonic discourses. Implications of practice for this study include breaking down the barriers--both real and imagined--as they relate to how educators conceive the use of technology in classroom spaces and student engagement across continents.

This paper examines a specific unconferencing methodology designed for the HELTASA (un)conference, an international online event held in 2021 in South Africa. Drawing from the principles of unconferencing and decolonisation, the description of the unconferencing methodology in this paper is interspersed with collective autoethnographic reflections, collected through individual and collective writing engagements, to engage with our complex narratives as designers, facilitators, and presenters/participants of this (un)conference. Through selected vignettes of reflective moments in planning and facilitating this (un)conference, we explore opportunities and challenges when adopting both principles of unconferencing and decolonisation in our practice. We end the paper with a discussion of the possibilities of adopting a decolonial unconferencing model in the global South through a colonial matrix of power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although assessment theorists have long argued that assessment is a contextually located social practice, objectivist and psychometric discourses about assessment persist. The COVID-19 pandemic, in many contexts, unsettled and denaturalised assessment practices, creating a critical disruptive moment. This paper presents a reflection on what this moment might suggest about academics' assessment beliefs and practices at a research-intensive institution in the Western Cape. Drawing on an institutional survey, we argue that dominant concerns about academic integrity and mark inflation surface discourses of assessment for certification and accountability. Exploring some examples of assessment practices during the emergency remote teaching period at the same institution, we highlight some factors that influence design. Drawing on Bourdieu's theory of practice, we contemplate the conditions of field and capital that create opportunities for change. We propose that change is contingent on the complex interplay of the capital and habitus of agents, as well as the nature of the field. We reaffirm the case for positioning assessment as a social practice, arguing that this enables the conditions for discussion, negotiation, and scrutiny on the purpose of assessments, what is being valued and not valued, and who is benefiting or being marginalised from particular assessment practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is now widely accepted that the transmission of disciplinary knowledge is insufficient to prepare students leaving higher education for the workplace. Authentic learning has been suggested as a way to bring the necessary complexity into learning to deal with challenges in professional practice after graduation. This study investigates how South African higher educators have used emerging technologies to achieve the characteristics of authentic learning. A survey was administered to a population of 265 higher educators in South Africa who self-identified as engaging with emerging technologies. From this survey, a sample of 21 respondents were selected to further investigate their practice through in-depth interviewing using Herrington, Reeves and Oliver's nine characteristics of authentic learning as a framework. Interrater analysis undertaken by five members of the research team revealed both consistencies and differences among the twenty one cases across the nine elements of authentic learning. The highest levels of authenticity were found for the elements "authentic context" and "task," and the lowest for "articulation." Furthermore, there was a moderate correlation identified between levels of authenticity and the role played by emerging technologies in achieving the authenticity, showing a potentially symbiotic relationship between them. (Contains 3 figures and 1 table.)

Research into the uses of personal response systems or "clickers" shows that their use increases students' engagement levels in the classroom. In South Africa, clicker usage is still in its infancy, with little research published in the field. This study reports on 37 Graphic Design students' perceptions of the use of clickers and their engagement levels (attention, participation, and active class discussion) in small clicker classes. Clickers were introduced in three interventions in the third term of the 2010 academic year in an attempt to improve students' participation in class discussions. The devices were used for individual and peer voting. Peer and class discussion either preceded or followed the voting process. The study employed a mixed method research design. Data was collected through open-ended student questionnaires, clicker questions during classes, and one focus group discussion. Drawing on cooperative learning theory, this paper discusses student engagement on three levels. Firstly, clickers seize students' attention through the simplicity, novelty factor, and fun element they bring to class. Secondly, they encourage student participation through the anonymity they offer, which is especially important when the language of learning and teaching is not the students' first language. Thirdly and most importantly, clickers encourage peer discussion. Students reported that by being confronted with opposing points of views, which lead to uncertainty or conceptual conflicts, they were propelled to re-conceptualise their own arguments, which then in turn led to more refined and thoughtful conclusions. This resonates with the central tenet of Johnson, Johnson, and Smith's Controversy Theory (1998), which advocates the benefits of cooperative student learning. Students reported that peer discussions improved their confidence to participate in the class discussions. The studio-based approach in design education aims to mimic the "real world" design studio and, therefore, also the collaborative design processes followed in the real world studio. As an additional finding in this study, we suggest, that peer voting, the process of voting in pairs, although not always comfortable, can promote the skill of collaborative decision-making. This skill is particularly important for future graphic designers, whose work will rely considerably on successful collaboration with their team members. More research is needed to validate students' perceptions of their levels of engagement with their actual engagement level in clicker classes. It is suggested that other disciplines and study levels be included in future research projects. (Contains 4 tables and 2 figures.)

Dianne Thurab-Nkhosi, Marilyn Lee, and Daniela Gianni-Gachago examine the University of Botswana's (UB) e-learning initiative headed by the Educational Technology Unit (EduTech). EduTech promotes change campus-wide by encouraging partnerships among UB's information technology department, library, Center for Continuing Education, and academic staff. Faculty have been included in efforts to define and implement e-learning and are encouraged to use sound course design and pedagogy through course concept checklists and workshops to assist in the course development process. Through large scale collaboration, the university's vision of an increasingly technological basis for academics is fast becoming reality. (Contains 1 figure and 9 exhibits.)

