eLearning Africa 2014

Chair and co-speakers in my session (innovative ways of using Facebook for formal education and for community development)




More information about the conference is available at the conference website

eLearning Africa 2011

Speaking at the plenary session of the eLearning Africa conference on Thursday 26th May 2011, Jenerali Ulimwengu, commenting on the signifcance of technology for development in Africa said, among others, “All learning requires technology and all technology requires learning” and also that "Anybody who says technology is not for us (Africa) is either an idiot or a racist”.

I am a digital immigrant who speaks the language of the natives

Mufuruki is a word used in Uganda, largely among the Bantu, to mean 'immigrant'. This word has become a household word largely due to its recent use by President Y.K. Museveni with reference to immigrants into Bunyoro land, mainly of Bakiga origin. I am told in Lango immigrants are referred to as “Obini” (‘Abini’ in singular).

If it were coined in Uganda today, the phrase "Digital Immigrants" would be "Digital Bafuruki" for Bantu and “Digital Obini” (for the Langi). I do qualify to be referred to as a 'digital Mufuruki' or “Digital Abini”- I am actually a typical one.

"Digital Bafuruki", according to some school of thought, are people who were born and bred in the pre-digital (non-digital) world and have since migrated to settle in the digital world. Unfortunately for these Bafuruki, their former country has been obliterated and however much they are tempted, they have no where to return to - they have to live in the current country, the digital world. The Bafuruki do definitely come with their language and with such a heavy accent that cannot be missed. For them to survive in this new country, they must learn and speak the language of the natives. This reminds me of a report in one of the Kampala Newspapers that President Museveni did advise the Bafuruki in Bunyoro to speak Lunyoro (and abandon their 'former' language?). I believe this advice is very good for the digital Bafuruki.

In any part of Uganda (and I believe other parts of the world) we know Bafuruki by their accent, among others. Likewise, digital Bafuruki are known by their typical accent. If you find the following examples of 'accent' familiar (either in your recent past life or actually current life) then you are probably a digital Mufuruki:

• Your secretary, son, daughter, grand child or younger colleague at work created for you your first e-mail address (and probably helped/helps you check your emails).
  
• You request for your e-mails to be printed (and you scribble your reply on paper for somebody to type or maybe you type it yourself once in a while).
  
• You are a university teacher and you insist on assignments, however small, submitted in hard copy rather than soft copy (even for a small class).
  
• You send an e-mail and follow it up with a phone call to confirm that it did arrive or you call to tell somebody you have received their e-mail and then go ahead to reply it.
  
• You get irritated by the amount of time your children 'waste' chatting on their phones. You cannot even pronounce iPod. "What is this craze about phones, facebook?" you wonder forgetting that these kids have never known the alternative - your country of origin. You are an immigrant to their digital world, just adapt and live there rather than attempt to change it to look like your former country. Sorry, even you yourself cannot go back to 'your country' - it does not exist anymore.
  
• You have never pressed Ctrl+X, Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V, Ctrl+T, Ctrl+S, etc on your computer keyboard. What do they mean anyway? Never mind if you cannot see a button on your keyboard labeled 'Ctrl+V'. You are a Mufuruki. Yes, your accent tells it all.
  
• You and your neighbour wondered why your 21-year-old son in second year in university wants 75,000/= to buy a 'stick'! Moreover he is not disabled and you do not expect a university student to be reduced to a herdsman. You wonder, "in primary school of my days teachers asked us to take brooms to school, these days in university they take sticks! Things have really changed”. Probably not. You have just migrated to a different world.
  
• When the young talk about Second Life, you either think they meant to talk about ‘Second Chance’ or they visited church recently and are talking about life after death.

Now, fellow Bafuruki, I encourage you to heed President Museveni's advice. Simply learn the language of the natives. I could bet that there are many Bakiga immigrants in Bunyoro (Bafuruki) who speak Lunyoro as well or even better than Banyoro. These guys have adapted. Likewise, there are Digital Bafuruki who have adapted well in this 'new land' of the digital natives and do even speak the language fluently. I consider myself in this category.

