Learning Resources
This page is regularly updated to share new and exciting sources of knowledge, tools and information on language and literacy in Africa.
60+ Open Courseware Collections to Help You Be a Better Teacher
Many teachers work hard to keep up to date with the latest in educational advancements, curriculum design and general information. Usually, this means taking classes at night or during the summer. With open courseware, however, you can learn about a wide range of topics, from classroom behavior to…
click here to learn more.
Join an On-Line Discussion on Access to OER
UNESCO launches new discussion on Access to Open Educational Resources (OER). Learn more here:
http://www.comminit.com/en/node/284672/ads
New Website Aims to Show an Inspiring Side of African Development: Ushindi
In light of an often negative portrayal of Africa in the media, more and more communities, business- and media analysts, companies and aid organisations, such as the Red Cross, have been making calls for a shift in perspective on the plight of Africa and her people. In response to this challenge, a few Africans in the town of Stellenbosch, South Africa, have come together to take up this challenge by building Ushindi.
Ushindi, meaning ‘victory’ in the Swahili language, is an online showcase of successful African initiatives. The newly developed web portal, which will be launched in early February 2009, was designed to allow NGOs and NPOs to share their success stories with the world in order to emphasize the unlimited potential of Africa and her people. For too long has the world’s perception of Africa been one of a dark continent in turmoil. Though we recognize the challenges still facing many African countries, Ushindi aims to shift the focus to the progress and accomplishments of individuals and organizations who dedicate their time and resources to the empowerment of Africans and the development of the continent. We thus invite you to be a part of Ushindi by sharing your success stories with us and the world! Tell us more about your successful projects by sending us your story and photographs and help shed a positive light on this beautiful continent.
Submission is free and can be done on the site at http://ushindi-africa.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=92&Itemid=1229
UN Launches eLearning Initiative
A new UN eLearning initiative, launched on December 6th in Berlin, will offer developing countries opportunities to draw upon a rich array of training and capacity-building resources. Sixteen UN agencies, meeting at a forum organised by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) during Online Educa Berlin, agreed to establish UNeLearn – a UN-wide network on technology-supported learning to share information and expertise, and to collaborate on the sustained deployment of eLearning.
New Report from Amnesty International: Stolen Childhood, Lost Learning : Safe Schools, Every Girl’s Right
Schools are places for children to learn and grow. But many girls all over the world go to school fearing for their safety, dreading humiliating and violent treatment, simply hoping to get through another day. Schools reflect wider society. The same forms of violence which women suffer throughout their lives – physical, sexual and psychological – are present in the lives of many girls in and around their schools. Every day, girls face being assaulted on their way to school, pushed and hit in school grounds, teased and insulted by their classmates, humiliated by having rumours about them circulated through whisper campaigns, mobile phones or the Internet. Some are threatened with sexual assault by other students, offered higher marks by teachers in exchange for sexual favours, even raped in the staff room. Some are caned or beaten in school in the name of discipline. In countries racked by war, some girls are seized by armed groups, and some are injured or killed on their journey to school or when schools are attacked. Sexual abuse and exploitation are particular problems for girls living in refugee or displaced people’s camps. Violence against girls takes place in and around many educational institutions all over the world. It is inflicted not only by teachers, but also by administrators, other school employees, fellow students and outsiders. The result is that countless girls are kept out of school, drop out of school, or do not fully participate in school. The report is available in English, French, Spanish and Arabic.
SA Writers’ College
Contact admin@sawriterscollege.co.za (a national, online writing school for career training and for creative writing enthusiasts. All courses offer at least five months of one-on-one training under a top South African writer.)
Tel: 021 433-2879; enroll at www.sawriterscollege.co.za
Literacy Software for Bantu languages launched
Contributed by Member: Leila Schroeder (Kenya)
Participants from two Bantu languages in Tanzania have produced literacy primers while testing prototype software during a two-week workshop. The Bantu Literacy Tool, a new computer program, was developed to help Bantu communities design primers. As a result of the workshop, the Vwanji people now have a 40-lesson primer and the Malila people have a 45-lesson primer.
Just published: Educational governance at local levels: policy paper and evaluation guidelines
How can educational governance at local levels enable the empowerment of excluded groups?
Two new publications from UNESCO address this and other related questions. More
- Educational governance at local levels: policy paper and evaluation guidelines (PDF – 667 KB)
- Just published: Educational governance at local levels: policy paper and evaluation guidelines
Just Published – Literacy, Knowledge and Development: this bilingual English – Spanish publication contains the presentations made at the conference of that name held in Mexico City in 2005. The articles concern literacy policies as well as basic education and competence recognition. While Brazil, India, South Africa and Mexico are singled out as “locomotives of development in the field”, information is also provided on programmes in Angola, Mozambique, Namibia, Tanzania, Bangladesh, Thailand, China, Guatemala, Nicaragua and the Arab States as a whole. Published by the UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning, Hamburg, and Mexico’s National Institute for Adult Education (INEA).
http://portal.unesco.org/education/en/ev.php-URL_ID=54718&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html
Literacy.org is a gateway to electronic resources and tools for the national and international youth and adult literacy communities. Check out their collection of publications on Africa:
http://www.literacyonline.org/HTMs/pubs.html
Interested in learning more about the open source movement? Want to better integrate technology into the work of your organization? Check out the Tactical Technology Collective, where the aim is to de-mystify technology for non-profits:
http://tacticaltech.org/
Check out the Communications Initiative, an international development resource depository and network, for a wealth of learning resources from research studies, project evaluations and more on literacy, ICT for Development, education and more. The Communications Initiative is “…a space to share, debate and advance effective communication for development progress”:
http://www.comminit.com
The Practitioner Research and Evaluation Skills Training (PREST) series is published by the Commonwealth of Learning in collaboration with the International Research Foundation for Open Learning. The PREST training resources provide practitioners working in open and distance learning (ODL) with convenient access to basic knowledge on how to conduct research and evaluation in their everyday work. Download PREST materials for free:
http://www.col.org/resources/publications/trainingresources/Pages/PREST.aspx
Stanford University has compiled an extensive list of resources on African Languages / Linguistics
http://www-sul.stanford.edu/africa/lang.html
Opening Access to Education, by sharing high quality courses and training material is now considered as a necessity by major Universities and International Organizations, such as the OECD or UNESCO… Learn more about resources available to you which are free and open on the internet: click here.
New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) e-Schools – Africa
The NEPAD e-Schools Initiative is a multi-country, multi-stakeholder, continental initiative that is designed to impart ICT skills to Africans in primary and secondary schools. The goal is to enable African teachers to use ICTs to improve the provision of education in schools. Led by the NEPAD e-Africa Commission (a NEPAD task team responsible for developing the NEPAD ICT programme and implementing its projects) it aims to reach 600,000 schools across the continent. The NEPAD e-Schools objectives are to:
- provide ICT skills and knowledge to primary and secondary school students that will enable them to function in the emerging information society and knowledge economy;
- make every learner health literate;
- provide teachers with ICT skills to enable them to use these tools to enhance teaching and learning; and
- provide school managers with ICT skills so as to facilitate efficient management and administration in the school.
Contact Samuel Mikenga SMikenga@eafricacommission.org
