Douglas Sias

I joined the Education Development Unit (EDU) in the Faculty of Health Sciences in June 2010 as an Education Support and Admin Officer. The position involves Vula support for students and lecturers as well as being the co-ordinator and trainer for the Digital Literacy (DL) Programme for first year students. Digital Literacy training was an exciting and very rewarding part of my position since I interacted with students, tutors and course convenors. I loved it since teaching, I have come to believe, is “in my blood”. The most rewarding part of the DL training was to see 1st year students who struggled with the digital tools and skills at the start of their academic journey, become competent and confident in using their new-found digital skills and “tricks”. Ironically, my own academic journey in Higher Education started at the University of the Western Cape in the 80s when there were no “digital tools” (think chalk, overhead projectors and transparencies in the lecture rooms). I completed my BA and entered the world of work as a teacher at a High (Secondary) school in 1984. Before I left the teaching profession in 1999, digital technology was one of my passions as a teacher. If there was a digital tool that could make teaching and learning easier and more fun, I would be curious to know how it worked and how I could use it in and outside the classroom. That was when the bug of education+technology bit me. In 2015 I completed the Post-Graduate Diploma in Educational Technology at the University of Cape Town and, realised afterwards, that I am now a “triple” alumnus – University of the Western Cape, University of Stellenbosch and the University of Cape Town.