Yees! Fast Internet for Africa

In Sudan, we have a fairly good Internet speed, but we still have problems when watching a video and downloading a large file.
However, I consider this is an interesting news for language teachers in Sudan to be using the Internet. Charging for connection is getting cheaper, thanks to the competition between private and governmental companies! Regarding computers, the situating here, and maybe worldwide, is that computers are to getting more cheaper ( with installments), which makes it easier for teachers to have their own. As for students, more and more are getting access the Internet for different reasons, but what is important that they ARE getting access to computers and the Web. Teachers, please take the intuitive!!

Japan go Africa

April 30, 2008:
Japan announced its plan to build 1,000 schools in Africa over the next five years.
"Japan will be assisting in the enhancement of teachers’ abilities in the classroom, focusing mainly on improving teaching methods in math and science" Why not English too?
Just whirling thoughts!!Full story here..Excellent plan!

Making Web 2.0 applications meaningful for Developement

Extermely true!
At the Web2forDev conference,web 2.0 tools were discussed as tools which "have changed traditional patterns of communication and knowledge sharing." However, the audience were warned not to focus on Web 2.0 tools only. Web 2.0 tools are valuable for bringing people together, but it is also important to think further than the web. "When we think about participatory web, it’s not about laptops and high bandwidth… it’s about mobile phones. There are 3 billion handsets worldwide, and it is estimated that 80-90% of people in the developing world can access a mobile phone if they need to. This is a level of penetration of technology that changes the rules of the game. We need to broaden our thinking beyond the Web."

They reached a conclusion that more exploration of the use of these tools is a must."On the one hand Web 2.0 offers us five key tools - blogs, wikis, tags, feeds and mash-ups – but on the other hand, in order to make the application of the tools meaningful for development, we also have to overcome five key challenges: we need to think about how we involve the right people; if the people we are trying to reach have access in terms of connectivity, infrastructure and language; if people actually will participate; how we structure and organize content; and finally, how we will measure the changes we have made. It is only when we use the afore-mentioned new tools with an approach to overcome the five challenges listed above that we will be able to further enhance development activities.’Chris Addison.