View Thread > Development and the Internet > Learning - Question 1 > Education and development in Africa
Looking at your own community, how do people perceive education – how does it relate to personal and professional development of the individual and the society? What sorts of individual and social investments does it merit? Is any technology currently used to serve educational aims? Is it generally viewed as a unique opportunity? What is the perceived role and importance of technology and education?
I think a major problem facing the use of ICTs in education here in Cameroon is the fact that the process is technology centered rather than learner centered. In fact, there has been a conscientization of political ileites es far as the elearning is concerned. But instead of implementing programmes that really take into account the problem of learners, most of the initiatives are centered on tne acquisition of technology, which does not solve the problems of learner. In pramary scholls, the problem is more important because no policy is now going on. It is in heigher education that the result can now be assessed. But there is another problem, which now concerns the connectivity of universities and other hignt scholls.
The government of CAmeroon has launched an ambitious program of interconnecting the State universities of CAmeroon.This program will contribute to built effective content for elearning in high scholl, and to reduce the gap with developped coutries.
Kenhago's point is a crucial one: technology tends to become the master rather than the servant of learning if there is not a concerted and consistent attention to keeping it in its place.
Related to this point is the notion that simple and modest technology is often more suited to learning than "high" technology.
The urge to have the latest and the fanciest technology is one that afflicts all of us, and it is an urge that needs to be resisted.
Another aspect of the same failing is the tendency of "instructional designers" to see instruction as something that is "packaged" and "delivered."
Learning can't be "delivered" in a "package", however well-designed the package. Often it is best given to the learner in pieces which the learner must assemble.