The study sought to assess the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic in motivating digital transformation in the education sector in South Africa. The study was premised on the fact that learninginSouthAfricaandtherestoftheworldcametoastandstillduetothelockdownnecessitated by COVID-19. To assess the impact, the study tracked the rate at which the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) tools were used by various institutions during the COVID-19 lockdown. Data were obtained from secondary sources. The findings are that, in South Africa, during the lockdown, a variety of 4IR tools were unleashed from primary education to higher and tertiary education where educational activities switched to remote (online) learning. These observations reflect that South Africa generally has some pockets of excellence to drive the education sector into the 4IR, which has the potential to increase access. Access to education, particularly at a higher education level, has always been a challenge due to a limited number of spaces available. Much as this pandemic has brought with it massive human suffering across the globe, it has presented an opportunity to assess successes and failures of deployed technologies, costs associated with them, and scaling these technologies to improve access.

The storytelling project is a multidisciplinary collaboration as it involves students from Strategic Communication (Faculty of Humanities), Applied Information Services (CBE) and Applied Legal Services (Faculty of Law) to develop their storytelling skills. The project also partners with Brand South Africa and the Public Relations Institute of Southern Africa as external partners on the theme "PLAY YOUR PART" in your local community.

The discussion looks at what democracy is and should be in the 21st century; trends in Africa vs the rest of the world; the role of emerging technologies in expanding or restricting freedoms and rights; the impact of inequality; population growth; the impact of COVID-19.

The food security of millions of people around the world is currently being threatened by the COVID-19 pandemic, which is an evolving health and human crisis. Hundreds of millions of people were already suffering from hunger and malnutrition before the coronavirus pandemic and, unless immediate action is taken, there could be a global food emergency (FAO, 2020). In the future, the combined effects of COVID-19 itself, as well as corresponding control measures and the emerging global recession could disrupt the functioning of food systems, if precautionary actions are not taken to forestall such an occurrence. Such disruption can result in serious health and nutrition consequences.

This research was aimed at assessing dietary habits of people during the COVID-19 lockdown and the possible effect their consumption patterns could have on health. The study evaluated the state of food security in various African populations during the pandemic and assessed the health risk that may be associated to populations’ lifestyle during the lockdown. In addition, the research ascertained the various foods/drinks being consumed in various Sub-Saharan countries during the lockdown in order to prevent COVID-19.

The study design was a cross-sectional online survey. An online questionnaire was designed and content-validated. Six countries were selected for this research – South Africa, Nigeria, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Ghana and Kenya. Research assistants were sent the online survey link to circulate in their respective countries for 6 weeks (June/July, 2020). The questionnaire was structured to gather socio-economic data, information on food security and lifestyle of the participants (including a food frequency questionnaire) before and during the COVID-19 lockdown, data on special foods/drinks consumed during the pandemic to prevent the disease, and the sources of information on COVID-19 prevention.

Cryptocurrency. Holy Grail or Fools Gold?

Is it a get-rich-quick scheme or a genuine alternative to traditional money?

Read more: https://universityofjohannesburg.us/4ir/cloudebates/cryptocurrency-holy-grail-or-fools-gold/

Three academics from the UJ Department of Strategic Communication Prof Elizabeth Lubinga (Associate Professor/Project Principal Investigator); from the School of Communication, Prof Sarah Chiumbu (Head of School/Associate Professor) as well as Journalism, Film & Television Department; and Dr Karabo Sitto (Lecturer) Strategic Communication Department. The University of Johannesburg collaborated with HSRC Senior Research Specialist in Science Communication Dr. Konosoang Sobane and NUST Senior Lecturer, Journalism Department Dr. Nkosinothando Mpofu for the project. The two-year science engagement project in collaboration with industry, intends to explore innovative message framing within a multi-country context, as a component of crisis health communication. It will focus on specific strategies employed during the Covid-19 pandemic in South Africa and Namibia.

Decolonisation as a movement helps us to re-imagine the usefulness of local and indigenous knowledge systems. The essence of decolonising psychology in particular to South Africa is to advance the notion ‘culturally’ relevant theories and practices that are deeply located in our lived experiences.

The focus of my research is related to leading future-fit schools by future-fit leaders. We live at a time of unprecedented change. The Covid-19 pandemic as a disrupted has changed education in ways that has accelerated the kind of transformation that would have otherwise taken much longer to achieve. While much devastation has been brought about by the pandemic, it had also opened many doors of opportunity. Given that South Africa had been behind on the previous three industrial revolutions, we now have what Marwala (2020) calls a forced opportunity to make the most important 4IR contribution - namely the preparation of youth through 21st century skills development that provides them with competencies to embrace a constantly changing technology driven world.

My research in the Sandbox project during Covid-19 began also as a forced opportunity. I coordinate the school culture stream where I work with 10 Limpopo school principals and 2 PhD students in a participatory research process meant to influence the leadership of a culture of learning that develops future-fit leaders who are able to catalyse a progressive strategy that influences teaching and learning in ways that cultivate 21st century learning. Such leadership focuses on digital preparation for a school context that is under resourced and teachers have not been trained to develop online and remote learning pedagogies, much less learners whose home environments are not conducive to supporting education.

Since March 2020 and through various online engagements the research conducted has propelled a transformation journey that had begun the work of future-fit. We modified our research approach, since face-to-face and context-linked engagements were not possible. Using visual participatory research methods after providing principals with access and training to online communication platforms we co-created a research agenda around leading school culture transformation that would enable these 10 principals to lead their schools successfully through the crises brought about by the pandemic, to use community resources to ensure continued teaching and learning despite lockdown and social distancing protocols, as well as develop a Maslow before Bloom orientation to address the pressing life needs of their learning community.

Our research provides the opportunity to explore intern and student psychologists' experiences, expectations and understanding of their overall training during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This training is a crucial element in the development of their practical skills and their professional identity as a psychologist. Urgent and often emergency responses to COVID-19 pandemic foregrounded the importance of not interrupting or losing the educational year, however the focus should still encompass the ability to provide suitable (if not better) learning opportunities (Teräs et al., 2020; Toquero, 2020). We should continue to research the impact and implications of this interaction between digital technologies and education (Williamson et al., 2020) and ensure that we are critically reflecting on such processes, especially the technological changes that have been implemented as a response to the pandemic (Teräs et al., 2020). This research enables an exploration of what a technology-based training and internships may look like, but also considering the benefits and the sacrifices that may have coincided as a result of the current context and the changes made to training programmes.

The Centre for Social Change (CSC), University of Johannesburg (UJ) and the Developmental, Capable and Ethical State (DCES) research division of the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) released a research briefing on the public’s willingness to take a Covid-19 vaccine and reasons for their decision. Findings show that:

67% of adults would definitely or probably take a vaccine if it was available.

18% of adults would definitely or probably not take a vaccine.

These findings come from the latest round of the UJ/HSRC Covid-19 Democracy Survey, undertaken between 29 December 2020 and 6 January 2021. It was conducted online using social media adverts to direct potential participants to the survey and #datafree through biNu’s Moya Messenger app. It was completed by 10,618 participants. Findings were weighted by race, education and age, and are broadly representative of the population at large. The questionnaire was available in the country’s six most widely spoken languages. 15% of adults did not know.