Conference Themes

AFRICAN DIGITAL DIARIES SPEAKS TO THE FOLLOWING SECTION OF THE CONFERENCE AGENDA

A: CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORKS

What are the mental/conceptual models or theoretical frameworks that underpin our policies and practice as we engage in learning with technologies? Some have argued that much of our practice lacks a sufficient theoretical basis. If this is the case, then more research, analysis and discussion are needed on conceptual frameworks. Priorities include:

A 1. Learning and Pedagogy

In the past, there has, perhaps, been too little discussion about our understanding of what learning is, how children learn, how adults learn and the relationship between the new technologies and how they enable learning, particularly in an African context. We welcome insights from a range of perspectives on this theme.

A 1.3. Learning with Technologies: PC Labs to Mobile Phones
What is our concept of the learning process and how does technology relate to it, both inside and outside the classroom? How should we use new devices for learning? Should today’s learning be self-directed or facilitated?

A 1.4. Learning among Africa’s Generation Y
Youth and identity feature largely in the learning with technologies space. What is the experience of African youth? Here we welcome insights from young Africans.


AFRICAN DIGITAL DIARIES ENGAGES WITH THE THEORY AND CONCEPTUAL CONSTRUCTION OF THE ICT/DEVELOPMENT AREA IN THE FOLLOWING WAYS

Existing theory: technology deficit

Discussion and analysis of ICT use in developing contexts concentrates on deficits, gaps  and barriers to access – an understandable emphasis perhaps in the context of the Millennium Goals and the goals of major players such as InfoDev; with papers typically entitled “A needs assessment ad gap analysis for Africa” (Infodev working paper 16  link).

The 2008 UNESCO Survey of E-learning in Africa has moved this from a purely technological  to a sociological analysis by pointing out  “that it might not so much be the ‘hard’ infrastructural constraints that are holding back the expansion of e-learning in Africa, but rather the ‘softer’ dimensions of management, training, and the development of appropriate levels of expertise in e-learning design that are the most important factors that require attention” (Tim Unwin, UNESCO, 2008 (link here))


Supporting the E-learning debate

This session engages with the theoretical basis for the analysis of ICT in e-learning in Africa, by focussing on the psychological and social dimensions of a range of contemporary successful engagements with ICT.  We will pick up from John Traxler’s promise for the E-learning Africa 2010 E-learning debate, which (Traxler says)

“will continue to present inspiring and exciting projects and initiatives, including a slowly growing proportion of those with mobile and personal technologies. The coming debate must look beyond technology and even beyond learning”

and our workshop will expand this conference theme with stories and examples that resonate beyond the study of both technology and learning.

We also engage with this body of theory by taking a deliberately up-beat stance, and focussing on stories where there has been success and achievement 


Theory and evidence

We will build on the seminal study Digital Literacies: Policy, Pedagogy and Research Considerations for Education by Colin Lankshear and Michele Knobel (Opening Plenary Address to ITU Conference Oslo, Norway, 2005) (link) in which the authors established an empirical basis for describing literacies based on detailed observation of ICT engagement in its full social context.

The prevailing methodology for understanding African ICT issues is also challenged in our workshop. Inspired by recent radical interventions in public policy delivery (examples here), we want the voice to be heard of African ICT users themselves and not the consultants and report-writers who feed off their predicaments.  We believe that the time and the technology is ripe to put African voices forward to tell their own stories in contemporary digital formats.