In this new knowledge-based society, access to information and knowledge have become essential resource
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14th July, 2009
The African Scholar And The Information Technology
In this new knowledge-based society, access to information and knowledge have become essential resources for development.
As a continent, our future and survival depends upon our willingness to harness the new information and communication technologies.
The information revolution is being driven by the convergence of technological infrastructure such as computers, satellites, wireless networks, and fiber optic technologies.
As a continent, we cannot join the new information revolution without making a meaningful contribution to content development.
Today, most of the current research into ICT has focused on the process as a Western social/cultural/educational constructs, and is being viewed by some as a way to export this worldview to other nations more efficiently and quickly than by other media currently available.
To date, few scholars or technocrats supporting the push for information technology have examined questions regarding the possible effects information gained, via the technology, may have on the culture and traditions of a people.
In most Eurocentric cultures, technological innovations are viewed as progress, which gain for those who follow European cultural values, ever-increasing control over nature in order to secure physical security and comfort.
This “man conquering nature” concept is not a part of traditional African philosophy.
The questioning of technology and its place in education of Africans throughout the Diaspora, has not been sufficiently addressed to give a reasoned argument for or against educational technology’s place in schooling, its effect on the cultural values of students, or probable changes in the hierarchical social systems of those with access to the technology.
Search the Internet and it will become apparent that rather than being a presence on the World Wide Web, the African scholar has minimal presence in this cyberworld, and discussion of the African worldview is negligible at best.
Not only is the African voice nearly silenced, but its face is obscured as well. In terms of scholarship then, it is incumbent upon the African intellectual community to adapt the Internet and WWW to suit the purpose of providing a forum for African scholarship.
The concept of distance learning as a vehicle to promote Eurocentric and Anglo-cultural educational praxis must be met with the balancing agent of African and other non European perspectives.
For the African Scholar, it is the absence of “presence” which must be addressed.
The African intellectual has the responsibility of presenting a platform from which a dialogue may be engaged in order to ensure that issues of importance to Africans throughout the Diaspora are aired and discussed.
In the area of educational scholarship, it is the responsibility of African educational institutions to promote the African worldview.
It is the voice of the African scholar, who is in the struggle for complete eradication of colonialism in Africa, which can appropriate a place in Cyberspace for the African worldview; thereby making the Internet and WWW a powerful tool by which to provide potential economic prosperity, and educational research, as well as to fill in the gaps in the canon of world history to reflect the African perspective.
To be able to make effective use of the opportunities offered by the information age, and to capitalise on the opportunities offered by interactive communications, African educational institutions will have to make a number of choices and deal with a number of challenges; the challenge of experimenting with new educational paradigms; the challenge of incorporating distance education in national educational curricula; the challenge of putting culturally sensitive demonstration projects in place to prepare African educators and students for future technological challenges; and the challenge of putting in place the technology and skillset that will be needed to effectively implement any distance education project in Africa?
Pedagogy and Practice
The African educator has a pivotal role to play in addressing the Internet and World Wide Web’s potential for providing information relevant to provide excellent education opportunities.
The issue of what information and knowledge African people want to provide for themselves, that can be gleaned from the mass of mis-information and mis-education available on the Internet, is one of primary importance.
To make distance learning relevant to Africa’s needs, those impacting the knowledge should be sensitive to the place of African people in world history.
It is essential that the African educational experience and worldview be given a voice through the use of distance education and educational technology.
This medium has the potential to provide a forum for African scholars and educators to address the world community through their writing and research in a way that has yet to be fully explored.
The key to using information technology to enhance the African education system, and future student generations, lies in what Dr. Beverly M. Gordon defines as the role of contemporary Black intellectuals to disseminate liberatory education by using cultural knowledge as a form of discourse.
Writing on the topic “African-American Cultural Knowledge and Liberatory Education: Dilemmas, Problems, and Potentials in a Postmodern American Society” in the “Urban Education”, she cautions:
“The critical issues, however, are the nature of the cultural and historical knowledge included in this process.
Such knowledge can assist Africans to place themselves and their history in the global history of humankind Moreover, this knowledge demonstrated definitively that people can engage in action to change societal structures in ways that result in the improvement of their lives.
These, I believe, are at least some components of an education that is liberatory”.
It is this liberatory education which could be the foundation for the pedagogy of distance learning programs that will be used on the African continent, as well as disseminated throughout the world, by use of the Internet and WWW.
