New COL Chair: Professor Cheryl Brown.
The Commonwealth of Learning (COL) @COL4D appoints distinguished experts as COL Chairs to advance research, innovation and thought leadership in COL’s fields of competence. Professor Cheryl Brown from the University of Canterbury @UCNZ in New Zealand is the latest COL Chair to join the ranks of the six existing Chairs.
Professor Brown is the Head of the School of Educational Studies and Leadership and Co-Director of Te Puna Rangahau i-Ako, the Digital Education Futures Lab at the University of Canterbury. Cheryl’s research is centred around digital equity and inclusion and the role digital technologies play in enabling or inhibiting students’ participation in learning. She has led projects on digital education leadership and digital (in)equality and is passionate about supporting and developing young people’s digital literacies to enable them to participate positively in the post-digital world.
As a COL Chair, Cheryl aims to explore (post)digital (in)equality in Tertiary Education with a particular focus on perspectives and opportunities in the Pacific region. Open education has endeavoured to widen access and participation for everyone by removing barriers and making learning accessible. The assumption that inclusive practices are implicitly adopted in open education initiatives and practices creates a knowledge gap regarding what has been developed, addressed and achieved to date. This research will better ensure open, distance and flexible learning, purposefully addressing equity, diversity and inclusion.
Dr Jako Olivier, Adviser: Higher Education, coordinator of the COL Chairs Programme, noted, "It is an honour for COL to recognise Professor Brown’s exceptional work in the digital education sphere in this manner. We are fortunate to draw from her expertise and her wide network within the Pacific to benefit the wider Commonwealth.”
#CHOGM2024 #Resilience #COL4D #COLChairs #OER #ODL #digitalequity #TertiaryEducation
... See MoreSee Less
A recent AI workshop organised by the Commonwealth Educational Media Centre for Asia (CEMCA), the Commonwealth of Learning’s (COL) #COL4D regional centre, along with the Ministry of Education, Sri Lanka in Colombo, provided a deep dive into various cutting-edge technologies such as augmented reality, virtual reality, merge cube, ChatGPT and Google Tools.
Each workshop session was designed to offer a comprehensive understanding of these tools and their potential applications in education. It also aimed to inspire participants to innovate their teaching strategies and broaden their horizons significantly. The workshop aimed to inspire participants to innovate their teaching strategies and broaden their horizons significantly
A highlight of the workshop was the collaborative environment with educators, who shared insights and discussed ethical considerations in AI usage. The emphasis on the responsible and ethical use of AI in education was a crucial takeaway aimed at creating a more personalised and efficient learning experience for students.
#CHOGM2024 #Resilience #AIWorkshop #CEMCA #CEMCA #AugmentedReality #VirtualReality #MergeCube #ChatGPT #AIinEducation
... See MoreSee Less
Read our #COL4D Reflections blog ‘Teachers’ voices: New roles in open and distance learning’ www.col.org/news/teachers-voices-new-roles-in-open-and-distance-learning/ on #WorldTeachersDay to learn how teachers perceive their roles in ODL, are resiliently coping with anxiety and technical challenges, fostering collaboration and trust through community building, advancing ethical guides for AI in ODL, and other relevant issues in education today.
COL continues to support and contribute to teacher training institutions through training programmes, capacity building, courses and MOOCs, and other open education resources.
#CHOGM2024 #Resilience #EducationForAll #COL4D #STEM #OER #ODL #MOOCs #LearningForAll #SkillDevelopment #TeacherTraining #CapacityBuilding
... See MoreSee Less