Speaker Profile
Key Note Speakers
Dr
Mfanelo Patrick Ntsobi
Chief
Executive Officer
Sci-Bono-Discovery
Centre
Prof. Ntsobi comes from a military background,
a graduate from the Military Academy. He is also a former Major from the
Military Health Services where he headed the Research and Development Unit. In
addition, Prof. Ntsobi was the Deputy General Secretary of the South African
Security Forces Union (SASFU) whilst still serving in the military. Fancying a
different challenge at some point in his career, Prof Ntsobi was recalled to the
trade union movement, serving the Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union
(POPCRU) as their national spokesperson and head of administration. His agility
and ability to pivot is also one of the reasons he has held various board
membership positions, with great ease.
Prof. Ntsobi has served on the boards of the
Gauteng Growth and Development Agency (GGDA), Audit Committee of GGDA, Auto
Industry Development Cooperation (AIDC), OR Tambo Industrial Development Zone
(IDZ), Dorbyl (Pty) Ltd, and Mtha Aviation (Deputy Chairperson). At a later
phase of his career, he joined a family business, namely Vuza Group as its CEO
and, later, moved to the position of Chairperson. According to Dr Ntsobi, this
business is centred on the logistics and auto conversion space.
Prof. Ntsobi’s Doctoral thesis is
titled: Pedagogical Integration of Technology as an Enhancement to
Teaching and Learning in Gauteng Public Schools. His thesis is largely
inspired by its author’s need to explore how Information Communication
Technology (ICT) can be integrated into the daily school activities of Gauteng
Public Schools as perceived by educators, heads of departments, and subject
advisors.
Francois van Louw
Founder
and CEO
SOCO_ED
SOCO_ED is a custom-built platform that is
a fully adaptive EdTech solution. It can be scaled to work for any team or
organisation, no matter its size. It is also flexible enough to work for any
industry, whether you are a school, college or corporate business.
The platform does not only allow for remote learning but also comes with a host
of features like user profiles, hosting of learning materials, online quizzes,
reviews, live class sessions (built-in Zoom API), posting and sharing of
articles, and much more.
Highlight-Curriculum Technology
Integration Workshop Speakers
Albert
Drijfhout
Head
of Operations and Training
Inspire
Africa Group
Smart
Education 4.0 Speakers
Dr. Samuel Khoza
Senior Lecturer
Tshwane University
of Technology
Dr. Samuel Khoza is a senior lecturer at the Tshwane University of
Technology in the Technology and Vocational Education department. His Ph.D.
research was around the importance of spatial skills in the learning and
teaching of sectional drawing. His areas of specialisation cut across
Technology education, TVET studies, ICT integration in technical subjects as
well as WIL in TVET. His passion is to
see TVET programs moving with the times with the adoption of technology use to
match the ever-changing technology in the workplace and beyond.
Karen Ann Walstra
Educational Consultant
Karen Walstra
Karen Ann Walstra is a passionate
independent educational consultant, who promotes creative and critical
thinking, incorporating digital tools, to address educational and learning
transformation, assisting schools to adapt to change.
She presently works with individual schools
and educational organizations. From, a successful twenty-nine-year career as a
classroom teacher from Gr. R-11, and as a Head of Academics. She coordinated, developed and trained on
large scale outreach programs namely St Stithians College’s Thandulwazi
Teacher and Leader Development Programme from 2005-2015, was Acting Head of the
Thandulwazi Maths and Science Academy from Aug. 2017-July. 2018, as well as the
trainer and content developer of Click Foundation’s Learner Reading project
from 2012-2015.
She worked for Google from 2014 to April
2017 within the emerging markets “Education Go Digital” and Chrome OS Teams,
both globally and across Sub-Saharan Africa. She holds a Master’s in Education,
from the University of the Witwatersrand, focusing on Educational Technology.
She is an accredited Education, Training
and Development Assessor and Moderator. She is a PhD candidate, at the
University of Pretoria, researching “The influence of Virtual Reality as an
educational tool on teachers' pedagogy”. She has presented at many local and
international conferences on both Educational Technology and Design and
Technology. She is an author. She is an
educationalist at heart, wanting to see effective educational transformation.
Digital Pedagogies Speakers
Glenn
Gillis
Co-founder
and CEO
Sea
Monster
Glenn is the co-founder and CEO of Sea
Monster. He has a Business Science degree from the University of Cape Town and
has been a senior executive, consultant and entrepreneur for over 25 years.
Prior to Sea Monster, Glenn served as the General Manager at two of South
Africa's leading film and animation companies: Moonlighting Film Services and
Clockwork Zoo - Africa's largest animation studio at the time. Glenn is an
expert on the role that technology plays in storytelling and a thought-leader
on how impact games and immersive technologies (AR & VR) can be used
to drive business goals and social change at scale.
Zolani
Lugawe
Regional
Learning & Development Head
ABSA
Zolani is a seasoned Learning and
Development thought leader in Human Capital specializing in Talent Management
and Capability Development across different industries Insurance,
Telecommunications, Development Finance and Automotive. Zolani is also a
member of the prestigious Talent Development network called Association for
Talent Development (ATD) that provided him with the opportunity to travel to
USA Washington DC to network with other thought leaders in talent development.
Zolani is currently heading up learning and development for ABSA focusing
mainly on Digital learning, micro learning and eLearning
Adriano
Giovanelli
Learning
Experience Designer
Wits
University
Adriano Giovanelli is a Learning Experience
Designer in the Teaching & Learning Unit in the Faculty of Commerce, Law,
and Management (CLM). He studied for a BA Fine Arts at the Wits School of Arts
(specializing in sculpture and animation).
