Academics Upskill for Future Education

OUM co-hosted the 6th International Conference on Future Education 2023 in Kuala Lumpur from 6 to 7 July. Organised by The International Institute of Knowledge, Sri Lanka, the conference was held both physically and online. Themed “Technological Advancements & Innovations in Future Education,” it drew over 180 academics, researchers, industry leaders, and enthusiasts from more than 20 countries.

Faculty of Education Dean, Dr Aliza Ali, served as a plenary speaker on “Values in Curriculum for a Changing World.” She stressed understanding students’ learning needs and aligning them with effective teaching practices for the future curriculum.

In her speech, she emphasised how open and flexible learning could make learning more engaging, by prompting stimulating and positive feelings towards the learning experience. She added, “If educators do not understand how students learn and do not incorporate this understanding into their teaching practices, education will have no value.”

Other OUM academics also contributed to the conference, in terms of evaluating conference abstracts on the scientific committee and presenting papers.

Meanwhile, the Faculty of Education’s senior lecturer, Dr Harvinder Kaur Dharam Singh, and lecturer, Dr Loo Fung Lan, took part in the 2023 UNESCO-UNITWIN Training Programme: Empowering Digital Literacy Skills, at Korea National Open University (KNOU) in Seoul from 10 to 14 July. It was organised by KNOU and the Korean Government.

The programme sought to enhance digital literacy among faculty and students at UNESCO-UNITWIN network institutions – OUM, Hanoi Open University, Tribhuvan University from Nepal, and Mongolia University of Science and Technology.

Each university sent two participants, with the purpose of enhancing their knowledge of basic software and AI knowledge and competencies such as in Scratch (a high-level block-based visual programming language and website), Micro:Bit  (a tiny circuit board designed to help a person learn to code and create with technology), and Python (a high-level, general-purpose programming language).

Said Dr Harvinder, “The most impactful session was on creating Micro:Bit projects. We also had the opportunity to meet with our team leaders from KNOU to discuss research projects and plans for how OUM can share digital literacy knowledge with public schools. KNOU has kindly agreed to sponsor Micro:Bit toolboxes for the training.”