On the 15th September this year, a young Englishman set out on a sponsored bicycle ride with some friends to raise money for a school thousands of miles away in Namibia. It was started by his aunt and eLearning Africa hears the remarkable story of her love for a German missionary and how their joint passion, now shared by their whole family, is making […]
Tag: Namibia
The eLearning Africa Debate 2013: An invocation to innovation
As the 8th edition of eLearning Africa drew to a close on Friday evening, delegates gathered together for one last time for a spirited show of wit, cunning and intellectual gymnastics, as experts squared up to each other at the yearly eLearning Africa Debate. By Alicia Mitchell
Dr Eric Hamilton – the “sublime, engrossing” experience of video
Dr Eric Hamilton is a Professor of Education with Joint Appointment in Mathematics at Pepperdine University, California. His education research has taken him across the globe: he is currently co-ordinating a Science Across Virtual Institutes project (SAVI), linking sixteen research groups in the USA and Finland. The SAVI is particularly interested in learner engagement and has formed links with Africa – a Kenyan “ICT […]
Behind the Lens: meet the winners of the 4th eLearning Africa photo competition
The eLearning Africa Photo Competition 2013 attracted a flurry of exciting entries. Vying for the three jury prizes of a tablet, a digital camera and a smartphone, photographers from all over the Continent sent in their own photo-stories of “Tradition and Innovation”. This year, we even introduced a small innovation of our own: the “public vote” category, carrying the prize of a digital camera, […]
Innovation vs. Sustainability: A bare knuckle fight?
What should be the key motivator behind education policy and projects in Africa and around the globe? Should it be innovation and the pursuit of the newest, most revolutionary ideas and technologies to support new modes of teaching and learning? Or should it be sustainability: a focus on the practical, contextual needs of individual learning environments with the aim of delivering stable, long-lasting solutions? […]
Physically Active Youth Namibia: in conversation with Nenad Tomić
Nenad Tomić is a life scientist who recently served as a volunteer Academic Officer at P.A.Y. Namibia – Physically Active Youth – teaching natural sciences, mathematics, English and German. The programme, now in its tenth year, is based in the Windhoek township of Katutura, whose name, meaning “the place where we do not want to live”, dates back to the apartheid-era forced resettlement of the black […]
ICT in the classroom: Namibian teachers share their experience
Education has been a top priority in Namibia for some time now. The government has been directing a lot of resources and expertise into establishing effective systems and policies that will have a positive impact in classrooms and on students. Information and communication technologies have been a very important part of this process, and classrooms are benefiting from better technology and a more learner-centric […]
A letter from Dr Maggy Beukes-Amiss
Dr Maggy Beukes-Amiss is a Head of Department and Senior Lecturer at the University of Namibia. Her many achievements – a Doctorate in Computer-integrated Education (CiE) from the University of Pretoria, her over 17 years’ teaching experience in ICT-related subjects – tutoring and training of various participants in eLearning related courses in Namibia and internationally – and her activities as a conference paper reviewer […]
Social Learning: a Namibian Experiment
In Sub-Saharan Africa, innovative approaches are constantly being developed to address the region’s acute education challenges. Low literacy levels, inadequate school facilities, and high dropout rates are felt acutely, particularly in rural areas. Despite government initiatives to tackle these issues, accessing education remains difficult for some, especially those who have abandoned their studies and find it difficult to re-join school or gain employment in […]
Knowledge repositories – building blocks for learning
A knowledge repository is an online database that organises, displays and categorises information. It can be used to provide support and management for many services, including encouraging open access to scholarly research, preserving digital materials for the long term and showcasing academic research. But whilst repositories are becoming increasingly commonplace in Africa and around the world as houses of shared institutional memory, information on […]
