Dataflow Learning

New report from the Internet Society says that 26% of Africa's population has access to the Internet. Three-quarters do not. The barriers to expanding access are significant. Our experience is that any presentation of education solutions in Africa often needs to include proposals to address last-mile (last 25 km's in the case of Africa) connectivity, power, security, housing / facilities, and more that makes the education challenge in Africa much greater than anywhere else in the world.

For those that do have access, the benefits should include opportunities for education that otherwise may not exist. It should provide a solution for the tens of millions that aspire to tertiary education who today cannot get admission into a university. Freely available open education resources and MOOC platforms should offer an answer, but the reality is that access does not equal attainment. Teaching, guidance, support, a curriculum, well defined goals, are all factors that engage and motivate students through to completion. Quality is also essential: content, teaching, credentials, and so much more. As this report illustrates, implicitly in some cases, increased Internet access is a positive, but hardly scrapes the surface in terms of what needs to happen before African students can hope to have the quality and breadth of educational opportunities available to much of the world.

https://www.internetsociety.org/doc/internet-education-africa-sdg4

Internet for Education in Africa: Helping Policy Makers to Meet the Global Education Agenda Sustainable Development Goal 4 | Internet Society This report reviews the potential implications of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in general, and the Internet in particular, for education in Africa. The Internet is a crosscutting enabler for education. It provides unparalleled access to information, and facilitates connections t...

Teachers as Digital Content Authors in the Developing World

What are the teaching tools available in a typical classroom in the developing world? Many of the headlines would have you believe that tablets are going to be in the hands of every student very soon. With that, the assumption is that every teacher is becoming well-versed in a blended learning pedagogy that makes effective use of technology in the classroom environment. Of course, in most cases, that is very far from the reality. Despite numerous efforts in many countries to introduce and integrate technology in a meaningful way, blackboards and textbooks remain the norm for the vast majority.

http://www.dataflowlearning.com/news/may2016/

Dataflow Learning is hoping to address some of the issues. The Dataflow Learning etextbook platform is getting attention in many parts of the world for many reasons. The one we are most proud of however is the ability for the teacher to become an etextbook author as they supplement textbook content with their own, integrated directly into the digital pages. “For education to be its most effective content needs to be relevant to the students. Content created locally, by the teacher, with the participation of students, could not get much more relevant,” explains David Mulville, Dataflow’s Chairman. “Many textbooks in subjects such as science will ask students to make and record observations on a topic. Those are historically done with pencil and paper. What we’re allowing teachers to do is use digital media (video, images, animation, audio and text) to create their own activities, exercises, tutorials, quizzes and assessments. An example we often use is in the study of pollution. Students can observe this themselves, in their own environment. The teacher can easily author lessons that capture her own student’s experiences. That is powerful.”

Dataflow recognizes that this type of usage will not happen overnight, especially in the many emerging markets that they work in, such as Africa and the Middle East. A common outcome with many technology initiatives in these markets is criticism, bemoaning the fact that adoptions are problematic and results disappointing.

Effective technology projects have many key ingredients, not least of which is training. In developing countries access to PCs and tablets is often limited, including for teachers, so their familiarity with technology, even as casual users, is not as well developed as in other countries. Professional development programs must focus on the basics before teachers can be trained to manage lessons where technology is a core component. Professional development is crucial, but building solutions based on familiar resources, like textbooks, with digital layouts that mirror the print editions, helps to lower some of the barriers. “Consider Africa”, suggests Angela Ney, Founder of Teachers Media International. “Textbooks are the only curriculum resource that most teachers have ever used in class. So creating a common thread, from print editions to digital editions is logical.” This is something that Dataflow Learning embraces in our etextbook platform, but then goes much further.

In order to be effective etextbooks must offer features that support exploration and discovery, and promote engagement. “In Africa we have seen much ‘innovation’ in the form of ebooks”, says Ben Raletsatsi, CEO and Founder of FutureSustain International in Botswana. “The problem is that often these educational ebooks are developed outside Africa, with only cursory attention to local curriculum, culture and life experiences. There is also the misnomer that adding video and audio, bookmarks and search, makes an ebook interactive when in fact it is basic functionality that doesn’t qualify as interactive. A student can’t explore. Pushing Play and passively watching and listening has value, but alone is not fully engaging for the student.”

Having been involved in leading development of interactive digital curriculum for more than two decades in markets like the U.S. and Europe, Dataflow Learning’s team understands that technology alone is never the answer in education. “All too often we see technology companies launch ebook platforms for education that demonstrate a clear lack of experience in working in classrooms with teachers and students”, says David Mulville. There are stages you need to go through in order to shepherd the teacher and give them the confidence to explore the technology. An effective process in Africa is different to the process in Saudi Arabia, and different to that of the U.S. You can’t drop a solution designed for the U.S., U.K. or France into Africa, even if you dress it up with some local content.” Dataflow’s etextbook solution starts with familiarity, emphasizes professional development, but encourages growth. Partnering with local content publishers, such as HEBN in Nigeria, teachers become familiar with the technology and then explore navigation and interaction in layouts that they have worked with in the printed form. They begin to explore enhanced content as they develop lesson plans that combine traditional and digital tools and pedagogy. And over time teachers start to supplement with their own content, such as simple quizzes, that can ultimately lead to entire lessons designed fully by the teacher using media that they have chosen themselves. The end result is a unique digital textbook that combines the best in local educational curriculum design with teacher insights that reflect the needs of the students. The fact that local teachers can lead this themselves is empowering, especially as the teaching and learning possibilities are infinite.

Dataflow Learning

Just finished three days at Innovation Africa 2015. Inspiring!
http://m.mgafrica.com/article/2015-10-02-head-start-from-behind-tech-in-african-schools #.Vg7BTSNUrCQ

'Head start from behind': Global tech companies scramble to get a piece of Africa's digital... 'Head start from behind': Global tech companies scramble to get a piece of Africa's digital learning pie