ALTWM Webinar: Decolonising Learning Technology

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Hosted by the ALT West Midlands Group

The UNESCO Chair in the Education Observatory at the University of Wolverhampton will be hosting two more informal free online meeting of the West Midlands Membership Group of ALT, the Association for Learning Technology, to explore these issues with some challenging questions, fascinating insights and provocative ideas.

There is a global awareness of the extent to which our societies and our educational institutions, wherever they are, are permeated and dominated by the ideas, habits, values and structures of the white English majority culture. This awareness now is reflected in moves to ‘decolonise the curriculum’ (and to decolonise research methods, research ethics, and much else). This clearly begs questions about decolonising learning technology, questions about the extent to which our digital pedagogies, our digital technologies and us as learning technologists are complicit in this ignoring or suppressing of other ways of learning, understand and knowing, to the detriment of us all.

Webinar agenda:

  • Introductions
  • Reflections from our webinar (Nov ’21) with John Traxler
  • “Exploring how critical digital pedagogies of equity, diversity and inclusivity could be embedded in the online classroom” with Dr Sonja Strydom, Deputy Director (Academic Development & Research) at the Centre for Learning Technologies (CLT), Stellenbosch University
  • “Incorporating different ways of knowing and ways of being into course design: A reflection on MOOCs designers' positionalities and subjectivities” Dr Taskeen Adam, Associate Manager - Open Development & Education
  • Panel discussion
  • Open forum
     

Social media: Twitter hashtag for this webinar series: #ALTdecolonise

 

About our speakers:

Dr Sonja Strydom is a Senior Higher Education Advisor at the Centre for Learning Technologies at Stellenbosch University, South Africa. She obtained a DLitt et Phil (Psychology) in 2012 and a PhD (Curriculum Studies) in 2018. Her scholarly interests range from technology-augmented curriculum development, care perspectives, structure, agency & culture in HE as well as mixed research methodologies. Her current projects focus on the influences of post-humanist perspectives on curriculum and professional development practices.

Dr Taskeen Adam is an Associate Manager with Open Development & Education, and member of the EdTech Hub. She completed her PhD on  ‘Addressing Injustices through MOOCs: A study among peri-urban, marginalised South African youth’ at the University of Cambridge. Her research highlighted that historical injustices, cultural imposition, and economic dependence continue to play a pivotal role in education. Her MPhil thesis focused on the ‘Sustainable Implementation of the One Laptop per Child project in Rwanda’. Alongside her academic pursuits, she pioneered Khwela (a regional online course platform) and Solar Powered Learning in South Africa as well as Mobile Education for Smart Technology in India. Prior to her career shift to EdTech, she worked as an electrical engineer, specialising in measurement and control. Publications available here.

When
18 May 2022 from  1:00 PM to  2:30 PM