IBM’s slogan “Education for a Smarter Planet” is being applied to transform educational systems in Africa, especially in Tanzania, where the firm has signed a collaboration agreement for adopting information technology in education, research and development. IBM will be presenting at eLearning Africa on the new technology of cloud computing. Mick Slivecko, IBM Global Education & Learning Industry, and Christoph Schwaiger, IBM Global Technology […]
Author: claire
Digital lessons at Copperbelt College
Lyson Chikunduzi, mathematics lecturer at Zambia’s Copperbelt College of Education, reports that all last year’s college graduates were able to use a computer to present their lessons.
eLearning Adventure: Kenyans take a truck ride to Lusaka
In the early morning of Saturday, May 22nd, a big blue truck will leave Nairobi and head south. On board there will be about twenty teachers and educators from the Kenyan North Rift eLearning Consortium. Their final destination: the fifth eLearning Africa conference in Lusaka, Zambia, about 1200 miles from their home town. It is a little known fact that education can be a […]
Ajegunle – Where ICT enriches the poor
Two Nigerian teenagers had never touched a computer keyboard before they joined a learning programme known as the Ajegunle.org Capacity Building Exercise. Nwanyiego Ijeh, a girl known as Ego, and a young man, James O. Raphael, lived and worked in Ajegunle, a dangerous part of Lagos, populated by three million people from all the tribes of West Africa. This year, former Ajegunle trainees will […]
Bridging the electricity gap in rural Kenya
They call it a mobile internet kiosk. It’s nothing more than an old car battery wired through a cheap electrical inverter to an ancient personal computer. The three items are loaded onto a hired handcart and delivered by manpower to the “very back of beyond” in Western Kenya.
Peacemaking with eLearning in Kenya
In Kenya’s remote North Rift, the eLearning project “Good School Neighbours” is helping to bring peace to armed and nomadic peoples. The project gives students, teachers and opinion-makers the chance to encourage dialogue and peaceful co-existence between the feuding rural communities in this vast, arid region, home to around 1.8 million people, where armed cattle-rustling has been a way of life.
Education in Africa: Challenges and Success Stories
High-quality education is the foundation for success and growth. There is a need for empowered teachers, strong school leaders, better curricula, and the ability for students to connect with one another and the rest of the world, says Anthony Salcito, Vice President, Worldwide Public Sector – Education, Microsoft. Through various highly successful initiatives, such as the Partners in Learning Network or the Innovative School […]
How good are Open Educational Resources?
Open Educational Resources (OERs), unveiled at UNESCO’s 2002 Forum on the Impact of Open Courseware for Higher Education in Developing Countries and funded by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation are educational materials and resources offered free and open to anyone and usually free to be re-mixed, improved or redistributed. They can be found on the Internet, but how good are they? How efficient […]
Tackling eWaste in Africa with eLearning from UNEP
Old computers are piling up in Africa and the developing world. Electronic waste, eWaste, eScrap or Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) contains deadly contaminants like lead, cadmium, beryllium and poisonous flame retardants. UN officials say the developing countries face the spectre of mountains of hazardous waste damaging the environment and threatening public health. The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is now creating awareness […]
How to foster key industries with eLearning
In Zambia, eLearning is very much a pocket initiative according to Professor Thomson Sinkala, one of the country’s most experienced Information and Communication Technology (ICT) experts. The Zambian government now has an action plan for eLearning. Professor Sinkala is involved in carrying out tailor-made programmes for training in mining and in the rising and increasingly valuable Zambian biofuels industry. At eLearning Africa 2010, Professor […]