Eduvos goes to Comic Con while 'shaking up' traditional learning by adopting AI in classrooms
The festival is a hub for fans of anime, cosplay and gamers... but this year it's levelling up its e-learning offerings.
Picture: Pexels
CapeTalk's Clarence Ford speaks to Dr Miné de Klerk, Dean of Curricula and Research at Eduvos.
Listen below:
The spotlight will be on learners and students stepping into the competitive arena for the very first time as it hosts a student gaming tournament.
Among these schools is Eduvos, one of South Africa’s leading private higher education institutions.
Since 2023, Eduvos has partnered with RGB Gaming to host esports tournaments at Comic Con events.
Eduvos is also the only higher education provider exhibiting and speaking at the event, with two of its thought leaders taking the Pop-Taku stage.
On Friday 2 May, De Klerk takes the stage to explore AI in higher education, while Dr Riaan Steenberg dives into esports and the future of learning.
The Eduvos Cape Town gamers will also compete in a Rocket League tournament on 3 May - so if you're going to Comic Con, add these to your stops.
The intention of combining e-learning and Comic Con is to develop academic literacy and develop AI literacy, while also teaching ethics around AI, says De Klerk.
Adopting AI into learning and promoting its use in classrooms might shake up traditional learning, but it's what's needed as times change, recognises De Klerk.
"To be AI literate, you need to understand how it can be used responsibly and transparently... the word transparent is key here... so when you are open with your use of AI, you can cite it, you can make it very clear when you submit a piece of work that you've used AI, we have an AI declaration form for instance, you can use it for brainstorming, but you don't outsource your intellectual labour to AI and not try and hide the fact that you've used AI - then you're using it responsibly. But it is a grey area and we have to be in conversation with our students the whole time to navigate this with them, and I think it's key to partner with them and not see them as the enemy... we're all learning about it together."
- Dr Miné de Klerk, Dean of Curricula and Research - Eduvos
"It is shaking things up, no doubt, but we have to learn with our students so rather than just being these custodians of knowledge, we draw in industry experts, we get our students to learn with one another, do more community engagement work... and it is taking the traditional academic model and shaking it up - but I think that's necessary and we're up for the challenge at Eduvos, but it's discomforting for academics, no doubt."
- Dr Miné de Klerk, Dean of Curricula and Research - Eduvos
"We can't sit on our hands and do nothing because then we will be sending students out into the world of work who do not know how to use these tools ethically."
- Dr Miné de Klerk, Dean of Curricula and Research - Eduvos
Scroll up to the audio player to listen to the full conversation.