Adriano previously worked at the Wits
School of Arts as a part-time slide librarian and then on a contractual basis
as a digital technician. He co-founded The ITB Art Regime, a company
specialiing in digital set-up, exhibition planning, and technical
problem-solving for the art scene in Johannesburg. He was the exhibitions
manager at the National Arts Festival in 2011 and 2012.
He has worked as a production manager and
technical designer for an engineering firm and as an Exhibitions Curator at the
Johannesburg Arts Gallery. At the end of 2017, Adriano returned to Wits,
starting at CLTD as an instructional designer, concentrating on Edx MOOCs.
Adriano also has experience in working with the HEPSA-partnered online degrees
for Health Sciences. He has built courses on Canvas, Blackboard, Moodle, Sakai,
and ulwazi and converted an Edx course into a website.
Adriano started in CLM in June of 2022. His
strengths include interactive activities, UX/UI, filmmaking, animation, design,
and Game-based learning. He is an evangelist for Universal Design for Learning
and accessibility at the University. Currently, he is completing his MA in
Digital Arts in Serious games in education.
Digital Pedagogies Speakers
Dr
Nisi Thusi
Lecturer
-Commercial Accounting
University of Johannesburg
Nisi Thusi (PhD) Is a
Management Scientist and member of Society of Professors of Education (SPE), a
Publon Peer reviewer and a member of the circle of Global Business Woman. Her
publications and areas of interest include teaching and learning in higher
education as well as qualitative research methodologies. She’s a lecturer at
one of the Universities ranking in the Best Global.
Dr Nisi has 20 years’ working experience in
the corporate world and practiced as a management consultant with over 6 years’
experience. She is a highly motivated and results oriented person. With
experience of strategic business analysis, investigative and methodical
approach to problem solving and eliminating recurring problems. She is a
Passionate Leader, Innovative Teacher for higher learning and Empowering young
men and women on life strategies that enhance their life and Academic skills
development. She’s passionate with community development and fighting against
GBV. She mentors and coach both students and learners.
New Digital Institutions and Spaces Speakers
Riaan van der Bergh
Deputy
CEO
FEDSAS
Riaan serves as Deputy CEO of FEDSAS and also heads up the FEDSAS Centre for Technology and Centre for Finance and Risk Management. He has been with FEDSAS for 8 years and has contributed to publications on School Governance and Teacher training. He is a regular speaker on Education technology as well as general education matters at conferences and in the media. He has served as the SAELA Treasurer for the past three years. SAELA – is the SA Education Law association. Riaan has contributed to various publications for like Financial Management in Public Schools, Help; I'm a student teacher and Uitnemende Onderwys. He holds an honours degree in accounting and completed accounting articles with KPMG. Riaan is passionate about education and has devoted the past 10 years to research and consultation and advice on the sensible use of the tools of our time to better learning outcomes. He is married to Elsabe and has two children aged 12 and 13 and also serves on the SGB of his kids' school.
Simon
Robinson
Founder
& CEO
Inspire
Africa Group
Simon has over two decades of international
experience in the world of education and training, marketing, event creation
and rights commercialisation, working with some of the world’s pre-eminent
companies, education stakeholders and rights holders in both emerging and
developed markets. He holds a Bachelors degree from the University of
Stellenbosch, RSA and an MBA from Cranfield University, UK. In 2018, Simon
launched the Inspire Africa Group (www.inspire.africa), having spent a number
of years in the commercial and recreational drone industry. This experience
exposed him to the fact that the school curriculum for students in Africa is
often lacking in 4th Industrial Revolution (4iR) technologies when it comes to
the disciplines of Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts & Mathematics
(STEAM) and he was intent on addressing this challenge. Inspire Africa delivers
4iR technology programmes and curricula to students through our CAPS-aligned
Inspire STEAM digital learning portal - which includes Coding; Drones; 3D
Printing; Robotics & IOT - to develop valuable core education skills and
career opportunities. Inspire Africa has programmes that brings STEAM education
alive through the application of these in a curriculum that takes students on a
journey of discovery in design, programming, operation and evaluation; a
tangible experience of STEAM that will leave them with a core skill and a
greater understanding of the role and value of these disciplines, along with an
appreciation and knowledge of how they can be applied in real-life experiences.
Whilst having great fun doing it.
Dr Adebunmi Aina
Researcher
University of Pretoria
Adebunmi Aina is a
researcher in the field of education and a proficient educator. She is
currently a researcher and lecturer at the University of Pretoria, Faculty of
Education's Department of Education Management and Policy Studies. Over the
years, she has built skills and experience in educational management and
leadership; school financial management; educational ICT tools; and school
learning resources. Her acquired competencies include knowledge of South
African Educational Acts; knowledge of and experience of facilitation in an
E-learning environment; computer literacy; ability to work under pressure;
collaboration; effective communication skills; team building; critical thinking
and problem-solving skills.
Her qualifications
include a Bachelor of Commerce in Accounting and Finance, Bachelor of Science
in Business Education, Honours in Education Management, Leadership and Policy
(Cum Laude), and Master in Education Management, Leadership and Policy (Cum
Laude). Her PhD focuses on the management of resources in Early Childhood
Development Centres. Her research interest includes early childhood education,
educational management and leadership, education digitalization and ICT tools,
and multidisciplinary studies.