ICT4D Partnership for African Higher Education Institutions

The ICT4D Partnership for African Higher Education Institutions combines the strengths and expertise of the following institutions:

• University of Education Winneba (Ghana),
• Universidade Eduardo Mondlane (Mozambique),
• Maseno University (Kenya),
• Université Cheikh Anta Diop (Sénégal)
• UNESCO Chair in ICT4D at Royal Holloway, University of London (UK).

Funding for the partnership's initial activities has generously made available by the UK's Development Partnerships for Higher Education programme. We welcome any additional partners, and all enquiries about involvement in our work should be directed to tim(dot)unwin(at)rhul(dot)ac(dot)uk.

The Partnership's Moodle environment
provides a wealth of resources relating to the use of ICT4D in African universities, including discussion forums, blogs, wikis, free content and other useful information.

About the Collective in your own language:

Aims and Objectives

The partnership's objectives are:

• to establish a sustainable African HEI ICT4D partnership network
• to initiate collaborative research within the network on various aspects of ICT4D related to the MDGs and relevant PRSPs
• to provide equality of opportunities for members within the partnership to gain professional development expertise in ICT4D
• to initiate ICT4D courses and programmes in partner institutions
• to mainstream Gender in ICT4D

Recent Activities

Workshop at Université Cheikh Anta Diop, Dakar, 31st May - 1st June 2009.
Colleagues in Computer Science at UCAD, hosted a two day workshop which included the following activities

• a celebration of the research achievements of our DelPHE funded ICT4D Partnership for African Higher Education Institutions
• developed closer collaborative links across our Edulink funded partnership of European and African HEIs working in ICT4D, which commenced in 2008 building on our DelPHE work
• training in use of our elgg environment
• discussions of future research collaboration
• an example of story-telling from Ghana

Workshops at e-Learning Africa, 27th May 2009.
Our partnership convened two workshops at e-Learning Africa in Dakar:David Hollow and John Traxler convened a workshop on effective evaluation; and Tim Unwin, Geraldine de Bastion, Ugo Vallauri and Clint Rogers convened a workshop on story-telling

Workshops on ICT4D and teacher training at the Universidade Eduardo Mondlane and the Universidade Pedagógica, Maputo, Mozambique, May 2009.
Colleagues from the UK, Finland, Kenya and Ghana were hosted by the Universidade Eduardo Mondlane from 14th-18th May 2009, and undertook the following activities:

• two-day workshop on ICTs and teacher training
• practical training in the Edulink funded elgg environment
• planning for events at e-Learning Africa
• monitoring of progress and activities to date
• identification of future research priorities

Workshops on ICT4D at the University of Education, Winneba, and e-Learning Africa, May 2008.
Colleagues from Kenya, Mozambique and the UK were hosted by the University of Education, Winneba from 24th-27th May for the following activities:

• Conference on ICT4D, including keynote addresses by Tim Unwin, James Williams and Mary McPalm
• Workshop on WikiEducator, led by Kafui Prebbie
• Local radio chat show on ICT4D with James Williams, Xavier Muianga and Tim Unwin
• Visit to Cape Coast Castle and Kakum National Park
• Research discussions on partnerships in ICT4D

These activities were followed by involvement of various members of the partnership in events at the 3rd e-Learning Africa conference held in Accra, including:

• Workshop on Monitoring and Evaluation of ICT for Education initiatives in Africa, led by David Hollow
• Workshop on Crafting Multi-Stakeholder Partnerships for Education, co-hosted with the World Economic Forum and UNESCO's Partnerships for Education initiative, and led by Tim Unwin

Research visit to the ICT4D Collective, UK, 2nd-9th December 2007.
Nine colleagues from Ghana, Kenya and Mozambique visited from 2nd to 9th December (Report) to participate in DelPHE funded activities, including:

• Workshop at the London Knowledge Lab to explore mutual research synergies, especially relating to the VeSel project and ongoing research on ICT4D in Africa
• Seminar on contemporary issues in African higher education held at the Centre for Developing Areas Research
• Research planning meeting that agreed on a joint initiative exploring the role of multi-stakeholder ICT4D partnerships in our partner countries
• Workshop on distance learning in Africa at the Centre for Distance Education
• Dinner hosted by the eWorldwide Group
• Workshop on mobile technologies organised by the Collective and led by John Traxler and Jon Gregson
  • Leonard Mware Oloo's presentation on use of SMS for teacher training in Kenya (wma audio file)
• Workshop on information services and online resources by Adrian Machiraju
• Workshop on IT strategies in HEIs led by Laura Gibbs and Mike Roch

Workshop in Kisumu and visit to Maseno Univeristy, 31st May-1st June 2007.
This workshop and field visit were designed to enable teachers and lecturers to meet with colleagues from other countries working in the field of ICT4D to discuss aspects of ICT4D. Speakers included:

• Hon. Dr. Noah Wekesa (Minister for Science and Technology, Kenya)
• Prof. Frederick N. Onyango (Vice Chancellor, Maseno University)
• Prof. Dominic Makawiti (DVC Maseno University)
• Prof James Williams (University of Education Winneba, Ghana)
• Dr. Robert Kozma (SRI International, USA)
• Prof. Dr. Takasi Sakamoto (Japan Association for Promotion of Educational Technology)
• Jon Gregson (Imperial College, Wye, London, UK)
• Anna Stockman (Blekinge Institute of Technology, Sweden)
• Prof. Tim Unwin (Royal Holloway, University of London, UK)

The workshops were followed by a visit to Maseno University and to the Ugunja Community Resource Centre)

Workshops at eLearning Africa, Nairobi, 28th May 2007.
The partnership convened two workshops at eLearning Africa, one introducing the partnership and its proposed activities, the other focusing on monitoring and evaluating ICT for education activities in Africa (workshop report).

Research planning meeting in Nairobi, 26th-27th May 2007.
This meeting was convened to discuss key areas of future research and teaching collaboration. Topics discussed included:

• lack of appropriate content and library resources
• importance of university intranets
• need for sharing of information about university ICT strategies
• appropriate learning management systems
• the potential of mobile learning
• identifying appropriate ICT training schemes
• Intellectual Property Rights
  

Initiation meeting and workshops, University of Education, Winneba, 5th-9th February 2007.
This meeting developed the framework for implementing the partnership, and identified four main areas of possible research:

• ICT strategies to address the problem of massification in African universities
• e-Readiness and impact assessment of ICT4D in partner institutions
• Involvement of the private sector in ICT4D in member countries
• Impact of refurbished computers in education

Working Papers

• Xavier Muianga, Feliciana Eduardo and Inocente Mutimucuio (2009) The involvement of the private sectior in ICT4D (Public-Private Partnership in ICT4D): the case of Mozambique
• Leonard Mware Oloo (2009) Baseline survey report for ICT in secondary schools in selected parts of Kenya
• Leonard Mware Oloo (2009) The role of civil society, private sector and public-private partnerships in ICT4D
• Tim Unwin with Beate Kleessen, David Hollow, James Williams, Leonard Mware Oloo, John Alwala, Inocente Mutimucuio and Xavier Muianga (2009) Digital Learning Management Systems in Africa: rhetoric and reality

The authors of these papers would all appreciate feedback and comments on these papers

UCAD workshop, May 2009

At Maputo workshop, May 2009

At Winneba conference, 2008

At Kakum National Park, 2008

At Royal Holloway, University of London, 2007

Workshop in Kisumu, 2007

Visit to Maseno University, 2007

Planning meeting, Nairobi 2007

Workshop in Winneba, 2007