There are still awesome, transformative prospects for technology in African education

As technology becomes both more ubiquitous and more affordable, it has spawned changes in virtually every economic and social sector, and education is no exception. Technology is transforming education at all levels, from elementary classrooms to corporate training and professional development. In the United States and other developed countries, many conversations about educational technology revolve around using computers and other devices that students already have access to in order to improve pedagogy and help students develop digital skills and literacy. Some of the main advances include the move toward flipped classrooms, BYOD (bring your own device) environments, and a renewed interest in online education.

But there is a completely different situation playing out in Africa, and this situation is perhaps even more important on a global scale. In these undeveloped nations, the focus of technology is not about doing more with the devices students already have, but instead about providing access to high-quality education to students who might otherwise not get an education at all. Many programs are still in their infancy, but technology has the potential to transform African education in a way that could lead to significant benefits for students and for the continent as a whole.

Two trends are converging to drive these changes:

• Educational technology is increasingly turning toward mobile applications.
• Africa is currently the world’s fastest growing mobile market.

The biggest obstacle to education in Africa is access. According to UNESCO, nearly one-quarter of children in Sub-Saharan Africa have never been to school or dropped out early. Part of the reason for the large number of uneducated children is the huge shortage of teachers. Of the 1.7 million teachers required to achieve UNESCO’s goal of universal primary education, 993 000 are needed in Sub-Saharan Africa — and that’s just at the primary level. The statistics for higher education are even worse; for example, in 2011 only five percent of the Ghanaian population had a college education.

Technology has the potential to rapidly increase these numbers as the Internet and mobile computing can provide access to education even in areas where there are not enough teachers. With digital textbooks and resources like Khan Academy, massive open online courses (MOOCs), and other avenues for online education, African students can have access to the same high-quality education as students in developed countries around the world. This will level the playing field for African students by providing avenues toward not only basic literacy (more than one-third of adults in Sub-Saharan Africa can’t read), but also digital and other literacy that will allow them to compete globally and pursue professional careers.

Access to resources is only the beginning. As more and more schools are moving their programs online, students today can earn diplomas and degrees online that are equivalent to—and significantly less expensive than—those earned in traditional classrooms. This means that all students need to become part of a virtual learning community and earn a degree is a laptop or mobile device.

In addition to providing increased access to education, technology can improve existing African schools by creating a culture of learning, which is an environment where education is the norm, learning communities exist, and there is an established pattern of social interactions among teachers and learners. Cultures of learning arise in communities where education is seen as both valuable and attainable. In a 2012 study of South African schools, Fransa Weeks found that a culture of learning can go a long way toward alleviating behavior problems, which plague many African schools.

A variety of programs are currently available to put technology in the hands of African students. For example, Microsoft has programs to provide Internet access to students in Rwanda and inexpensive computers to students in Uganda. The non-profit organization Worldreader provides access to digital books via e-readers and mobile phones to students in several African countries. ELimu provides tablet computers to students in Kenya. These are just some of the many initiatives in place.

Recently, a new benefit of technology has emerged: the ability to develop local content. Textbooks are notoriously expensive to produce and to purchase. But technology makes it possible to produce digital textbooks quickly and much less expensively. That means content can be developed locally and based on national curriculums, which make them more relevant for students. As eLimu co-founder Nivi Mukherjee told Al Jazeera, “When you’re showing children examples that they can’t easily relate to, part of the brain is distracted. So when we’re talking about fractions, we don’t use a pizza as an example, we use a chapatti.”

Africa presents some major challenges for education—underpinned by high illiteracy and poverty rates combined with a large population. But technology has the power to transform African education in ways that could never before have been imagined by bridging the gap between the haves and the have-nots. The students are ready and the technology is available. Let the learning begin.

Image: EIFL via Flickr.