Roundtable 1

7-8 June 2023

Roundtable 1 was held in Johannesburg. Participants from across the country and the education sector joined in the 2 day workshop to brainstorm initial ideas for digital standards.

Day 1 Events

Welcoming Remarks from Partners

George Barrett

British Council South Africa

Pria Adler

Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office

Ms Khembo

Department of Basic Education

Director for MST, MST, Curriculum Innovation and e-Learning

Belisa Rodrigues

Project Lead

Planning Engagement

Participants created interesting post-it note trees, indicating their skills and contributions to the project, how they would like to engage in co-creation processes, their goals for the project and vision for long-term outcomes. The session was facilitated by Zikhona Madubela and Sifiso Ndwandwe.

Results from the Post-It Note Trees

Contributions from Participants

Participants indicated how they would contribute to the DSD-Project. Data from this was thematically analysed and visually represented. Most notably this included:

Understanding digital technologies and how to integrate this into the classroom
Contributing rich teaching experience and technological knowledge
Their influence in diverse contexts

Rules for online engagement to co-create digital standards

Be Future-focused and see technology as enabling (not the golden key!)
Work for Change
Work to understand complexity

Encourage open and diverse participation
Respect each other
Be Flexible
Collaborate, work as a team, communicate and listen
Question and offer constructive feedback

Work online, take turns and have a friendly courteous approach
Capture data in online documents for ease of reference
Complete what we start

DSD-Project Goals identified by Roundtable 1 Participants

Participants identified goals and objectives that they would like to see achieved through the DSD-Project. Click on the arrows to see what the top 5 goals are.

34.9%

Develop Draft Standards or Guidelines that are

easy to understand and interpret (3.1%)
aligned to international / existing standards (3.1%)
for different role players (3.9%)
for infrastructure (3.1%) including online schooling

19.4%

Create a shared understanding of

standards in general (7.8%)
consensus on standards to include (2.3%)
the complexity of education and technologies (3.9%)
generally aligning thinking and approaches (5.4%)

12.4%

Clearly define and articulate the scope and goals for the digital standards

9.3%

Create opportunities for networking and the development of professional learning networks

8.5%

Standards need to provide practical strategies and solutions for implementation in diverse contexts

Long term goals for the DSD-Project

In the last activity, participants listed their vision for the project's long term impact on education. Most significantly, this related to:

Transform and/or change the education sector
Technology integration where there is a balance / connection between the physical and digital learning spaces
Strategic and purposeful implementation accompanied by a monitoring and evaluation process
The development of an ecosystem where all users can access devices, resources and the internet within a safe environment.

Creating Shared Meaning

Introducing the Research

Dr Tarling spent before and after lunch to guide participants through different activities where they created a shared understanding of digital standards and digital capital. (See the home page for more on this.)

Day 2

Prof Linda van Ryneveld

Prof Linda van Ryneveld presented a brilliant keynote address at the start of Day 2. Her thinking and approach aligned perfectly with the thinking and shared meaning-making from Day 1 (which was completely unplanned!) Prof Johannes Cronje was originally her PhD supervisor and enjoyed seeing his student's great success and aclaim as an exceptional expert in her field!

Brainstorming Digital Standards

01 Learners Group

02 Educators Group

03 Leaders Group

04 Parents Group

05 Service Providers & Supporters Group

06 Infrastructure & Institutions Group

Impromptu Chat GPT Demonstration by Prof Johannes Cronje

Prof Johannes Cronje

With so much talk about AI and Chat GPT, Prof Cronje gave an impromptu demonstration to show the functionality and ease with which he uses Chat GPT. He recommended Jenni.ai as an excellent tool to support academic writing.

To the delight of participants, he reminded us all to be extremely polite and always say please and thank you!

Close of Roundtable 1

Project Lead, Belisa Rodrigues

Arranged for participants to join the working group and thanked the British Council, DBE and FCDO for making this project possible.

Research Lead, Dr Isabel Tarling

Spoke about next steps, how we'll work online and the process to iteratively co-create and refine digital standards going forward.

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