It is this use of distance learning, an interactive use of educational technology by African scholars, where this technology could be beneficial for
As a continent, our future and survival depends upon our willingness to harness the new information and communication technologies.
The information revolution is being driven by the convergence of technological infrastructure such as computers, satellites, wireless networks, and fiber optic technologies.
As a continent, we cannot join the new information revolution without making a meaningful contribution to content development.
Today, most of the current research into ICT has focused on the process as a Western social/cultural/educational constructs, and is being viewed by some as a way to export this worldview to other nations more efficiently and quickly than by other media currently available.
To date, few scholars or technocrats supporting the push for information technology have examined questions regarding the possible effects information gained, via the technology, may have on the culture and traditions of a people.
In most Eurocentric cultures, technological innovations are viewed as progress, which gain for those who follow European cultural values, ever-increasing control over nature in order to secure physical security and comfort.
This “man conquering nature” concept is not a part of traditional African philosophy.
The questioning of technology and its place in education of Africans throughout the Diaspora, has not been sufficiently addressed to give a reasoned argument for or against educational technology’s place in schooling, its effect on the cultural values of students, or probable changes in the hierarchical social systems of those with access to the technology.
Search the Internet and it will become apparent that rather than being a presence on the World Wide Web, the African scholar has minimal presence in this cyberworld, and discussion of the African worldview is negligible at best.
Not only is the African voice nearly silenced, but its face is obscured as well. In terms of scholarship then, it is incumbent upon the African intellectual community to adapt the Internet and WWW to suit the purpose of providing a forum for African scholarship.
The concept of distance learning as a vehicle to promote Eurocentric and Anglo-cultural educational praxis must be met with the balancing agent of African and other non European perspectives.
For the African Scholar, it is the absence of “presence” which must be addressed.
The African intellectual has the responsibility of presenting a platform from which a dialogue may be engaged in order to ensure that issues of importance to Africans throughout the Diaspora are aired and discussed.
In the area of educational scholarship, it is the responsibility of African educational institutions to promote the African worldview.
It is the voice of the African scholar, who is in the struggle for complete eradication of colonialism in Africa, which can appropriate a place in Cyberspace for the African worldview; thereby making the Internet and WWW a powerful tool by which to provide potential economic prosperity, and educational research, as well as to fill in the gaps in the canon of world history to reflect the African perspective.
To be able to make effective use of the opportunities offered by the information age, and to capitalise on the opportunities offered by interactive communications, African educational institutions will have to make a number of choices and deal with a number of challenges; the challenge of experimenting with new educational paradigms; the challenge of incorporating distance education in national educational curricula; the challenge of putting culturally sensitive demonstration projects in place to prepare African educators and students for future technological challenges; and the challenge of putting in place the technology and skillset that will be needed to effectively implement any distance education project in Africa?
Pedagogy and Practice
The African educator has a pivotal role to play in addressing the Internet and World Wide Web’s potential for providing information relevant to provide excellent education opportunities.
The issue of what information and knowledge African people want to provide for themselves, that can be gleaned from the mass of mis-information and mis-education available on the Internet, is one of primary importance.
To make distance learning relevant to Africa’s needs, those impacting the knowledge should be sensitive to the place of African people in world history.
It is essential that the African educational experience and worldview be given a voice through the use of distance education and educational technology.
This medium has the potential to provide a forum for African scholars and educators to address the world community through their writing and research in a way that has yet to be fully explored.
The key to using information technology to enhance the African education system, and future student generations, lies in what Dr. Beverly M. Gordon defines as the role of contemporary Black intellectuals to disseminate liberatory education by using cultural knowledge as a form of discourse.
Writing on the topic “African-American Cultural Knowledge and Liberatory Education: Dilemmas, Problems, and Potentials in a Postmodern American Society” in the “Urban Education”, she cautions:
“The critical issues, however, are the nature of the cultural and historical knowledge included in this process.
Such knowledge can assist Africans to place themselves and their history in the global history of humankind Moreover, this knowledge demonstrated definitively that people can engage in action to change societal structures in ways that result in the improvement of their lives.
These, I believe, are at least some components of an education that is liberatory”.
It is this liberatory education which could be the foundation for the pedagogy of distance learning programs that will be used on the African continent, as well as disseminated throughout the world, by use of the Internet and WWW.
It is this use of distance learning, an interactive use of educational technology by African scholars, where this technology could be beneficial for
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