[kictanet] FW: [fyi] infoDev Releases Survey of ICT Use in Education in Africa

[Edith Adera]

>You may find this of interest
>
>FYI
>
>       infoDev Releases 'Survey of ICT Use in Education in Africa'
>       http://www.infodev.org/en/Article.136.html
>
>       (more information below)
>
>Regards,
>  -Mike Trucano, infoDev
>
>
>
>[ http://www.infodev.org/en/Article.136.html ]
>
>====================
>Highlight
>====================
>
>infoDev Releases Survey of ICT Use in Education in Africa
>Results from 53-country research project highlight 'new phase' of 
>activity, from
>pilot projects to government policy development
>
>1 October 2007 | Washington, DC, United States
>
>Landmark research project documents technology use in the education sector all
>53 African countries, identifies new trends and old challenges.
>
>infoDev has released initial results from a landmark Survey of ICT and 
>Education
>in Africa, which seeks to gather together in a single resource the most 
>relevant
>and useful information on ICT in education activities in Africa.
>
>During the first half of 2007, a research team supported by infoDev and
>coordinated by the Commonwealth of Learning (COL) sought to document the major
>developments in each African country related to technology use in education in
>order to create the first consolidated look at this fast-changing sector
>and provide preliminary answers to three broad questions:
>       1. How are ICTs currently being used in the education sector in Africa,
>and what are the strategies and policies related to this use?
>       2. What are the common challenges and constraints faced by African
>countries in this area?
>       3. What is actually happening on the ground, and to what extent are 
> donors
>involved?
>
>infoDev and its partners hope that this publication is a first step in a 
>larger,
>on-going, systematic, coordinated initiative to track developments in 
>technology
>use in the education sector to help inform a wide variety of stakeholders
>interested in the topic as they seek solutions to larger, more fundamental
>educational and development challenges in the years ahead.
>
>====================
>Report Highlights
>====================
>
>The Summary Report from this research initiative notes that "The process of
>adoption and diffusion of ICT in education in Africa is in transition", 
>finding
>that:
>
>    "There appears to be the beginnings of a marked shift from a decade of
>    experimentation in the form of donor-supported, NGO-led, small-scale, 
> pilot
>    projects towards a new phase of systemic integration informed by national
>    government policies and multi-stakeholder-led implementation
>    processes," remarking that "this shift from projects to policies, and the
>    more systematic development that that implies, would not be possible 
> without
>    the growing commitment to ICT in education on the part of government 
> leaders
>    across the continent".
>
>While implementation varies widely throughout the continent, and with a 
>country
>like South Africa, with its extant infrastructure and more mature economy a
>clear outlier in terms of being able to implement its ICT in education agenda,
>the report finds that "all but a handful of countries surveyed already have a
>national ICT policy in place or under development", concluding that a "new 
>phase
>of ICT for education in Africa is occurring within national, and emerging
>regional, policy frameworks that are providing the basis for partnerships and
>donor participation." Over three hundred notable ICT in education 
>initiatives on
>the continent are included in the survey.
>
>========================================
>ICT and Education in Africa:
>  Some notable "macro trends"
>========================================
>
>       *Public-private partnerships* are important mechanisms enabling the
>       implementation of ICT in national education systems in 
> Africa.  These PPPs
>       take many forms: from complex partnerships between companies (Typcially
>       involved in IT), goverment ministries, development agencies, 
> schools and
>       civil society organizations more straight forward bilaterla 
> partnerships
>       between IT companies and national ministries of education.
>       The need for *digital content development* relevant to local 
> curricula is
>       becoming more urgent as ICT use becomes more widespread.
>       Interest in *open source software* and operating systems is growing
>       rapidly in Africa, but this growth is constrained by a lack of 
> sufficient
>       human resource capacity to support such systems and applications.
>       A number of prominent *regional initiatives* have emerged (with varying
>       degrees of success) explicitly focused on ICT use in education, 
> including
>       NEPAD e-Schools, SchoolNet Africa, and the African Virtual University,
>       complemented by increasing African participation in global ICT in
>       education programmes.
>       *National Research and Education Networks (NRENs)* are slowly emerging,
>       especially in North, East and Southern Africa, to enable collaboration
>       between universities.
>       *Internet connectivity* remains a major challenge, both within 
> countries,
>       and between Africa and the rest of the world, and several major
>       initiatives are emerging to help address this issue.
>       *Wireless networks* are developing rapidly throughout the 
> continent, and
>       of increasing relevance to the education sector.
>
>========================================
>Coming Soon: 53 Country Reports
>========================================
>
>infoDev will also be releasing the working versions of 53 individual Country
>Reports developed as a result of this survey process.  These reports should be
>seen as ?snapshots? that were current at the time they were taken during the
>first half of 2007. It is expected that certain facts and figures presented in
>some of the Country Reports may become dated very quickly; ICT use in 
>education
>is at a particularly dynamic stage in Africa, and there are new 
>developments and
>announcements happening on a daily basis somewhere on the continent.
>
>The country reports pay particular attention to the following themes:
>       ICT Policies for Education
>       ICT Infrastructure for Education
>       ICT Activities and Initiatives in Higher Education
>       ICT Activities and Initiatives in Primary and Secondary Schools
>       ICT Activities and Initiatives in Non-formal Education
>       Gender Equity and ICT in Education
>       Factors Enabling and Constraining ICT Use in Education
>
>It is anticipated that these reports will serve as the building block for an
>on-line database (in a wiki format) that will be updated collaboratively over
>time, to be released later in the year. As such, all individual country 
>reports
>are considered to be evolving "works-in-progress".
>
>========================================
>For more information
>========================================
>
>    The full version of the Survey of ICT and Education in Africa: A Summary
>    Report Based on 53 Country Surveys, is available at
>    infodev.org/en/Publication.353.html.
>    The working versions of the Survey of ICT and Education in Africa: 53 
> Country
>    Reports will be available in one consolidated document at
>    infodev.org/en/Publication.354.html. Individual versions of the country
>    reports will appear in wiki format later this year on the infoDev web 
> site.
>    infoDev and COL recently released The NEPAD e-Schools Demonstration 
> Project:
>    A Work in Progress (A Public Report), which highlights lessons learned to
>    date from the pan-African, public-private partnership to introduce ICTs in
>    education and is available for download at
>    infodev.org/en/Publication.355.html
>    infoDev is completing a similar survey of ICT use in education in
>    the Caribbean; background information on this project can be found at
>    infodev.org/ict4edu-Caribbean.
>
>       Survey of ICT and Education in Africa
>       A Summary Report, Based on 53 Country Surveys