I can say that this second day of e-learning Africa was much brighter than the first one. Some of the sessions I attended were more of a discussion rather than have some people speak on behalf of others. Just as it was in the first day we divided ourselves to attend different sessions so that we could later combine the information. But before we attended these sessions we made sure we had worked and uploaded the previous day information.
The first session I attended with Ali was more focused on the topic about “Teachers competence development in the context”. One of the speaker contended that the teachers have to be motivated to use technology in their daily teaching carrier. Some of the ways in which the teachers can be motivated to do this is through introduction of e-learning incentives were by the teachers get remuneration for designing new e-learning mode, also by introduction of e-learning competition where by those who win are given an award. I agree that these mode may work to motivate teachers use e-learning but again my worry is when there will be no award again the teachers may decide to stop these mode since they get nothing out of it. I think the teachers should be self motivated for the benefit of their students and themselves.
I attended another session which was in a discussion mode focusing on different ICT problems in their diversity and how can these problems be solved. This was the best session I attended during e-learning Africa. It is for one reason that, problems were aired and solutions given right away. I wished that all the other sessions were carried out like this one.
The day ended up by a very exiting debate which was chaired by very motivated and experience individuals who gave a lot of points for and against the motion which among others suggested that with the introduction of technology, we do not need teachers anymore. I think we as learners should also discuss this topic though my stand will be that ICT should not replace the teachers but rather compliment what they are doing. The only thing that made us laugh during this debate was when we were debating about the importance of ICT electricity went of in the conference room for about ten minutes. This got me thinking, If the development of ICT in Africa a soon possibility?
I may say that the e-learning conference was a success in its own way but still there a lot of so many questions that remain an answered on how can e-learning help in access to education in Africa. I am so happy to be one of the learners who attended this conference and I thank Ali and Aleksandra for being such good mentors and advisors throughout the conference.
Viva Learners’ Voice, Viva WISE, Viva Qatar Foundation!
Martha
So Day 2 of E-Learning Conference has come to an end. Today was very interesting and eventful. The morning started with the Opening Plenary Session, which started late again with technical hitches and problems with translation. The theme was: Towards an Inclusive knowledge in Africa; Chaired by the Minister of Higher Education & Scientific Research. The focus of this session was to highlight the importance of the use of ICT to promote and improve access to and transfer of information/knowledge in order to improve development in Africa, especially in the rural areas. This notion was captured throughout the speeches of all four key note speakers who included: Gilletta Gbanhoun Mouyabi, Directpr AGeNTIC, Benin, Theophilus Mlaki, Consultant, ICT for Development (ICT4D), Tanzania, Fasil Bekel, Microsoft Shape the Future and Father Godfrey Nzamujo, Founder, Songhai Regional Centre, Benin.
The presentations did not start as well as they could. There was an initial distraction by an inexperienced interpreter who could not quite effectively translate the speeches from French into English. This created an uproar, which was quickly resolved by the Chairman. The speaker on the floor, Madam Gilletta had to translate her own speech, which was a real challenge. This language barrier is one of our major limitations since it somewhat influences some of the sessions we attend. This is because, in as much as we have interests in certain sessions, our goal is also to maximize our participation. Thus, there really is no point to attend a session in French, where we would not have maximum benefits, only because we may have strong interests in the subject area being discussed.
After the opening session we all attended different sessions; again in attempt to maximize our participation in e-learning 2012. The sessions generally went in two opposites; they were either great or not great, despite the speakers or themes. Some of the themes were even quite misleading as the speakers did not stick to what they were meant to be discussing. My first session was ok, but even got better when I followed up with the speakers at their stand the exhibition centre. It was a presentation/discussion by WYSE Technology on their innovative product; Cloud Computing.
The highlight of my day was during the Networking Café Session with, dubbed getting to know each other at e-learning conference. It gave me the opportunity to meet and interact with other participants and speakers as well as enabled me to talk about WISE and Learners Voice, emphasizing on the relevance of this conference, which is line with our goal of improving access to education through innovation. ICT is also a form of innovation. This was a very interesting and informative session because of the different discussion/interaction opportunities, which enabled me to learn and share information.
My general impressions on Day 2 were good. We had a very fruitful day. The speakers in the opening plenary session did a fantastic job with their presentations. They all touted and gave a broader view of education since they did not only focus on education in the classroom, but looked at the bigger picture. They looked at access to education from the point of view of farmers getting access to knowledge, which helped improve farming practices and hence increase yields and thus profits. Also ICT tools can be used to improve disease prevention by using it as a medium to transfer information to people living in the rural areas and providing educational materials through ICT.
We concluded the day with a much sought after interview with Mr Theophilus Mlaki, an ICT consultant in Tanzania who worked for the Tanzanian government for over 40 years so do watch out for it! We had to embark on a short trip to his hotel too, so this was also an interesting part of the whole experience. So far Ali and Aleksandra have been phenomenal with their support and Martha and I have made a great LV team to so far. We miss Sulaiman very much! I am looking forward to day 3!
It’s past midnight and my bed is calling! I’m out!
Naa
I arrived in Benin Contonou on Tuesday 22 May. I had a good flight only that no meals were served so I arrived very hungry and lunch had already been served! Quel dommage! I was the first to arrive and it felt very lonely. I had dinner alone at the adjacent hotel and went to bed. A very uneventful first day. I must say though that I was really tired and needed to gain my energy for the conference!
