Author: claire

Field Stories

Interactive classrooms initiative in South Africa expands

Project director Ron Beyers of the Meraka Institute at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) will soon initiate a research component using SMART’s Bridgit conferencing software that allows a quick, easy and effective way to share voice, video and data over the Internet. “Research is needed into the virtual classroom, and this will increase the effectiveness of teaching and learning. This will […]

Opinions

Interview with Eric Broug, Emerald Business Manager for Africa

  As the world’s leading English-language publisher of management research, Emerald is always working on new ways to distribute and collect management and engineering knowledge efficiently. At eLearning Africa 2008, the publisher will present the open web space and hosting service Emerald InTouch in its effort to enhance African community building, look for authors and encourage African researchers to publish their findings. eLA newsletter […]

Trends

Oracle simplifies African high school student administration

Oracle has developed a software solution that is simple to use, fast to deploy and free to use and distribute to effectively manage student administration. The Oracle School Express (OSE) is a data capturing and reporting tool that enables school administrators to capture student statistics such as registrations, attendance, marks and school fees. The solution will run on a standard PC enabling the schools […]

Opinions

eLearning key to solving Africa’s health care human resource crisis

It is in Africa where people are more exposed to a heavy and wide-ranging burden of disease – partly because of the region’s unique geography and climate. Nowhere has the HIV/AIDS epidemic killed such large proportions of the population; and nowhere has the old scourge of tuberculosis re-emerged in such big numbers. Poverty is very prevalent – about 40 percent of Africa’s people live […]

General

Reaching out to Chawama’s young people and beyond

Set up in the form of a small non-governmental organisation, the Chawama Youth Project helps young people in the disadvantaged township of Chawama on the outskirts of Lusaka, Zambia. When the project was initially launched in 2004, most of Chawama’s young people were unemployed, crime was rife and their future was bleak. So, in order to give the young people a better start in […]

Opinions

eLearning for African higher education

The African Virtual University Module Authoring Workshop
Wednesday, May 28, Kofi Annan Centre for Excellence in ICT

At eLearning Africa, the AVU will hold a workshop led by Prof Thierry Karsenti on Module Authoring. The workshop will provide the participants with clear guidance on the eLearning module development process that is easy to understand and can be utilised by all interested authors or module developers. The sessions will ensure that the modules that are developed can be readily shared / accepted across various institutions and can also be used as open source content. The event targets academics and subject matter experts interested in basic authoring skills for eLearning materials.

More information

Trends

Web 2.0 applications help deliver online training for journalists

By Brenda Zulu Matongo Maumbi, a Zambian radio journalist, initially saw blogging as an adventure. “I was writing whatever came to my mind without any real set objective or target,” he said. “I have been working as a broadcast journalist since 2001 and I was lucky to have been exposed to the computer and internet right from the early days of my career. My […]

Opinions

Interview with Dr Wolfram Laaser, Academic Director, Fernuniversität Hagen

  What is the real economic contribution of eLearning? What indicators are necessary to track the efficiency of courses and programmes? Dr Wolfram Laaser from Fernuniversität Hagen, Germany’s most important distance learning university, has extensive experience in this field. The economist has been involved with distance education and specifically with instructional design and media development at Hagen since the University’s inception in the mid-1970s. […]

Trends

eWaste management needed

By James Waititu and Reuben Kyama, Nairobi, Kenya Three years ago at a rural school in Kenya, students gathered in a lab to admire with awe newly installed computers. The arrival of the new technology generated great interest and expectations – thanks to a generous firm which donated the machines.