In Zambia (Africa), the concept of e-Learning has been seen as a solution to students missing lessons due to health disasters or political unrest. There would be no chance of infection spreading or compromise to the pupils' safety, but at the moment there are few ICT tools available to Zambian children which would be effective to use. At the moment if a child is unable to attend school, teachers may give students homework for when they return - there is no e-Learning element.
AGORA, HINATI and OARE have together put 4,000 key scientific journals online which can be subscribed to for a low cost, or sometimes free which is a huge bonus as access to the latest research is a necessity - particularly on science courses where ideas constantly develop.
It appears that use of ICT in Africa is in its infancy, but some schools use second-hand computers and in Zambia, the adoption of a national ICT policy in 2007 sets up a framework for "greater success". The prices of gadgets to enable e-Learning may price some Zambians out, however John Zulu points out that prices are coming down.
Where e-Learning is used in Africa, it does show promising signs - such as the NEPAD e-Schools initiative, but it is an uphill climb. Without the infrastructure, facilities (ie. easy-access computers and internet) and the correct training, e-Learning will struggle in Africa. While it is a positive thing to train professionals, they will most likely emigrate - and not stay in Africa where they are needed most.
http://www.elearning-africa.com/newsportal/english/news130.php
http://www.elearning-africa.com/newsportal/english/news164.php
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It seems like this is a perfect example of the brain drain. I think it's just a shame that in a culture where eLearning could provide an education in situations where learning in a more traditional environment is impossible (as you've mentioned about health epidemics and politcal unrest) that gift economy isn't being embraced to a greater extent as it could reduce these effects of the brain drain
ReplyDeletePerhaps information should be shared without the expectancy of anything in return, as education should be as a basic human right, although of course this goes against the basic principles of the economy, buying and selling for profit.
Hopefully the Internet will go and long way in improving this situation, taking the emphasis away from profit and onto education. To me this seems promising, in that the Internet is more of an open domain than any other mediums.
KayleyA said...
ReplyDeleteIt seems like this is a perfect example of the brain drain.
Sorry, I'm confused, what brain drain are you thinking of?
James, this is interesting, your account of the situation in Africa (which accords much more with my understanding of the problems of the Inet in developing countries) runs counter to many of your colleagues much more 'upbeat' accounts. According to the academic journals I read (e.g Information, Communication & Society; Information Society) there is a lot of hype out there about the effectiveness of IT/web solutions in developing countries. I wonder why that might be?