Week 7 - Africa eLearning

The first thing i noticed on the eLearning Africa website was the news article on 'cholera'. Basically it stated that many schools in Zambia have to remain closed until the outbreak of cholera has been calmed. The alternative for education, that Prof Sinkala has provided is technology 'Pupils would not have to miss their lessons as they would access their teachers’ lessons through either an Internet cafe or from home or any convenient place arranged for that matter,". You could question whether this would still leave many people at a disadvantage because of a potential digital divide, who really has access to these computers and the technology, who can afford them? John Zulu, a grade 12 student counter argues this by suggesting that these gadgets are 'more affordable' and how it might 'be easier for all students to access these eLearning programmes on the radio, which was an ICT product that was found in almost every home, including rural households'. Then again this is a student thats saying this, there's no real statistical evidence to suggest that this is true.

Nevertheless, the fact that these children can't go to school anyway, would make elearning a potential option in the mean time. As schools aren't shut down just because of cholera, but if theirs strikes, bad weather and politcal unrest too.