Africa is the world's second-largest and
second-most-populous continent and is made up of 54 individual countries. Because
of the vast differences in these countries cultures and resources we cannot say
that instructional design or learning are the same across the continent. However,
we recognize that African countries are classified as third-world and are
developing. They do not have the same understanding of instructional technology
that first-world, developed, capitalist, industrial countries take for granted. Trends that were identified included the need to train teachers, update learning pedagogies, and take a broad view of the definition of "instructional technology".
The world is rapidly becoming more complex every day. Visser
entreats us to view the video The History of the World in 7 minutes before
reading his chapter in Reiser’s book.
You can view that video here: http://worldhistoryforusall.sdsu.edu/movies/flash_large.php
I couldn’t help but think about my favorite book, Shantaram by Gregory David
Roberts, where he talks about how the universe is constantly becoming more and
more complex - moving toward the ultimate complexity that man calls “god”. And
if we start talking about the relationship between the ideas of god and
technology this blog post will go off in an entirely different direction.
The point I am trying to make is that we have to think about
instructional design technology in a different context when we think of the
continent of Africa. Visser shares his experiences communicating with a student
in an isolated area via satellite internet connection. This technology was only
there for the student due to an internationally funded grant that was not showing
a return on investment and was offering students sporadic internet
access at best. Even so, the “internet center is the life line to the outside
world” for Africans (p. 230).
So who gets education and access to instruction in Africa?
According to Visser those who are educated are privileged, most often male,
learn in near impossible circumstances, persevere, and have luck. Over 50% of
African citizens do not go to school period (p. 231).
Instructional design technology is not what we think of when
we talk about the rest of the world. Visser cites Everett Rogers (1995)
definition of technology “a design for instrumental action that reduces the
uncertainty in the cause-effect relationships involved in achieving a desired
outcome”, and Visser goes on to point out that nothing in this definition tells
us what kind of instruments are being used (p. 232).
Visser tells us that in Africa, instructional design
technology is all about:
- Training unqualified/underqualified teachers
- Promoting the use of active learning pedagogies
- Promoting “creative collaboration” and hands-on, student-teacher involved learning
- Promoting informal learning opportunities
- Promoting educational best-practices and methods of facilitation
- Acquiring and constructing educational tools and resources (technology) using anything and everything that is available!
Visser’s research spans a time period from the 1980s’ to
around 2010. Visser does mention that things have improved and that there are actually
a large number of colleagues in instructional design technology working in
Africa now whom he collaborates with.
In looking into the current state of instructional
technology in Africa, I came across OER Africa, an organization that has been
in existence since 2008 and lists successes through 2015. Their tag-line is: “Building
African education capacity through openness”. Their mission statement includes the following,
“to respond to a growing urgency to meet the demands of students (and faculty)
for improved pedagogical content and practice…”
The recent work of OER Africa supports Visser’s take on the
needs of educators and instructional technologists in Africa. Education is in demand, Africa
is catching up to the rest of the world (slowly), teachers and instructional
designers must use current learning pedagogy to improve educational outcomes.
OER Africa publishes research and there is an article on
their site that I wanted to mention because it uses a case study where blended
learning is being successfully applied in an African higher education
institution – the University of Mauritius. Mauritius is one of the 54 countries that make up Africa, it is an isolated island,
with no natural resources, and a multi-ethnic, multi-national, multi-religious
population occupying a small space. However, they have infrastructure in place
for there to be internet access. The university has taken advantage of this and
has applied a “combination of e-book approach, rapid e-learning techniques, and
online activity based instructional design to create a high quality learning
environment based on socio-constructivist learning principles” (p. 13). This example shows that where resources, infrastructure, and access to current research is available (universtiy) - instructional design technology is being applied in a way that is more in line with the rest of the world.
Finally, in search of the most recent data I located a
recent news story from the BBC called Is
South Africa’s Education System Really ‘Failing’. The 2016 interview with South
Africa’s Education Minister indicates that education is continuing to not succeed
despite resources that are now available. South Africa spends the most of any
African nation on education, 6% of its GDP, yet 25% of students are failing
grade 12. The statements from this article that stood out to me the most were “teachers
are not trained for the future” and “quality teaching and proper structure of
learning practices are lacking”. Again we see the trend that Visser outlined for us in Reiser's book of a great need for training educators in Africa.
In closing, I would like to share a wonderful resource I
discovered thanks to a colleague. An organization that is working to improve
educational outcomes for Africans, especially in rural communities, called the
Open University of West Africa. This organization, led by John Roberts has come
up with a solution to pre-package educational content into smart phones, with a
pay as you go plan to connect to the internet. This distance education plan
puts current pedagogy and well designed instruction into the hands of rural Africans –
all they have to do is take advantage of it. the You can learn more about this
initiative here: http://unreasonable.is/ouwa-talk/
References:
Nkosi, M. (2016, January 29). Is South Africa’s education
system really ‘in crisis’? Retrieved from
OER Africa. (2016) Retrieved from http://www.oerafrica.org/
Santally, M.I., Rajabalee, Y. & Cooshna-Naik, D (2012). Learning Design
Implementation for Distance e-Learning: Blending Rapid e-Learning Techniques
with Activity-based Pedagogies to Design and Implement a Socio-constructivist
Environment. European Journal of Open,
Distance, and E-Learning. Retrieved from http://www.oerafrica.org/resource/learning-design-implementation-distance-e-learning-blending-rapid-e-learning-techniques
Unreasonable Institute. (2015, September) How MOOCs on Smart
Phones Financially Empower West Africans. Retrieved from http://unreasonable.is/ouwa-talk/
Visser, J. (2012). Developing Learning to
Meet Complex Challenges for an Undivided World. In R.A. Reiser & J.V.
Dempsey (Ed.), Trends and Issues in Instructional Design and Technology, Third
Edition (pp. 229 – 238). Boston, MA: Pearson.
Worlds within the World? (2008- 2016). Retrieved from http://www.nationsonline.org/oneworld/third_world_countries.htm
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