CALTSTEAM Events

Public Lecture presented by the esteemed Professor Daniel Capps from the University of Georgia.

CALTSTEAM and the Department of Science and Technology Education in the Faculty of Education cordially invite you to attend a public lecture presented by the esteemed Professor Daniel Capps from the University of Georgia. TOPIC: Collaborating with teachers to drive innovation in instruction and research. 

Date: 13 March 2024
Time: 15:00-16:30 (SAST)
Venue: Ubuntu Council Chambers, 2nd Floor, Madibeng Building, University of Johannesburg’s Auckland Park Campus

RSVP: https://forms.office.com/r/MQ1CYTpZ6x
Hybrid link: Click here to join

Symposium on AI for STEM Education (SAARMSTE 2024)

The research centre hosted a symposium at the SAARMSTE conference in January 2024 on “AI for STEM Education”. The symposium explored the application, challenges, and advancement of artificial intelligence (AI) in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education.

Open Day for UJ staff

An open day was hosted for UJ staff on 6 October 2022 on the use of VR and AR in higher education programmes. The open day provided insight and first-hand experience for staff on how VR and AR technologies could be integrated into their teaching. (see poster)

VARTEL International Conference
The International VARTEL (Virtual & Augmented Reality in Technology-Enhanced Learning) Conference took place from December 1–2, 2022. The conference will bring together top scholars and researchers from Europe, Southeast Asia, the United States, and Africa who share cutting-edge research. The organizers secured two world leaders in the fields of VR and AR, who presented keynote addresses. They were Professor Wouter van Joolingen from Utrecht University, Netherlands, and Professor Eleni Mangina from University College Dublin, Ireland. Professor Wouter’s keynote was on “Strengthening science education with augmented, virtual, and creative technology,” and Professor Mangina addressed the audience on “The new era of learning and training with XR technology affordances in education.”

Seminar on “How can Artificial Intelligence Support STEM Teaching and Learning?”

On March 15, 2023, Prof. Joseph Krajcik from Michigan State University presented a seminar on his work in using artificial intelligence (AI) as a partner to score open-ended explanation tasks and student-drawn models to provide immediate feedback to teachers and students and to suggest next steps that teachers and students can take to improve learning.

Workshop on “Virtual and augmented reality (VAR) for teacher education”

The Centre, in its commitment to community engagement, facilitated a workshop for teachers from UJMA on the use of VR and AR applications in teaching abstract science concepts.

Workshop on Video Annotation
Professor Kennedy Chan from the University of Hong did a workshop with BEd 4th year science methodology students on enhancing pre-service science teachers’ ability in “noticing” and using video annotation of micro-lessons.

Workshop on Learning Analytics for VR
The Centre hosted researchers from the Swiss Distance University of Applied Sciences who conducted a workshop on learning analytics for a virtual reality classroom.

Seminar on “Exploring the use of virtual and augmented reality for inquiry-based science learning” at NMU
Prof Ramnarain was invited by NMU to coordinate a seminar on VR and AR for inquiry-based science education. The seminar took place on 12 July 2023. At the seminar, he presented examples of applications that could be used in supporting inquiry learning.

SLP virtual and augmented reality (VAR) in science teaching
CALTSTEAM hosted a short learning programme for science teachers. In the SLP, the teachers learnt about the affordances of VAR, how to use various applications in VAR, how to integrate VAR applications into their teaching practices; and how to critically select VAR applications for integration in science lessons. The SLP blended face-to-face workshops and online interactive sessions.