Why Africa Cannot Afford to Miss the Knowledge Revolution

Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) have brought a true revolution to mankind, comparable only to the industrial revolution, which brought mechanical power generation and mass production to the nineteenth century. In recent decades, the miniaturisation of electronics, the digitisation of information, better compression techniques, optimalisation of power provision and the development of a whole new range of communication technologies including, above all, the Internet, have provided the global citizen of the twenty-first century with tools to create, transmit and consume information regardless of format or location.

Wherever ICT has been adopted, it has had a revolutionising effect on society at large and on all levels of human activity. People now talk to each other using wireless technologies; they use videoconferencing to see and talk with one another at a distance; documents, sounds and images are created digitally, edited without loss of quality and delivered no matter where via a range of technologies. eCommerce allows for worldwide transactions: books, flights and hotels can be ordered from anywhere, services searched, bought and paid for. Electronic Government makes contact and communication between the state and the citizen easier and more efficient. Health care and telemedicine rely increasingly on ICTs for better quality and speedier intervention. ICTs are not a goal in themselves, but they are the means with which human beings manage all aspects of their lives in a better way.

The education sector cannot and will not lag behind in the adoption of ICTs, and it is clear that the educational community worldwide is embracing ICT at an astonishing rate. Governments, administrations and policy makers are enthusiastically adopting ICT to efficiently survey, administer, manage and support education at all levels.

In the global higher education sector, learners and teachers are increasingly exposed to the use of ICTs in a formal educational context: research and education in universities would simply come to a standstill if the ICT plug was pulled. In basic, primary and secondary schools, teachers are increasingly aware of and exposed to new technologies; computers for young people are appearing in classrooms and in homes. There is also a marked increase in the take-up of technology-supported learning in corporate training and lifelong learning initiatives.

In Africa, this process of adoption and diffusion of ICT in education has also moved on from projects and experimentation to integration informed by national policies (within emerging regional frameworks) and large-scale implementation actions, with the potential to provide a basis for sustainable change. There are abundant signals that this is really happening. These include the number of successful Private Public Partnerships (PPPs) in evidence involving private (often ICT-based) companies, government bodies or ministries, educational (and research) institutions, donor and development agencies, and lastly but importantly, civil society organisations. These reflect similar initiatives in other areas, like India. Exchanges between countries, institutions, corporations and governments increasingly result in diverse types of international or intersectoral partnerships as well as in human and physical networks like the National Research and Education Networks, which are taking a pioneering role in establishing a pan-African education community.

The need for locally created (digital) content has become accepted and is driving local and regional initiatives, bringing together communities of educators often in combination with businesses, NGOs and government bodies. Nowhere are the phenonomena of free and open source software as much in evidence as on the Aftican continent, where a strong demand for fair exchange and fair use exists. Africa is leading the world in finding ways to utilise mobile phones, wireless networking, solar energy and reusable energy sources, and this leadership is inspring others beyond Africa. But it is important to be realistic - there is still a long way to go and a lot to learn.

eLearning Africa provides a timely platform to enable Africa’s experts and policy makers to learn from one another and from the rest of the world about where best to invest limited resources wisely. eLearning Africa goes beyond the anecdotal level of local initiatives and projects by bringing together policy makers, education researchers and practitioners as well as the eLearning industry.

Now is the right moment for all who mean well in respect to Africa to be involved and to contribute their best to its development through education. It is increasingly obvious that education can no longer flourish without integrating ICT. As Prime Minister Meles Zenawi of Ethiopia points out: “We recognise that ICT is a vital and essential tool for fighting poverty that kills; ICT helps ensure our survival.”

Investment in the future is crucial at decisive moments like these. Required is investment in the educators and physicians of tomorrow, in the leaders and planners, the administrators and managers, in the researchers and engineers who will help construct a better future, in better farmers and responsible business people. No one can afford to ignore the essential role played by education in levering society as a whole, particularly at difficult moments in our development. Crises represent challenges; the challenge is known, and the challenge is immediate. Africa cannot afford to miss the knowledge revolution.

March 19, 2008

Mathy Vanbuel

Mathy Vanbuel has many years of experience in the production of educational multimedia and the development of technology solutions in the domain of education, training and culture. As a cinematographer, director and head of educational multimedia production of the Audiovisual Services of K.U. Leuven and later as a director/senior consultant with Ecotec Research and Consulting, Brussels he was involved as coordinator or partner in numerous research projects within the European Commission Research Frameworks. Since 1999 he is managing co-director of ATiT, a Belgian SME involved in the integration of appropriate technologies to support teaching and learning in projects worldwide. Within ATiT, he is managing the production of educational multimedia materials and the design and building of ICT-based solutions for training, teaching and learning. He is Professor of eLearning at the InterFaculty (Maastricht). He also works regularly as an expert, consultant and evaluator in the areas of education and ICT for various institutions worldwide (World Bank, UNESCO, DFID, EC and ESA among others) on the implementation and evaluation of education and training projects for development.

Comment this article

Comments

Newsportal: eLearning Supported by Development Partners