The opening day of the Fifth Annual WiseHub Summit held at the Durban University of Technology (DUT’s) Hotel School urged delegates to use the information shared during the summit to make a positive change in society.
Held under the theme: “Think Upliftment”, the summit began last Friday, 19 October and ended yesterday, Monday, 22 October 2018. The event ended after four days of critical engagements on issues relating to community development, mostly children development through innovative projects and initiatives.
Welcoming delegates on behalf of DUT Management, Professor Darren Lortan from the Department of Mathematics described engagement as the DNA of the institution. He further urged delegates to address serious matters in society.
“I look forward to a time where more of us will identify ourselves as people who are people because of other people. I look forward to a time when village elders remember that they were once children and are inspired to play and laugh like children again, freely,” said Prof Lortan.
“Let’s laugh, let’s play and let’s try to get serious about how we can continue to laugh and play while dealing with serious matters. As long as we listen twice as much as we speak, learning together is going to be easy and fun,” he added.
According to Theophilus van Rensburg Lindzter, the founder of Learning Academy Worldwide, the aim of the summit is to coordinate efforts from different sectors.
“Whether it is geography, social life, education, special needs education, music or project-based learning, this summit aims to coordinate all of that into some kind of a special collaboration that could lead to finding ways to make projects or take initiatives that children and young people could benefit from,” said van Rensburg Lindzter.
During the summit, Grade 7 pupils from Kerria Primary School, Kwavulindlebe School for the Deaf, Makgatho Safoko Mapogo Primary School, Parkview Primary School and Siphosethu Primary School had a project-based learning exhibition.
“What they did is they looked back at their year and they tried to track their memories. They also documented experiences whether it is in picture format or whether it is a set of notes that they write down. That becomes sort of a book of memories, but it also becomes a milestone, it also becomes a yardstick, something which they can use to measure their growth,” added van Rensburg Lindzter.
Dr Mpilo Ngubane, the Head of eThekwini Municipal Academy (EMA), said the research conducted at academic institutions should be geared towards solving a particular social problem.
“We are saying that all the institutions within the city region must collaborate into making sure that the experiential research that they undergo, should be able to solve the challenges that we have in the city. We have a city that has a lot of crime for example. Institutions should be looking at how we can solve the challenge of crime permanently as a city,” Dr Ngubane said.
Pictured: Delegates of the Fifth Annual Wisehub Summit.
Sandile Lukhozi
