CUT hosted the second annual Innovation in Education summit recently. The main objective of the annual gathering is to bring together educators, researchers, students, organisations, entrepreneurs, and professionals to the round table to discuss and explore related issues that are currently at the forefront of technology in teaching and learning.  

The partners in the summit include Royal Haskoning DHV (Pty) Ltd, Institute for Innovation in Education (IIE), Learning Academy Worldwide, Beijing Royal School, Communications Management Support (Pty) Ltd and CUT who gathered to share new ideas and innovative approaches to meet the constantly changing phases in education, social and commercial arenas that are rapidly growing and challenging. The platform allows partners to have a broader glance into new trends and how they can, through shared experiences, align themselves and shape up to fit into the space. The adjustments as they mentioned, enable them to nurture highly skilled and knowledgeable citizenries to support creative educators dedicated to the design of immersive learning experiences. IIE gatherings are also designed to help new, emerging, and established projects to move forward with renewed plans, resources, and innovative ideas to create goals and working plans for the short-term periods of up to 6-12 months. At the same time, each gathering is designed to maximise opportunities for feedback and exchange among project teams as well as to strengthen relationships for individuals within the global network of professionals who are committed to ongoing discourse, improvement and change in education. 

Amongst the delegates who shared their ideas and experiences as part of reviews on some of the development project is Mrs Odette Swift from Deaf Education, who revealed a stern picture about the difficulties faced by the deaf learners in accessing education. “In South Africa, sign language is not a prerequisite in job placements for teachers and that is a challenge in teaching and learning because our learners in deaf schools experience difficulties as teachers without this skill find it difficult to engage effectively with them in the classroom.” Further, in her presentation, Mrs Swift highlighted the importance and urgency for South African Sign Language (SASL) to adapt to new trends in technology, as they are effective and successful teaching and learning methods in deaf education. “Mobile learning and audio-visuals are the 21^st century methods for teaching subjects like literacy and numeracy in deaf schools as deaf learners rely mainly on technology. These preferred methods, can be used to share best practices amongst schools, especially those in remote areas where teachers have to attend workshops to catch-up with new trends, they can also be shared with parents, also used as teacher development tools and also be used to enhance remote interpreting for post-school teaching,” she said. Another presenter, Mr Nape Maepa shared his viewpoints on the growing need for agile creative approaches to educational and social challenges facing South Africa, with intense focus on the youth. 

“Our PhD graduates work hard conducting research in an attempt to find solution to our social and educational issues but their work end up gathering dust in shelves because they do not share it with the relevant target audience. We need their researches to address some of these challenges,” he said. Mr Maepa also emphasised that South African youth need to learn the culture of starting a project and finishing it effectively, and subsequently prepare for the next one. “I would like to see young people coming to institutions such as CUT to obtain qualifications that will ascertain that they shall get things done!” Other brief lightning presentations at the three-day summit include:

• UFS Mentorship Program
• The development of Mobile Educational Games
• Spirulina – Science and students in problem solving synthesis
• Mobile Phones and E-learning
• Sanbi – Biodiversity from Grade 1
• Mobile Learning and Community Engagement
• Mobile Learning in the Middle Kingdom – Beijing Royal School
• M- Ubuntu- Youth Workforce Development
• Talking Stories- Interactive Solutions for Mobile Devices

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The group of passionate delegates taking part in the summit could also peruse exhibition stalls, and posters related to the field.