Monday, December 23, 2024
Experts at eLearning Africa 2011 suggested that eLearning could bridge the alarming skills gap that exists between nurses trained in different disciplines. Some pointed to successful partnerships with NGOs in East Africa. Others discussed scale and replicability in African medical training.
Young Africans are embarking on promising careers using new skills acquired with the support of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). For example, Open and Distance Learning can help actors, musicians and story tellers to make a good living. This was one of the many innovative projects presented at eLearning Africa where the main conference theme was: “Youth, Skills and Employability”. In one dedicated African […]
The eLearning Africa Debate 2011 – it certainly was not the typical end to a conference! The debate reflected the nature of the eLearning Africa community: a passionate, informed discussion from a community that is diverse in perspective but united in its commitment to use technology to improve education. This year, the eLA Debate wrestled with the issue of the Open Educational Resources movement […]
Some 1300 students from 27 countries across Africa have been trained by the African eDevelopment Resource Center (AeRC). The organisation, which is based in Nairobi, Kenya, is one of East Africa’s most renowned IT training institutions. From June onwards, AeRC will be offering a large proportion of its IT Governance training courses online.
The eLearning Africa 2011 conference highlighted the worldwide phenomenon of distance learning by mobile phone. There are more than 500 million mobile phone subscribers in Africa now, up from 246 million in 2008, according to industry estimates.
Experts on Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) in Africa have challenged African universities and other learning institutions to adopt Web 2.0 technologies and use social media for teaching. At eLearning Africa 2011, they agreed that institutions can reduce running costs, mobilise learning resources and expand research capacity with social media.
A pioneering mobile ICT project launched in Rwanda barely two years ago is changing lives in the central African nation, now striving to become a leading ICT hub. Rwanda has made an almost miraculous recovery from the genocide of 1994 that claimed at least 800,000 lives and left millions displaced. The World Bank is funding a fleet of special ICT buses.
The EAST Challenge took place shortly before the eLearning Africa conference this year. Dr Harold Elletson of the United Kingdom and Fatou Ndiaye of Senegal spearheaded the trek up Mount Meru in Tanzania, Africa’s fourth highest mountain, as part of an effort to raise money from friends, family and eLA supporters for scholarships for low-income African educators to attend eLearning Africa. eLearning Africa would […]
Microsoft has been involved in eLearning and ICT for development in Africa in a variety of ways for many years, be it in ‘Training the trainer’ workshops for teachers, in eGovernment initiatives or in the development of new technologies. Here, Mark Matunga, Education Manager for Microsoft East & Southern Africa (ESA) speaks about the significant progress that has been made in Africa, persisting barriers […]
In the Ghanaian capital Accra, one government minister takes questions from citizens via Facebook. One journalist in Kenya uses his smart phone to e-mail breaking news instantly from a corporate press conference; his announcements affect share prices on the Nairobi Stock Exchange. Technology is rapidly changing Africa, and at the forefront of this change is rising access to broadband Internet. Broadband is even more […]
