eLearning Africa 2007: Taking a Short Glimpse at the Harambee Sessions

At eLearning Africa 2007, informal and diverse group arrangements added obvious value for attendees by engendering new perspectives and ideas. The Harambee session “Using eLearning to Support the Teaching of Mathematics in African Schools and Colleges” is a good example because it brought together representatives of several branches of the education sector: one participant was from a secondary school, another from a science centre for secondary schools, three from universities, one from a community college, and two from the private sector. In terms of geographic diversity, the two private-sector participants and two of the university dons were from Nigeria, the school teacher from Uganda, and the science centre participant from South Africa. The community college participant was from the United States, and the third university staff person was from South Africa.

All attendees agreed that using eLearning to teach and learn mathematics presented an attractive opportunity for national and international collaboration. It was pointed out that national and Continental collaboration could foster curriculum review, provide opportunities for adopting uniform curricula, aid in creating opportunities to bridge the African mathematics gender divide, and produce content that supports the mentoring of the next generation of African mathematicians by African mathematicians. The discussions highlighted the need for public-private partnerships and branding, shortcomings of national policies and curricula, and the need to foster change through mathematics associations. Other matters discussed included the necessity to market success stories about African mathematicians and possible careers for mathematics degree holders.

The participants from both the private and the educational sectors were interested in using eLearning to improve students’ and teachers’ education and to tackle the shortage of mathematics teachers at the school level. They proposed national solutions that have the potential to go Continental with time. Moreover, they were interested in the production of digital practice materials and tests for mathematics in national examinations and a review of curricula for the teaching and learning of linguistics.

Len Liverpool, Professor of Mathematics and University ICT Coordinator at the University of Jos, Nigeria, observed, “Our discussions were quite informal and interactive. As for the Harambee format, we found it a fascinating and informal experience, although it became clear that participants had had very different perceptions of what the session was to be like before it was held.” At his department at Jos, Len Liverpool has been looking for constant betterment of lecturing via ICT. In order to improve students’ performance, the department has digitized lecture notes for several courses, and the use of other eLearning devices is fostered, too. In order to help the Harambee participants follow-up on the ideas generated at the session, he offered them to make use of his university’s Internet platform, named unijos KEWL nextgen site.

Professor Liverpool reported, “Our Harambee group endeavors to deliver and teach our parts of the modules remotely. Therefore, we should have all members of these Harambee networking group as tutors; we already have a line up of remote students across different African countries. This is a great way to maintain the community of practice that we established at eLearning Africa in Nairobi.”

Link
University of Jos
Mail to mathematics-harambee@unijos.edu.ng

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