Author: William

Field Stories

Examining eHealth in Africa

Whether they are collating data on disease, monitoring health trends, combating misinformation or facilitating cooperation between medical centres, African eHealth initiatives are leading the way towards higher standards of living and health on the Continent. With eLearning Africa 2013 set to subject eHealth to a detailed examination, the news service explored a few initiatives that offer a promising prognosis for Africa’s health sector.

Conference sneak preview

Eyes on EAST!

This week, the eLearning Africa team met with eLearning Africa Scholarship Trust (EAST) scholarship recipients. The EAST programme, thanks to the kind donations of individuals and organisational partners, sponsors participation at the eLearning Africa conference of low-income Africans who are passionate about ICT and education. Today, EAST passed the microphone to two of its 2012 scholarship winners to find out how EAST – and […]

Opinions

Storytelling yesterday, today and tomorrow

A poet, singer, historian, musician, comedian, an entertainer, an archive. The griot is all these things and more. Through storytelling and music, the griot has shared and maintained the identities and histories of communities in West Africa for centuries. Oral culture on the African continent has persisted when elsewhere in the world it has all but vanished. But with shifting populations and the rise […]

Opinions

No dumping allowed

In January this year the eLearning Africa news service reported on the progress being made towards the impending Millennium Development Goal (MGD) deadline and highlighted the worrying trend of prioritising quantity over quality in efforts to reach the target of universal primary education by 2015. New eLearning technologies offer the tantalising potential to spread high-quality education across the developing world. This could be an […]

Field Stories

IAT was in Search for the Perfect Solution and it found it with NComputing

The Institute of Advanced Technology (IAT), based in Kenya, is the leading ICT institute in the East African region. IAT needed to replace the 380 ageing PC desktops used in their training centres and classrooms but had only a small budget. To be successful, IAT would need to provide users with increased computing access while also reducing the high cost of maintenance both on […]

Trends

Open Access Nairobi

The Open Access movement appears to be gaining ground, with the oldest and largest university in Kenya, the University of Nairobi, having adopted an Open Access policy in December 2012. The need for change had been heavily emphasised by researchers who concluded that an Open Access policy would allow them the opportunity and platform to promote their academic work and enhance the visibility and […]

Field Stories

Success 4 Africa

Fernando de Sousa is the General Manager of Africa Initiatives, a Microsoft effort focusing on the African continent which has involved the release of the ‘Huawei 4Afrika’ Windows 8 smartphone and the creation of the ‘Afrika Academy’ to teach Africans important business and entrepreneurial skills.  De Sousa spoke to the eLearning Africa news service about the work 4Afrika has done in the region.

Trends

UNESCO Mobile Learning Week 2013: Scratching the surface

The recently hosted UNESCO Mobile Learning Week (MLW) 2013 set out to answer three vital questions: how can mobile technologies support literacy development for both children and adults? How can they support teachers and their professional development, to ensure quality education is delivered to all students? And how can mobile technologies contribute to gender equality and extend opportunities to women and girls? A series […]

Field Stories

Morocco: an uncertain leader in youth employment

In this year’s African Economic Outlook (AEO) report, Morocco was identified as the only country in Africa with a “well developed” youth unemployment programme.[i] On the surface it appears that the Moroccan government must be doing something right. Perhaps Morocco can offer an example for others to follow, but 2012 headlines featuring desperate unemployed graduates and self-immolation tell a radically different story. The eLearning […]

Trends

The Post-2015 Development Agenda: time to learn and connect

With the 2015 deadline of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) fast approaching, governments and organisations across the world are looking towards the next step. Introspection is a necessary part of the process as both the successes and failures of the original MDG agenda are being assessed and dissected, providing captivating accounts on both sides. The eLearning Africa news service has been following developments and […]