Technology-enhanced education in Africa

“How would I be able to enjoy seeing Ghana beat Germany ‘live’ in the World Cup Football final in my tent in the Sahara Desert?” This question was posed by Professor Anthony Rest of Southampton University, participating at a recent international conference on information and communication technologies (ICT) for development, education and training, held in Lusaka, Zambia, May 26-28.

“Using a camel carrying solar panels linked to a simple cost-effective solar energy generator system, based on a Dell M109S low-powered data and video projector. If I can see my football, and I can with my camel system, I can provide the means of education for students and communities in the remotest rural regions anywhere in the world, Rest answered.

Discussing innovative solutions to empowering education in Africa was the focus of the fifth annual ‘eLearning Africa’ conference, which brought together 1778 education professionals from 78 countries.

‘mLearning’

Since 28 per cent of Africa’s population have a mobile phone subscription, mobile phones were identified by conference participants as emerging learning tools in Africa. One example cited was the downloading of tests, reference materials and exam dates by students of the African Medical Research Foundation (AMREF) on their mobile phones. South Africa’s Shuttleworth Foundation was another.. It uses its ‘mLearning’ (mobile learning) campaign to promote reading and writing amongst schoolchildren and young adults throughout the country. Although many South African teenagers who live in urban areas have no access to books, about 90 per cent do have mobile phones Prompting Shuttleworth to publish a teen mystery story through its ‘m4Lit’ project on ‘mobisite’ (mobile website) www.kontax.mobi and instant messaging platform MXit. To date, 30,000 people have read the full story.

Going green

The conference also showcased alternative energy sources for socio-economic and educational development. This included a low-cost solar energy data-video projector used to teach chemistry, presented by Professor Anthony Rest and Keith Wilkinson, a teacher at the International School at Lusaka. Consuming only 47 watts of energy, it was championed as more economically sustainable than most data-video projectors, which require 200-300 watts.

Biofuels, such as the jatropha seed, and biogas were put forward as more reliable sources of energy than more traditional sources such as firewood and charcoal. Delegates emphasised that these alternative energy sources could supply electricity for computers and laptops in schools and community centres.

Inclusion

African ministers pointed to eLearning as being one of the most important ‘development accelerators’ for most of their administrations, noting that current strategies focus on access to ICTs, curricula development, fostering digital literacy and providing initial teacher training. Participants discussed some of the impediments to including ICT in education programmes at a local level; bureaucracy, scarce resources and a lack of leadership strategies.

The event brought out that males, albeit educators or learners, have greater access to computers than their female counterparts, despite growing government efforts to support equity of access Social and cultural barriers, a lack of female role models in the sector and infrastructural inadequacies, were some of the reasons cited. The training of more female teachers in ICTs to serve as role models and providing more computers in schools to guarantee wider access were some of the suggested solutions.

The ‘Good School Neighbours’ eLearning project, which brought together disparate and feuding ethnic groups from the North Rift Region in Kenya, following the post-election crisis in the country, was presented as an exemplary project. Supported by the North Rift eLearning consortium,it encouraged dialogue and peaceful co-existence using websites, e-mails and recorded programmes to inform, educate and train teachers.

Natasha Bomba, a Zambian photographer who captured the use of one computer shared by four classes and 300 children won the top prize in eLearning Africa’s photo competition awarded during the event.

The next 'eLearning Africa' conference will take place 25-27 May 2011 in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

For more information:

eLearning Africa website: www.elearning-africa.com

eLearning Africa photo competition: http://www.elearning-africa.com/picturevoting_home.php