Considering the demographic structure of our population and the global trends, we have no choice but to plan for a digital-dominated life (current and future). We are actually late as a nation. As a learning process facilitator, standards regulator and budding entrepreneur, operating in the digital world, it is very urgent for me to forget my nonexistent country of birth (and early life) and learn to live in this 'new country'. I must therefore endeavour to continuously follow the cycle of learning, unlearning and relearning to avoid illiteracy in this age that is greatly dominated by the need for “information literacy”. The challenge is heavy upon some of us who are teachers. Today’s students would have loved to be treated differently than what we subject them to (endure). What should we do to arrive at a balance? How can a teacher, born and bred in the land of chalk and blackboard, overhead transparencies, paper-based application forms, no talking in class, be effective and efficient in his/her work in this digital world of Smart Boards, LCD projectors, online application forms, class chat rooms, etc?

Fellow Bafuruki teachers, we simply must change and move with the times. Let us adopt education technologies and integrate them into our teaching to enhance learning (for the natives) in this era. Did you know that a student could now carry their class room (and you the teacher and some of his classmates) to their bed or to the bathroom?

Corporate managers also ought to be aware of the habits of the current generation and create working environments complete with technologies that enhance performance of the digital natives. About 5 years ago, I was amazed at how Fred, a friend of mine who lives and works in London, was managing the affairs of his office from Kampala with a small gadget in the palm of his hand. Phew! Such is the working environment for a digital native.

Bafuruki, I do implore you to endeavor to include words such as these in your vocabulary and practice: e-mail, chat room, blog, wiki, e-portfolio, trading online, search engines, folksonomy, emoticons, social network sites e.g. Facebook, etc.

About the constitutionality of 'ring-fencing' of some positions in the digital world (for the natives), I have no immediate comment. In the meantime, I encourage the Digital Bafuruki to simply adapt and swiftly develop capacity for harmonious and productive coexistence with the Digital Natives – speaking their language (with their accent) is one of the requirements.

Digital Bufuruki must speak the language of the Digital Natives

eLA 2008

'eLA 2008' is the short version of 'eLearning Africa 2008' conference. It was held in Accra, Ghana 29-30 May 2008. I was privileged to participate in it. Just like it happened one year ago in eLA 2007 (in Nairobi), I met new friends, got new ideas, attained new knowledge and got new inspiration. What remains is for me is to use them to improve my life and the life of those around me.

I should soon write specific posts on some of the the people I met, the knowledge I acquired, the things that inspired me. Web 2.0, some amazing technologies and some personalities will definitely be part of the posts. I will not be fair not to talk about the roads in Ghana, the food, the weather and the vehicles.

The trip to Ghana was not uneventful - fuel and a technical fault in the plane are the highlights that stand out. I think it will be fair to write a complete story after experiencing the return leg (I am still in Accra as I write). I am scheduled to leave Accra next week but I am already home sick so I should change my itinerary and get back home sooner. Watch this space for more about eLA 2008 and my first time in Ghana.

Etiquette for Online Outreach

Each one of you reading this blog and many others do online networking. It is important that we do it right in order to obtain optimal results. Liz Ryan provides some etiquette (netiquette) for online networking.

She states that, "Online networking is all the rage, as Internet tools make it easy for us to reach out to almost anyone who has a presence online. Lofty executives, potential clients, and future employers are within easy reach to anyone with a browser and an email account. But it won't do to rush off and start blasting off email messages to strangers -- that's a recipe for being ignored or added to an email blacklist."

Ms Ryan then goes ahead to provide five tips to get you going towards dramatically improving results of your online networking approach in her article, "The savvy networker".

Learning in the digital age: why and how should teachers listen to the digital natives?

As a teacher (or rather a learning process facilitator), I found the article by Marc Prensky (published in 2005), Listen to the natives, very interesting and also challenging. I attempt to give a short review of it here - I hope it encourages the readers of this blog to look for the article and also an earlier one by the same author entitled, Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants.

