Roundtable discussion 1

Moderators

Dr Avinash Oojorah

Dr Oojorah is currently working as a senior lecturer at the Mauritius Institute of Education. He is passionate about the digital transformation of education and educational technologies in general. He is heading a project to digitally transform education at secondary school level. He has edited two books on teacher education in the digital age and multimodal learning in the southern African context. He has overseen the digitisation of the curriculum at the Mauritius Institute of Education, leading national projects in this direction. He was the former Head of the Centre for Open and Distance Learning at the Mauritius Institute of Education. He has also worked as an educator at primary, secondary and community levels.

Dr Waaiza Udhin

Dr Udhin is a senior lecturer at the Mauritius Institute of Education with over 10 years’ experience in the education sector. She holds a PhD in Learning with Technology, obtained from the University of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa. She has experience in curriculum development, assessment and evaluation, online/blended learning, remote teaching and learning and digitisation of curriculum. She is coordinating a major national educational technologies project, the Early Digital Learning Programme. She has delivered presentations at many international conferences, and won the award for best presenter at an international conference in 2017. She has published and co-published articles in accredited journals. She has co-edited two books in the field of digital pedagogies and multimodal assessment. Her research interests are in the field of innovation in education, online learning, and digital transformation and assessment. She has been working collaboratively on many projects and has enlarged her professional network in education.

Email: [email protected]

Discussants

Prof Thembinkosi Tshabalala

Prof Tshabalala is the Dean of the Faculty of Education at the Zimbabwe Open University. He is a full professor and holds a Doctorate of Education in Educational Management from the University of South Africa. He also holds a Master of Philosophy in Curriculum Studies, Policy and Evaluation degree from the Nelson Mandela University (formerly the University of Port Elizabeth), an MEd in Educational Administration, Planning and Policy Studies, and a BEd in Educational Administration, Planning and Policy Studies (both from the University of Zimbabwe). He has worked as a school principal/head teacher for 25 years. He has attended various conferences, where he presented papers on policy issues, the implementation of the new curriculum and school leadership. He has published more than 100 papers and articles in various refereed journals, five occasional papers, three books and two book chapters. He has conducted research and consultancy work on policy implementation, school leadership, financing education, curriculum implementation, and change and innovations in the education system. He also acts as the link between the Zimbabwe Open University and the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education, as well as the Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education, Innovation, Science and Technology, on matters related to teacher development. He also liaises with all stakeholders, (especially the two ministries) during the University’s ongoing needs analysis activities to constantly make sure that its programmes are aligned to current policies and trends in industry and society.

Prof Sindile Ngubane

Prof Ngubane is a professor doing research, community engagement and mentorship on digital access for students and employees with disabilities, and incarcerated students in open and distance learning contexts. She is the Acting Head of the Institute for Open and Distance Learning at the University of South Africa (Unisa), former Deputy Director at the Advocacy and Resource Centre for Students with Disabilities, and curriculum transformation specialist in the Curriculum Transformation Unit, focusing on transforming curriculum design and delivery for inclusion. She has published academic papers and book chapters, and has delivered presentations at international and national conferences (she won the award for best paper at an international conference in 2021). She has supervised and co-supervised master’s and doctoral students to completion, with a special effort to increase PhD holders with disabilities as part of the National Development Plan 2030. In addition, she leads cross-border collaborative research and community engagement projects that aim to create digitally inclusive approaches for the development of vulnerable communities, including people with disabilities, and incarcerated students.

Dr Tony Lelliott

Dr Lelliott works in the field of teacher education at the South African Institute for Distance Education (Saide), a non-governmental organisation based in Johannesburg, South Africa. At Saide, he has worked on several projects, including Open Educational Resources (OER) Africa, the National Senior Certificate for Adults (NASCA) and African Storybook. Prior to joining Saide, he was an Associate Professor, a C2-rated researcher with the National Research Foundation (NRF), and worked with pre-service teachers, as well honours, master’s and PhD students at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. He is the author of 25 publications in refereed journals and books, and has supervised 10 doctoral and 13 master’s graduates to completion.