BSU visits Wits University
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BSU staff travel to Johannesburg to lead generative AI workshop
Monday, 7 April, 2025Two BSU professors have just returned from a trip to Johannesburg, South Africa, after leading a workshop on generative AI and its implications in teaching, learning and research.
Sarah Hayes, Professor of Education and Research Lead, and Sarah Earle, Professor of Primary Science Education, spent a week at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits University) in Johannesburg, where they co-led the workshop, which was attended by 51 colleagues from Wits.
The trip was funded and supported by BSU’s GALA Network, which brings staff and students together from around the world to explore the relationship between creativity and social engagement through teaching and research collaborations.
The event was opened by Professor Ruksana Osman, Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Academic at Wits. The workshop was co-developed with Professor Samuel Laryea, Head of the School of Construction Economics and Management, and the Generative AI in Teaching and Learning Project Team at Wits, co-led by Dr. Kershree Padayachee, Head of the Science Teaching and Learning Unit, and Professor Rodney Genga, Director of the Academic Development Unit.
Key themes from the event will inform future comparative research between Wits and BSU, and a collectively authored journal paper. Expanding on this further, Sarah Hayes said:
“Following our really powerful in-person, postdigital dialogue with our Wits partners about Gen AI, we are now excited to be gathering their narratives together for a collectively written article: Perspectives from South Africa on Generative Artificial Intelligence in Higher Education: a Postdigital Dialogue with the Global Context, to be published in Postdigital Science and Education journal.”
Sarah Earle added:
“It's so interesting to see that all across the globe, we are all asking the same questions about generative AI, as we find ways of working in the current context.”
Dr. Kershree Padayachee, Head of the Science Teaching and Learning Unit at Wits, said:
“What was insightful for me was the extent to which the dialogue surfaced long-standing, unresolved challenges and dilemmas in higher education, that are now being re-framed and re-considered through the lens of generative AI. One wonders whether this reframing will help resolve or escalate the issues.”
Sarah Hayes and Sarah Earle also spent time meeting with other teacher education colleagues and visited a primary school in Soweto. Plans are now developing for Dr Laura Dison, Associate Professor in the School of Education at Wits to visit BSU in June 2025 to collaborate on a Demystifying Generative AI event.