Prensky describes the current students as 'digital natives' who are quite different from the educators, the majority of whom he describes as 'digital immigrants'. The latter, unlike the former, were not born into the digital world. He states that the current educators have slid into the 21st century (digital age) carrying with them the 'digital immigrant' accent and doing things the old way. The old way of doing things is a language that the 'digital natives' do not quite understand!

Prensky argues therefore that, to be relevant to the students ('digital natives'), the educators of today ought to listen to the students. He proposed some things that should be considered by the educators / teachers.

1-The teachers should shift gears and incorporate students knowledge and information acquired outside class in their digital lives. The teachers should also establish, by asking students, how relevant / applicable / related the information / knowledge gained in class is to the students' (digital) lives. The shift in gears should also include encouraging students to form study groups.

2-Engagement and motivation being true prerequisites for learning (as judged by Prensky), teachers ought to engage students in the (students') 21st century way. Since digital / computer games play an important role in engaging the students, designing digital games for learning would engage students in the learning process.

3-Collaborating with students through involving them in decision-making on issues that affect the learning process goes a long way in providing educators / teachers with solutions or clues to solutions to many of the thorniest education problems. The students therefore ought to be involved in discussion about curriculum, teaching methods, school organisation, discipline and assignments.

4-There is need for some flexibility on the part of teachers for example avoidance of herding (involuntarily assigning students to classes or groups). Instead of herding, adoption and adaption of one-to-one personalised instruction and providing the opportunity for students to self-select during grouping are some of the proposed alternatives.

5-Incorporation and integration of digital tools in the teaching methods / learning process e.g. Cell phones. Cell phones have very many capabilities (with several emerging ones) that can be harnessed to make them appropriate learning tools. Some countries are already using Cell phones as learning tools e.g. UK, China, Japan, Philippines, etc.

6-Since programmability is a characteristic of the digital technology, the approaches and curricula for programming courses ought to be made available to all (students) to learn and use instead of teachers taking matters into their hands i.e. creating and conducting the teaching of programming courses at prescribed times. Besides, the teachers ought to consider involving students in teaching their peers and also involving outside volunteer experts.

7-A shift from "legacy" curricula towards "future" curricula to provide more room to cover subject matter such as nanotechnology, bioethics, genetic medicine, and neuroscience ought to be considered. Involvement of experts in these fields in preparation of content tailored to students' needs and delivered through 21st century tools is essential.

8-There are two halves of students' education institution: the formal 'school' half and the informal 'after school' half. While the former is becoming an increasingly moribund and irrelevant institution, the latter is technology-rich hence expectedly busier and ought to be integrated with life in school. It is sad to note that some of the technologies used by the students 'after school' are not known to many teachers and administrators!

9-Prensky recommends a student survey of technology use. To stress the significance of this, he states, "If we don't stop and listen to the kids we serve, value their opinions, and make major changes on the basis of the valid suggestions they offer, we will be left in the 21st century with school buildings to administer - but with students who are physically or mentally somewhere else."

Prensky, a US-based teacher, shared these thoughts in 2005. I, a Uganda-based teacher, reviewed the article in 2008. I do not know when you are reading it and from where but what I know is that Prensky wrote it based on his US experience. What remains for me and you is to find out whether and how the above thoughts apply / may apply in our environment. Just like I will do, please share your thoughts with us.

Find Prensky's article here.

$100 Laptop (OLPC) Project

I first heard of the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project in an e-learning Africa conference in Nairobi Kenya (end of May 2007). At the time, the project representative seem to suggest, in his captivating presentation, that the laptops would be available only to (through) governments of developing nations. I was among those individuals who thought they had the opportunity of returning home with a beautiful present for the children. We were wrong, none was on offer (going to be offered) to the public.

I am glad to learn through an article on the BBC website that the laptops will now be available to the public. What still puzzles me is that it is, so far, available for purchase by US residents (only)! I am still working out the rationale.