Partnership in Higher Education in Africa: Communications Implications beyond the 2000s

2003 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 577-610 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacques Habib Sy

AbstractTo date, the possibilities for African countries to use information and communication technologies to respond to the challenges and the demand of higher education have been limited. An assessment and analysis of the development, state, and usage of telecommunications in Africa constitute in fact an indication of Africa's overall marginalization in the global system. Communication technologies do not operate independently of the global economic system, which is characterized by structural inequality. Various initiatives devised by governments and development agencies to address the effective and productive integration of telecommunications technology into the educational system have been hindered by the contextual and structural impediments to harnessing and fulfilling their promise, especially for higher education. The paper explores innovative and multi-stakeholder partnership strategies to enhance the development and relevance of new telecommunications technologies to the African education system, especially higher education, for long-term and rooted socioeconomic development.

2010 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 24-41
Author(s):  
Jennifer Sappey ◽  
◽  
Stephen Relf ◽  

This paper explores the interface between digital technologies and the teaching labour process in Australian higher education. We develop an adaptation of the seminal Clark (1983, 1994, 2001) and Kozma (1991, 1994) debate about whether technology merely delivers educational content unchanged – technology as the ‘delivery truck’ – or whether education is changed as a result of using different technologies – education as ‘groceries’. Our adaptation is an extension of this metaphor to include the academic teacher as the driver of the grocery truck. With the implementation of new educational technologies, the human resource management aspects of job design, motivation, skilling and work identity are often overlooked, with critical debate about the impact on the teaching labour process seldom considered. In this argument, we will unpack the Clark-Kozma dichotomy of the education/technology interface by looking beyond the embedding of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in Australian higher education to examine more broadly the changes to the traditional academic role as the creator, developer and delivery agent of the educational groceries. This has been reinforced by the marketisation of the sector and the concomitant reconfiguration of the traditional teaching process. All this has led to changes in the sense of work identity for academics (McShane, 2006). While we embrace ICT as a potential benefit for both students and academic teachers, we seek to ensure that the ‘truck driver’s’ evolving role is acknowledged in scholarly debates and included in models of learning and teaching if long-term sustainable work practices are to be achieved. One such model is offered.


2012 ◽  
pp. 396-413
Author(s):  
Emmanuel C. Alozie

This study explores Nigeria’s e-agriculture policies and those of other African governments. It also proposes what e-agricultural strategies these governments could adopt to enhance their agricultural output by examining the history of agriculture in Nigeria; the current status of Nigerian information and communication technologies and e-government policies with emphasis on agriculture. The analysis addresses the role of communications as instrument of national development. In view of the economic status of African countries, the study calls on Nigeria and other African governments to adopt a cautious approach as they embark on e-agriculture policies and acquisition of information and communication technologies to promote national development. The study calls on African governments to liberalize their agricultural policies, establish agricultural cooperatives, educate rural famers and offer telecommunication services in the rural areas if they hope to raise their agricultural productivity.


Author(s):  
Emmanuel C. Alozie

This study explores Nigeria’s e-agriculture policies and those of other African governments. It also proposes what e-agricultural strategies these governments could adopt to enhance their agricultural output by examining the history of agriculture in Nigeria; the current status of Nigerian information and communication technologies and e-government policies with emphasis on agriculture. The analysis addresses the role of communications as instrument of national development. In view of the economic status of African countries, the study calls on Nigeria and other African governments to adopt a cautious approach as they embark on e-agriculture policies and acquisition of information and communication technologies to promote national development. The study calls on African governments to liberalize their agricultural policies, establish agricultural cooperatives, educate rural famers and offer telecommunication services in the rural areas if they hope to raise their agricultural productivity.


10.28945/2679 ◽  
2003 ◽  
Author(s):  
ME Herselman ◽  
HR Hay

Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) are the major driving forces of globalised and knowledge-based societies of a new world era. They will have a profound impact on teaching and learning for two decades to come. The revolutionary change which is taking place in Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), has dramatic effects on the way universities carry out their functions of teaching, learning and research, particularly on the creation, dissemination and application of knowledge. These developments pose unprecedented challenges to higher education institutions (HEIs) in developing countries particular in South Africa as South Africa is viewed as the leading country on the continent.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (11) ◽  
pp. 6363
Author(s):  
Johanna Andrea Espinosa-Navarro ◽  
Manuel Vaquero-Abellán ◽  
Alberto-Jesús Perea-Moreno ◽  
Gerardo Pedrós-Pérez ◽  
Pilar Aparicio-Martínez ◽  
...  

