ACDE PAPERS IN BOOK FORM 1.pdf - National Open University of ...

anglophones et francophones, même en Afrique. Par exemple, j'ai reçu un courriel la
semaine dernière du Professeur Jibril Touzi, un Camerounais qui disait que la notion de
ressources éducatives libres n'entre pas dans la psychologie universitaire francophone.
Your first conference had the theme The Mobilisation of African Leadership and I gave a
speech entitled Open and Distance Education for Africans and by Africans. It was prepared
with my South African colleague Vis Naidoo, who later returned home to run the Mindset
organisation. He is now working for Microsoft.
I have prepared this speech with Vis' successor at COL, Dr Wayne Mackintosh, who is also a
native of South Africa but is unlikely ever to work for Microsoft because he is rooted in the
open source culture. COL favours a diversity of approaches and attitudes among its staff.
Your theme at this conference is Open and Distance Learning for Sustainable Development.
This time we have taken the title eLearning on the Far Side of the Digital Divide.
Our plan is to explore briefly the notion of the digital divide and argue that we cannot wait
for it to be bridged before bringing some of the benefits of information and communications
technology to those on the far side who are not now connected to the global internet. We
shall then explore what is meant by eLearning and suggest that it can make an important
contribution to reducing educational deprivation.
With that as background we shall then look at the practicalities of eLearning on the far side
of the digital divide and address four obstacles in particular: connectivity, equipment,
software and the training of people. In all this we shall draw on the experience of COL.
Members of ACDE are in the forefront of the attack on the digital divide. We hope that our
own experience and reflections can help you overcome some of the obstacles that face you.
The Digital Divide
First then, let us reflect on the digital divide. The French term is fracture numérique,
which sounds more dramatic.
The expression 'digital divide' appeared in the 1990s to refer to the lack of access to
information and communications technologies (ICTs) by segments of the community. A first
point is that digital divides run within countries as well as between them. Some people in
the USA don't have good access to ICTs whereas here in Africa I imagine that most ACDE
members are pretty well connected, even if that is not true of most of your compatriots.
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