As the 8th edition of eLearning Africa drew to a close on Friday evening, delegates gathered together for one last time for a spirited show of wit, cunning and intellectual gymnastics, as experts squared up to each other at the yearly eLearning Africa Debate. By Alicia Mitchell
Author: claire
East Africa mourns a legend
The Zanzibari singer Bi Kidude has died. It is believed she was 102 or 103 years old. Adam Salkeld gives a personal appreciation.
African Libraries under Threat
The Latin poet Horace famously brags that his book of Odes is “a monument more lasting than bronze”. It is certainly pleasant to believe that an author’s ideas can live on in print after his death, according him a certain measure of immortality: the sight, however, of a shelf of crumbling paperbacks is enough to shake the firmest faith in the durability of the […]
Happy birthday to the mobile phone!
It was exactly 40 years ago today that Martin Cooper, a Motorola executive and researcher, stood on a Manhattan sidewalk and called his rival, Dr Joel S. Engel of Bell Laboratories, to announce that he’d successfully beaten him to creating the first-ever mobile telephone. “Joel”, he said, according to a 2003 BBC interview, “I’m calling you from a ‘real’ cellular telephone – a portable, […]
Join a conversation on technology and management education in the developing world
Although eLearning is hardly a new concept, recent developments in mobile and online courses have put it front and center in the minds of educators around the world, and business schools are no exception. This is why at the annual conference of the Global Business School Network (GBSN) in Tunisia this June we will be taking a close look at how technology can be […]
Africa’s digital busy bees
These networks of geeks – IT experts (1) who are building, sharing, instructing and innovating – aim to pollinise the Continent with digital know-how (3) without necessarily needing to wait for funding from initiatives of governments and international organisations. By Philippe Royer
Namibia country profile
Throughout its seven years, eLearning Africa has travelled the length and breadth of the African continent, from Addis Ababa, Nairobi and Dar es Salaam in the East all the way to Accra, Dakar and Cotonou in the West and Lusaka in the South. This variety of locations affords different perspectives and diverse cultural contexts within which critical conversations on the evolution of eLearning in […]
Figureheads of development: women’s roles in Africa’s technology industry
Innovation and social entrepreneurship are taking off in a big way in Africa and huge progress is being made, especially when it comes to the growing community of women embracing technology in Africa. Change is happening rapidly, but what effects will this have on the Continent’s numerous traditions and cultures? Next year’s eLearning Africa conference will examine the crossroads of tradition, change and innovation.
Finding the sweet spot: open educational resources in the developing world
With debate about the benefits and future of the MOOC dominating the educational blogosphere in the last year, discussions about the open sharing of educational resources are becoming more prevalent. Open Educational Resources, or OERs, offer a potential tool for impacting education in developing countries and fast growing economies, particularly in the emerging technology hubs of Africa. These open, freely available educational resources can […]
Crowdsourcing: is the African continent a step ahead?
Can it be an asset for educational projects on the continent? The African continent is certainly in a good position to utilise knowledge and skills sourced through or funded by a “crowd”, as it can rely on a strong link between tradition and innovation. Whether to provide help in times of economic hardships or to demonstrate common solidarity with the community, alternative or complementary […]