South Africa not only suffers from a paucity of OER aligned to the curriculum in K-12 education, but the educational context is that of deep poverty, inequality, unemployment, crowded classes, intermittent electricity, and expensive internet data. We will focus on what processes are required to enable open learning, with a specific focus on CPTD. Using a human-centered design thinking approach enables reflections on how learning design content has to be sensitive to context in both offline and online environments, support teachers who may lack content knowledge and pedagogical skills, especially in out-of-subject teaching, note that a scaffolded approach is required as well as the risks of using AI within this context. We will address the policy and legislative changes required to enable more OER LTSM and advocate for the amendment of outdated copyright laws, and changes to tax donation laws which would be catalytic in enabling the production of OER.
Attendees of this session will be able to:- Have insight into the challenges facing those implementing Open Education in contexts of poverty, unemployment and inequality.
- Be exposed to ideas of specific catalytic actions that, despite seeming to be small, could transform an educational landscape at no further cost to the fiscus, through more effective policy and tax strategy.
- Be inspired to find and encourage legislative changes that could lead to catalytic transformation in their own teaching and learning contexts.
- Reflect on what processes must be enabled in overcrowded, poorly equipped classrooms with challenges in internet data access and cost.
- Consider the issues of inequity in implementation of Generative AI in countries with a small number of mother-tongue texts and the implications of wholesale adoption that this would have in terms of culture and language.
