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 [...]
Open Educational Resources (OER) are a very popular issue at eLearning Africa. However, do they really play such a positive role in higher education and at other educational institutions across Africa? The eLearning Africa 2011 Debate, traditionally a very lively, parliamentary-style discussion, will address the following motion: “This house believes that the OER movement is [...]
Open Educational Resources (OERs), unveiled at UNESCO’s 2002 Forum on the Impact of Open Courseware for Higher Education in Developing Countries and funded by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation are educational materials and resources offered free and open to anyone and usually free to be re-mixed, improved or redistributed. They can be found on [...]
A group of about thirty teachers from the Copperbelt region in Zambia convened in a workshop last month to receive an introduction to several free eLearning computer programmes. These tools, which included an offline version of Wikipedia, a quiz maker and other helpful programmes, have the potential to enrich the learning experience of teachers and [...]
Since the mid-1980s, a large number of university libraries in Africa, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, have faced reduced budgets. In some cases, they have no funds whatsoever for subscriptions to scientific journals due to competing demands like national infrastructure development, to which governments are giving priority.
The Shuttleworth Foundation is a South African organisation that invests in social, technical and policy innovation in the fields of education and technology. The Foundation works through active partnerships with local and international organisations. The Shuttleworth Foundation was founded upon an open philosophy that includes the promotion of open source, open standards and open information [...]
The Open University has more than 200,000 students registered in its courses. Since its foundation in 1969, the University has pursued a social justice mission to open education to all. OpenLearn, a £5.65 million project, was generously supported by a grant from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation which has been a leading investor in [...]