This year, for the first time at eLearning Africa (eLA), our Programme Team will be hosting a session entitled “My eLA”. We have had many discussions on the purpose and nature of eLearning Africa. So far, our conversations have led us to conclude that eLA has multiple personalities. We believe that her many personalities should be embraced and celebrated. We call on you to join us in making eLA a fun, creative learning endeavour.
eLA serves a range of purposes that centres on the relationship between digital technologies, education and social transformation in Africa. eLA provides a space for dialogue; for ideas to develop, for knowledge to be shared; for conversations to enlighten and for varying perspectives to be argued on wide-ranging topics that essentially revolve around extending education access, quality and equity in Africa.
eLA has historically offered a place from which new eLearning projects have arisen; where new contacts were made; where relationships and knowledge networks were established; and where learning communities have converged. eLA services diverse stakeholders with divergent perspectives, interests and viewpoints about the complexities of eLearning in Africa. These include high level African government officials, intergovernmental organisations, global private sector companies, small and medium enterprises, universities, schools, academics, consultants, entrepreneurs, teachers and students. Importantly, eLA has also opened up spaces for Africa to learn from the world and for the world to learn from the richness of Africa’s experience and cultural diversity.
We would like you to help us enrich eLA’s multiple personalities. We would also like to work with you in engaging with eLA’s personality flaws. We would like to learn from you about how best we can utilise the opportunities that eLA provides, to grow an intelligent eLA community and a better Africa.
My eLA will assume the form of an interactive workshop session in the main conference programme. Our Programme Team will facilitate conversation about ways to deepen the eLA experience; to help eLA become a learning space where we reflect consciously on the way we conceptualise the eLA programme, the way we plan eLA events; the way we implement our plans and the ways in which we can improve our learning through continuous reflection.
In addition to the My eLA session, we invite you to blog, tweet and facebook about eLA. We will be paying close attention to your comments and insights in the social media. We also urge you to fill in evaluation forms which will be available in each of the sessions. These forms will provide an added voice to your views on the quality of the conference. We will also be talking to many of you informally about your eLA experience and how we can make it better.
We call on you to join us in making this a fun, creative learning endeavour. Help us build the eLearning Africa community. You can add your voice by:
- Blogging about eLA
- Following us on Twitter: #ela11
- Joining the eLearning Africa group on Facebook and Linked-In
- Filling in the evaluation forms at every eLearning Africa conference session
- Join us at our special ‘My eLA’ session on Friday, 27 May 2011, from 11:30 – 13:00.
While sites like this and the movements they are fostering are great, it will take time for each country to develop their own purpose built e-learning infrastructure. In the meantime, there are many online learning and distance education resources that can be utilised right now. Many top American and European universities offers some free courses. There are a few good free sites as well. My cousin was a teacher in Ghana for a couple of years and, when internet was available, she found Alison.com useful for the students and even teachers to use on their own to help with their study. The youth seemed to really respond to it as well.