Information and communication technologies (ICTs) are key to create sustainable higher education institutions (HEIs). Most researchers focused on the students’ perspective, especially during the online teaching caused by COVID-19; however, university teachers are often forgotten, having their opinion missing. This study’s objective was to determine the factors that contribute to the inclusion of ICTs. The research based on a comparative study through an online qualitative survey focused on the inclusion and use of ICTs in two HEIs and two different moments (pre-and post-lockdowns). There were differences regarding country and working experience (p < 0.001), being linked to the ICTs use, evaluation of obstacles, and the role given to ICTs (p < 0.05). The COVID-19 caused modifications of the teachers’ perspectives, including an improvement of the opinion of older teachers regarding the essentialness of ICTs in the teaching process (p < 0.001) and worsening their perception about their ICTs skill (p < 0.05). Additionally, an initial model focused only on the university teachers and their use of ICTs has been proposed. In conclusion, the less experienced university teachers used more ICTs, identified more greatly the problematic factors, and considered more important the ICTs, with the perception of all teachers modified by COVID-19.


2012 ◽  
Vol 02 (04) ◽  
pp. 20-25
Author(s):  
Anantha Raj A. Arokiasamy

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the integration of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in higher education for imparting easily accessible, affordable and quality higher education leading to the uplift of Malaysia. The focus of the paper is on the benefits that ICT integration in education can provide, right from breaking time and distance barriers to facilitating collaboration and knowledge sharing among geographically distributed students. ICT increases the flexibility of delivery of education so that learners can access knowledge anytime and anywhere. It can influence the way students are taught and how they learn as now the processes are learner driven and not by teachers. This in turn would better prepare the learners for lifelong learning as well as to contribute to the industry. We will also analyze if ICT does indeed improve or hinder the quality of learning among higher education students. This paper reports on the changing trends in use of ICTs for instruction in higher education institutions (HEIs) and discusses a mini-case study of how ICTs are being used by lecturers in one university in Malaysia.


2016 ◽  
Vol 55 (06) ◽  
pp. 481-487 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefanie Kuballa ◽  
Mareike Schulze ◽  
Claudia Böhm ◽  
Olaf Gefeller ◽  
Jan Haaf ◽  
...  

SummaryBackground: Based on today‘s information and communication technologies the open access paradigm has become an important approach for adequately communicating new scientific knowledge.Objectives: Summarizing the present situa -tion for journal transformation. Presenting criteria for adequate transformation as well as a specific approach for it. Describing our exemplary implementation of such a journal transformation.Methods: Studying the respective literature as well as discussing this topic in various discussion groups and meetings (primarily of editors and publishers, but also of authors and readers), with long term experience as editors and /or publishers of scientific publications as prerequisite.Results: There is a clear will, particularly of political and funding organizations, towards open access publishing. In spite of this, there is still a large amount of scientific knowl edge, being communicated through subscription-based journals. For successfully transforming such journals into open access, sixteen criteria for a goal-oriented, stepwise, sustainable, and fair transformation are suggested. The Tandem Model as transformation approach is introduced. Our exemplary implementation is done in the Trans-O-MIM project. It is exploring strategies, models and evaluation metrics for journal transforma tion. As instance the journal Methods of Information in Medicine will apply the Tandem Model from 2017 onwards.Conclusions: Within Trans-O-MIM we will reach at least nine of the sixteen criteria for adequate transformation. It was positive to implement Trans-O-MIM as international research project. After first steps for transforming Methods have successfully been made, challenges will remain, among others, in identifying appropriate incentives for open access publishing in order to support its transformation.


2019 ◽  
pp. 18-22
Author(s):  
I. V. Abramova

The article is devoted to the methodological problem of the use of information and communication technologies in the system of higher education. The formation of new models of educational activities with the wide use of information and communication technologies is the main component of the modernization of education. In addition, modern higher education is faced with the task of training students in accordance with federal state educational standards. The task requires the search for new technologies for the organization of educational activities. One of these technologies is the WebQuest technology, which can be aimed at solving the problem of effective professional training of students. As a solution to this problem, didactic possibilities and conditions for using the WebQuest technology have been identified and described.


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