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NairoBits is a project which uses the Internet as a platform for personal expression and cultural exchange. The project is being co-produced by the East African Internet Association in Kenya and Pixel Garden from Holland and Ireland. They are partnered by organisations such as Inter Connect, Kuona Trust Artists, De Digitale Stad and the Africa Server.
The over-arching aims of the project are to promote discussion and explore public perception of Africa and Africans in Europe, and to "pass on the digital tools of expression." This will be done through the NairoBits Website, virtual exchanges between participating groups in Nairobi, Amsterdam and Dublin, and exhibitions in Nairobi and Amsterdam.
The core of the project is a one year interdisciplinary webmaster program for 20 youths from the slums in Nairobi. Assisted by a series of lessons and workshops focused on group projects, the youths will work in a creative environment using games, drawing, photography and slogan collecting to create a Website which gives a picture of their lives and ideas. Phase One, a two-month Webmaster program, will be conducted in Nairobi during February and March, 2000. Phase Two comprises weekly workshops which will conducted by local Internet specialists between April and December, 2000.
More information about the project as it develops may be obtained by subscribing to the newsletter, NairoBits News, or reading it online. And if you have any questions about the project, you can send an e-mail to info@nairobits.org.
TechKnowLogia, January/February 2000
We've featured TechnKnowLogia before, but the range and scope of this fairly new journal is so ambitious and interesting that it deserves wider and continuing readership - or at least a second look. What's more, TechKnowLogia comes free of charge via the Internet, and much of its emphasis concerns applications of information technology and telecommunications in the developing world. These features put it very squarely within the frame of relevance to WAOE's objectives and therefore of WEB's publication policy.
The January/February 2000 issue has been posted on the web. Here are some editorial statements and highlights from the impressive list of contents, selecting at least one sample item from each section that perhaps most closely matches with WAOE members' concerns:
The thematic focus of this Issue is TECHNOLOGY FOR HIGHER EDUCATION. We invite you to visit the site and enjoy the wealth of informative and engaging articles (all 26 of them!) written by top experts in the field of technology and higher education. The Nov/Dec Issue has been moved to the ARCHIVE on our web site, to be searched and read at any time.For your information, we have included below the annotated Table of Contents of the January/February Issue.
We also wish to alert you that the thematic focus of the March/April 2000 Issue will be: ACCESS TO INFORMATION AND KNOWLEDGE.
We hope that TechKnowLogia continues to meet your needs as a source of knowledge and inspiration. To extend the benefits to others, please bring it to the attention of your colleagues, co-workers or anyone whom you think may be interested in this kind of journal.
Sincerely,
Wadi D. Haddad,
Editor-in-chief
President, Knowledge Enterprise, Inc.
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ANNOTATED TABLE OF CONTENTS - TechKnowLogia VOL. 2, ISSUE 1, Jan/Feb 2000 (Selection)
========================================================================EDITORIAL
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1. Higher Education: The Ivory Tower and the Satellite Dish
Wadi D. Haddad, EditorInstitutions of higher education have to make some hard educational, managerial, financial and strategic policy choices. Information technology will help make some of these choices work better.
FRONTLINE
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3. Technologies: A Window for Transforming Higher Education
G. Dhanarajan, President, Commonwealth of LearningThere are three very good reasons to support a re-engineering of the higher education process in today's environment: demand and diversity, technology and capacity and finally quality and transformation.
5. Is Virtual Education for Real? Issues of Quality and Accreditation
Jody K. Olsen, Sr. Vice President, Academy for Educational DevelopmentTechnology and what it opens for learning force reassessment but also gives opportunities for better systems of assuring the quality education that students, faculty, and the community expect.
TECHNOLOGIES AT WORK
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8. University of the Highlands and the Islands: New Paradigm or Exceptional Case?
Richard Hopper and William Saint, World BankThe University of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland could represent a new paradigm in higher education delivery for developing countries where community isolation, program availability, and academic infrastructure remain problematic.
12. University of Phoenix: A New Model for Tertiary Education in Developing Countries
Gregg B. Jackson, Ph.D., Associate Professor and Coordinator, George Washington UniversityThis article examines how the University of Phoenix operates, assesses the quality of education that it provides, and discusses whether it is a model that developing countries should consider for the expansion of tertiary education at little or no cost to the public sector.
[The other 4 articles in this section describe online education/virtual initiatives in non-Western and developing countries - Africa, Hong Kong, Mexico, Korea.]
UNDER OBSERVATION
-----------------14. The Effectiveness Debate: What We Know About the Quality of Distance Learning in the US
Jamie P. Merisotis, President, The Institute for Higher Education Policy, and Jodie K. Olsen, Sr. Vice President, Academy for Educational DevelopmentThe polar views expressed in many policy discussions-that there is "no significant difference" on the one extreme, and that distance learning is inherently inferior on the other-defy reason. The real debate needs to focus on identifying what approaches work best for teaching students, period.
PLANNING FOR TECHNOLOGIES
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16. Costs of ICT Use in Higher Education
Marianne Bakia, Education Specialist, World BankThis article focuses on the costs of different models of teaching with technology in higher education,
bearing in mind that these technologies also support a wide range of other core activities.TECHNOLOGIES TODAY
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20. Higher Education Software SamplerThis article presents examples of software that may be relevant to some of the major players in higher education: students, parents, teachers and university administrators.
21. WorthWhileWebs
Frank Method, Director, Washington Unesco OfficeThis article offers a selection of websites illustrating possibilities for using information technology to improve higher education.
TECHNOLOGIES TOMORROW
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22. Biometrics: We Know Who You Are!What is biometrics, how it works, and why use it?
PROFILES IN DEVELOPMENT
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25. CODECS Brings the Open University to Romania
Adrian Catalin Ionescu, Chairman/CEO, CODECSThe CEO of CODECS tells the story of how the Center has brought to Romania the most flexible and accessible management education, by using The Open University (OU) distance learning system.
It's a bit out of the ordinary for WEB to feature an individual's home page
as a New Link, but Morten
Flate Paulsen has made an oustanding contribution to the development and
promulgation of online education. He is currently the Director of Development
at the NKI Internet College in Norway, and prior to that Doctor of Education,
Department of Adult Education and Instructional Systems, Pennsylvania State
University. Highlights of his work include:
Dr Paulsen's Website provides hyperlinks to all the organisations and initiatives in which he is or has been involved - a handy reference list in itself! - plus an extensive bibliography of his online publications, as well as publications in print (in English). He is a frequently cited authority on various listserves focused on distance learning, computer mediated instruction, and related topics, including the well-established International Forum on Educational Technology and Society (IFETS), from which this particular item is derived.