Day 1 of the conference was unique a real Benin experience. It was short, highly entertaining and insightful. The opening plenary session itself started at 6pm so I had a chance to spend most parts of my day with Ali and Aleksandra, who make a fantastic team! We spent most parts of the morning dealing with logistics (well mainly Ali and Aleksandra). I became quite bored so I decided to help them out. We had some challenges with Sulaiman because he could not make it unfortunately. We tried to resolve this problem, however it just happened that he could not join us, despite the measures put in place. Ali took me though the program and we prepared for it as we waited for Martha who arrived later that afternoon. We quickly went through the program with her and then attended the opening session. We also received some emails and guidelines from our mentor Tom Cassidy, which was nice and encouraging. The opening session, which started an hour late and ended an hour and thirty minutes late, was attended by high profile personalities including the His Excellency Dr Thomas Bon Yayi, the President of the Republic of Benin. The focus was on the fact that Benin was determined to become Africa’s ICT hub and this would help them greatly improve access to education via ICT. The conference was finally opened by the Minster for communication, who spoke extensively on the importance of ICT use for access to education, using data from research conducted. Other speakers included Mark Jordan, the Vice President/General Manager EMEA, WYSE Technology and Prof Sugata Mitra all advocating the importance of ICT if we want to improve access to education. Aside all the presentations, there were several performances by cultural troupes, which exposed us to the culture of the people of Benin. That was very entertaining! One important quote from Prof. Sugata Mitra, that got me thinking was “can a learner learn to read on his own?” Can you—- try it but in a different language?… It goes to say that education truly is important! I am looking forward to day two! It should be even more exciting!
Naa
So we made it to the e-learning Africa first day of the conference. The conference was good but as they always say “there is no hurry in Africa”, the conference was again late to begin. The good side was, the preliminary session was facilitated by some influential speakers who opened the day to more expectations and more questions as we went on. The focus of the session was basically on how e-learning Africa can enhance development in different sectors of development were by education was the main point of discussion. We faced some problems with the interpretation of some speakers at this session since the interpreter was not that good that we could not understand what he was saying. The key not speakers of this session were; Giletta Gbanhoun Mouyabi the Director AGeNTIC, Benin ,Mr. Theophil E. Mlaki from Tanzania who basically spoke about the use of ICT in building societies in Africa, Fasil G. Bekele from Microsoft who facilitated about shaping the future of Africa.
After the preliminary session we organized ourselves into attending separated sessions so that we could lastly sit together and share the knowledge on what we got from these sessions. I attended about three sessions. The first session was focused on “supporting the practice and professional development of Teachers in Africa” This session brought together three projects that have been explored and used in some of the African countries. Most of these projects focuses on the use of mobile tools to facilitate learning in primary and kindergarten schools. What amazed me more is the introduction of a mobile telephone system of learning to kindergarten pupils!
One of the speakers in this session Carole Suzanne Otteno raised a discussion which I found to be so useful and this was about the applicability and accessibility of these projects into the African context. According to her, most of the project are just theoretical but not practical for they do not really meet the demands of the African context of Access to education. I join hands with her and my point is; most of the African countries are still struggling to get other education materials such as books, uniforms, desks, and classrooms and have not yet been able to afford these things. Now we want to tell them to buy or rather to pay for Blackberry service or a phone that can access internet! How possible is this? I think we as learners should put a close eye on this matter and put it to discussion so that we can come up with critical answers on how we can change and tackle this problem. There are different links that these projects can be found. Some of the useful links are;
The second session I attended was basically focusing on establishing a framework for OCW to expand formal Access to education.OCW (Open Courseware) which means open materials that are shared on the internet and they can be accessed by different people from different parts of the world. The targeted users of OCW are mentioned to be students, faculty teachers, self learners and working professionals. So far the large group of people who are using these materials are the self learners whereby these are people who are not in a certain institution but take their own initiative to learn. What I learned from this is that there still a need to mobilize the learners to take their own initiatives to be involved and adopt these new methods and innovations that are created to assist in access to education throughout the world. Even worse, most of the African countries are still puling themselves behind the adaptation of these new models of learning something that makes the continent way far behind success in education sector. One of the speakers in this session Larry Cooperman named some of the challenges that are facing this mode of online learning. Among the few that he mentioned were technical problems, cultural diversity that a project might not be so useful to all of the countries, and also political barriers.
The third session and final session of the day that I attended together with Ali was focusing on Relevant Teaching Methods for ICT Integration. One of the speakers advocated the method of mentoring students in class. He said that, Mentoring student is an effective method of teaching and has proven success in Africa. That teachers should be given knowledge on the new methods of learning such as e-learning so that they can also impose it on their students. He insisted that, in sub-Saharan Africa, mentoring method has been so successful and hence these counties should reduce or stop dependence on the developed world but rather innovate their own methods of learning that can be useful to their context and change education.
One of the case study given was from one project called Elimika that was done in Kenya. The project involved training teachers to use the internet materials and discussions so that they can also be able to use them in their classrooms. Easter Gacicio from the Kenya Institute of Technology said that, education is not static but is changing hence, the curriculum should also change according to the new needs of education. If the curriculum is outdated, then the negative impact will be seen on the students from their performance in class to their performance in the working places. But again, technology should not replace the teachers but should form an additional resource for both the teacher and learner.
We also had an interview with Mr. Theophil E. Mlaki in the evening. It was a very good interview. He tried to answer all of the questions that we asked him successfully.
In general, the day was good though we had to work very hard to make it interesting and get information from the speakers. The negative side of most of the sessions I attended is that, most of the speakers were focusing on marketing their own projects that they have already done instead of focusing on discussing or bringing up new ideas and new innovations in which more projects can be done or how can the same project be done in other parts of the world to increase e-learning as well as education at large.
Martha