There are concerns about mental health in academia globally, which is a direct consequence of an increase of a neoliberal entrepreneurial approach, one heightened during the time of the pandemic. This paper uses Skotnicki and Nielsen's categories of alienation and Fisher's work on capitalist realism to make sense of academic staff's responses to a survey on their experiences with Emergency Remote Teaching, collected in 2021 at a large research-intensive university in South Africa. The responses indicate that participants all experienced some form of alienation, though experienced and expressed differently. We suggest expanding Skotnicki and Nielsen's lens on agency and structure with what we found missing, an element of culture, to ask the question: "How can a university create and rebuild a sense of community and belonging to counter alienation?". We propose a concerted effort to build spaces for collective encounters to rediscover community, which may allow us to re-imagine a future for the academy beyond conflicting imperatives of responding to the need for socio-economic redress and delivering education as a public good, in times of austerity budgets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Common to all the cases included in this special issue, we observed a degree of collaborative decision-making that is human-centered and shows empathy. Through it, multiple voices are acknowledged and heard. These cases demonstrate the beginning of a process of contextualization of Design Thinking in K–12 and teacher education. We hope that this special issue will prompt conversations to explore and critique the possibilities and imagine the real change that it might bring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the last 20 years, the South African higher education has changed significantly, influenced by global trends national development goals and pressure from local educational imperatives, in the context of a digitally networked world. Shifts in technology enhanced pedagogical practices and in discourses around information and communication technologies (ICTs) have had varying degrees of influence in higher education. This paper takes a rearview of a 20-year journey of technology enhanced learning in South African higher education. An analysis of literature view is presented chronologically in four phases: phase 1 (1996-2000), phase 2 (2001-05), phase 3 (2006-10) and phase 4 (2011-16). In phase 1 technology was used predominantly for drill and practice, computer-aided instruction, with growing consciousness of the digital divide. In phase 2 institutions primarily focused on building ICT infrastructure, democratizing information, policy development and research; they sought to compare the effectiveness of teaching with or without technology. During phase 3 institutions began to include ICTs in their strategic directions, digital divide debates focused on epistemological access, and they also began to conduct research with a pedagogical agenda. In phase 4 mobile learning and social media came to the fore. The research agenda shifted from whether students would use technology to how to exploit what students already use to transform teaching and learning practices. The paper concludes that South Africa's higher education institutions have moved from being solely responsible for both their own relatively poor ICT infrastructure and education provision to cloud-based ICT infrastructure with 'unlimited' educational resources that are freely, openly and easily available within and beyond the institution. Although mobile and social media are more evident now than ever before, teaching and learning practice in South African higher education remains largely unchanged. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While the practice of using educational technologies in Higher Education is increasingly common among educators, there is a paucity of research on innovative uses of emerging technologies to transform teaching and learning. This paper draws on data collected as part of a larger study aimed at investigating emerging technologies and their use in South African Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) to improve teaching and learning. The research employed a mixed method research design, using both qualitative and quantitative data collection methods--quantitative data from a survey of 262 respondents from 22 public HEIs in South Africa and qualitative data gathered from 16 experts/practitioners on their self-reflective definition of the term "emerging technologies." The paper concludes that levels of institutional development, access to resources, discipline, group belonging and individual motivation of respondents influenced the way they defined emerging technologies including what constituted an innovative use of technology, foregrounding the contextuality of emerging technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The introduction of eLearning in higher education has brought a challenge for higher education institutions to train their faculty to equip them with the necessary skills needed to embark on eLearning activities. The University of Botswana (UB) is no exception. The UB first introduced eLearning in 2002 to enhance instruction and students' learning. eLearning at the University of Botswana has been defined as the 'appropriate organisation of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) for advancing student-oriented, active, open, collaborative and life-long teaching-learning processes' (Educational Technology Unit, n.d.a) The Centre for Academic Development (CAD) eLearning Certificate, introduced in 2003, a workshop series on eLearning related topics, has been designed to cater for the needs of academic staff embarking on eLearning at UB. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the Centre for Academic Development (CAD) eLearning Certificate and its individual workshops. The study employed both qualitative and quantitative data collection strategies. By August 2006 more than 800 academics and support staff had attended one or more workshops, which were in general very well received. Main reasons for attending the workshops were the acquisition of technical skills, the use of eLearning and the wish to obtain the Certificate. Preferred workshops were a very general workshop on course design, an introduction to PowerPoint and, only in third place, an introduction to eLearning. The majority (74%) of respondents claimed to have applied skills and knowledge acquired in the workshops, mainly technical skills, such as the use of PowerPoint, online information skills and information management techniques. A minority of 17 % of the participants had developed online courses. Alarmingly, about a quarter of the respondents (23%) claimed not to have applied any of the skills and knowledge covered in the trainings. Furthermore, only 16% of respondents managed to complete the Certificate. Respondents indicated that non-application of skills and non-completion of the Certificate was mainly due to time constraints lecturers are facing when balancing demands of teaching, research and administration. The study provides recommendations on ways to improve the CAD eLearning Certificate. The combination of skill-based workshops with online learning seems to be the preferred option in international literature for eLearning staff development, to expose participants to the world of online learning. The participants indicated that parallel development of an online course could facilitate the immediate application of knowledge and skills acquired. A more structured programme approach would help in developing a community of practice between staff active in eLearning at UB. Issues of recognition and reward for lecturers embarking on eLearning also need to be addressed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]